Carnage in Israel – Bye Bye 70 Bulls
- September 24, 2015
- |
- 11 Tishrei 5776
Rabbi YY Jacobson
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Funeral of Eitam and Naama Henkin Hy"d. Photo Credit: Emil Salman
Carnage in Israel – Bye Bye 70 Bulls
Rabbi YY Jacobson
- September 24, 2015
Carnage in Israel – Time to Forget the 70 Bulls
Summary:
I find it difficult to speak today. In the face of such lacerating pain, carnage and slaughter in our Holy Land, what is there to say? What do we say to four orphans who watched their parents gunned down before their eyes, in the midst of the happiest Jewish holiday? What do we say to seven orphans whose father heard a cry for help, ran out of his home to help save a victim, and then was murdered in cold blood? What do we say?
But one thing we must declare today—and, it is, essentially a quote from a Midrash, concerning this holiday of Shmini Atzeret.
You see, unlike every other festival in the Torah, the function and purpose of this holiday of Shmini Atzeret is not stated in the Torah. So why do we have this holiday? The Midrash, in an extraordinary interpretation which could have been written today, understands the significance of this festival of Shemini Atzeres as a response to an outcry of the Jewish people.
During the holiday of Sukkos, the Jewish people offer 70 bulls, dedicated to the welfare of the 70 nations. Said the Jews to G-d: 'Master of the universe! We offered 70 bulls for the benefit of the 70 nations. Naturally we would expect them to appreciate us. Yet in reality they loathe us! As the Psalmist states[1], 'They substitute my love with hate.' As I pray for their welfare, they despise me!
This is no small question. It's the lament of the Jewish people for more than 3,000 years: Why do so many people seem to despise them? What have they done to deserve such profound contempt and derision? It was the lament shared last Thursday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his address at the GA of the United Nations.
A few hours later after his speech, we were stunned by the horrific news of the murder of Eitam and Naamah Henkin. Their four children watched in silence from the back seat as their parents’ torsos were torn apart by a hail of bullets. The children’s silence saved their lives: likely unnoticed by the murderers, they seemed to have been spared a similar fate.
As the terror continues in the Holy Land, we ought to recall the response G-d gives to the Jewish outcry. Our greatest mistake, suggests the Midrash, is to jeopardize our own safety by attempting to endlessly appease those who will forever despise us. This holiday of Shmini Atzeret, G-d is saying, is made for YOU. Stop bending over backwards to try gaining the favor of people whose hatred to you is irrational! Whatever you do, will forever be wrong. When you are dealing with such people, there is only one way: Stop apologizing for your right to exist and do whatever you have to do to protect your children. There comes a point where you must muster the courage to do what is morally right, not what is acceptable to people who could not care less if another million Jews die. Don’t be scared of the world and start dancing with your people and your G-d.
On the Essence of Shmini Atzeret
I find it difficult to speak today. In the face of such lacerating pain, carnage and slaughter in our Holy Land, what is there to say? What do we say to four orphans who watched their parents gunned down before their eyes, in the midst of the happiest Jewish holiday? What do we say to seven orphans whose father heard a cry for help, ran out of his home to help save a victim, and then was murdered in cold blood? What do we say?
But one thing we must declare today—and, it is, essentially a quote from a Midrash, concerning this holiday of Shmini Atzeret.
You see, unlike every other festival in the Torah, the function and purpose of this holiday of Shmini Atzeret is not stated in the Torah. So why do we have this holiday?
The Midrash,[2] in an extraordinary interpretation which could have been written today, understands the significance of this festival of Shemini Atzeres as a response to an outcry of the Jewish people.
במדבר רבה כא, כד: "ביום השמיני עצרת", זהו שאמר הכתוב (תהלים קט, ד) תחת אהבתי ישטנוני ואני תפלה. את מוצא בחג ישראל מקריבין לפניך שבעים פרים על שבעים אומות. אמרו ישראל רבון העולמים הרי אנו מקריבין עליהם שבעים פרים, והיו צריכין לאהוב אותנו, והם שונאין אותנו שנאמר "תחת אהבתי ישטנוני"! לפיכך אמר להם הקדוש ברוך הוא עכשיו הקריבו על עצמכם ביום השמיני עצרת תהיה לכם.
והקרבתם עולה אשה ריח ניחוח לה' פר בן בקר אחד איל אחד. משל למלך שעשה סעודה שבעת ימים וזימן כל בני אדם שבמדינה בשבעת ימי המשתה כיון שעברו שבעת ימי המשתה אמר לאוהבו, כבר יצאנו ידינו מכל בני המדינה נגלגל אני ואתה במה שתמצא, ליטרא בשר או של דג או ירק. כך אמר הקב"ה לישראל ביום השמיני עצרת תהיה לכם, גלגלו במה שאתם מוצאים בפר אחד ואיל אחד:
The Torah[3] instructs the Jewish people to offer 70 bulls during the festival of Sukkos. On day number one — 13 bulls; on day number two — 12; on day three — 11; on day four — 10; on day five — nine; on day six — eight; on day seven — seven. Together they made up the number 70.
Why the number 70?
It was our way, explain the sages, of paying honor and tribute to the other 70 nations of the world.[4] As you might recall from Genesis,[5] Noah's fathered 70 children and grandchildren who, following the great flood, dispersed over the earth and recreated civilization. These 70 "founding fathers" became the progenitors of all nations, cultures and civilizations existing to this very day. On the festival of Sukkos, Jews are called on to focus on all of the nations of the world, to pray for them, to beseech G-d to bestow peace, security and happiness upon all the peoples of the globe.[6] After seven days, all "70 bases" were covered.
The number commences with thirteen (13 bulls), which is the numerical value of the Hebrew word אחד, “Echad,” One. For during these days of Sukkos we pray and focus on bringing oneness—13, Echad—to all nations, all peoples, all cultures. To help them and us all realize that we come from one source, and live in one world, under one G-d, and are all really united.[7]
During the seven days of Sukkos, we leave our homes and go outdoors; we gather four types of produce from nature—for it is during this time we focus on the entire earth, on all of the universe, and on all of the people living therein.
On each day of Sukkos the number decreases, from 13, to 12, all the way , on the seventh day, to 7—representing that our aim is to diminish the fragmentation and divisiveness between nations and cultures; to reveal the underlying unity in our world, coming from Echad, from one source and one core.
The Eighth Day
But then there is something strange in the Torah. Following this seven-day holiday, comes the festival of the eighth day, Shemini Atzeres. Based on the pattern outlined above, we would expect the Torah to instruct us to offer on this day six bulls. Yet, surprisingly, the Torah gives us very different instructions:[8] "The eighth day [following the seven days of Sukkos] shall be a day of assembly for you; you shall not engage in any labor. And you shall offer an offering, a delightful aroma to G-d, one bull..."
Why, suddenly, this change from seven bulls just one day earlier, on the seventh day of the holiday, to one bull on the eighth and final day of the holiday?
The Jewish Outcry
Come the Midrash and offers this interpretation:
During the holiday of Sukkos, the Jewish people offer 70 bulls, dedicated to the welfare of the 70 nations. Said the Jews to G-d: 'Master of the universe! We offered 70 bulls for the benefit of the 70 nations. Naturally we would expect them to appreciate us. Yet in reality they loathe us! As the Psalmist states[9], 'They substitute my love with hate.' As I pray for their welfare, they despise me!
The Lament
This is no small question. It's the lament of the Jewish people for more than 3,000 years: Why do so many people seem to despise them? What have they done to deserve such profound contempt and derision?
Jews, deep in their hearts, know that they never wished to damage the world; that they never poisoned wells, nor placed curses on non-Jews, nor used Christian or Muslim blood for Passover matzah. All they craved for was to live peaceful lives, dedicated to their families and communities. What is more, almost throughout their entire history, they fought for the underdog, for civil justice, for human rights. Whenever they had the opportunity, they served their countries loyally and stretched out a helping hand to gentiles in need.
Sure, they have produced their own share of “rotten apples.” Not every Jew has always been a tzaddik. But compared with other nations, their record had been far better. And what is more, how can an entire nation be continuously blamed for a negative deed of one or a few people?So why, instead of gaining sympathy, understanding and appreciation from the non-Jewish world, have they, for the most part of their history, been rewarded with hatred, mistrust and envy? Why has almost every country that housed Jews ultimately expelled them and targeted them for torture or complete annihilation?
"Are we really that bad?" Jewish children have been asking their parents for millennia. "Are we really an incarnation of the devil?"
Why Do They Hate Us?
The Prime Minister of Israel addressed the United Nations’ General Assembly last Thursday, October 1, 2015. Speaking of the obsessive UN bias toward Israel, he said this:
In four years of horrific violence in Syria, more than a quarter of a million people have lost their lives.
That’s more than ten times, more than ten times, the number of Israelis and Palestinians combined who have lost their lives in a century of conflict between us.
Yet last year, this Assembly adopted 20 resolutions against Israel and just one resolution about the savage slaughter in Syria.
Talk about injustice. Talk about disproportionality.
Twenty [resolutions against Israel.] Count them. One against Syria.
Well, frankly I am not surprised. To borrow a line from Yogi Berra, the late, great baseball player and part time philosopher: When it comes to the annual bashing of Israel at the UN, “it’s déjà vu all over again.”
