Whither Free Israel?
Rosh Hashanna Morning 2023
Rabbi Cy Stanway
Many years ago, I had the most embarrassing moment of my life, and believe me, this was the most embarrassing. And it had nothing to do with me!
My whole family was coming back from Yom Kippur services. Now, keep in mind that my synagogue at the time was on a very long and busy street which formed the very real spine of the Jewish community in Toronto. In other words, the place was wall-to-wall Jews, with Jewish schools and with synagogues. And seeing that it was about time for morning services to end just about everywhere, Jews were pouring onto the sidewalks. And just then, driving up the long and broad street in front of all my fellow Jews and dressed up in our Yom Kippur best, it happened: without warning our anonymity was broken as the muffler simply dropped off the car and was left in the middle of Bathurst Street. All of a sudden all these Jewish eyes were watching us. I suppose I was embarrassed because the muffler fell off car and that somehow meant something about someone’s family or, more likely, since most people didn’t drive on Yom Kippur I felt like we were somehow being judged. Today, I laugh with my sisters when we recall that story. 55 years ago, we didn’t laugh.
It’s funny how we remember things and remember not just the event but also how it made us feel. These are the events, and especially the feelings and emotions, that form so much of who we are and who will be.
I remember the time and place I first learned about Israel, or at least, the Israel I imagined. At my temple youth group room there was a poster of, ironically, the most non-Jewish place in Israel a Roman city named Caesarea and named after Julius Caesar and built by Herod the Great whose Jewish bona fides were questionable, at best. In any event, it was a picture of the aqueduct built by the Romans. This is a magnificent aqueduct built 2200 years ago which brought water from the north of Israel to the south. The engineering required to build such a thing is mind-boggling, not to mention its construction. In this picture there was a group of teenagers sitting around a campfire with a guitar in hand sitting under the aqueduct in the setting sun. That was my first real image of Israel.
That first image in my mind was, of course, a fantasy. And it is almost always the fantasy that brings you to a place, either physically or in the imagination. You see this clearly on any given day if you go to the Western Wall, the Kotel, in Jerusalem. Watch the people come and go. How they react often indicates how they imagined the Kotel to be.
I recall once sitting by the Kotel for no particular reason eating a falafel when a tour group from Holland pulled up. The identically dressed tourists all came out of the bus to visit this holy site. But one man in particular caught my eye: as soon as he exited the bus, he crawled on his knees from the bus area to the Kotel to worship at the Kotel. It was quite a sight and the man I was sitting with and I just looked at each other in one of those ‘huh’ moments. But I have come to learn that any place you consider holy has holiness attached to it. Being exposed to the imagined Jerusalem at church and through his bible stories, his Jerusalem was a Biblical Disney World, a true magic kingdom where prophets and good guys and bad guys, heroes and villains walked. How could it not be a magical place?
Perhaps you have also had this Disney-like vision of Israel. And, to be honest, I still get chills when I go there even though I benn so many times, I lost count somewhere after 13. But the reason I get chills now is not always from excitement or anticipation of a tour or a convention. My experiences now are more nuanced, more critical. Speaking of Disney, did you know that the centerpiece of the theme parks is Cinderella’s castle and when you walk in, there is absolutely nothing there. And when you see the truth, it brings one back to earth. And the truth about Israel is different that what we expect on the inside and much more nuanced and complicated.
We pride ourselves on what Israel has become. And for those of us who invested so much of ourselves, spiritually and financially and in every other way, we have good reason to be proud. Israel is a young nation filled with opportunities, safety, and primarily a place of refuge and retreat to every Jew in the world. It is not called a Jewish homeland for nothing.
And yet, even among the banana groves of the Negev and the awesome technical innovations, the struggle for democracy and human rights and the stuff that makes a dynamic country dynamic, there is something very ugly that has been stirring in Israel.
