The war in Israel is raging, the emotions and reactions are raging as well. Israel is being humiliated by a small band of primitive fundamentalists that cannot even install a proper OS update on a Ipad. Israel’s Government has repeatedly agreed to ceasefires brokered by a motley crew consisting Egypt, Qatar, Palestinian Authority, the weirdo John Kerry and God knows who else. The Hamas however refuses to bend, continuing to fire rockets into Israel, terrorizing its citizens and bringing tourism to a grinding halt. While all this is happening, Islamic militants have seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq and have established a caliphate. This Caliphate is growing exponentially in wealth, followers and influence, this movement as seen from the videos they put out of the pillage, torture and executions of their opponents often for no sin other than promoting another strand of radical Islam are ample proof of the danger we all face. In this article I wont discuss how justified Israel is, or how evil the world leadership is for allowing Israel to face this horror alone and criticize her for defending herself. Nor will I offer political/military commentary. All of the above has been discussed ad nauseum. I want to look inward, to approach this from the viewpoint of our tradition, to look at things Biblically. This weeks Torah reading Numbers 33 50-56 “And you shall expel all of the inhabitants of the land from before you, You shall break all their idols and their masks, and their altars you shall destroy. You shall inhabit the land and settle in it for I have given it to you, it to inherit ..... for if you do not expel the inhabitants of the land, those whom you leave behind will be like thorns in your eyes and splinters in your sides they will terrorize you upon the land you have inhabited and it will come to pass that what I wanted to do to them they will do to you” The Torah commands us to empty the land of the “natives” to cleanse the new homeland from any future threat, Leaving any Palestinians in the land we took was clearly a mistake. However, there is a caveat, the God of Israel is on the side of the nation of Israel under specific circumstances, We do not have “holy blood” nor are we in any way superior to others, our entire relationship with God is predicated on our keeping of the covenant. Israel cannot claim an automatic relationship with God because of her ancestry. The Tanakh is full of examples of how God chose to punish Israel and turns his face away from their suffering. A few examples from this weeks haftara in Jeremiah B will suffice “I have brought you to the land of the Carmel to eat its fruits and its goodness, You have arrived and defiled my land and my inheritance you have turned into an abomination. The priests do not seek God, the keepers of the Torah do not know me! The leaders have betrayed me, and the prophets have prophesised for Baal, and have not gone after me........to him shalll the lion cubs roar, they shall lay waste to the land and destroy the cities emptying them of all inhabitants. I can go on and on quoting Tanakh of the terrible price we will pay for our iniquities, but as it is the month of Abh this week the reader will surely read Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Eicha etc... and find this theme repeated over and over again. I would like to summarize 4 points that seem to always come up in all of the prophetic exhortations to Israel and see how relevant they are today 1) Idolatry: The sin of Idolatry is considered a prime reason for suffering in Israel and a cause for defeat, humiliation and suffering. 2) Widow and Orphan and Convert: The test of a ethical society is how it treats its weaker members, The widow, the orphaned, the weak defenceless and needy. The prophets repeatedly mention the failure in this area as a reason for God’s wrath and subsequent defeat and exile. 3) The Behaviour of the leaders, priests, and prophets: Surprisingly the prophets did not have “religious prophetic parties” they bitterly attacked the religious leadership including priests and prophets for neglecting their duty in calling out injustice, fighting idolatry and being revolutionaries they were meant to be. Basically dear friends, our claim to the land is transactional, from the “Divine” point of view Israel’s victory or defeat is meaningless to God, when we don’t keep the covenant, its that simple. In fact historically, God has delivered us over to our enemies when we reneged on the transactional covenant with God. In Deuteronomy 32 :30 “for a helpless nation they are for they have no understanding. If they were wise they would comprehend this, understand their end. How can one enemy chase a thousand, and two will set flight to ten thousand? If not their creator has forsaken them, and God had delivered them into defeat.” Practically speaking, as religious God fearing people we must do several things and our enemies will melt away, whether through our military forces or through their own ineptitude, they have enough hatred of each other to turn on each other and eat themselves alive, leaving very few men standing after they destroy each other. Those of us who believe in God and the Torah must look at our history and see in what merit did we conquer the land and for what purpose. We must strive to fulfil that purpose as best we can. The purpose of the entire Jewish nation was to establish a monotheistic, ethical , humanistic culture in the land of Israel that would serve as a template of how high humanity can strive and what it can accomplish. The Jewish people have it within them to create just such a society. Neglecting this sacred duty means that we are a nation like all others and deserve no special treatment, and facing the challenges we face our odds are not great at all. We must 1) Rid ourselves of all idolatry and pagan practices, how can we ask God to take our side while we hold on to so many idolatrous views, practices and traditions? 2) Follow the covenant faithfully, Shabbat , Kashrut, Family purity, etc. 3) Israel must be a society that cares for its underprivileged, the Jews must retain their status is a merciful and kind people, not allow greed and selfishness to become the norm. This war with Hamas shows how helpless and futile our efforts can be against a weak and pathetic foe, What will happen when we face this in addition to regular Arab armies from the north, the south and the East? What will we do when every missile from Gaza and Lebanon is fitted with chemical and biological agents that spread for miles? While at the same time Egypt with its modern US weaponry attack from the south? While a militant Turkey with its powerful army sweep in from the sea and from the north? ISIS will by then control Syria and will no doubt have an airforce, Tank corps and modern weaponry with the funding it enjoys. Hamas is child’s play compared to what is in store for us. If we only rose up to our full stature as a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation, God can send a seed of discord among our enemies, Hamas against Fatah, ISIS against Iran, Turkey plunges into a bloody civil war pitting Islamists against secularists. The Islamic radicals can slaughter each other at a horrific rate. We can wake up one morning to find a few weakened enemies that survived the bloodbath. “A thousand shall fall beside you, and ten thousands to your right just to you they shall not reach, for in your eyes you shall see and the vengeance upon the evildoers you shall witness, For you you God are my protector, upon high is your resting place. No evil shall befall you and plague shall never touch your tent. For my angels have I commanded to guard you in all your ways”..... Psalms 91
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 00:24:54 +0000
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