Optimism Now, Apocalypse Later (Jewish Week)

Israel can survive vigorous diaspora dialogue - it has for decades. But it cannot survive with people at the wheel who think God loves land more than peace, who deny the humane values that Jews have held for millennia.

I was scheduling a lifecycle event with a congregant the other day and we ran into a snag having to do with his 27-year-old daughter's vacation schedule.

"Oh, sorry rabbi," he said, "that weekend will be impossible. Amy will be trekking in Vietnam."

Come again?

It turns out that she'll be there with a friend, another young congregant who, as I recall, became bat mitzvah the day before yesterday. It also turns out that 'Nam has become an increasingly popular place to visit, to the tune of five million tourists this year, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the highest number in two decades.

It used to be that most Americans 20-somethings who went over to Vietnam did so rather more reluctantly, many returning in body bags. But those who were once terrified of sending their sons are now freely sending their single young granddaughters.

If Americans can be welcomed as tourists in My Lai, it seems logical that Palestinians and Israelis might be able to sip tea together in Ramallah. Why not? As the world continues shrinking, the inconceivable is becoming routine overnight. Thirty-five years ago, when the last Americans helicoptered out of Saigon, who could have imagined a world where one could freely crisscross Berlin or buy matzah in Moscow. If the Pope can endorse condoms, then pigs truly can fly - or at least they can practice safe sex.

A new kind of domino theory is taking hold, replacing the antiquated ethos of the Cold War era. Everywhere we look, walls of separation are crumbling. France and Germany share the same currency, Turkey and Greece share tourists by the boatload and South Africans all share the same multicolored flag. Wherever you look, ancient feuds are melting away. Shimon Peres' vision of a New Middle East seems to actually be happening, at least everywhere but in the Middle East.

Israel long ago got aboard the global gravy train and the dissolution of international enmities has fueled its economic rise. Jews have always flourished in a world without walls. Now we hear that Israel's high-tech prowess might have yielded an enormous security dividend - the Stuxnet computer worm, rumored to have caused extensive damage to the Iranian nuclear program. Add to that the recent discovery of massive natural gas and oil reserves, along with the improved security and economic situation for West Bank Palestinians, and this year's Chanukah lights might just be signaling us to abandon cynicism and believe in miracles again. This time, the peace process could actually work.

After the collapse of Oslo, it's not easy to be an optimist. But guarded hopefulness should not be confused with messianic fervor. Messianism is in fact our greatest danger, for it leads to xenophobia and military adventurism. The rabbis understood that, which is why the name Maccabee, which they came to associate with such adventurism, was virtually expunged from the Talmud.

It's the messianic yearnings of those who detect darker trends in history that threaten to hijack the peace train. Fundamentalism in all its guises is the enemy right now. The Iranian mullahs and their Gazan and Lebanese proxies rank highest on that list - by far. Jewish fundamentalists, while far less destructive, also possess a dark vision of the world, one fueled by visions of apocalyptic devastation, conspiracy theories and a stark delineation of Us from Them, with the definition of "Us" growing narrower by the minute.

And because the haredim and nationalist extremists hold disproportionate sway in the Israeli government, they are especially dangerous. Each outrageous act only serves to isolate Israel more and more in the eyes of the world and American Jewry. If the greatest danger to Israel now is delegitimization, their provocations are only adding fuel to the Goldstone-stoked fire.

The squabble with the Obama administration over the settlement freeze would hardly have caused a ripple if it had not occurred immediately following last summer's Rotem Bill fiasco and the plethora of annulled conversions, the arrest of Anat Hoffman for carrying a Torah, the creeping haredi annexation of the Western Wall, the Jim Crow-like treatment of women on busses and public streets, and talk of loyalty oaths and the transfer of Israeli Arabs. Throw in the repeated insults to Joe Biden over Jerusalem construction and excuse us for wondering if Glenn Beck is running the show over there.

There's been much consternation lately over J Street. A synagogue near Boston even disinvited their president Jeremy Ben-Ami recently, sending a horrible message to turned-off Jews everywhere. But with all the questions raised about J Street, some quite justified, no one has asked how such a "radical, fringe group fronting for Israel's enemies" now counts over 500 in its rabbinic cabinet. I would venture to say that not every one of them is an unwitting lackey for the so-called "Puppet Master," George Soros. Some rabbis are actually fairly bright people.