Terror in Israel
A few hours after the speech, on Thursday night, Eitam Henkin, 31, a Rabbi, an author, a historian, and his wife Naama, 30, an accomplished graphic designer who ran her own studio, were driving back from a class reunion to their home in Neria, a small community of 250 families in Samaria. In the back of their white Subaru station wagon, their four children—the oldest one nine, the youngest four months—were dozing off. As they drove past the Palestinian village of Beit Furik, gunmen affiliated with the PLO approached the Henkins’ car and shot both adults to death at close range. The children watched in silence from the back seat as their parents’ torsos were torn apart by a hail of bullets. The children’s silence saved their lives: likely unnoticed by the murderers, they seemed to have been spared a similar fate.
The couple was gunned down in front of their four children — aged 9, 7, 4 with the youngest being a 4-month-old baby.
Eitam served in the IDF Golani Brigade. An ordained rabbi, he was a noted Torah scholar and author of several volumes of response. He lectured at the Nishmat college for Women in Jerusalem, established by his mother Rebbetzin Chana Henkin and was working on his doctorate on Jewish history for Tel Aviv University. He was writing his doctorate on the bio of the Chafetz Chaim. At the young age of 31, he has already published a number of volumes of history and Halachik issues. (He wrote one long fascinating essay on the relationship between the Aruch Hashlchan, Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstien, and the Tzemach Tzedek.) His great grand father was one of the greatest American halachik authorities in the 20th century, Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin. Neighbors and friends said that they were a couple filled with joy and love. “In their lives and deaths they have been inseparable.”
There have been 29 couples murdered since the founding of the State of Israel, leaving behind dozens of children who grew to adulthood without parents. And now another four children will never able to speak to their parents again.
Who will ever find the words that can enter the soul of seven-year-old Nitsan Yitzhak Henkin, who, just a day before, held his Four Species—the Lulav, Etrog, Hadas and Aravah—with a child's excitement while his father explained how to hold them properly and his mother watched with joy in her eyes? On Friday he awoke to the first day in a life where he will be unable to say "Look, Abba – Listen, Imma!"
Who will comfort Matan Hillel, the eldest child, all of nine years old, who stood Friday in the cemetery and said Kaddish? Whose life will never be the same?
No one will find the words to contain the thoughts of four-year-old Neta Eliezer Henkin, who is used to countless kisses and hugs, and a mother who tells him how sweet he is while she presses him to her? Not a vestige of all of this will remain.
We have no way of knowing if he will remember those moments when Imma bent down to hear a long sentence that he said to her, or when Abba allowed him to feel important, holding the car keys. We don't even know if he will remember how they looked, their smell, the sounds of their voices.
All the things little infant Itamar needs will be bought, diapers and bottles, formula and wipes will be donated, but none of these formulas are as tasty as mother's milk.
Anyone who has ever felt a mother's hug and has seen himself reflected in his father's eyes, will always be able to tell the difference between a substitute and the real thing.
And then on Saturday night, 21 year old Aron Bennet and his wife and little baby were stabbed in the Old City of Jerusalem. He died, and his wife is fighting for her life. Rabbi Nechemia Levi, a 41 year old father of seven, ran out of his home with his gun to the cry for help. He wanted to save the victim. But the 19 year old Arab murderer stabbed him to death, grabbing his gun.
A day earlier, the killer wrote on his Face Book page: “The Third Intifada has began!...”
Who Would Believe?
Who would believe that 70 years after the Holocaust this is what we are waking up to? And what is so horrifying, is that much of the media and many world leaders blame the victims! You will not read about the four orphans of the Henkin family in world newspapers and on websites.
In the decades following the Holocaust, it seemed to us, anti-Semitism became unpopular. We believed that the world, becoming more liberal and tolerant and seeing what Nazi Germany had done, was beginning to appreciate Jews for who they were and are: law-abiding citizens who wish to live peaceful lives, building careers, families and communities.
But, suddenly, with the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000, anti-Semitism sprung up again all over the world, especially in Europe, the continent that silently absorbed endless rivers of Jewish blood. In editorials, cartoons, university lecture halls, country clubs and at dinner tables, Jew-bashing has become the norm. In recent years, Jews were beaten and killed while synagogues were set aflame. Much of the Arab world, if we are to take their own testimony seriously, craves for the destruction of Israel and the extermination of its Jews. Much of the West is united against the only Jewish State in the world.
Behold, once again, Jews ask a simple question, stated in the Midrash 1900 years ago: What have we done to deserve this? The state of Israel has been seizing every opportunity to make peace with its Arab neighbors. Time and time again, Israel was ready to make painful concessions to the Arabs for the sake of mutual co-existence and peace. In Oslo, Yitzhak Rabin resurrected the PLO, gave it autonomy in most of the West Bank and Gaza, and helped it build a police force, giving it ammunition and finance. In September 2000, Ehud Barak offered Yasir Arafat a Palestinian state, with its capital in East Jerusalem, as well as 100 percent of Gaza and 98 percent of the West Bank.
Then, in the very same month, the second Intifada broke out. Israel sustained hundreds of dead civilians, among them many children. Yet it responded lightly. It took a year and half of thousands of Jews being killed and maimed, their guts strewn over the pizza shops and cafés of their homeland and a March 2002 Passover massacre in Netanya killing Auschwitz survivors, until Israel finally sent its troops into the territories it conceded a number of years earlier to stop the mini-holocaust against Jews.Yet the world condemned Israel.
In august 2005, Ariel Sharon gave the Arabs all of Gaza, evacuating every Jew from the entire terrain. What did Israel get in return? Thousands of rockets launched at its cities, schools and homes, and a Gaza, turned into a terror-state. Dozens of tunnels dug from Gaza into Israel with the aim of launching mega terror attacks, heaven forbid. Yet the world continues to blame Israel for its occupation.
So we stand there and wonder, does the world have such a short memory? Why are we forever condemned as the Satan? Why are we loathed unconditionally, even when we have stretched out our necks for peace?
This, the Midrash suggests, is the question the Jews ask of G-d as the seven days of Sukkos come to a close. We, the Jews cry, are consistently making sacrifices for our fellow nations; we are placing our children on the altar just to give peace a chance. We are attempting to help them out of their own misery. Yet they continuously respond with vile hatred. How ought we to deal with this?Stand Up for Yourself!
The Midrash continues:
"Thus says G-d to the Jewish people: 'Now it is time to make an offering only for yourselves.’” This, says the Midrash, is the meaning of the single bull offered on the eighth day. Now it is time to worry about yourselves. “Let us celebrate and 'roll' together, you and I," G-d tells His people. No more the 70 bulls for the sake of 70 nations, as you did throughout the holiday of Sukkos. Now it is time for you to offer one bull for one nation – the nation of Israel.
What is the meaning behind these words? There is a critical message here.
Number one. Forget about "international opinion” and fend for yourselves, because as nice as we will try to be, we will be forever blamed as the source of evil. Jew-hatred is a disease, universal and multi-cultural, generated by the evil existing in many a human being. In their eyes, we—the Jews—can never get it right. 250,000 slain in Syria, ISIS is trying to take over the world to behead some 6 billion people, Iran calls for the murder of six million Jews and promises that in 25 years there will be no trace of Israel (heaven forbid), horrific torture and abuse of human rights in dozens of Islamic countries, but Israel is the guilty one. Iran will soon be given 150 billion of funds frozen due the sanctions against it, but for Israel we have a prominent BDS movement.
Our greatest mistake, suggests the Midrash, is to jeopardize our own safety by attempting to endlessly appease those who will forever despise us. This holiday of Shmini Atzeret, G-d is saying, is made for YOU. Stop bending over backwards to try gaining the favor of people whose hatred to you is irrational! Whatever you do, will forever be wrong. If you stay in Gaza, you are an abuser. If you leave Gaza, you are still an abuser. When you are dealing with such people, there is only one way: Stop apologizing for your right to exist and do whatever you have to do to protect your children. Show your enemy that they dare not mess with you. There comes a point where you must muster the courage to do what is morally right, not what is acceptable to people who could not care less if another million Jews die, just as they could not care less if a million Sudanese die and did not do a thing to stop the genocide of 800,000 innocent Rwandans slain in 100 days.
In the presence of anti-Semitism, make sure to stand tall and proud. Make sure to teach your children that being hated is testimony to their virtue, not their vice. "Now it is time to make an offering only for yourself," in the words of the Midrash. One bull for one nation. It is time to fortify your own identity, to understand that you are loathed because of your timeless commitment to a G-d of morality, of goodness and compassion. This is not a time to doubt yourself; rather it is a time to stand up for yourself and your faith.
The Origin of Jewish Self Hatred
One of the most tragic side-effects of anti-Semitism has been Jewish self-hatred and self-shame. Many of our brethren, especially during the last 200 years since emancipation swept Europe, have come to believe that our greatest haters were not as bad as they appeared, that something was really wrong with the Jews, justifying at least some of the hatred toward the people of the Book. After all, went their line of thinking, if your child is loathed in every school he ever attends, is chastised by the principals and despised by most of his classmates, wouldn't the family therapist blame the child instead of the schools and all of the other children?
Should this logic not hold true regarding anti-Semitism as well? If almost every single culture and civilization saw the Jew as the embodiment of evil, should we not look in the mirror and discover the blemishes within, causing such animosity?
Thus, the phenomenon of Jewish self-hatred was born. Albeit, in their minds, it is merely an exercise of extreme self-examination, the self-appraisal of these self-hating Jews often reaches super rational proportions, where they begin to view their people, their country and their heritage as the cause of all evil and horror in the world.You read Noam Chomsky and you wonder how a Jew can write such words about a people he supposedly knows so intimately. You read Norman Finkelstein and you are astonished on the words a fellow Jew uses concerning the Holocaust. You read Jewish essayists in the New York Times and in the Los Angeles Times, you listen to Jewish journalists on NPR or CNN, you reflect on lectures by Jewish academics, and you wonder: How can Jews become so shamelessly "objective" as to view Israel and its neighbors as morally equivalents, when the Israeli army never killed a single Arab civilian intentionally, and the Arabs proclaim clearly that their goal is to exterminate every Israeli civilian alive?