If you read any of the stories coming out of Israel, one thing you will see a lot of these days is protests and demonstrations. When I was there in February this year, I watched the Tel Aviv marathon in the morning and then witnessed a huge demonstration of 250,000 people at night. They were protesting the proposed judicial reforms that would, and may still, transform Israel into something alien and dangerous. And this was only the beginning of the protests. And just this past summer, Stella was teaching in Israel and saw demonstration after demonstration nightly from her hotel balcony. These were demonstrations that shut down the airport, shut down traffic all over the country, and basically shut down the country. They were and are demonstrations of such ferocity that thousands of reserve soldiers have said they will not report for reserve duty. Many soldiers have gone on the record saying, to the effect, ‘I am not in this army to fight for a dictatorship.’
So, what is it that made so many Israelis so mad?
Without going into all the political details, it boils down to this: the Israeli government wants to be able to override the Supreme court. In other words, if the Supreme Court makes a ruling that is disliked by the government, the government can simply override it. The consequences cut to the very heart of what Israel is supposed to be: a nation of equality and equity.
And this is what worries people. Say, for instance, the government seeks to rule that that the state has no obligation to protect a minority people, say, LGBTQ or Bedouins or Israeli Arabs or, yes, Reform Jews. The Supreme Court says that is overreach and strikes it down. But the government basically says, ‘who cares?’ and makes it a law, anyway. In other words, every value we hold dear can be eliminated by this government.
A colleague said it beautifully: ‘We also have to speak out for our most deeply held values just as we do at home. Just as we speak out for justice at home, we have to speak out for justice in Israel. Just as we believe in speaking up for the powerless at home, we must pursue that in our relationship to Israel as well. Just as we engage in the work of racial justice at home, we must hold that as a value here too. As people who love Judaism, the Jewish people, and Israel, we must do our part to keep the Ner Tamid – the eternal light – of our highest values burning here too.’[1]
We know that if a government is intent on removing rights from one group, sooner or later they will remove rights that affect us personally. Too many people think it won’t happen to them…until it does and without checks and balances, it always does.
This is the issue that was part of the conversation between the then Prime Minister of Israel, David ben Gurion and Rabbi Karelitz, an authority on Jewish law who were discussing on the eve of Israel’s independence how religious and secular, non-Orthodox Jews and non-Jews in the Land of Israel could and should live together. The rabbi answered with a parable found in the Talmud.[i]
‘If two camels were ascending Beth Horon and there is a steep path going up and they met each other on the path, if both of them tried to ascend, both would fall. One of the camels was carrying a large load, the other was not. Therefore, the one with the load has the right of way.’
What the rabbi was saying is simply this: those carrying the load go first and get to the top first. And who carries the load, according to the rabbi? The ones laden with commandments and texts and Jewish tradition. The Orthodox alone. The secularists carry nothing, therefore they need to give way.
Ben Gurion responded that the esteemed rabbi was completely misguided. He reminded him that the halutzim– the pioneers – carried the load since the early 1920’s, literally built the land, created kibbutzim, emptied the swamps and planted the fields. This does not even take into account how these secular Jew defended the Land with so many dying in the deserts of the Negev and in the streets of Jerusalem.
That conversation at the establishment of the State is the one that still goes on today. Only now it is not so much a conversation. Without paying heed to Jewish history, the extremists in the Israeli government are creating a society of distrust and fear and even hate. They are splitting the country apart and expect to be able to govern.
The Macabees of the Hannukah story tried that. It didn’t work and led to a civil war that culminated in the Romans conquering the Land and destroying the Temple in 70 of the Common Era.
What is happening in Israel is an earthquake. But, like all earthquakes, destruction reveals things hidden. The Israeli government has revealed that most Israelis don’t want rights taken away from minorities. They don’t want a Jewish version of the Taliban, a country based on the Talmud and the Mediaeval codes. They don’t want to have to go visit someone in the hospital during Pesach and, instead of being searched for weapons, being frisked for a slice of pita. Yes, I’m not making this up. That’s really in the proposed law.
