In This Moment: "We don't have to live this way" - Guns, "Fear itself" and the driven leaf; Gaza again

In This Moment  A dire warning from this week's Torah portion is becoming frightfully real in our violence-infested world. Shellshocked people running from even the most minute whoosh of a leaf floating in the breeze But we don't have to live like this. That's the message readers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution saw in the wake of their recent mass murder. And now another has happened near Dallas. And another. And another. Leviticus reminds us with these warnings never to assume that we are somehow insulated from calamity. And therefore we should never become numb to the calamities of others. And we should never simply run and hide or succumb to the fear of what appears inevitable. It is not. See the warning below and Rashi's commentary and check out Leviticus 26. It's called the Tochecha - the "Great Scolding." The Tochecha seems to be implying that, with all the horrific things that can happen, the most dangerous fear is fear itself. We all fall victim to it from time to time - even Moses, arguably the most brazen figure in Jewish history, who killed the taskmaster and led the people through the Red Sea. But before he fought the imposing King Og of Bashan, God had to remind him, "Do not fear" (Numbers 21:34). We've now convinced ourselves that gun violence is unpreventable. That numbs us and becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. We're afraid even to bring up the subject each time there is an attack - there are so many. Leviticus is saying that doesn't have to be the case, and that the solution begins with the conquest of fear itself, which can bring about the end of our paralysis. One way to overcome fear the next time you find yourself running and hiding from whooshing leaves (an image that inspired the classic novel, "As a Driven Leaf" - though as described in Job 13:25 - by Rabbi Milton Steinberg), try the final verse of one of our most familiar prayers: Into God’s hands I entrust my spirit, when I sleep and when I wake; and with my spirit, my body also:  Adonai is with me, I will not fear. (Last stanza of Adon Olam , composed by Solomon ibn Gabirol) But we do live this way And children are dying Fulfilling those dire warnings of Leviticus.... How do we respond? See this article from the Forward, suggesting that to end gun violence, we should look to the economics that helped end racial segregation. See also this from the Religious Action Center. Israelis should not have to live this way... With hundreds of rockets fired indiscriminately into Israel this week (which also featured the first use of the new David's Sling defense system) and a synagogue attacked in Tunisia. Jews should not have to live this way... The shooting occurred at Africa's oldest synagogue. See also ‘Jewish life goes on’: Djerba Jews and their supporters show resilience after deadly attack (JTA); and see Tunisia’s Jewish pilgrimage and Tuesday’s shooting, explained (JTA) - The shooting at the synagogue in Djerba, an island in Tunisia, is the deadliest attack on the holy site in more than 20 years. It brought tragedy to a public celebration of Jewish life at Africa’s oldest Jewish house of worship. Here’s an introduction to the Jews of Tunisia, the annual pilgrimage to Djerba and how the community is reacting to Tuesday’s attack.  See a photo essay on that ancient community. This just in... Action Alert for Jewish Institutions from ADL Overview:  During the first week of May, multiple Jewish institutions across the country received threatening antisemitic messages via their online contact forms. These messages included references to Zyklon B tablets, the name of the poison used by Nazi Germany to murder more than one million people – most of them Jews – in the death camps during the Holocaust. These incidents mirrored incidents that occurred in January 2023 and the Fall of 2022. At this time, there is no known credible threat emanating from these messages, and the FBI is actively investigating.      Background: As noted in the 2022 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, Jewish institutions across the country received twenty threatening messages through the contact form on their websites in what appeared to be a coordinated campaign. The threatening and harassing messages were all sent between September and November and featured similar language, including references to Zyklon B tablets. Another similarity is that in most of the cases, the sender(s) completed the contact forms using the names of various so-called First Amendment auditors — individuals who film themselves “testing” the constitutional knowledge of government employees. It is believed that these individuals’ names were used to misdirect attention away from the responsible parties. Although some First Amendment auditors have been known to harass synagogues, antisemitism is not a routine part of most auditors’ activity.       Recommendations for the Community:   If at any time you feel that you may be in danger, contact law enforcement immediately.  