Be More JewishThis, then, is G-d's message to the Jewish people for Shemini Atzeres.
At a time of raging anti-Semitism, do not become insecure, apologetic and defensive. Do not view yourself in the way your antagonist sees you. Make sure you know who you are from the inside; learn what it means to be a Jew, not from people who hate you. Learn what it means to be a Jew from your own texts, from your own heritage, from your own grandparents, from your own Torah.
At a time of explosive Jew hatred, G-d calls out: You must do one thing — be more Jewish!We cannot on our own cure the plague of anti-Semitism. The anti-Semites need to do that. We can and must monitor anti-Semitism, warn against it and fight it unwaveringly and with full confidence and vigor, but we cannot rid the world of it. What we can and must do is to never allow ourselves to be defined by it and never try to appease it by sacrificing our own.
Determination
Here is what Netanyahu said on Thursday at the GA of the United Nations—and let’s hope his actions will match his words:
For in every generation, there were those who rose up to destroy our people.
In antiquity, we faced destruction from the ancient empires of Babylon and Rome.
In the Middle Ages, we faced inquisition and expulsion.
And In modern times, we faced pogroms and the Holocaust.
Yet the Jewish people persevered.
And now another regime has arisen, swearing to destroy Israel.
That regime would be wise to consider this: I stand here today representing Israel, a country 67 years young, but the nation-state of a people nearly 4,000 years old.
Yet the empires of Babylon and Rome are not represented in this hall of nations.
Neither is the Thousand Year Reich.
Those seemingly invincible empires are long gone.
But Israel lives.
The people of Israel live.
עם ישראל חי.
The re-birth of Israel is a testament to the indomitable spirit of my people.
For a hundred generations, the Jewish people dreamed of returning to the Land of Israel.
Even in our darkest hours, and we had so many, even in our darkest hours we never gave up hope of rebuilding our eternal capital Jerusalem.
The establishment of Israel made realizing that dream possible.
It has enabled us to live as a free people in our ancestral homeland.
It’s enabled us to embrace Jews who’ve come from the four corners of the earth to find refuge from persecution.
They came from war-torn Europe, from Yemen, Iraq, Morocco, from Ethiopia and the Soviet Union, from a hundred other lands.
And today, as a rising tide of anti-Semitism once again sweeps across Europe and elsewhere, many Jews come to Israel to join us in building the Jewish future.
So here’s my message to the rulers of Iran:
Your plan to destroy Israel will fail.
Israel will not permit any force on earth to threaten its future.
And here’s my message to all the countries represented here:
Whatever resolutions you may adopt in this building, whatever decisions you may take in your capitals, Israel will do whatever it must do to defend our state and to defend our people.
Rolling with G-d
So during these two days of Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, we take a good look at the Muslim countries, at Iran, Chamas, Hezbollah, Syria. We also take a look at the UN, the State Department, at the Hague court, at the EU, and all European academic and politicians who loath Israel, and we say:
"We will be there for you and with you the moment you sober up and are ready for genuine peace. Israel is a country of peace and it is ready for peace at a moment's call. We crave life, peace and goodwill. But till you guys get your moral act together, until you start hating the bad guys and protecting the good guys, we will never despair, nor will we blame ourselves for the evil still existing in the world.
"Instead, we will, for the next 48 hours, take the Torah and dance with the Divine. We will 'roll' with G-d, celebrating a people and a tradition dedicated as much as ever to peace, love, morality and goodness. We will celebrate with the knowledge that evil will be defeated and good will prevail. We will reinvigorate ourselves with the faith that redemption is merely one step away."
And yet, paradoxically, G-d's response to us holds part, though not all, of the cure for anti-Semitism. For the world could ultimately only love a people that loves itself. When Jews will begin to respect themselves, they will win the admiration of the world.
[1] Psalms 109:4
[2] Midrash Rabah Bamidbar 21:4
[3] Numbers 28: 13-34.
[4] Cf. Talmud Sukkah 55b
[5] Ch. 10
[6] Judaism never believed that "there is no salvation outside of Judaism." On the contrary, the Torah does not encourage conversion and actually prohibits Jews from proselytizing gentiles. Why? Because Judaism sincerely believes that a gentile need not be Jewish in order to maximize his or her potential and find genuine fulfillment in life. "The pious among all the nations of the world have a share in the world to come," declares the Talmud. Maimonodes writes that every single human being – Jew or gentile – can become "the holy of holies." (Tosefte Sanhedrin. Rambam, end of Hilchos Shmitah and Yovel. Cf. Likkutei Sichos vol. 13 Hosafos to 12 Tamuz.)
[7] See commentaries to Midrash ibid.
[8] Numbers 28:35-36
[9] Psalms 109:4
- Comment
Class Summary:
I find it difficult to speak today. In the face of such lacerating pain, carnage and slaughter in our Holy Land, what is there to say? What do we say to four orphans who watched their parents gunned down before their eyes, in the midst of the happiest Jewish holiday? What do we say to seven orphans whose father heard a cry for help, ran out of his home to help save a victim, and then was murdered in cold blood? What do we say?
But one thing we must declare today—and, it is, essentially a quote from a Midrash, concerning this holiday of Shmini Atzeret.
You see, unlike every other festival in the Torah, the function and purpose of this holiday of Shmini Atzeret is not stated in the Torah. So why do we have this holiday? The Midrash, in an extraordinary interpretation which could have been written today, understands the significance of this festival of Shemini Atzeres as a response to an outcry of the Jewish people.
During the holiday of Sukkos, the Jewish people offer 70 bulls, dedicated to the welfare of the 70 nations. Said the Jews to G-d: 'Master of the universe! We offered 70 bulls for the benefit of the 70 nations. Naturally we would expect them to appreciate us. Yet in reality they loathe us! As the Psalmist states, 'They substitute my love with hate.' As I pray for their welfare, they despise me!
This is no small question. It's the lament of the Jewish people for more than 3,000 years: Why do so many people seem to despise them? What have they done to deserve such profound contempt and derision? It was the lament shared last Thursday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his address at the GA of the United Nations.
A few hours later after his speech, we were stunned by the horrific news of the murder of Eitam and Naamah Henkin. Their four children watched in silence from the back seat as their parents’ torsos were torn apart by a hail of bullets. The children’s silence saved their lives: likely unnoticed by the murderers, they seemed to have been spared a similar fate.
As the terror continues in the Holy Land, we ought to recall the response G-d gives to the Jewish outcry. Our greatest mistake, suggests the Midrash, is to jeopardize our own safety by attempting to endlessly appease those who will forever despise us. This holiday of Shmini Atzeret, G-d is saying, is made for YOU. Stop bending over backwards to try gaining the favor of people whose hatred to you is irrational! Whatever you do, will forever be wrong. When you are dealing with such people, there is only one way: Stop apologizing for your right to exist and do whatever you have to do to protect your children. There comes a point where you must muster the courage to do what is morally right, not what is acceptable to people who could not care less if another million Jews die. Don’t be scared of the world and start dancing with your people and your G-d.
Carnage in Israel – Time to Forget the 70 Bulls
Summary:
I find it difficult to speak today. In the face of such lacerating pain, carnage and slaughter in our Holy Land, what is there to say? What do we say to four orphans who watched their parents gunned down before their eyes, in the midst of the happiest Jewish holiday? What do we say to seven orphans whose father heard a cry for help, ran out of his home to help save a victim, and then was murdered in cold blood? What do we say?
But one thing we must declare today—and, it is, essentially a quote from a Midrash, concerning this holiday of Shmini Atzeret.
You see, unlike every other festival in the Torah, the function and purpose of this holiday of Shmini Atzeret is not stated in the Torah. So why do we have this holiday? The Midrash, in an extraordinary interpretation which could have been written today, understands the significance of this festival of Shemini Atzeres as a response to an outcry of the Jewish people.
During the holiday of Sukkos, the Jewish people offer 70 bulls, dedicated to the welfare of the 70 nations. Said the Jews to G-d: 'Master of the universe! We offered 70 bulls for the benefit of the 70 nations. Naturally we would expect them to appreciate us. Yet in reality they loathe us! As the Psalmist states[1], 'They substitute my love with hate.' As I pray for their welfare, they despise me!
This is no small question. It's the lament of the Jewish people for more than 3,000 years: Why do so many people seem to despise them? What have they done to deserve such profound contempt and derision? It was the lament shared last Thursday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his address at the GA of the United Nations.
A few hours later after his speech, we were stunned by the horrific news of the murder of Eitam and Naamah Henkin. Their four children watched in silence from the back seat as their parents’ torsos were torn apart by a hail of bullets. The children’s silence saved their lives: likely unnoticed by the murderers, they seemed to have been spared a similar fate.
As the terror continues in the Holy Land, we ought to recall the response G-d gives to the Jewish outcry. Our greatest mistake, suggests the Midrash, is to jeopardize our own safety by attempting to endlessly appease those who will forever despise us. This holiday of Shmini Atzeret, G-d is saying, is made for YOU. Stop bending over backwards to try gaining the favor of people whose hatred to you is irrational! Whatever you do, will forever be wrong. When you are dealing with such people, there is only one way: Stop apologizing for your right to exist and do whatever you have to do to protect your children. There comes a point where you must muster the courage to do what is morally right, not what is acceptable to people who could not care less if another million Jews die. Don’t be scared of the world and start dancing with your people and your G-d.
