Haazinu: Three Unlikely Headlines

Two unlikely headlines in the paper in our national press seem worthy of the satirical newspaper, “The Onion”. The first headline is “Donald Trump wins Republican Nomination for President”. The second headline is “Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize for Literature”. I, along with many of us sitting here, am hoping for a third unlikely headline to appear, “Cubs Win World Series!”

Of these headlines, the announcement that Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature is the most surprising. We all knew that Donald Trump was a long shot for winning the nomination, but he had been toying with the idea of running for President for a long time. Over the course of year, we had grown accustomed to the possibility, at least, that this unlikely candidate would triumph. Chicagoans have been talking about the Cubs winning another World Series for over a hundred years, and it is bound to happen by the end of the 21rst Century. But Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize in Literature –whoever, thought of or discussed that? Philip Roth –yes! But Bob Dylan?

The parasha for this week is Ha-azinu. The parasha consists of a poem by Moses warning the Jewish people to remember G-d’s goodness when they settle in the Land of Canaan. The prophetic reading for this week is from Samuel. It is a long poem of gratitude written by King David. It seems, therefore, particularly appropriate that the announcement of the award to Bob Dylan should be made this week. Dylan was awarded the prize “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition", according to the Nobel Committee.  He is only the latest in a long line of poet/musicians in the Jewish tradition. There is the Song of Deborah in the Book of Judges, an entire book of the Bible called “Song of Songs”, another book of poems called The Psalms. One could trace the succession of great Jewish poets from the Bible through the middle ages – Yehudah Halevi, Moses Ibn Ezra, Shemuel Hanagid -- all the way to the Modern Hebrew poets, Chaim Nachman Bialik, Yehuda Amichai, Zelda and Leah Goldberg, to name a few. Last January during the Rabbinic Mission we visited with celebrated Israeli poet Rivka Miriam in her Jerusalem home.

Another headline appeared in my in-box today that was unfortunately all too predictable – “Judaism’s Holiest Site is reclassified as Exclusively Muslim by UNESCO”. The Executive Board of UNESCO, by a vote of 24-6 with 26 countries abstaining, passed a resolution introduced by the Palestinians that called the Temple Mount and the Western Wall Plaza by their Arabic names, appearing to deny any Jewish connection to the sites. Of course this is nothing new. A year ago The Grand Mufti, the chief Muslim cleric of Jerusalem, declared on Israeli television that nothing was ever on the Temple Mount but the al Asqa Mosque. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, has himself called Israeli history in Jerusalem “illusions and legends” and “delusional myths,” and refers to the “alleged Temple” when he refers to the Temple at all.

Political differences are one thing, they can be resolved. But when your enemy denies your very history and tries to convince others of the lie, it inflicts a deeper wound. Repeat a lie often enough, and people begin to believe it. In response to the UNESCO vote, Prime Minister Netanyahu put out a statement stating, “To say that Israel has no connection to the Temple Mount is like saying that China has no connection to the Great Wall of China or that Egypt has no connection to the Pyramids.”

Returning to Bob Dylan: In 1983 Bob Dylan celebrated his son Jesse’s bar mitzvah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Bob Dylan was raised Jewish and spent his summers at Herzl Camp, a Zionist camp in Wisconsin. But in the 1970s he became a Born Again Christian. He released three Christian themed albums in from 1979 to 1981 before returning to Judaism. The year Dylan celebrated his son’s Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall, he released the album entitle “Infidel” with perhaps the most pro-Jewish rock song ever recorded, “Neighborhood Bully”. In it, he describes Israel as a man “always on trial” with “a gun at his back” unfairly labeled “the neighborhood bully”.

Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man
His enemies say he's on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive
He's criticized and condemned for being alive
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He's wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
He's always on trial for just being born
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he got no allies to really speak of
What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
He's the neighborhood bully.

Every empire that's enslaved him is gone
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody, under no one's command
He's the neighborhood bully.

Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
No contract that he signed was worth that what it was written on
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
He's the neighborhood bully.

What's anybody indebted to him for?
Nothing, they say. He just likes to cause war
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits for feed
He's the neighborhood bully.

What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers? Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
Running out the clock, time standing still
Neighborhood bully.