[I SHARED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE OVER EMAIL WITH THE MEMBERS OF TEMPLE ISRAEL ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2023. FOR THIS BLOG POST I HAVE EDITED OUT A FEW OF THE MORE GRUESOME PHRASES FROM THE ELI ROTH FACEBOOK POST QUOTED BELOW FROM WHAT I HAD ORIGINALLY SENT OUT TO TEMPLE ISRAEL MEMBERS]
Dear Temple members,
This year Simchat Torah coincided with Shabbat. But as we danced with our Torah scrolls on Saturday morning and, as the children of our religious school joined enthusiastically in our celebration of our heritage, we were also painfully aware of the horrific developments simultaneously occurring in Israel. So we started the service that morning with a prayer for the State of Israel and the singing of Hatikvah. And, as we gathered the children under a tallit for their special aliyah near the close of the book of Deuteronomy, I shared with those present that we needed to celebrate Simchat Torah with special enthusiasm because our brothers and sisters in Israel are right now unable to do so. Am Yisra’el Chai/ “The Jewish People Lives.”
Fittingly, the very words we were reading from the Torah scroll for that aliyah, Deuteronomy 33: 27-29, speak directly to the situation in which Israel is currently faced, and speak directly to our hopes and prayers that Israel be able to successfully defend itself:
מְעֹנָה אֱלֹהֵי קֶדֶם, וּמִתַּחַת זְרֹעֹת עוֹלָם; וַיְגָרֶשׁ מִפָּנֶיךָ אוֹיֵב, וַיֹּאמֶר הַשְׁמֵד. וַיִּשְׁכֹּן יִשְׂרָאֵל בֶּטַח בָּדָד עֵין יַעֲקֹב, אֶל-אֶרֶץ דָּגָן וְתִירוֹשׁ; אַף-שָׁמָיו, יַעַרְפוּ טָל. אַשְׁרֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל מִי כָמוֹךָ, עַם נוֹשַׁע בַּיהוָה, מָגֵן עֶזְרֶךָ, וַאֲשֶׁר-חֶרֶב גַּאֲוָתֶךָ; וְיִכָּחֲשׁוּ אֹיְבֶיךָ לָךְ, וְאַתָּה עַל-בָּמוֹתֵימוֹ תִדְרֹךְ.
27 The ancient God is a refuge,
A support are the arms everlasting.
[God] drove out the enemy before you
By [God’s] command: Destroy!
28 Thus Israel dwells in safety,
Untroubled is Jacob’s abode,
In a land of grain and wine,
Under heavens dripping dew.
29 O happy Israel! Who is like you,
A people delivered by Adonai,
Your protecting Shield, your Sword triumphant!
Your enemies shall come cringing before you,
And you shall tread on their backs.
Those sentiments near the end of the Torah are not the most cuddly, touchy-feely verses in the Torah. Indeed, we usually gloss over such passages in favor of the more easily accessible verses (of which there are many) about the importance of “seeking peace and pursuing it” (c.f., Psalms 34:14), and loving our neighbor and loving the stranger,
However, we are indeed in a situation right now, where Israel must destroy -- not placate -- the evil forces of Hamas. As the actor and director Eli Roth wrote on Facebook yesterday:
“Hamas is no different than the Nazis or ISIS. They do not want peace, they want mass murder. They are terrorists and they want to confuse the issue and make you think this is Israel versus Palestine. So many Jews believe in a peaceful solution for all and have stood up against all forms of oppression and tyranny. We now need the world to stand with us and to stand up against these monsters. They massacred hundreds of teens at a music festival in cold blood. […] They broke into houses and shot parents in front of kids and took actual Holocaust survivors as hostages. […] They are not people who want cooperation and peace. They want every Jew dead and murdered many of their own to get in power. They are backed by powerful money in Iran and have armies of propaganda bots and organizations to spread hatred against Israel and get you on their side. This post will put me in their cross hairs but we have to speak up, otherwise we are letting the past repeat. Their social media is as powerful as the Nazi propaganda films. Stand with humanity. Stand with Israel. […]
I apologize that I have not sent out an email to our Temple membership about this up until now. As I shared with a Temple member who asked me about this yesterday, I had not done so up until then because I had feared that what I might say would be too undiplomatic and unnuanced. I said to this Temple member give me another day and I’ll hopefully be calmer and more collected about the situation.
Friends, it’s a day later and I am no more calm and collected than I was yesterday.
My own view is that the time for appeasing or negotiating with Hamas is past. Israel cannot afford any longer to permit Hamas to attack Israel – or to govern the Gaza Strip. Gaza could be another Singapore or Riviera but for the fanatical tyranny of Hamas. Any restrictions that Israel (and, lest we forget, Egypt) have placed on Gaza in recent years have been a direct result of the need to address Hamas’s non-stop efforts to attack Israel.
I (and people and nations of goodwill) remain committed to the goal of an independent Palestinian state existing peacefully side-by-side with a secure State of Israel. Perhaps, God willing, we can get there once Hamas has been destroyed. Perhaps nations like Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia can help bring about this hoped-for development. But none of this can happen until the forces that have as their primary goals the destruction of Israel and the massacre of its inhabitants are resoundingly defeated.
WHAT NOW FOR US?
Let’s plan to gather at Temple this Thursday, October 12th at 6:00 p.m. for a brief weekday ma’ariv service during which time we can also, in this safe space of our Jewish community, share our thoughts, concerns and reactions to these horrific events of recent days to support one another during this trying time. And so that we can pray for the souls of those who have been murdered, the healing of those who have been injured, and the release of those who are being held hostage.
Finally, of course, I don’t necessarily expect everyone to agree with my analysis of the current situation set forth above, but thank you for allowing me to give vent to my own feelings on the subject. Meanwhile, I hope and trust that each of you (as I have been doing in recent days) has been reaching out to any family and friends in Israel to offer them your support.
L’shalom,
Rabbi David Steinberg
