Jacob Becoming Israel: Thoughts Following the Recent Killings in Jerusalem

When you visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, you walk through the series of exhibits and toward the end of the exhibits, you begin to see light shining into the museum.  At the end of the path that you’re walking on, you stand looking out a huge window and you realize that you are looking at the hills of Jerusalem and that, scattered onto those hills, are several residential neighborhoods.

One of the neighborhoods you see, looking out the window of Jerusalem’s Holocaust Museum, is Har Nof.

Har Nof is the neighborhood where four Jewish scholars and one Druze policeman were killed Tuesday morning, November 18, by two Palestinians who entered a synagogue with axes and firearms and brutally murdered and wounded several worshippers.

Rabbi Avraham Goldberg, Rabbi Kalman Ze’ev Levine, Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky, Rabbi Moshe Twersky and Officer Zidan Saif

The thought of this is downright sickening.  The acts need to be condemned in the strongest possible terms and the families of the victims deserve all of the compassion and comfort we can muster. 

The murders are part of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, of course, and this morning, I want to try to put it in a larger context.

Israel is a mature sovereign nation.  I want to reflect on what this means given the recent tragedy

First, a mature sovereign nation doesn’t sneak around and doesn’t hide.  The events of this past Tuesday morning were reminiscent of events in villages in Poland and Russia, Iran and Iraq, where Jews were attacked during prayer and at other times and very little could be done. Jews in those countries often communicated, orally and through body language, that they were grateful to the governments for giving them any rights at all.  Jews in those countries would try to exert influence indirectly through the local and national governments, but they were largely powerless.

Jews in Israel have power.  They don’t have to ask permission to pray.  They are in a position to offer freedom of worship to other faiths, which Israel does.  They have the wherewithal to defend their own rights and the rights of others, which they do. 

And when brutal acts such as this one occur, they have the power to respond the way a mature sovereign nation responds, leading to my second point.

A mature sovereign nation seeks justice and not revenge.  A major turning point for the Modern State of Israel was the Trial of Adolph Eichmann – which took many months of private and public interrogation.  The modern sovereign state of Israel took a Nazi war criminal and, in full view of the world, painstakingly brought him to justice.  The impulse toward revenge must have been enormous then, and it is quite compelling today.  Who among us hasn't ever felt the impulse to take revenge?

To the extent that Israel chooses justice over revenge, she asserts herself as a mature sovereign nation.  Many will criticize her anyway, but so what. 

Leading to my third point.  A mature sovereign nation learns to distinguish between the criticism of enemies and the criticism of friends. 

The criticism of enemies – rabid anti-Semites wherever they may be – must be refuted, but need not be considered.  But the criticism of enemies should not harden a mature sovereign nation to the point where they cannot consider the criticism of friends.  As Israel's leaders navigate the tortuous path of immediate and longterm response to this attack and to the complex dynamics surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they will benefit from hearing a variety of perspectives from those who care deeply about Israel's future.

Lastly, a mature sovereign nation allows itself to feel.  Writing for the Times of Israel, Donniel Hartman bemoaned the fact that the bodies in Har Nof had scarcely been gathered before both sides started to invoke the act for political purposes.  Can we allow ourselves 24 hours, Hartman wondered, to just feel our response to this violent attack? 

Israelis don’t generally give themselves the luxury to feel - understandably, because they are catapulted from one situation to the next.

But many Israelis that I speak with say that they need to make the effort to allow themselves to feel and to reflect, despite the frenetic quality of their lives. I spoke last week of psychological vertigo, the realization of how precarious our lives are.  We don't usually spend a lot of time feeling that - it's too devastating, we couldn't get through the day.  But a mature sovereign nation gives space for its citizens to feel their reactions, be they horror or anger or loss or yearning.  

Tag Meir, an organization established in Israel to combat racism, is organizing shiva visits to the bereaved families.  Just to remind everyone, they were one of the organizations that enabled Jews who wished to pay their condolences to the slain Muslim boy, Mohammed Abu Khdeir during the summer.  They are organizing condolence visits to include Arab Israelis who want to pay their respects to the families of the slain Jews in Har Nof. 

A recent facebook post of theirs reads as follows:

On Sunday at 5:00 pm Tag Meir is organising a joint delegation of Israelis and Arabs to visit the Shiva of those murdered in the terrorist attack, in Har Nof . We will be joined by residents from Kfar Hussan and Baka al Gharbiyye!

Join Us! - Meeting at 5 pm in front of the synagogue in Har Nof and then we will disperse among the four families.

In this morning’s Torah portion, we watch Jacob begin to grow up.  The Torah says of Jacob and Esau – ויגדלו הנערים vayig’d’lu ha’ne’arim.  The children grew up.

At the beginning of his life, Jacob is me’ta’tea, a trickster.  He achieves what he wants by pretending to be what he is not.  He runs away from conflict.  He will gradually grow into Israel, Yisra’el, the mature, though still quite human, patriarch who is the titular, symbolic progenitor of the Israelite nation. 

He will grow to lead by embracing his identity, by engaging forthrightly and by confronting his enemies with the ultimate hope of reconciliation. 

What a marvelous microcosm he is, not surprisingly, of the transition that the Jewish people continue to undergo as we chart the challenges and possibilities of sovereignty in our own land.

Tuesday’s tragedy is nauseating.  It’s inexcusable.  It must be condemned by all decent people of all faiths.  And the statement that I distributed online from the NYBR, signed by rabbis, ministers, priests and imams, is a step in the right direction.

But Israel is not a nation steeped in tragedy.  Israel is a mature sovereign nation.  She is strong enough so that she doesn’t need to hide.  Strong enough to seek justice and not revenge.  Strong enough to ignore the criticism of enemies and consider the criticism of friends.  Strong enough to encourage her citizens of all faiths to feel and reflect and respond.

This morning, I have three images in my mind’s eye.  One, the horrific site of the synagogue massacre this past Tuesday.  Two, the nauseating site of Palestinians dancing and passing out candy in response to the killings.  Three, the shiva homes of the slain individuals as Jewish and Muslim residents of Har Nof and Kfar Hussan and Baka al Gharbiyye arrive. 

In a neighborhood as tough as the Middle East, maybe we need to place our hope in "best one out of three."  Maybe we need to place our hope in the inhabitants of Israel who reach across religious lines to offer some basic humanity. 

The Jewish people do not call ourselves the children of Jacob; we call ourselves the children of Israel.  Not the children of the awkward trickster who hides and runs, but the children of the mature patriarch who wrestles and prevails.

The children of Israel, the mature patriarch, have established the mature sovereign State of Israel where no one needs to hide, where all religions are meant to be observed in peace.  

We pray that the families of those who were slain will find strength and comfort.

And we pray for the inhabitants of the Holy Land:

ונתת שלום בארץ ושמחת עולם ליושביה V’natata shalom ba’aretz v’simhat olam l’yoshveha.  Bless the land with peace and her inhabitants with lasting joy.

Originally delivered at Temple Israel of Great Neck on November 22, 2014, the first Shabbat following the shootings in Har Nof, Jerusalem.