If you receive a threat through your institution’s online contact form, please notify ADL, via your regional office or through the online incident reporting portal at https://www.adl.org/report-incident.  Take screen captures in order to memorialize the information.    Contact your IT department or web provider in order to obtain IP address information on the sender of these messages. This will assist our law enforcement partners in their efforts to identify the sender.   ADL is here to support the community during these incidents and for any other matters relating. Recommended Reading For more on Gaza Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 15, including 3 senior commanders of the Islamic Jihad (NPR) And see this op-ed: Israel can nullify the threat of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (TOI). In analyzing Israel’s latest strikes, it is important to recall that the PIJ, recognized as a terrorist organization by the US, EU, UK, Australia, Canada, Japan and others, is one of Iran’s main proxies in the region, funded by Iran to the tune of millions of dollars a year. David’s Sling downs rocket headed for Tel Aviv in first real-world interception Gazan rockets bombard south, hampering ceasefire efforts (TOI) At the root of the latest Gaza-Israel flareup, implacable rejection of Israel For a secure, democratic Israel, the only way is separation from the Palestinians (TOI) - Former security chiefs warn military responses alone are not a longterm answer to looming threats  See also Israel bombs civilians in Gaza. But Israelis don’t want to know (Ha'aretz) - No Israeli official has claimed that those planning the air force mission didn't know that women and children would be killed. On the contrary, the most senior military official in Israel stated flatly that those briefed on the operation knew that family members and neighbors of the three Palestinian Islamic Jihad commanders targeted were in danger, considered the consequences of firing missiles at them, and decided to deem their deaths necessary collateral damage. Today's Israeli Front Pages Yediot Achronot Ha'aretz (English) Jerusalem Post Headline below states, "More than 450 Rockets in 7 Hours" And earlier this week... Yediot's front page from Sunday: Top headline says, "Finally, King!" Below the fold on the left, more harrowing news: "Every 32 hours a person is murdered in Israel." "Three last weekend alone." It's not just terrorism that they are talking about. See this article about an epidemic of gun violence there too, especially in Arab communities. And the right bottom headline notes the "18th week" of mass protests against the judicial coup. Parsha Packets for Behar - Bechukotai The Leviticus Project One must be exceedingly careful to not publicly embarrass their friend, whether a child or adult, nor to call them a name that they are ashamed of, or to say anything in front of them that they may be embarrassed by. - Maimonides Stealing Truth: Is it ever OK to deceive? - The Torah states (Leviticus 25:14): "If you sell something to your neighbor or buy something from your neighbor’s hand, you shall not wrong one another." The Talmud interprets this verse to refer to overcharges and undercharges. Tochecha: The Great Scolding - The “Tochacha” (Rebuke) is read twice a year: once during the forty-nine days of counting the Omer leading to Shavuot which commemorates the giving of the Torah, and again in the month of Elul before the High Holidays, calling us to repentance, to reconsider our paths. See also Tochecha The Art of Rebuke (Hartman curriculum) The case for some climate optimism (Semafor) - Young people, especially those in richer countries, can afford to be more optimistic about the future. There are lots of good-news stories about climate change which don’t get the attention they deserve. Things really have moved in the right direction. One of my very favorite examples is the graph showing the cost of solar panels. Back in 1975, each watt of additional solar capacity cost $100. By 2010, that was less than a dollar. Now it’s 27 cents. Current solar prices are way below what IPCC models predicted they would be in 2050. The price of lithium-ion batteries per kilowatt-hour, meanwhile, fell by 97% between 1991 and 2018. They’re also longer-lasting and higher capacity than they used to be. Join us for our Intro to Judaism class on Kashrut ond Jewish Food Values on Thursday night at 7, on Zoom. Here are the supplementary materials for this topic. "Feast on" these in advance. Jewish Values and Food, Part 1 Jewish Values and Food, Part 2 Click here or below to see Noa Tishby's full Tweet and video Amy Spitalnick Selected as JCPA's Next CEO - Community leaders across the Jewish, civil rights, interfaith, and democracy spaces commended the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) for its selection of Amy Spitalnick as its next CEO. Spitalnick – a powerful national voice on issues of democracy, antisemitism, extremism, and hate – will take the helm of JCPA as