On the Essence of Shmini Atzeret
I find it difficult to speak today. In the face of such lacerating pain, carnage and slaughter in our Holy Land, what is there to say? What do we say to four orphans who watched their parents gunned down before their eyes, in the midst of the happiest Jewish holiday? What do we say to seven orphans whose father heard a cry for help, ran out of his home to help save a victim, and then was murdered in cold blood? What do we say?
But one thing we must declare today—and, it is, essentially a quote from a Midrash, concerning this holiday of Shmini Atzeret.
You see, unlike every other festival in the Torah, the function and purpose of this holiday of Shmini Atzeret is not stated in the Torah. So why do we have this holiday?
The Midrash,[2] in an extraordinary interpretation which could have been written today, understands the significance of this festival of Shemini Atzeres as a response to an outcry of the Jewish people.
במדבר רבה כא, כד: "ביום השמיני עצרת", זהו שאמר הכתוב (תהלים קט, ד) תחת אהבתי ישטנוני ואני תפלה. את מוצא בחג ישראל מקריבין לפניך שבעים פרים על שבעים אומות. אמרו ישראל רבון העולמים הרי אנו מקריבין עליהם שבעים פרים, והיו צריכין לאהוב אותנו, והם שונאין אותנו שנאמר "תחת אהבתי ישטנוני"! לפיכך אמר להם הקדוש ברוך הוא עכשיו הקריבו על עצמכם ביום השמיני עצרת תהיה לכם.
והקרבתם עולה אשה ריח ניחוח לה' פר בן בקר אחד איל אחד. משל למלך שעשה סעודה שבעת ימים וזימן כל בני אדם שבמדינה בשבעת ימי המשתה כיון שעברו שבעת ימי המשתה אמר לאוהבו, כבר יצאנו ידינו מכל בני המדינה נגלגל אני ואתה במה שתמצא, ליטרא בשר או של דג או ירק. כך אמר הקב"ה לישראל ביום השמיני עצרת תהיה לכם, גלגלו במה שאתם מוצאים בפר אחד ואיל אחד:
The Torah[3] instructs the Jewish people to offer 70 bulls during the festival of Sukkos. On day number one — 13 bulls; on day number two — 12; on day three — 11; on day four — 10; on day five — nine; on day six — eight; on day seven — seven. Together they made up the number 70.
Why the number 70?
It was our way, explain the sages, of paying honor and tribute to the other 70 nations of the world.[4] As you might recall from Genesis,[5] Noah's fathered 70 children and grandchildren who, following the great flood, dispersed over the earth and recreated civilization. These 70 "founding fathers" became the progenitors of all nations, cultures and civilizations existing to this very day. On the festival of Sukkos, Jews are called on to focus on all of the nations of the world, to pray for them, to beseech G-d to bestow peace, security and happiness upon all the peoples of the globe.[6] After seven days, all "70 bases" were covered.
The number commences with thirteen (13 bulls), which is the numerical value of the Hebrew word אחד, “Echad,” One. For during these days of Sukkos we pray and focus on bringing oneness—13, Echad—to all nations, all peoples, all cultures. To help them and us all realize that we come from one source, and live in one world, under one G-d, and are all really united.[7]
During the seven days of Sukkos, we leave our homes and go outdoors; we gather four types of produce from nature—for it is during this time we focus on the entire earth, on all of the universe, and on all of the people living therein.
On each day of Sukkos the number decreases, from 13, to 12, all the way , on the seventh day, to 7—representing that our aim is to diminish the fragmentation and divisiveness between nations and cultures; to reveal the underlying unity in our world, coming from Echad, from one source and one core.
The Eighth Day
But then there is something strange in the Torah. Following this seven-day holiday, comes the festival of the eighth day, Shemini Atzeres. Based on the pattern outlined above, we would expect the Torah to instruct us to offer on this day six bulls. Yet, surprisingly, the Torah gives us very different instructions:[8] "The eighth day [following the seven days of Sukkos] shall be a day of assembly for you; you shall not engage in any labor. And you shall offer an offering, a delightful aroma to G-d, one bull..."
Why, suddenly, this change from seven bulls just one day earlier, on the seventh day of the holiday, to one bull on the eighth and final day of the holiday?
The Jewish Outcry
Come the Midrash and offers this interpretation:
During the holiday of Sukkos, the Jewish people offer 70 bulls, dedicated to the welfare of the 70 nations. Said the Jews to G-d: 'Master of the universe! We offered 70 bulls for the benefit of the 70 nations. Naturally we would expect them to appreciate us. Yet in reality they loathe us! As the Psalmist states[9], 'They substitute my love with hate.' As I pray for their welfare, they despise me!
The Lament
This is no small question. It's the lament of the Jewish people for more than 3,000 years: Why do so many people seem to despise them? What have they done to deserve such profound contempt and derision?
Jews, deep in their hearts, know that they never wished to damage the world; that they never poisoned wells, nor placed curses on non-Jews, nor used Christian or Muslim blood for Passover matzah. All they craved for was to live peaceful lives, dedicated to their families and communities. What is more, almost throughout their entire history, they fought for the underdog, for civil justice, for human rights. Whenever they had the opportunity, they served their countries loyally and stretched out a helping hand to gentiles in need.
Sure, they have produced their own share of “rotten apples.” Not every Jew has always been a tzaddik. But compared with other nations, their record had been far better. And what is more, how can an entire nation be continuously blamed for a negative deed of one or a few people?
So why, instead of gaining sympathy, understanding and appreciation from the non-Jewish world, have they, for the most part of their history, been rewarded with hatred, mistrust and envy? Why has almost every country that housed Jews ultimately expelled them and targeted them for torture or complete annihilation?
"Are we really that bad?" Jewish children have been asking their parents for millennia. "Are we really an incarnation of the devil?"
Why Do They Hate Us?
The Prime Minister of Israel addressed the United Nations’ General Assembly last Thursday, October 1, 2015. Speaking of the obsessive UN bias toward Israel, he said this:
In four years of horrific violence in Syria, more than a quarter of a million people have lost their lives.
That’s more than ten times, more than ten times, the number of Israelis and Palestinians combined who have lost their lives in a century of conflict between us.
Yet last year, this Assembly adopted 20 resolutions against Israel and just one resolution about the savage slaughter in Syria.
Talk about injustice. Talk about disproportionality.
Twenty [resolutions against Israel.] Count them. One against Syria.
Well, frankly I am not surprised. To borrow a line from Yogi Berra, the late, great baseball player and part time philosopher: When it comes to the annual bashing of Israel at the UN, “it’s déjà vu all over again.”
Terror in Israel
A few hours after the speech, on Thursday night, Eitam Henkin, 31, a Rabbi, an author, a historian, and his wife Naama, 30, an accomplished graphic designer who ran her own studio, were driving back from a class reunion to their home in Neria, a small community of 250 families in Samaria. In the back of their white Subaru station wagon, their four children—the oldest one nine, the youngest four months—were dozing off. As they drove past the Palestinian village of Beit Furik, gunmen affiliated with the PLO approached the Henkins’ car and shot both adults to death at close range. The children watched in silence from the back seat as their parents’ torsos were torn apart by a hail of bullets. The children’s silence saved their lives: likely unnoticed by the murderers, they seemed to have been spared a similar fate.
The couple was gunned down in front of their four children — aged 9, 7, 4 with the youngest being a 4-month-old baby.
Eitam served in the IDF Golani Brigade. An ordained rabbi, he was a noted Torah scholar and author of several volumes of response. He lectured at the Nishmat college for Women in Jerusalem, established by his mother Rebbetzin Chana Henkin and was working on his doctorate on Jewish history for Tel Aviv University. He was writing his doctorate on the bio of the Chafetz Chaim. At the young age of 31, he has already published a number of volumes of history and Halachik issues. (He wrote one long fascinating essay on the relationship between the Aruch Hashlchan, Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstien, and the Tzemach Tzedek.) His great grand father was one of the greatest American halachik authorities in the 20th century, Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin. Neighbors and friends said that they were a couple filled with joy and love. “In their lives and deaths they have been inseparable.”
There have been 29 couples murdered since the founding of the State of Israel, leaving behind dozens of children who grew to adulthood without parents. And now another four children will never able to speak to their parents again.
Who will ever find the words that can enter the soul of seven-year-old Nitsan Yitzhak Henkin, who, just a day before, held his Four Species—the Lulav, Etrog, Hadas and Aravah—with a child's excitement while his father explained how to hold them properly and his mother watched with joy in her eyes? On Friday he awoke to the first day in a life where he will be unable to say "Look, Abba – Listen, Imma!"
Who will comfort Matan Hillel, the eldest child, all of nine years old, who stood Friday in the cemetery and said Kaddish? Whose life will never be the same?
No one will find the words to contain the thoughts of four-year-old Neta Eliezer Henkin, who is used to countless kisses and hugs, and a mother who tells him how sweet he is while she presses him to her? Not a vestige of all of this will remain.
We have no way of knowing if he will remember those moments when Imma bent down to hear a long sentence that he said to her, or when Abba allowed him to feel important, holding the car keys. We don't even know if he will remember how they looked, their smell, the sounds of their voices.
All the things little infant Itamar needs will be bought, diapers and bottles, formula and wipes will be donated, but none of these formulas are as tasty as mother's milk.
Anyone who has ever felt a mother's hug and has seen himself reflected in his father's eyes, will always be able to tell the difference between a substitute and the real thing.
