David Grossman’s book, See Under Love, provides a powerful reflection on the impact of the Shoah. It begins by telling the story of a child of survivors growing up in Israel in the 1950’s and quickly reveals that the child’s great uncle wrote children’s stories during the war.
Turns out that the great uncle wrote the stories at the request of a Nazi officer in the concentration camp in which he was imprisoned. In a perverse, opposite take on the Scheherezade story, the officer promised that if the Jew told him stories, he would put him out of his misery.
It’s a complex, poignant book. The author and the officer have a cat and mouse relationship characterized by mutual disdain.
Among various issues raised as their relationship unfolds, the author speaks to the officer about responsibility and choice. It’s the last thing the officer wants to hear; he thinks of these things as pesky Jewish obsessions.
The officer says that initially it was difficult for him to act violently. He had to choose to pull the trigger, to inflict torture. But eventually he got accustomed to killing and torturing and he no longer had to make the choice consciously. He trained himself to “turn off a part of his heart” so that he could do his part to bring about the Third Reich.
The author insists in response that a human being is not a machine. And he challenges the officer by saying, every time you act, you are making a choice.
The Torah at the beginning of the Book of Exodus plunges us into a story about slavery. ויעבידו מצרים את בני ישראל בפרך Vaya’avidu mitzrayim et benei yisrael b’farech. "Egypt enslaved the children of Israel with hard labor." (Exodus 1:13) Slavery by definition is an attempt to deprive people of choice.
And yet the story immediately focuses on choices. Choices that people make which require considerably bravery.
The midwives who help the Israelite women give birth are told by Pharaoh to destroy the male babies once they are born. They choose to disobey him.
The daughter of Pharaoh chooses to rescue baby Moses in direct violation of her father’s command.
Moses in turn will choose to leave the comfort of his palace to go out to see the suffering of his brothers and sisters and he will choose to step in, in several situations, when he sees one person oppressing another.
The story of the Exodus from Egypt is a celebration of the reality of choice and the power of choice. It challenges us to ask ourselves the following questions:
Do we choose to commit acts that are damaging to one degree or another?
Do we choose to speak out, or act out, when we see other people behaving in ways that are damaging to one degree or another?
The story of the Exodus from Egypt records the ultimate triumph of choice over resignation.
Today, in various parts of the world, in various settings, people are making choices that have the potential to create substantive positive changes. Here are just two examples:
As several commentators have pointed out, the current protests in Iran are in one respect different than those in the past. The people who are protesting are not just the urban middle class, but also the rural poor who previously were at least more outwardly supportive of the government.
All of the protestors are choosing, at great risk, to advocate for changes to a regime that they believe to be at odds with their rights and undermining of their potential. Their protests have received the support of a wide range of individuals, including Israeli PM Netanyahu and NYT columnist Roger Cohen.
The second example pertains to an individual whose story has repercussions for many others. On December 18, a young Jewish man from Kenya was denied entry into Israel to study at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Yehuda Kimani, age 31, is connected with an African community, known as the Abuyadaya, that have been practicing Judaism for the last 100 years.
He, like others in that community, officially converted under the auspices of Conservative rabbis. Kimani converted in 2010. He is a college graduate, owns a business, and has been looking forward to studying in Jerusalem. He applied for a visa through Israel’s embassy in Kenya and was granted one.
Originally he applied using a tourist visa and was rejected for technical reasons that the Interior Ministry never fully explained. Following a recent committee session at the Knesset, he was told he could reapply using a tourist visa. International leadership of the Conservative movement refuses to do that and instead wants to apply for a student visa on his behalf. First, they reasoned, the tourist visa doesn’t last long enough for the program he wants to do. Second, they believe that the Ministry is refusing to consider a student visa because they don’t recognize Kimani as Jewish. Even though the Jewish agency recognized the community as Jewish, and therefore eligible for Aliya under the Law of Return, not to mention a few months of study.
What we see here is a series of deliberate choices. Yehuda Kimani chose to connect with a local Jewish community, chose to convert to Judaism, chose to raise funds to establish a synagogue in his village. He and the leadership of the Conservative movement are choosing to fight the discriminatory policies of the Interior Ministry which seem to include racism and a bias against non-Orthodox Judaism.
I say racism because the head of the population registry, in describing the incident said, “What do you mean - he’s Jewish? He wants to study at a yeshiva? Do you want half of Africa to show up here?” And the bias toward non-Orthodoxy has been demonstrated in numerous situations.
