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From time to time people have asked me about the process that goes into writing a sermon. Some weeks the first thing one does is to look at the parasha to see what may be of interest or what could be a jumping-off point for an interesting topic. Other times one has a notion in advance, and looks to see if there is a hook in the parasha that relates to the topic one wishes to discuss. I must admit, there are times when it is a stretch, and sometimes it isn’t possible to make a connection at all.
Rarely has the task of finding a connection between what I wanted to address and the parasha been as easy and obvious as it is today. In light of tomorrow’s rally here in DC I knew I wanted to speak this morning about not just the surge in antisemitism and anti-Zionism, but our response to it. And lo and behold, this week’s Torah portion addresses that very topic, what we might call, to use a technical rabbinic term, a “lay-up.”
The Torah readings of the past few weeks have dealt with the distribution of the land of Israel after the tribes enter the land. We read this week that the tribes of Reuven and Gad tell Moshe that when the other tribes cross the Jordan River to enter the Promised Land, they wish to stay behind, to stay on the other side of the Jordan. Out of concern for their material well-being, they tell him they want to live there because it is a region “suitable for their cattle” and they would like to “build (t)here sheepfolds for our flocks and towns for our children” on the eastern side of the Jordan, not in the land of Israel.
Moses is appalled by the request and responds forcefully. Unlike the request of the daughters of Zelophad, he does not need to consult God or any outside sources. He knows exactly how he feels about their request, and immediately says to them, “Will your brothers go to war and you will stay here?!” In other words, “How dare you even make such an inappropriate request?”
Moses is disturbed by a number of things, including that they place concern for their cattle above their concern for their children. But the primary offense they commit in his eyes is that they are committing the cardinal sin of separating themselves from the rest of the people of Israel. They appear to be indifferent to and that they can disassociate and disconnect from the fate of their fellow Israelites.
If there is anything we have learned in the last few weeks during the most recent war between Israel and Hamas, it is that, unlike Vegas, what happens in Israel, doesn’t stay in Israel.
Last month’s conflict between Israel and Hamas unleashed a torrent of attacks on Jews around the world, as well as on Jewish institutions and places of business associated with Jews. A kosher pizza restaurant in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, a place where my grandchildren like to go for a snack after school, had a brick thrown through its window, as did the Jewish-owned hardware store next door. By now, many of us have seen and heard about the terrifying rampage of keffiyeh-wearing ruffians who attacked patrons in a Los Angeles sushi restaurant as they asked who among them was Jewish. A Chabad rabbi in Boston was stabbed multiple times just last week. Similar violent attacks on Jews are taking place not just here in America, but in Europe and around the world, as anti-Semites seem emboldened in their brazenness and lack of fear of repercussions for blatant attacks on Jews.
In addition to the physical attacks, social media has become a platform for amplifying and multiplying hateful, vicious invective against Jews and Israel. People who express support for Israel are bullied, intimidated and silenced—all because Israel had the chutzpah to defend itself against the 4,300 rockets hurled at it from Gaza. That Israel was acting in self-defense and chose to act in a way that sought to minimize loss of life on both sides, and that it worked with precision to destroy Hamas targets while striving to avoid civilian casualties, was irrelevant. Synagogues throughout the country have been targets of anti-Semitic acts of desecration, necessitating increased security in light of the threats and vandalism.
All of this reveals and exposes the falsity of the claim of those who say there is a difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. The animosity towards Israel and Jews are intertwined, because, for those who hate Israel, there is no distinction between the Jewish state and Jews. After all, when Russia attacks or invades Ukraine, there are no calls for violence or need for increased security at Russian Orthodox churches.
Israel’s late Foreign Minister, the brilliant Abba Eban, as long ago as 1975 in a column he wrote that appeared in The New York Times explained that hatred of Israel and the Jewish people are one and the same, only on a slightly different scale. He wrote,
“There is no difference whatever between anti-Semitism and the denial of Israel’s statehood. Classical anti-Semitism denies the equal right of Jews as citizens within society. Anti-Zionism denies the equal rights of the Jewish people its lawful sovereignty within the community of nations. The common principle in the two cases is discrimination.”
Indeed, there is no difference between the two. One bleeds into the other, sometimes literally, as revealed by the violence unleashed against Jews and Jewish institutions because of the war with Hamas.
Trying to make a distinction between anti-Zionism or hatred of Israel and antisemitism and claiming they are different is like trying to explain the difference between lox and nova.
In his famous letter to the Jewish community of Rhode Island in 1790, the first President of the United States, George Washington pledged that, “the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”
Just as Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and said it is time to fulfill the pledge of equality guaranteed and granted to all its citizens in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, we say it is time for Washington’s pledge to be fulfilled.
Unfortunately, although it is obvious that the time has come to take a strong stand against anti-Semitism and to expose and unmask and expose hostility towards the Jewish state as little more than a seemingly respectable and acceptable form of the world’s oldest hatred, there are those Jews and organizations claiming to speak for Jews who refuse to recognize it when it comes from certain quarters. They are concerned that free speech not be stifled, or that criticisms of Israel will not be allowed – as if Israel lacks for critics. Applying a double standard that subjects Israel to standards not applied to other nations is an attempt to camouflage and disguise hostility toward Jews.
My answer to those Jews who refuse to stand up and who refuse to join in condemning the enemies of Jews and Israel, is to refer back to this week’s Torah reading.
Ultimately, Moshe allowed the tribes to settle outside of the Land of Israel. But they could do so only with a caveat. They had to promise that if their fellow Israelites ever came under attack, they would come to their aid. Those living outside the Land of Israel, were not allowed to stand aside, to be indifferent to the plight of their fellow Jews. They were required to participate in defending the Holy Land and stand with their fellow Jews.
And so with that in mind, I need not say anymore. The connection between today’s Torah reading and what it is we need to do is obvious. Although we are on the other side of the ocean, we will stand with our fellow Jews and we will join forces and together we will fight the enemies of Israel.
Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt
July 10, 2021
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