And then on Saturday night, 21 year old Aron Bennet and his wife and little baby were stabbed in the Old City of Jerusalem. He died, and his wife is fighting for her life. Rabbi Nechemia Levi, a 41 year old father of seven, ran out of his home with his gun to the cry for help. He wanted to save the victim. But the 19 year old Arab murderer stabbed him to death, grabbing his gun.
A day earlier, the killer wrote on his Face Book page: “The Third Intifada has began!...”
Who Would Believe?
Who would believe that 70 years after the Holocaust this is what we are waking up to? And what is so horrifying, is that much of the media and many world leaders blame the victims! You will not read about the four orphans of the Henkin family in world newspapers and on websites.
In the decades following the Holocaust, it seemed to us, anti-Semitism became unpopular. We believed that the world, becoming more liberal and tolerant and seeing what Nazi Germany had done, was beginning to appreciate Jews for who they were and are: law-abiding citizens who wish to live peaceful lives, building careers, families and communities.
But, suddenly, with the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000, anti-Semitism sprung up again all over the world, especially in Europe, the continent that silently absorbed endless rivers of Jewish blood. In editorials, cartoons, university lecture halls, country clubs and at dinner tables, Jew-bashing has become the norm. In recent years, Jews were beaten and killed while synagogues were set aflame. Much of the Arab world, if we are to take their own testimony seriously, craves for the destruction of Israel and the extermination of its Jews. Much of the West is united against the only Jewish State in the world.
Behold, once again, Jews ask a simple question, stated in the Midrash 1900 years ago: What have we done to deserve this? The state of Israel has been seizing every opportunity to make peace with its Arab neighbors. Time and time again, Israel was ready to make painful concessions to the Arabs for the sake of mutual co-existence and peace. In Oslo, Yitzhak Rabin resurrected the PLO, gave it autonomy in most of the West Bank and Gaza, and helped it build a police force, giving it ammunition and finance. In September 2000, Ehud Barak offered Yasir Arafat a Palestinian state, with its capital in East Jerusalem, as well as 100 percent of Gaza and 98 percent of the West Bank.
Then, in the very same month, the second Intifada broke out. Israel sustained hundreds of dead civilians, among them many children. Yet it responded lightly. It took a year and half of thousands of Jews being killed and maimed, their guts strewn over the pizza shops and cafés of their homeland and a March 2002 Passover massacre in Netanya killing Auschwitz survivors, until Israel finally sent its troops into the territories it conceded a number of years earlier to stop the mini-holocaust against Jews.
Yet the world condemned Israel.
In august 2005, Ariel Sharon gave the Arabs all of Gaza, evacuating every Jew from the entire terrain. What did Israel get in return? Thousands of rockets launched at its cities, schools and homes, and a Gaza, turned into a terror-state. Dozens of tunnels dug from Gaza into Israel with the aim of launching mega terror attacks, heaven forbid. Yet the world continues to blame Israel for its occupation.
So we stand there and wonder, does the world have such a short memory? Why are we forever condemned as the Satan? Why are we loathed unconditionally, even when we have stretched out our necks for peace?
This, the Midrash suggests, is the question the Jews ask of G-d as the seven days of Sukkos come to a close. We, the Jews cry, are consistently making sacrifices for our fellow nations; we are placing our children on the altar just to give peace a chance. We are attempting to help them out of their own misery. Yet they continuously respond with vile hatred. How ought we to deal with this?
Stand Up for Yourself!
The Midrash continues:
"Thus says G-d to the Jewish people: 'Now it is time to make an offering only for yourselves.’” This, says the Midrash, is the meaning of the single bull offered on the eighth day. Now it is time to worry about yourselves. “Let us celebrate and 'roll' together, you and I," G-d tells His people. No more the 70 bulls for the sake of 70 nations, as you did throughout the holiday of Sukkos. Now it is time for you to offer one bull for one nation – the nation of Israel.
What is the meaning behind these words? There is a critical message here.
Number one. Forget about "international opinion” and fend for yourselves, because as nice as we will try to be, we will be forever blamed as the source of evil. Jew-hatred is a disease, universal and multi-cultural, generated by the evil existing in many a human being. In their eyes, we—the Jews—can never get it right. 250,000 slain in Syria, ISIS is trying to take over the world to behead some 6 billion people, Iran calls for the murder of six million Jews and promises that in 25 years there will be no trace of Israel (heaven forbid), horrific torture and abuse of human rights in dozens of Islamic countries, but Israel is the guilty one. Iran will soon be given 150 billion of funds frozen due the sanctions against it, but for Israel we have a prominent BDS movement.
Our greatest mistake, suggests the Midrash, is to jeopardize our own safety by attempting to endlessly appease those who will forever despise us. This holiday of Shmini Atzeret, G-d is saying, is made for YOU. Stop bending over backwards to try gaining the favor of people whose hatred to you is irrational! Whatever you do, will forever be wrong. If you stay in Gaza, you are an abuser. If you leave Gaza, you are still an abuser. When you are dealing with such people, there is only one way: Stop apologizing for your right to exist and do whatever you have to do to protect your children. Show your enemy that they dare not mess with you. There comes a point where you must muster the courage to do what is morally right, not what is acceptable to people who could not care less if another million Jews die, just as they could not care less if a million Sudanese die and did not do a thing to stop the genocide of 800,000 innocent Rwandans slain in 100 days.
In the presence of anti-Semitism, make sure to stand tall and proud. Make sure to teach your children that being hated is testimony to their virtue, not their vice. "Now it is time to make an offering only for yourself," in the words of the Midrash. One bull for one nation. It is time to fortify your own identity, to understand that you are loathed because of your timeless commitment to a G-d of morality, of goodness and compassion. This is not a time to doubt yourself; rather it is a time to stand up for yourself and your faith.
The Origin of Jewish Self Hatred
One of the most tragic side-effects of anti-Semitism has been Jewish self-hatred and self-shame. Many of our brethren, especially during the last 200 years since emancipation swept Europe, have come to believe that our greatest haters were not as bad as they appeared, that something was really wrong with the Jews, justifying at least some of the hatred toward the people of the Book. After all, went their line of thinking, if your child is loathed in every school he ever attends, is chastised by the principals and despised by most of his classmates, wouldn't the family therapist blame the child instead of the schools and all of the other children?
Should this logic not hold true regarding anti-Semitism as well? If almost every single culture and civilization saw the Jew as the embodiment of evil, should we not look in the mirror and discover the blemishes within, causing such animosity?
Thus, the phenomenon of Jewish self-hatred was born. Albeit, in their minds, it is merely an exercise of extreme self-examination, the self-appraisal of these self-hating Jews often reaches super rational proportions, where they begin to view their people, their country and their heritage as the cause of all evil and horror in the world.
You read Noam Chomsky and you wonder how a Jew can write such words about a people he supposedly knows so intimately. You read Norman Finkelstein and you are astonished on the words a fellow Jew uses concerning the Holocaust. You read Jewish essayists in the New York Times and in the Los Angeles Times, you listen to Jewish journalists on NPR or CNN, you reflect on lectures by Jewish academics, and you wonder: How can Jews become so shamelessly "objective" as to view Israel and its neighbors as morally equivalents, when the Israeli army never killed a single Arab civilian intentionally, and the Arabs proclaim clearly that their goal is to exterminate every Israeli civilian alive?
Be More Jewish
This, then, is G-d's message to the Jewish people for Shemini Atzeres.
At a time of raging anti-Semitism, do not become insecure, apologetic and defensive. Do not view yourself in the way your antagonist sees you. Make sure you know who you are from the inside; learn what it means to be a Jew, not from people who hate you. Learn what it means to be a Jew from your own texts, from your own heritage, from your own grandparents, from your own Torah.
At a time of explosive Jew hatred, G-d calls out: You must do one thing — be more Jewish!
We cannot on our own cure the plague of anti-Semitism. The anti-Semites need to do that. We can and must monitor anti-Semitism, warn against it and fight it unwaveringly and with full confidence and vigor, but we cannot rid the world of it. What we can and must do is to never allow ourselves to be defined by it and never try to appease it by sacrificing our own.
Determination
Here is what Netanyahu said on Thursday at the GA of the United Nations—and let’s hope his actions will match his words:
For in every generation, there were those who rose up to destroy our people.
In antiquity, we faced destruction from the ancient empires of Babylon and Rome.
In the Middle Ages, we faced inquisition and expulsion.
And In modern times, we faced pogroms and the Holocaust.
Yet the Jewish people persevered.
And now another regime has arisen, swearing to destroy Israel.
That regime would be wise to consider this: I stand here today representing Israel, a country 67 years young, but the nation-state of a people nearly 4,000 years old.
Yet the empires of Babylon and Rome are not represented in this hall of nations.
Neither is the Thousand Year Reich.
Those seemingly invincible empires are long gone.
But Israel lives.
The people of Israel live.
עם ישראל חי.
The re-birth of Israel is a testament to the indomitable spirit of my people.
For a hundred generations, the Jewish people dreamed of returning to the Land of Israel.
Even in our darkest hours, and we had so many, even in our darkest hours we never gave up hope of rebuilding our eternal capital Jerusalem.
The establishment of Israel made realizing that dream possible.
It has enabled us to live as a free people in our ancestral homeland.
It’s enabled us to embrace Jews who’ve come from the four corners of the earth to find refuge from persecution.
They came from war-torn Europe, from Yemen, Iraq, Morocco, from Ethiopia and the Soviet Union, from a hundred other lands.
And today, as a rising tide of anti-Semitism once again sweeps across Europe and elsewhere, many Jews come to Israel to join us in building the Jewish future.