The earthquake has also revealed something else: a searching for what it means to be a Jew in Israel, regardless of the kind of Jew one is. It has revealed a conscious awareness and discussion of values. It has revealed the tension between what the Israeli Declaration of Independence espouses and what actually is. It has started a discussion about the place of texts and Jewish tradition in Israel. And, it has done something else: there has been a wonderful awakening of Israelis searching to reconnect with Judaism and take away the monopoly of the ‘burdened camel’ from the Orthodox. Israeli Reform and Conservative rabbis told us that more Israelis are coming to services – something I can attest to since, when I was in Israel for the rabbis’ convention in February, I went to services in a place called Beit Shoham.
The synagogue is small, contained in two house trailer type buildings. The rabbi was filled with energy, her guitarist filled with energy and the congregation – gevalt! They were literally shaking the windows with joy and Shabbat celebration! It was a magnificent moment. The only Reform synagogue in this small town that had 20 Orthodox synagogues was filled with loud, proud and enthusiastic Reform Jews. Whether or not this is really a reaction to the extremism of the government, we will only be able to tell in time. But the enthusiasm is real as are the many new text study groups, the devotion to democracy and recommitment to Israeli Jewishness and basic human rights for all Israelis, Jews and non-Jews alike. And lest anyone say that we have no say in what goes on in Israel, my response has been and will always be, ‘When you needed me, you called and I came. And I have as much invested in a Jewish land with Jewish values as you claim to.’
The rallies and protests that we are seeing in Israel are not about hate. They are, in fact, about love. In our country, protesters often burn flags. During these Israeli protests, not a single flag was burned. Flags are waved proudly. Indeed, as a colleague said, ‘this is a movement of people who distrust the government but love the country.’
The people who are taking to the streets are fighting for an Israel that we all said we were proud of and hope that we can be proud of once again. They are fighting for a democratic, equitable and successful Israel. And as North American Jews, we ought to be determined that the past 50 plus years of dedication to the Land of Israel was not for nothing.
We have seen what happens when the fundamentalists take over. All they have to do is look over the fence to Lebanon, a total disaster of a country. But Lebanon is not Israel. And with Lebanon as their model of what not to do, Israelis fight for a different future because Israelis know history and they are determined, by and large, not to allow King Herod back into their homes.
Golda Meir once said that ‘Jews can’t afford to be pessimists.’ She was right. How easy it would be to turn away from a Jewish homeland, conclude that the Jewish Taliban is now in charge and let them suffer the same fate as the Jews did under King Herod and the Romans. But we can’t do that. Rather, our job as Jews is to be eternal optimists. What is unchanging during this crazy time is that we are rediscovering the light that flickers from time to time. We were out on the street on that cold Tel Aviv night in February not because we have no hope for the future of a Jewish state, but that the Jewish state that defines itself in its own founding documents must embrace those ideas. Ideas of equality and democracy which this present government, assuredly, cares little about.
A colleague of mine asks and answers the question, so, what’s at stake at these rallies?
Only Jewish history.
It really is that simple, and it really is that compelling.
I pray for the protestors and I pray that their love expand. Let every soul see the love they have for their country and let the prophets’ vision of being a light to the nations come to be. Israel will not be a light to nations with extremists in charge. The only light they will see is the fire of division, disgust, and distance of one Jew to the other. Indeed, if the extremists get their way they will, ironically, become the new Romans, nothing less.
That is why, despite its standing on the verge of disaster, I support the protests and those who stand in the way of Jews who want to enslave other Jews. These will be the heroes of this story and, one day, there may be a holiday commemorating them but instead of latkes maybe the new holiday food will be falafel or schwarma! That day will come. The light of equality and democracy will not go out. And we can help make this happen. Simply go to the temple website and there will be a link to Reform Israeli institutions which are on the forefront of this struggle.
This experiment called Israel will not be hijacked by Jewish extremists if we make our voices known as loudly as those on the streets in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Ashkelon, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Beit Shean and every other town and village and kibbutz and moshav that still carries the load and the vision of what Israel says it wants to be.
[1] Hara Person, remarks on being installed as the new CCAR President during the CCAR 2023 Convention in Israel
[i] B. Sanhedrin 32:b