I know why I was one of the signers, and why I did not disinvite Ben-Ami when he appeared at my synagogue just a week after the J Street-Soros connection was revealed.

I signed because my fear of an Israel driven by dark apocalyptic visions trumps my more limited fear that American Jews are speaking with multiple, conflicting voices.
Israel can survive vigorous diaspora dialogue - it has for decades. But it cannot survive with people at the wheel who think God loves land more than peace, who deny the humane values that Jews have held for millennia.

My concern for Israel is so deep that I am willing to proclaim publicly that the messianists could be messing up the last good chance for peace. I love Israel too much to stay silent.

Miracles happen, and all conflicts end, eventually. Even the Hatfields and McCoys signed a truce not long ago. Our girls are trekking in the very homeland of "Apocalypse Now." There's no reason this pig can't fly.

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman is spiritual leader of Temple Beth El in Stamford, Conn., and writes the Hammerman on Ethics column for The Jewish Week online. He and New York Times “Ethicist” columnist Randy Cohen will participate in a Jewish Week Forum on “Ask The Ethicists” on Tuesday, Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El, 10 E. 66th St. The event is free but reservations are suggested. Events@jewishweek.org.

In This Moment: Israel's 9/11 - The Simchat Torah War

In This Moment While it is not my practice to send out emails on a festival, today's brutal and unprecedented attack on the people of Israel requires us all to be on emergency footing. What happened today is being called Israel's 9/11, and for good reason. Current reports cite 250 Israeli fatalities and 1,500 injuries, with a large number of hostages. There will be plenty of opportunity to investigate how Hamas was able to inflict such damage, but now is not the time for that. There are parallels to the outbreak of Yom Kippur War, whose 50th anniversary on the secular calendar was Friday, Perhaps that was intentional. But again, it's not relevant now. What matters now is that we come together on behalf of the people of Israel. I hope an emergency war government can be formed, as has been suggested by leaders of the major parties. That would go a long way toward unifying the people for the battles that undoubtedly lie ahead. A prerequisite for the opposition leaders joining would be the sidelining of the current government's most radical elements. Yair Lapid stated that today. That would in turn place on hold their radical agenda for judicial overhaul and it might help preserve the Saudi peace initiative, which was undoubtedly Iran's main target in (likely) orchestrating today's attack. Hamas's increasing brazenness had been tolerated too much for the past decade. But this goes way beyond anything that has happened before: premeditated slaughter on an industrial scale. These are not crimes of passion. They are crimes against humanity. The sheer cruelty of these murders has shocked even those who normally are inclined to blame Israel for everything, Just look at the headlines in Sunday's British press (see below and click on them for larger size). Show these front pages to your college student or anyone else who has been on the front lines of Israel's defense. There are things that Israel has done that are hard to defend. But this can never be justified. I suspect Gaza's governing structure will look quite different when the dust settles. Let's hope Israel can accomplish its aims with maximal diplomatic dexterity and minimal loss of innocent life (including the hostages taken by Hamas). As for us, we need to be prepared to closely follow events on the ground, to separate truth from fiction, and plain facts from spin. That is always hard to do in the fog of war, and especially with regard to Israel. Our most immediate question involves Simchat Torah. It's hard to imagine being able to celebrate with the Torah scrolls tomorrow morning, what with literally hundreds of funerals of terror victims taking place at the same