So here’s my message to the rulers of Iran:
Your plan to destroy Israel will fail.
Israel will not permit any force on earth to threaten its future.
And here’s my message to all the countries represented here:
Whatever resolutions you may adopt in this building, whatever decisions you may take in your capitals, Israel will do whatever it must do to defend our state and to defend our people.
Rolling with G-d
So during these two days of Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, we take a good look at the Muslim countries, at Iran, Chamas, Hezbollah, Syria. We also take a look at the UN, the State Department, at the Hague court, at the EU, and all European academic and politicians who loath Israel, and we say:
"We will be there for you and with you the moment you sober up and are ready for genuine peace. Israel is a country of peace and it is ready for peace at a moment's call. We crave life, peace and goodwill. But till you guys get your moral act together, until you start hating the bad guys and protecting the good guys, we will never despair, nor will we blame ourselves for the evil still existing in the world.
"Instead, we will, for the next 48 hours, take the Torah and dance with the Divine. We will 'roll' with G-d, celebrating a people and a tradition dedicated as much as ever to peace, love, morality and goodness. We will celebrate with the knowledge that evil will be defeated and good will prevail. We will reinvigorate ourselves with the faith that redemption is merely one step away."
And yet, paradoxically, G-d's response to us holds part, though not all, of the cure for anti-Semitism. For the world could ultimately only love a people that loves itself. When Jews will begin to respect themselves, they will win the admiration of the world.
[1] Psalms 109:4
[2] Midrash Rabah Bamidbar 21:4
[3] Numbers 28: 13-34.
[4] Cf. Talmud Sukkah 55b
[5] Ch. 10
[6] Judaism never believed that "there is no salvation outside of Judaism." On the contrary, the Torah does not encourage conversion and actually prohibits Jews from proselytizing gentiles. Why? Because Judaism sincerely believes that a gentile need not be Jewish in order to maximize his or her potential and find genuine fulfillment in life. "The pious among all the nations of the world have a share in the world to come," declares the Talmud. Maimonodes writes that every single human being – Jew or gentile – can become "the holy of holies." (Tosefte Sanhedrin. Rambam, end of Hilchos Shmitah and Yovel. Cf. Likkutei Sichos vol. 13 Hosafos to 12 Tamuz.)
[7] See commentaries to Midrash ibid.
[8] Numbers 28:35-36
[9] Psalms 109:4
Categories
Shemini Atzeres/Simchas Torah 5776
Rabbi YY Jacobson
- September 24, 2015
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- 11 Tishrei 5776
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- 16 views
Carnage in Israel – Bye Bye 70 Bulls
Rabbi YY Jacobson
- September 24, 2015
Carnage in Israel – Time to Forget the 70 Bulls
Summary:
I find it difficult to speak today. In the face of such lacerating pain, carnage and slaughter in our Holy Land, what is there to say? What do we say to four orphans who watched their parents gunned down before their eyes, in the midst of the happiest Jewish holiday? What do we say to seven orphans whose father heard a cry for help, ran out of his home to help save a victim, and then was murdered in cold blood? What do we say?
But one thing we must declare today—and, it is, essentially a quote from a Midrash, concerning this holiday of Shmini Atzeret.
You see, unlike every other festival in the Torah, the function and purpose of this holiday of Shmini Atzeret is not stated in the Torah. So why do we have this holiday? The Midrash, in an extraordinary interpretation which could have been written today, understands the significance of this festival of Shemini Atzeres as a response to an outcry of the Jewish people.
During the holiday of Sukkos, the Jewish people offer 70 bulls, dedicated to the welfare of the 70 nations. Said the Jews to G-d: 'Master of the universe! We offered 70 bulls for the benefit of the 70 nations. Naturally we would expect them to appreciate us. Yet in reality they loathe us! As the Psalmist states[1], 'They substitute my love with hate.' As I pray for their welfare, they despise me!
This is no small question. It's the lament of the Jewish people for more than 3,000 years: Why do so many people seem to despise them? What have they done to deserve such profound contempt and derision? It was the lament shared last Thursday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his address at the GA of the United Nations.
A few hours later after his speech, we were stunned by the horrific news of the murder of Eitam and Naamah Henkin. Their four children watched in silence from the back seat as their parents’ torsos were torn apart by a hail of bullets. The children’s silence saved their lives: likely unnoticed by the murderers, they seemed to have been spared a similar fate.
As the terror continues in the Holy Land, we ought to recall the response G-d gives to the Jewish outcry. Our greatest mistake, suggests the Midrash, is to jeopardize our own safety by attempting to endlessly appease those who will forever despise us. This holiday of Shmini Atzeret, G-d is saying, is made for YOU. Stop bending over backwards to try gaining the favor of people whose hatred to you is irrational! Whatever you do, will forever be wrong. When you are dealing with such people, there is only one way: Stop apologizing for your right to exist and do whatever you have to do to protect your children. There comes a point where you must muster the courage to do what is morally right, not what is acceptable to people who could not care less if another million Jews die. Don’t be scared of the world and start dancing with your people and your G-d.
On the Essence of Shmini Atzeret
I find it difficult to speak today. In the face of such lacerating pain, carnage and slaughter in our Holy Land, what is there to say? What do we say to four orphans who watched their parents gunned down before their eyes, in the midst of the happiest Jewish holiday? What do we say to seven orphans whose father heard a cry for help, ran out of his home to help save a victim, and then was murdered in cold blood? What do we say?
But one thing we must declare today—and, it is, essentially a quote from a Midrash, concerning this holiday of Shmini Atzeret.
You see, unlike every other festival in the Torah, the function and purpose of this holiday of Shmini Atzeret is not stated in the Torah. So why do we have this holiday?
The Midrash,[2] in an extraordinary interpretation which could have been written today, understands the significance of this festival of Shemini Atzeres as a response to an outcry of the Jewish people.
במדבר רבה כא, כד: "ביום השמיני עצרת", זהו שאמר הכתוב (תהלים קט, ד) תחת אהבתי ישטנוני ואני תפלה. את מוצא בחג ישראל מקריבין לפניך שבעים פרים על שבעים אומות. אמרו ישראל רבון העולמים הרי אנו מקריבין עליהם שבעים פרים, והיו צריכין לאהוב אותנו, והם שונאין אותנו שנאמר "תחת אהבתי ישטנוני"! לפיכך אמר להם הקדוש ברוך הוא עכשיו הקריבו על עצמכם ביום השמיני עצרת תהיה לכם.
והקרבתם עולה אשה ריח ניחוח לה' פר בן בקר אחד איל אחד. משל למלך שעשה סעודה שבעת ימים וזימן כל בני אדם שבמדינה בשבעת ימי המשתה כיון שעברו שבעת ימי המשתה אמר לאוהבו, כבר יצאנו ידינו מכל בני המדינה נגלגל אני ואתה במה שתמצא, ליטרא בשר או של דג או ירק. כך אמר הקב"ה לישראל ביום השמיני עצרת תהיה לכם, גלגלו במה שאתם מוצאים בפר אחד ואיל אחד:
The Torah[3] instructs the Jewish people to offer 70 bulls during the festival of Sukkos. On day number one — 13 bulls; on day number two — 12; on day three — 11; on day four — 10; on day five — nine; on day six — eight; on day seven — seven. Together they made up the number 70.
Why the number 70?
It was our way, explain the sages, of paying honor and tribute to the other 70 nations of the world.[4] As you might recall from Genesis,[5] Noah's fathered 70 children and grandchildren who, following the great flood, dispersed over the earth and recreated civilization. These 70 "founding fathers" became the progenitors of all nations, cultures and civilizations existing to this very day. On the festival of Sukkos, Jews are called on to focus on all of the nations of the world, to pray for them, to beseech G-d to bestow peace, security and happiness upon all the peoples of the globe.[6] After seven days, all "70 bases" were covered.
The number commences with thirteen (13 bulls), which is the numerical value of the Hebrew word אחד, “Echad,” One. For during these days of Sukkos we pray and focus on bringing oneness—13, Echad—to all nations, all peoples, all cultures. To help them and us all realize that we come from one source, and live in one world, under one G-d, and are all really united.[7]
During the seven days of Sukkos, we leave our homes and go outdoors; we gather four types of produce from nature—for it is during this time we focus on the entire earth, on all of the universe, and on all of the people living therein.
On each day of Sukkos the number decreases, from 13, to 12, all the way , on the seventh day, to 7—representing that our aim is to diminish the fragmentation and divisiveness between nations and cultures; to reveal the underlying unity in our world, coming from Echad, from one source and one core.
The Eighth Day
But then there is something strange in the Torah. Following this seven-day holiday, comes the festival of the eighth day, Shemini Atzeres. Based on the pattern outlined above, we would expect the Torah to instruct us to offer on this day six bulls. Yet, surprisingly, the Torah gives us very different instructions:[8] "The eighth day [following the seven days of Sukkos] shall be a day of assembly for you; you shall not engage in any labor. And you shall offer an offering, a delightful aroma to G-d, one bull..."
Why, suddenly, this change from seven bulls just one day earlier, on the seventh day of the holiday, to one bull on the eighth and final day of the holiday?
The Jewish Outcry
Come the Midrash and offers this interpretation:
During the holiday of Sukkos, the Jewish people offer 70 bulls, dedicated to the welfare of the 70 nations. Said the Jews to G-d: 'Master of the universe! We offered 70 bulls for the benefit of the 70 nations. Naturally we would expect them to appreciate us. Yet in reality they loathe us! As the Psalmist states[9], 'They substitute my love with hate.' As I pray for their welfare, they despise me!