Yehuda Kimani, with the backing of the Conservative Movement, is choosing to fight for his right as a Jew to visit Israel for an extended period of a time on a student visa in order to learn more about Jewish tradition.
I ask each of us to think about the numerous choices that we have, day in and day out, to do what’s right or to do what’s wrong. To advocate for ourselves or not. To sit quietly while others are being wronged or to speak up.
We have these choices when we are young and our peers are being taunted and bullied and we continue to have these choices as we mature into adulthood and continue to witness discriminatory behavior.
And should we think that we can keep our mouths shut so long as we’re not the ones who are the targets, let us try to recall and recognize that millennia of Jewish history strongly suggest otherwise.
I want to conclude by identifying a common thread that runs through so much of this.
In ancient Egypt, Pharaoh deeply resents Moses’s interventions on behalf of the God of Israel. In the Holocaust scenario described in David Grossman’s novel, the Nazi officer accuses the Jews of emphasizing human choice and responsibility at the expense of expediency.
Today, the leaders of Iran are accusing Israel of inciting the protests when in fact Israel did not incite the protests.
But to centuries of accusations that the children of Israel have been preaching responsibility and choice in the face of discrimination and injustice, I say, we are guilty and we should be proud to be guilty.
We should be proud that we are known as the people who preach and model the importance of choosing to speak out and act out on behalf of a more just world.
We should be proud that we are known as the people who don’t just sit back and accept fate. If we did, we’d still be in Egypt.
In honor of the midwifes who chose not to listen to an insecure king. In honor of Pharaoh’s daughter who chose to defy her own father by reaching out her hand, rather than ignoring an innocent baby. In honor of our heroes throughout the ages who spoke up when staying quiet might have seemed less risky. In honor of the multitudes who are choosing to rise up in Iran and elsewhere to demand equal rights and opportunity. In honor of a proud Jew in Kenya who has chosen to reapply to study Torah in the Holy City of Jerusalem despite numerous obstacles.
In honor of everyone who makes the choice every day to push back against injustice, we will not be quiet even though our detractors would prefer our silence. We will not accept the status quo. We will choose to speak and act. So that life can be better for us, for our people, and for all people.
Originally shared with the Temple Israel of Great Neck community on January 6, 2018
Turns out that the great uncle wrote the stories at the request of a Nazi officer in the concentration camp in which he was imprisoned. In a perverse, opposite take on the Scheherezade story, the officer promised that if the Jew told him stories, he would put him out of his misery.
It’s a complex, poignant book. The author and the officer have a cat and mouse relationship characterized by mutual disdain.
Among various issues raised as their relationship unfolds, the author speaks to the officer about responsibility and choice. It’s the last thing the officer wants to hear; he thinks of these things as pesky Jewish obsessions.
The officer says that initially it was difficult for him to act violently. He had to choose to pull the trigger, to inflict torture. But eventually he got accustomed to killing and torturing and he no longer had to make the choice consciously. He trained himself to “turn off a part of his heart” so that he could do his part to bring about the Third Reich.
The author insists in response that a human being is not a machine. And he challenges the officer by saying, every time you act, you are making a choice.
The Torah at the beginning of the Book of Exodus plunges us into a story about slavery. ויעבידו מצרים את בני ישראל בפרך Vaya’avidu mitzrayim et benei yisrael b’farech. "Egypt enslaved the children of Israel with hard labor." (Exodus 1:13) Slavery by definition is an attempt to deprive people of choice.
And yet the story immediately focuses on choices. Choices that people make which require considerably bravery.
The midwives who help the Israelite women give birth are told by Pharaoh to destroy the male babies once they are born. They choose to disobey him.
The daughter of Pharaoh chooses to rescue baby Moses in direct violation of her father’s command.
Moses in turn will choose to leave the comfort of his palace to go out to see the suffering of his brothers and sisters and he will choose to step in, in several situations, when he sees one person oppressing another.
The story of the Exodus from Egypt is a celebration of the reality of choice and the power of choice. It challenges us to ask ourselves the following questions:
Do we choose to commit acts that are damaging to one degree or another?
Do we choose to speak out, or act out, when we see other people behaving in ways that are damaging to one degree or another?
The story of the Exodus from Egypt records the ultimate triumph of choice over resignation.
