Accepting the Torah Parasha Eikev 5779

The Rabbis tell two stories about how Israel accepted the Torah. The first is a modern retelling of an ancient midrash by Rabbis Rick and Ellissa Sherwin:

God had gone to the nations of the earth and asked them to accept a gift, the Torah. One nation asked, “What does it say?” God answered, “You shall not murder.” The nation responded, “We understand that we must not wantonly take life, but what about murdering one’s hopes, murdering one’s reputation, murdering one’s chances? After all God, business is business, and sometimes business is murder".We cannot accept the Torah.

Another nation asked, “What does it say?” God responded, “You shall not steal.” The nation paused, then responded, “We understand we cannot take things that belong to other people, but what about stealing ideas, stealing emotions, not being open with the I.R.S.?” This nation, too, rejected the Torah.

A third nation asked, “What is in it?” God responded, “You shall have no other Gods before you.” The nation laughed. We understand that you are the God to be worshipped, but we cannot promise that You will always be our highest priority. We might need to set everything aside for money, for physical appearance, for sports prowess, for entertainment, for work. We cannot promise that we will keep you in mind.”

After all the nations of the world said “no” to the gift of Torah, God approached the Israelites. They said to G-d, “What is in it?” G-d responded, “Six Hundred and Thirteen commandments.” Israel immediately accepted the Torah with the words, “All that G-d has spoken we will do and be obedient.”

This is not in the Torah, but it is a nice story. I always wonder what issues a rabbinic story is addressing. Perhaps this story  is in response to the idea that Israel is the “Chosen People”. People – both Jews and non-Jews -- might misunderstand the concept of “chosen-ness” as conferring a claim of superiority on behalf of the Jewish people. The story teaches us that many other nations of the world had an opportunity to be “Chosen” by G-d, but they passed it up for one reason or another. In this story, it is Israel that does the choosing, not G-d. We are, in effect, the “Choosing People” not the “Chosen People”.

As I said, the Rabbis tell TWO stories about Israel accepting the Torah. The second story is quite different. As the Jewish people gather around Mount Sinai, G-d lifts the mountain and holds it over the heads of Israel. G-d says, “If you accept the Torah, then, well and good – otherwise you will find your grave under this mountain!”

Given that choice, what would YOU do? If you accept the Torah, you will live. If you reject it, you will die. Not too much of a choice here. You would probably do what the Israelites did in THIS version of the story, say, “All that G-d has spoken we will do and will be obedient”.

The answer is the same in the second story as in the first, but the motivation is very different. In the first story, Israel accepts the Torah out of a love for the Creator. In the second story, Israel accepts the Torah out of fear for its life.

When we read our parasha for this week, we might be inclined to believe the second story about G-d coercing the Jewish people into accepting the Torah. For in this parasha, Moses berates the Jewish people for being rebellious and stubborn. They sound just like a people who have had a mountain held over their heads and forced to accept the Torah. They then resent it, rebel against it, and try to undermine it at each turn along the way. Moses calls them a “stiff-necked” people. He tells them that they did nothing to deserve inheriting the Promised Land. They are only inheriting the Land by virtue of the promise that G-d made to their ancestors, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel and Leah. They have yet to prove themselves as worthy. If they mess up when they are in the land, the land will spew them out. Their right to the land is not based upon a claim of moral superiority. It is based on a pledge that was made to their forefathers and contingent upon their following G-d’s laws.

Moses does not white-wash things. He holds up Israel’s deficiencies to the light of day. He enumerates the moral failings that they will have to overcome if they are to stay and prosper in the land. He reminds them of the long road in the wilderness that they have traveled these forty years that brought them to this point in time, to the border of the Land of Canaan. He urges them to make their lives in the Land conform to the laws and teaching that he has transmitted to them in the wilderness.

That remains our task to this very day. The individuals who stood at the Jordan River and heard the words of Moses are long gone, but we, Israel, live on. We are the inheritors of the dream. We are the carriers of the tradition. It is now our responsibility to live our lives according to the teachings of G-d and Moses and to transmit Judaism to the next generation.

The tasks entrusted to the patriarchs and matriarchs, to the prophets and to the priests, are now our tasks. No one can do this for us. It cannot be delegated to others. The Torah, it is said, is “a tree of life to those who hold fast to it.” Like our ancestors of old, we must choose Torah – and choose life.