The Lament
This is no small question. It's the lament of the Jewish people for more than 3,000 years: Why do so many people seem to despise them? What have they done to deserve such profound contempt and derision?
Jews, deep in their hearts, know that they never wished to damage the world; that they never poisoned wells, nor placed curses on non-Jews, nor used Christian or Muslim blood for Passover matzah. All they craved for was to live peaceful lives, dedicated to their families and communities. What is more, almost throughout their entire history, they fought for the underdog, for civil justice, for human rights. Whenever they had the opportunity, they served their countries loyally and stretched out a helping hand to gentiles in need.
Sure, they have produced their own share of “rotten apples.” Not every Jew has always been a tzaddik. But compared with other nations, their record had been far better. And what is more, how can an entire nation be continuously blamed for a negative deed of one or a few people?So why, instead of gaining sympathy, understanding and appreciation from the non-Jewish world, have they, for the most part of their history, been rewarded with hatred, mistrust and envy? Why has almost every country that housed Jews ultimately expelled them and targeted them for torture or complete annihilation?
"Are we really that bad?" Jewish children have been asking their parents for millennia. "Are we really an incarnation of the devil?"
Why Do They Hate Us?
The Prime Minister of Israel addressed the United Nations’ General Assembly last Thursday, October 1, 2015. Speaking of the obsessive UN bias toward Israel, he said this:
In four years of horrific violence in Syria, more than a quarter of a million people have lost their lives.
That’s more than ten times, more than ten times, the number of Israelis and Palestinians combined who have lost their lives in a century of conflict between us.
Yet last year, this Assembly adopted 20 resolutions against Israel and just one resolution about the savage slaughter in Syria.
Talk about injustice. Talk about disproportionality.
Twenty [resolutions against Israel.] Count them. One against Syria.
Well, frankly I am not surprised. To borrow a line from Yogi Berra, the late, great baseball player and part time philosopher: When it comes to the annual bashing of Israel at the UN, “it’s déjà vu all over again.”
Terror in Israel
A few hours after the speech, on Thursday night, Eitam Henkin, 31, a Rabbi, an author, a historian, and his wife Naama, 30, an accomplished graphic designer who ran her own studio, were driving back from a class reunion to their home in Neria, a small community of 250 families in Samaria. In the back of their white Subaru station wagon, their four children—the oldest one nine, the youngest four months—were dozing off. As they drove past the Palestinian village of Beit Furik, gunmen affiliated with the PLO approached the Henkins’ car and shot both adults to death at close range. The children watched in silence from the back seat as their parents’ torsos were torn apart by a hail of bullets. The children’s silence saved their lives: likely unnoticed by the murderers, they seemed to have been spared a similar fate.
The couple was gunned down in front of their four children — aged 9, 7, 4 with the youngest being a 4-month-old baby.
Eitam served in the IDF Golani Brigade. An ordained rabbi, he was a noted Torah scholar and author of several volumes of response. He lectured at the Nishmat college for Women in Jerusalem, established by his mother Rebbetzin Chana Henkin and was working on his doctorate on Jewish history for Tel Aviv University. He was writing his doctorate on the bio of the Chafetz Chaim. At the young age of 31, he has already published a number of volumes of history and Halachik issues. (He wrote one long fascinating essay on the relationship between the Aruch Hashlchan, Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstien, and the Tzemach Tzedek.) His great grand father was one of the greatest American halachik authorities in the 20th century, Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin. Neighbors and friends said that they were a couple filled with joy and love. “In their lives and deaths they have been inseparable.”
There have been 29 couples murdered since the founding of the State of Israel, leaving behind dozens of children who grew to adulthood without parents. And now another four children will never able to speak to their parents again.
Who will ever find the words that can enter the soul of seven-year-old Nitsan Yitzhak Henkin, who, just a day before, held his Four Species—the Lulav, Etrog, Hadas and Aravah—with a child's excitement while his father explained how to hold them properly and his mother watched with joy in her eyes? On Friday he awoke to the first day in a life where he will be unable to say "Look, Abba – Listen, Imma!"
Who will comfort Matan Hillel, the eldest child, all of nine years old, who stood Friday in the cemetery and said Kaddish? Whose life will never be the same?
No one will find the words to contain the thoughts of four-year-old Neta Eliezer Henkin, who is used to countless kisses and hugs, and a mother who tells him how sweet he is while she presses him to her? Not a vestige of all of this will remain.
We have no way of knowing if he will remember those moments when Imma bent down to hear a long sentence that he said to her, or when Abba allowed him to feel important, holding the car keys. We don't even know if he will remember how they looked, their smell, the sounds of their voices.
All the things little infant Itamar needs will be bought, diapers and bottles, formula and wipes will be donated, but none of these formulas are as tasty as mother's milk.
Anyone who has ever felt a mother's hug and has seen himself reflected in his father's eyes, will always be able to tell the difference between a substitute and the real thing.
And then on Saturday night, 21 year old Aron Bennet and his wife and little baby were stabbed in the Old City of Jerusalem. He died, and his wife is fighting for her life. Rabbi Nechemia Levi, a 41 year old father of seven, ran out of his home with his gun to the cry for help. He wanted to save the victim. But the 19 year old Arab murderer stabbed him to death, grabbing his gun.
A day earlier, the killer wrote on his Face Book page: “The Third Intifada has began!...”
Who Would Believe?
Who would believe that 70 years after the Holocaust this is what we are waking up to? And what is so horrifying, is that much of the media and many world leaders blame the victims! You will not read about the four orphans of the Henkin family in world newspapers and on websites.
In the decades following the Holocaust, it seemed to us, anti-Semitism became unpopular. We believed that the world, becoming more liberal and tolerant and seeing what Nazi Germany had done, was beginning to appreciate Jews for who they were and are: law-abiding citizens who wish to live peaceful lives, building careers, families and communities.
But, suddenly, with the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000, anti-Semitism sprung up again all over the world, especially in Europe, the continent that silently absorbed endless rivers of Jewish blood. In editorials, cartoons, university lecture halls, country clubs and at dinner tables, Jew-bashing has become the norm. In recent years, Jews were beaten and killed while synagogues were set aflame. Much of the Arab world, if we are to take their own testimony seriously, craves for the destruction of Israel and the extermination of its Jews. Much of the West is united against the only Jewish State in the world.
Behold, once again, Jews ask a simple question, stated in the Midrash 1900 years ago: What have we done to deserve this? The state of Israel has been seizing every opportunity to make peace with its Arab neighbors. Time and time again, Israel was ready to make painful concessions to the Arabs for the sake of mutual co-existence and peace. In Oslo, Yitzhak Rabin resurrected the PLO, gave it autonomy in most of the West Bank and Gaza, and helped it build a police force, giving it ammunition and finance. In September 2000, Ehud Barak offered Yasir Arafat a Palestinian state, with its capital in East Jerusalem, as well as 100 percent of Gaza and 98 percent of the West Bank.
Then, in the very same month, the second Intifada broke out. Israel sustained hundreds of dead civilians, among them many children. Yet it responded lightly. It took a year and half of thousands of Jews being killed and maimed, their guts strewn over the pizza shops and cafés of their homeland and a March 2002 Passover massacre in Netanya killing Auschwitz survivors, until Israel finally sent its troops into the territories it conceded a number of years earlier to stop the mini-holocaust against Jews.Yet the world condemned Israel.
In august 2005, Ariel Sharon gave the Arabs all of Gaza, evacuating every Jew from the entire terrain. What did Israel get in return? Thousands of rockets launched at its cities, schools and homes, and a Gaza, turned into a terror-state. Dozens of tunnels dug from Gaza into Israel with the aim of launching mega terror attacks, heaven forbid. Yet the world continues to blame Israel for its occupation.
So we stand there and wonder, does the world have such a short memory? Why are we forever condemned as the Satan? Why are we loathed unconditionally, even when we have stretched out our necks for peace?
This, the Midrash suggests, is the question the Jews ask of G-d as the seven days of Sukkos come to a close. We, the Jews cry, are consistently making sacrifices for our fellow nations; we are placing our children on the altar just to give peace a chance. We are attempting to help them out of their own misery. Yet they continuously respond with vile hatred. How ought we to deal with this?Stand Up for Yourself!
The Midrash continues:
"Thus says G-d to the Jewish people: 'Now it is time to make an offering only for yourselves.’” This, says the Midrash, is the meaning of the single bull offered on the eighth day. Now it is time to worry about yourselves. “Let us celebrate and 'roll' together, you and I," G-d tells His people. No more the 70 bulls for the sake of 70 nations, as you did throughout the holiday of Sukkos. Now it is time for you to offer one bull for one nation – the nation of Israel.
What is the meaning behind these words? There is a critical message here.
Number one. Forget about "international opinion” and fend for yourselves, because as nice as we will try to be, we will be forever blamed as the source of evil. Jew-hatred is a disease, universal and multi-cultural, generated by the evil existing in many a human being. In their eyes, we—the Jews—can never get it right. 250,000 slain in Syria, ISIS is trying to take over the world to behead some 6 billion people, Iran calls for the murder of six million Jews and promises that in 25 years there will be no trace of Israel (heaven forbid), horrific torture and abuse of human rights in dozens of Islamic countries, but Israel is the guilty one. Iran will soon be given 150 billion of funds frozen due the sanctions against it, but for Israel we have a prominent BDS movement.