time in Israel (where the holiday will have ended). And yet, that is precisely what we must do. Below is a passage from a book written just after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when the same question was asked as Simchat Torah approached. So the festival will go on tomorrow, with our Torah scrolls and musicians. Naturally, things will be subdued, as they should be. But there is no better way to teach the next generation about the Jewish people's resilience than by demonstrating our eternal love for the Torah and for the values embedded therein, especially "Love your neighbor as yourself." If we were to cancel services - or even just the hakafot (processions) - nothing would be gained. But if we were all to come in large numbers to TBE on Sunday morning, to sing, dance (a little) and celebrate the great volunteer efforts of Sue and Carl Shapiro, our honorees, it would send a message that will reverberate far beyond our walls. There is nothing more important for us to be doing tomorrow. That pickle ball tournament, round of golf or brunch can wait, and you can DVR the Sunday talk shows. Tomorrow is Simchat Torah. Your place is here, with your family.. Tomorrow. we'll pray for Israel. Rabbi Joshua Hammerman Today's Israeli Headlines The Jerusalem Post Ha'aretz (English) Yediot Achronot To follow a Hebrew live feed from Israel's Channel 12 Click here To follow events on the ground in English i24 News Times of Israel JTA Ynet See these articles HBO airing ‘No Accident,’ documentary on legal team that sued Charlottesville rally organizers and won (JTA) - Airs this week, on the 10th. ‘It was utter chaos’: Families and survivors describe the horrors of Hamas’ invasion (JTA) i24 Looks Back at the Yom Kippur War Analysis | October 7, 2023: A Date That Will Live in Infamy in Israel (Ha'aretz)  Here is Marc Schulman's account of what happened today, from his Substack posting. I woke up early, and headed out on a brief walk. Mere blocks from my apartment, I was jolted by two abrupt booms. Their origin was initially ambiguous, but the distant wail of air raid sirens soon clarified the situation: an attack was in progress. This was the onset of the war. I sprinted home. In the subsequent three hours, over 2,000 rockets targeted various Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Beersheva. These assaults acted as a smokescreen for a multifaceted ground offensive Hamas mounted against settlements and military bases. Israel was taken wholly off-guard. Hamas militants breached parts of the border fence, while others infiltrated Israel’s airspace using gliders. Despiter Israel's advanced defense mechanisms, the militants successfully stormed the IDF’s Gaza Battalion headquarters. The assailants overwhelmed 22 kibbutzim and towns, resorting to house-to-house armed attacks, executing numerous residents, and abducting others. Throughout this ordeal, repeated desperate pleas for military assistance echoed from besieged kibbutz members. At the same time, militants seized a police station in Sderot, executing civilians in broad daylight. A comparable tragedy unfolded in Ofakim, where a family was taken hostage. In a nearby forest, a vast desert nature celebration was underway. This became another target for the Hamas attackers. Throughout the day, Israeli reservists were mobilized, with thousands, especially from elite units, all rushing to the area surrounding Gaza. By the evening, control had been re-established over most areas, but fighting persisted, including a hostage situation in Kibbutz Be’eri and the siege of the S’derot police station. Rocket strikes continued into the night, some evading the Iron Dome, wreaking havoc in the Tel Aviv region. Current reports cite 250 fatalities and 1,500 injuries, with a large number of hostages. As of this writing (11 PM on October 7th, 2023), the full extent of what took place today is still unknown. All of these numbers are tragically expected to climb. Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road Stamford, Connecticut 06902 203-322-6901 | www.tbe.org    A Conservative, Inclusive, Spiritual Community