Today, in various parts of the world, in various settings, people are making choices that have the potential to create substantive positive changes. Here are just two examples:
As several commentators have pointed out, the current protests in Iran are in one respect different than those in the past. The people who are protesting are not just the urban middle class, but also the rural poor who previously were at least more outwardly supportive of the government.
All of the protestors are choosing, at great risk, to advocate for changes to a regime that they believe to be at odds with their rights and undermining of their potential. Their protests have received the support of a wide range of individuals, including Israeli PM Netanyahu and NYT columnist Roger Cohen.
The second example pertains to an individual whose story has repercussions for many others. On December 18, a young Jewish man from Kenya was denied entry into Israel to study at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Yehuda Kimani, age 31, is connected with an African community, known as the Abuyadaya, that have been practicing Judaism for the last 100 years.
Yehuda Kimani and four of his siblings
He, like others in that community, officially converted under the auspices of Conservative rabbis. Kimani converted in 2010. He is a college graduate, owns a business, and has been looking forward to studying in Jerusalem. He applied for a visa through Israel’s embassy in Kenya and was granted one.
Originally he applied using a tourist visa and was rejected for technical reasons that the Interior Ministry never fully explained. Following a recent committee session at the Knesset, he was told he could reapply using a tourist visa. International leadership of the Conservative movement refuses to do that and instead wants to apply for a student visa on his behalf. First, they reasoned, the tourist visa doesn’t last long enough for the program he wants to do. Second, they believe that the Ministry is refusing to consider a student visa because they don’t recognize Kimani as Jewish. Even though the Jewish agency recognized the community as Jewish, and therefore eligible for Aliya under the Law of Return, not to mention a few months of study.
What we see here is a series of deliberate choices. Yehuda Kimani chose to connect with a local Jewish community, chose to convert to Judaism, chose to raise funds to establish a synagogue in his village. He and the leadership of the Conservative movement are choosing to fight the discriminatory policies of the Interior Ministry which seem to include racism and a bias against non-Orthodox Judaism.
I say racism because the head of the population registry, in describing the incident said, “What do you mean - he’s Jewish? He wants to study at a yeshiva? Do you want half of Africa to show up here?” And the bias toward non-Orthodoxy has been demonstrated in numerous situations.
Yehuda Kimani, with the backing of the Conservative Movement, is choosing to fight for his right as a Jew to visit Israel for an extended period of a time on a student visa in order to learn more about Jewish tradition.
I ask each of us to think about the numerous choices that we have, day in and day out, to do what’s right or to do what’s wrong. To advocate for ourselves or not. To sit quietly while others are being wronged or to speak up.
We have these choices when we are young and our peers are being taunted and bullied and we continue to have these choices as we mature into adulthood and continue to witness discriminatory behavior.
And should we think that we can keep our mouths shut so long as we’re not the ones who are the targets, let us try to recall and recognize that millennia of Jewish history strongly suggest otherwise.
I want to conclude by identifying a common thread that runs through so much of this.
In ancient Egypt, Pharaoh deeply resents Moses’s interventions on behalf of the God of Israel. In the Holocaust scenario described in David Grossman’s novel, the Nazi officer accuses the Jews of emphasizing human choice and responsibility at the expense of expediency.
Today, the leaders of Iran are accusing Israel of inciting the protests when in fact Israel did not incite the protests.
But to centuries of accusations that the children of Israel have been preaching responsibility and choice in the face of discrimination and injustice, I say, we are guilty and we should be proud to be guilty.
We should be proud that we are known as the people who preach and model the importance of choosing to speak out and act out on behalf of a more just world.
We should be proud that we are known as the people who don’t just sit back and accept fate. If we did, we’d still be in Egypt.
In honor of the midwifes who chose not to listen to an insecure king. In honor of Pharaoh’s daughter who chose to defy her own father by reaching out her hand, rather than ignoring an innocent baby. In honor of our heroes throughout the ages who spoke up when staying quiet might have seemed less risky. In honor of the multitudes who are choosing to rise up in Iran and elsewhere to demand equal rights and opportunity. In honor of a proud Jew in Kenya who has chosen to reapply to study Torah in the Holy City of Jerusalem despite numerous obstacles.
In honor of everyone who makes the choice every day to push back against injustice, we will not be quiet even though our detractors would prefer our silence. We will not accept the status quo. We will choose to speak and act. So that life can be better for us, for our people, and for all people.
Originally shared with the Temple Israel of Great Neck community on January 6, 2018
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