Our greatest mistake, suggests the Midrash, is to jeopardize our own safety by attempting to endlessly appease those who will forever despise us. This holiday of Shmini Atzeret, G-d is saying, is made for YOU. Stop bending over backwards to try gaining the favor of people whose hatred to you is irrational! Whatever you do, will forever be wrong. If you stay in Gaza, you are an abuser. If you leave Gaza, you are still an abuser. When you are dealing with such people, there is only one way: Stop apologizing for your right to exist and do whatever you have to do to protect your children. Show your enemy that they dare not mess with you. There comes a point where you must muster the courage to do what is morally right, not what is acceptable to people who could not care less if another million Jews die, just as they could not care less if a million Sudanese die and did not do a thing to stop the genocide of 800,000 innocent Rwandans slain in 100 days.
In the presence of anti-Semitism, make sure to stand tall and proud. Make sure to teach your children that being hated is testimony to their virtue, not their vice. "Now it is time to make an offering only for yourself," in the words of the Midrash. One bull for one nation. It is time to fortify your own identity, to understand that you are loathed because of your timeless commitment to a G-d of morality, of goodness and compassion. This is not a time to doubt yourself; rather it is a time to stand up for yourself and your faith.
The Origin of Jewish Self Hatred
One of the most tragic side-effects of anti-Semitism has been Jewish self-hatred and self-shame. Many of our brethren, especially during the last 200 years since emancipation swept Europe, have come to believe that our greatest haters were not as bad as they appeared, that something was really wrong with the Jews, justifying at least some of the hatred toward the people of the Book. After all, went their line of thinking, if your child is loathed in every school he ever attends, is chastised by the principals and despised by most of his classmates, wouldn't the family therapist blame the child instead of the schools and all of the other children?
Should this logic not hold true regarding anti-Semitism as well? If almost every single culture and civilization saw the Jew as the embodiment of evil, should we not look in the mirror and discover the blemishes within, causing such animosity?
Thus, the phenomenon of Jewish self-hatred was born. Albeit, in their minds, it is merely an exercise of extreme self-examination, the self-appraisal of these self-hating Jews often reaches super rational proportions, where they begin to view their people, their country and their heritage as the cause of all evil and horror in the world.You read Noam Chomsky and you wonder how a Jew can write such words about a people he supposedly knows so intimately. You read Norman Finkelstein and you are astonished on the words a fellow Jew uses concerning the Holocaust. You read Jewish essayists in the New York Times and in the Los Angeles Times, you listen to Jewish journalists on NPR or CNN, you reflect on lectures by Jewish academics, and you wonder: How can Jews become so shamelessly "objective" as to view Israel and its neighbors as morally equivalents, when the Israeli army never killed a single Arab civilian intentionally, and the Arabs proclaim clearly that their goal is to exterminate every Israeli civilian alive?
Be More JewishThis, then, is G-d's message to the Jewish people for Shemini Atzeres.
At a time of raging anti-Semitism, do not become insecure, apologetic and defensive. Do not view yourself in the way your antagonist sees you. Make sure you know who you are from the inside; learn what it means to be a Jew, not from people who hate you. Learn what it means to be a Jew from your own texts, from your own heritage, from your own grandparents, from your own Torah.
At a time of explosive Jew hatred, G-d calls out: You must do one thing — be more Jewish!We cannot on our own cure the plague of anti-Semitism. The anti-Semites need to do that. We can and must monitor anti-Semitism, warn against it and fight it unwaveringly and with full confidence and vigor, but we cannot rid the world of it. What we can and must do is to never allow ourselves to be defined by it and never try to appease it by sacrificing our own.
Determination
Here is what Netanyahu said on Thursday at the GA of the United Nations—and let’s hope his actions will match his words:
For in every generation, there were those who rose up to destroy our people.
In antiquity, we faced destruction from the ancient empires of Babylon and Rome.
In the Middle Ages, we faced inquisition and expulsion.
And In modern times, we faced pogroms and the Holocaust.
Yet the Jewish people persevered.
And now another regime has arisen, swearing to destroy Israel.
That regime would be wise to consider this: I stand here today representing Israel, a country 67 years young, but the nation-state of a people nearly 4,000 years old.
Yet the empires of Babylon and Rome are not represented in this hall of nations.
Neither is the Thousand Year Reich.
Those seemingly invincible empires are long gone.
But Israel lives.
The people of Israel live.
עם ישראל חי.
The re-birth of Israel is a testament to the indomitable spirit of my people.
For a hundred generations, the Jewish people dreamed of returning to the Land of Israel.
Even in our darkest hours, and we had so many, even in our darkest hours we never gave up hope of rebuilding our eternal capital Jerusalem.
The establishment of Israel made realizing that dream possible.
It has enabled us to live as a free people in our ancestral homeland.
It’s enabled us to embrace Jews who’ve come from the four corners of the earth to find refuge from persecution.
They came from war-torn Europe, from Yemen, Iraq, Morocco, from Ethiopia and the Soviet Union, from a hundred other lands.
And today, as a rising tide of anti-Semitism once again sweeps across Europe and elsewhere, many Jews come to Israel to join us in building the Jewish future.
So here’s my message to the rulers of Iran:
Your plan to destroy Israel will fail.
Israel will not permit any force on earth to threaten its future.
And here’s my message to all the countries represented here:
Whatever resolutions you may adopt in this building, whatever decisions you may take in your capitals, Israel will do whatever it must do to defend our state and to defend our people.
Rolling with G-d
So during these two days of Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, we take a good look at the Muslim countries, at Iran, Chamas, Hezbollah, Syria. We also take a look at the UN, the State Department, at the Hague court, at the EU, and all European academic and politicians who loath Israel, and we say:
"We will be there for you and with you the moment you sober up and are ready for genuine peace. Israel is a country of peace and it is ready for peace at a moment's call. We crave life, peace and goodwill. But till you guys get your moral act together, until you start hating the bad guys and protecting the good guys, we will never despair, nor will we blame ourselves for the evil still existing in the world.
"Instead, we will, for the next 48 hours, take the Torah and dance with the Divine. We will 'roll' with G-d, celebrating a people and a tradition dedicated as much as ever to peace, love, morality and goodness. We will celebrate with the knowledge that evil will be defeated and good will prevail. We will reinvigorate ourselves with the faith that redemption is merely one step away."
And yet, paradoxically, G-d's response to us holds part, though not all, of the cure for anti-Semitism. For the world could ultimately only love a people that loves itself. When Jews will begin to respect themselves, they will win the admiration of the world.
[1] Psalms 109:4
[2] Midrash Rabah Bamidbar 21:4
[3] Numbers 28: 13-34.
[4] Cf. Talmud Sukkah 55b
[5] Ch. 10
[6] Judaism never believed that "there is no salvation outside of Judaism." On the contrary, the Torah does not encourage conversion and actually prohibits Jews from proselytizing gentiles. Why? Because Judaism sincerely believes that a gentile need not be Jewish in order to maximize his or her potential and find genuine fulfillment in life. "The pious among all the nations of the world have a share in the world to come," declares the Talmud. Maimonodes writes that every single human being – Jew or gentile – can become "the holy of holies." (Tosefte Sanhedrin. Rambam, end of Hilchos Shmitah and Yovel. Cf. Likkutei Sichos vol. 13 Hosafos to 12 Tamuz.)
[7] See commentaries to Midrash ibid.
[8] Numbers 28:35-36
[9] Psalms 109:4
- Comment
Class Summary:
I find it difficult to speak today. In the face of such lacerating pain, carnage and slaughter in our Holy Land, what is there to say? What do we say to four orphans who watched their parents gunned down before their eyes, in the midst of the happiest Jewish holiday? What do we say to seven orphans whose father heard a cry for help, ran out of his home to help save a victim, and then was murdered in cold blood? What do we say?
But one thing we must declare today—and, it is, essentially a quote from a Midrash, concerning this holiday of Shmini Atzeret.
You see, unlike every other festival in the Torah, the function and purpose of this holiday of Shmini Atzeret is not stated in the Torah. So why do we have this holiday? The Midrash, in an extraordinary interpretation which could have been written today, understands the significance of this festival of Shemini Atzeres as a response to an outcry of the Jewish people.
During the holiday of Sukkos, the Jewish people offer 70 bulls, dedicated to the welfare of the 70 nations. Said the Jews to G-d: 'Master of the universe! We offered 70 bulls for the benefit of the 70 nations. Naturally we would expect them to appreciate us. Yet in reality they loathe us! As the Psalmist states, 'They substitute my love with hate.' As I pray for their welfare, they despise me!
This is no small question. It's the lament of the Jewish people for more than 3,000 years: Why do so many people seem to despise them? What have they done to deserve such profound contempt and derision? It was the lament shared last Thursday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his address at the GA of the United Nations.
A few hours later after his speech, we were stunned by the horrific news of the murder of Eitam and Naamah Henkin. Their four children watched in silence from the back seat as their parents’ torsos were torn apart by a hail of bullets. The children’s silence saved their lives: likely unnoticed by the murderers, they seemed to have been spared a similar fate.
As the terror continues in the Holy Land, we ought to recall the response G-d gives to the Jewish outcry. Our greatest mistake, suggests the Midrash, is to jeopardize our own safety by attempting to endlessly appease those who will forever despise us. This holiday of Shmini Atzeret, G-d is saying, is made for YOU. Stop bending over backwards to try gaining the favor of people whose hatred to you is irrational! Whatever you do, will forever be wrong. When you are dealing with such people, there is only one way: Stop apologizing for your right to exist and do whatever you have to do to protect your children. There comes a point where you must muster the courage to do what is morally right, not what is acceptable to people who could not care less if another million Jews die. Don’t be scared of the world and start dancing with your people and your G-d.
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