In This Moment: Yom Kippur Plus 50 Years, Yizkor Names

In This Moment Thank you to Rep. Jim Himes for delivering some of his home-hive grown honey last week, in honor of Rosh Hashanah. It was bee-licious! Shabbat Shalom and G'mar Hatima Tova. As I prepare to deliver the 137th and 138th - and final - High Holiday sermons of my time at TBE, here are a few lines worth repeating from last weeks' sermons. A program note: During the break on Yom Kippur after Musaf, I'll be hosting a free-flowing discussion. Topic? Whatever you want. Could be related to the sermons, to the liturgy, or any questions you've just been waiting 37 years to ask. Day 1: My pension director tells me that maybe only a dozen Conservative rabbis in this country have remained with their congregations for this length of time. It’s a tiny pool – too small for any survey to accurately measure – and the pool is shrinking. It just doesn’t happen anymore. Once upon a time, such stability was the norm – the gold standard for a congregation. Now, research has shown that most pastors vacate a pulpit between the years 3 and 5, if they last that long. But somehow, we bucked those odds. It wasn’t easy. But it is easy to take that remarkable accomplishment for granted. I certainly don’t. I am totally aware that this is not just any old goodbye, and for many of you, it’s as hard for you as it is for me – and for some maybe even harder. So, we are a unicorn. I say “we” because this is as much your accomplishment as mine. In this congregation’s 102-year history, there have been essentially just three senior rabbis, with a few short-term flame-outs mixed in.  I understand that for each of you, this transition is something different. I’ve known some of you for thirty years, others for two weeks. But they’ve been two good weeks! And now, each of those clocks is synchronized, as we count down inexorably toward zero. But here’s a paradox. We are so sidetracked by all the multitasking, we’re so busy being busy, that we’ve lost control of time and we neglect to do those things that have to be done. As life whizzes by faster, we increasingly procrastinate, and put off that phone call to a sick relative; the “I love you” to a partner or child; that letter to an elected official; that volunteer project. There is always something else to do. And just as we’re about to do it, a banner pops up on the screen, interrupting our train of thought. I’m a notorious procrastinator. I wrote this sermon yesterday. Well, not really, but where Hillel said, “If not now, when?” my motto is, “If not now, later!”  From a God’s eye view, the Jewish people will be here in thousands of years because we’ve already proven that we can last thousands of years. For a hundred generations our ancestors prayed to return to Jerusalem three times daily. A hundred generations. If just one generation had stopped facing Jerusalem, we wouldn’t be here. Each person mattered. Each prayer recited by each person – it mattered. I wouldn’t bet against the Jewish people, despite the great challenges we face now, here and in Israel. I wouldn’t bet against us, and not because of God (which I can say from this God’s eye view) but because of each of you. Each of you matters. And I know you’ll come through. Why? Because you are here today! Something mysterious has drawn you back here today. Today is Shabbat. The very fact that Shabbat supersedes Rosh Hashanah, and we don’t blow the shofar today, is a key sign that, from the Jewish perspective, the relentless march of time needs to pause and take a back seat to this weekly taste of eternity. It’s a lesson we need to learn, even if it means delaying our shofar gratification for one day. And we need to sit back and cherish our remaining time together. Rosh Hashanah is all about our rush to get things done. Shabbat is about the appreciation of what we’ve done already. Rosh Hashanah is the forced rush of a Tekia Gedola, creating waves of sound. Shabbat is a light breeze that ripples across the surface of the water. Hayom Harat Olam – Today the world is born, but we’ll hold our breath one more day before celebrating that birthday tomorrow, with the shofar’s blast. We are all on different clocks. We walk at different speeds. We learn at different paces. We pray in different rhythms. But in the end, we can’t mark time alone. All our clocks chime differently, but our goal should be to make them chime in harmony. Teach us to count our days – to measure those paces, so that our hearts may be guided by kindness, as we hold out our hand to help our siblings shuffling with a numbing fear through the rain-soaked lot at Panera. And as I held my brother’s hand, drenched in that parking lot, and saw how dependent he was on me and in a strange way vice versa, I realized that however we mark time, our time is meant to be shared. Day 2: Judaism can help us in a number of ways, to 1) establish ethical guidelines for programming and implementation of A.I., 2) to warn us of the dangers of playing God and playing with fire; and 3) to drill into our minds the distinction between that which is Melachti – artificial – and Amiti – real. The Hebrew word for real is also the word for truth. What a brilliant concept! We need ten for a minyan. But when we count a minyan, we say, traditionally, “Not one, not two, not three.” Because even when we need a specific number of people, we never reduce people into becoming specific numbers – we never assign their personhood a value that is less than infinity. In the Talmud, (Yoma 22b) Rabbi Eleazar says: Whosoever counts Israel, transgresses a [biblical] prohibition, as it is said (Hosea 22:1): ‘Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured.’” The commentator Rashi explains that “the evil eye has power over numbered things.” So the custom developed to try to avoid spotlighting individuals whenever counting them – even for something as important as a minyan. Counting standardizes human beings. It creates a sameness, sets boundaries that objectify and limit us. Assigning people numbers dulls the spark of divinity within them. Just as everything in the past 80 years was tainted by the lurking potential for nuclear annihilation, so everything now is tainted by the growing shadow of artificiality. The digital age, which held such promise, has turned out to be a Trojan horse. We are in a gargantuan struggle to reestablish the preeminence of the real.   