Shabbat Shalom

BDS and Israel's Barring of US Congresswomen

“Israel Bars Two US Congresswomen” blared the headline from the front page of the Chicago Tribune. I thought that you might want to hear my thoughts on this. By now we all have heard the story. Following a tweet  by the President suggesting that Israel block the planned visit of Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to Israel, the Netanyahu government did just that. The reason given by Israel for barring the two Congresswomen is that they are supporters of BDS – The Boycott Divestment and Sanction Movement, led by Palestinians, that vilifies Israel as an apartheid and colonial-settler state. The movement was co- founded by Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian who was born in Qatar, raised in Egypt, and educated in the United States. He currently lives in the Israeli city Acco, and is studying for a PHD in Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. Barghouti is on record as opposing the two-state solution. He advocates a one-state solution encompassing all of the population from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, and a right of return for the descendants of Palestinians who fled or were expelled from Israel in the War of 1948. The ultimate goal of the BDS movement is to destroy Israel as a Jewish State and replace it with a state which will be majority Arab and Muslim. We are supposed to believe that  the Arabs who for the last    hundred years have attempted to drive the Jews into the sea will  now safeguard the rights of the Jewish citizens of this new secular, democratic state --at least the Jews who the majority deem worthy of remaining in the new state as citizens.

It is no wonder that Israel has a law the bars supporters of the BDS movement from entering Israel. Supporters of BDS seek to abolish the State of Israel and replace it with another state. The United States also has a law that bars visitors from outside the country who advocate overthrow of our government. Nevertheless, Israeli law also gives the government some discretion in applying the law. That is one reason why Tlaib and Omar were initially welcome to come to Israel in their roles as members of the US Congress. .

I personally think that the decision to deny them the planned visit was a mistake. First of all, these are not any American citizens, these are elected members of Congress. In their role as legislators, they ought to be able to visit any country, especially an ally like Israel that receives billions in American tax dollars. These visits are invaluable for legislators to better educate themselves about the particulars of the country  and the people living there. I heard it said that their itinerary was going to be one-sided, that they would only be seeing those things that confirmed their pre-conceptions of Israel. Now, I haven’t reviewed their travel plans, but even were that true, it would not change my opinion. They are duly elected representatives of the United States and as such should be granted entrance into Israel. Period.

The second reason I think it was a mistake to bar entry to them is that it makes it look like Israel has something to hide. It makes it appear as though there something Israel does not want them to find out about. It also gives the BDS movement publicity. Sure enough, hours after the decision was made, BDS supporters began appearing on news shows lambasting Israel’s decision and slandering Israel.

I want to conclude by giving you a snapshot that reflects the real Israel, not the Israel portrayed by the BDS movement. This glimpse comes by way of Rabbi Vernon Kurtz, who retired last year after 30 years from North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in Highland Park. He and his wife made Aliya to Israel in June of this year. As part of a rabbinic seminar, he and his wife made a half day trip to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem. There they saw Jew and Arab, black hats and kafiyehs, Arab and Jewish women with scarves covering their heads. They spoke to an Arab nurse, an Arab woman who works as a family psychologist, and a Jewish nurse who is trying to bring nurses of all backgrounds together for the betterment of their profession and patient care.

A few weeks after that visit, Rabbi Kurtz got a more up close and personal view of Hadassah hospital. He was rushed to that very hospital by ambulance after suffering a heart attack. He writes that he had Jewish doctors and Arab doctors, Jewish nurses and Arab nurses taking care of him. They all showed great care and concern for his health and well-being. He heard both Hebrew and Arabic conversations in the nurses and doctor’s areas. They worked together as a team all trained properly. On his floor were Arab and Jewish patients. He writes, “It made no difference to any of the patients who treated us and to the doctors and nurses who they were treating, all that was important was the welfare of the patient.”

This is the Israel that is not highlighted or communicated enough. The fact is that Israel is a democracy thriving in the midst of an area of the world whose states are governed by dictators, where countries have no freedom of press, countries where dissident voices are suppressed and  countries where those who advocate for change are jailed or killed, countries where women have no rights, where gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans people are persecuted. Israel is a country where Omar Barghouti can live in Acco, study at Tel Aviv University, and yet lead a world-wide movement that threatens the existence of Israel as we know it. Israel is a country where T-shirts saying “Free Palestine” are openly sold in the Arab market in Jerusalem!

Maybe some of us want Israel to be a perfect country.  But this is unrealistic.  No country is the world is without its problems, internal contradictions and difficult challenges. But we should be proud of what we, the Jewish people, have built on that tiny strip of land that is our ancestral home. And we should oppose all efforts to delegitimize Israel, to slander her, or to replace her with something else.

Shabbat Shalom