Relationships and professional roles cannot be contrived, fabricated, planned, calculated, or programmed. True relationship cannot be “artificial.” Paradoxically the most difficult of all things to achieve, is to be, simply, oneself.  To have known me here for these past 36 years is to know that I have always looked at religion from the prism of the humanities, not as doctrine but as lived experience, not as something supernatural but something very down to earth, a product of the human condition and a contributor toward human flourishing. Lo Bashamayim hee – it says in Deuteronomy. “It’s not in the heavens.” “This thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart.” Religion is right here – in your heart. That’s what’s real – and our sacred wisdom reminds us of precisely that. Yom Kippur Plus 50 years... Click here or below to open special section Click here for a packet of articles from the Jerusalem Post from the fall and winter of 1973-74, taken from the collection, Yom Kippur Plus 100 Days. Click here for "Against Despair," an essay written by Elie Wiesel just a couple of months after the war. National Library of Israel: The Yom Kippur War When Leonard Cohen Met Ariel Sharon in the Sinai Desert (NLI) ; The story of how the Jewish-Canadian singer-songwriter ended up singing for soldiers and crossing the Suez Canal with the IDF during one of Israel's most desperate hours.. Israel Declassifies Massive Archive To Mark 50th Anniversary of Yom Kippur War. (see Golda's notes below) My Rosh Hashanah sermons, text and video are now available online. Click here for both days. Recommended Reading including Yom Kippur Yizkor Materials Book of Remembrance 2023, List of Names by Family Book of Remembrance, Memorial Plaques at TBE List of every person interred at Beth El Cemetery Yizkor Books have a special place in Jewish history. The first Yizkor book, or in Yiddish “Memorbuch,” was produced in 1296 in Nuremberg by Isaac ben Samuel of Meiningen, to commemorate the victims of the previous two centuries of persecution since the First Crusade in 1096. The publication of Yizkor books was one of the earliest ways in which the Holocaust was communally commemorated. A memorial book about the Jewish community of Łódź was produced in New York City in 1943. It was the first of more than 900 of this type that were subsequently published. See Wikipedia article, and numerous Yizkor books from the Yiddish Book Center, the Jewish Gen Yizkor Book Center and a list of Yizkor Books at the Library of Congress.  “Everyone has a name” Poem by Zelda [translated from Hebrew] Everyone has a name given to him by God and given to him by his parents. Everyone has a name given to him by his stature and the way he smiles. and given to him by his clothing Everyone has a name given to him by the mountains and given to him by the walls. Everyone has a name given to him by the stars and given to him by his neighbors. Everyone has a name given to him by his sins and given to him by his longing. Everyone has a name given to him by his enemies and given to him by his love. Everyone has a name given to him by his holidays and given to him by his work. Everyone has a name given to him by the seasons and given to him by his blindness. Everyone has a name given to him by the sea and given to him by his death. Today's Israeli Front Pages Ha'aretz (English) Jerusalem Post From The Torah.com: Yom Kippur - Bible, History and Liturgy - Fascinating articles by noted scholars on the finer shadings of this, our most holy day. 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Yom Kippur (MJL)  Dateline Zion (Jewish Review of Books) - In September 1941, the students of Poland’s Mir yeshiva found themselves in the Japanese city of Kobe, having fled Hitler’s advancing forces via Siberia. As the Jewish new year approached, they found themselves confronted with an urgent dilemma: on what day should they observe Yom Kippur? Nobody had yet clarified where Jewish law places the international dateline—a question first raised in the 12th century—and it was possible that they were to its east. AMERICAN JEWISH LEADERS EXPRESS SUPPORT FOR AN ISRAEL-SAUDI NORMALIZATION DEAL THAT ADVANCES TWO STATES (Israel Policy Forum) Donald Trump wishes happy Rosh Hashanah to ‘liberal Jews who voted to destroy America and Israel’ (JTA) Yom Kippur FAQ: All About the Day of Atonement (MJL) "This Is the Yom Kippur of..." (Mosaic) - In the wake of the Yom Kippur War, the words yom kippur shel, “the Yom Kippur of,” have referred in Israeli speech to any debacle that might have been prevented by better judgment. Texas teacher reportedly fired after reading from Anne Frank’s diary to students (JTA) Hundreds protest overhaul in New York as Netanyahu meets with world leaders 'Welcome to Alcatraz, Bibi': Image of 'Inmate Netanyahu' Greets PM in California But at least he has taste! See below. Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road Stamford, Connecticut 06902 203-322-6901 | www.tbe.org    A Conservative, Inclusive, Spiritual Community

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