it enters a new chapter with a sharpened focus on coalition-building to support a just, democratic, and pluralistic society and combat hate, discrimination, and extremism. Spitalnick (who has spoken at TBE) most recently served as the Executive Director of Integrity First for America, which won its historic lawsuit against the neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and hate groups behind the Unite the Right violence in Charlottesville. Israel at 75: A Fifty-Year Retrospective (David Golinkin: Schechter Institute) ; Three topics: the miraculous nature of the birth of the State of Israel in 1948; where we have succeeded; and where we have yet to succeed. The Chief Rabbi reflects on the coronation and his extraordinary Shabbat In Defense of Surrender in Liberal Jewish Life (Sources) - In light of our fear of submitting, how can we embrace surrender?  This question is even more pointed in this time of rising religious extremism, when the destructive and divisive effects of submission to authority are rampant, and amplified in each day’s newspaper. How do we liberal Jews shape a religious life that is engaged and disciplined, that is open to surrender, that allows us to experience a sense of wholeness and unity, and that takes us beyond ourselves?     A New York Jury Says Trump Is a Sexual Abuser. Now What? (Bari Weis asks a spectrum of experts to weigh in - Free Press)  The Wheels of Jewish Language in the New Netflix Show "Rough Diamonds" (Mosaic) - And so Rough Diamonds goes: from episode to episode, from Yiddish to Flemish to French to English, wheel within wheel, as it were, with Yiddish the inner wheel of the ḥasidic community of Antwerp, English the outermost wheel of the wide world, and Flemish and French in between. The Wolfsons spin with these wheels, turning and being turned by them. Rough Diamonds demonstrates how language serves equally as identity and as means of communication, and how it is sometimes one, sometimes the other, and sometimes both. Not, though, when it’s dubbed. Jerusalem Day is next Thursday.  Click here for a map of the battle of Jerusalem and see video below of the historic moment when the Israeli troops liberated the Western Wall. See also a packet of historical maps, poetry and information that I prepared.  For big newspaper fans like me, this site has newspaper front pages and major stories from those fateful days in June. In this L'Chayim interview marking the war's 40th anniversary, about seven minutes in, you can see my personal reflections on how 1967 changed my life. Stones (Shirley Kaufman, 1996) When you live in Jerusalem you begin to feel the weight of stones. You begin to know the word was made stone, not flesh. They dwell among us. They crawl up the hillsides and lie down on each other to build a wall. They don’t care about prayers, the small slips of paper we feed them between the cracks. They stamp at the earth until the air runs out and nothing can grow. They stare at the sun without blinking and when they’ve had enough, make holes in the sky so the rain will run down their faces. They sprawl all over the town with their pitted bodies. They want to be water, but nobody strikes them anymore. Sometimes at night I hear them licking the wind to drive it crazy. There’s a huge rock lying on my chest and I can’t get up.   Share This Email   Share This Email   Share This Email Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road Stamford, Connecticut 06902 203-322-6901 | www.tbe.org    A Conservative, Inclusive, Spiritual Community

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May 21: The End of the World and This Week’s Torah portion

So I hear the world will be coming to an end tomorrow, according to all those rapturologists (see the website) who can’t even spell “Judgment Day.” If that is indeed the case, I hope the fire and brimstone holds off until we conclude tomorrow’s Torah reading, at the very least. Because tomorrow’s portion of B’hukotai contains one of the most apocalyptic sections of the entire Bible, a doomsday scenario of what will happen to the Israelites if they fail to live the holiness code laid out for them in the prior sections of Leviticus. These 33 vicious verses are known as the Tochacha (see more details here).

A little sampler:

26:15. If you reject My laws and spurn My rules, so that you do not observe all My commandments and you break My covenant,

16. I in turn will do this to you: I will wreak misery upon you - consumption and fever, which cause the eyes to pine and the body to languish; you shall sow your seed to no purpose, for you enemies shall eat it.

17. I will set My face against you: you shall be routed by your enemies, and your foes shall dominate you. You shall flee though none pursues.

18. And if you do not obey Me, I will go on to discipline you sevenfold for your sins. (Translation: JPS Torah Commentary, Etz Hayim)

But these verses take the cake:

30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-pillars, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols; and My soul shall abhor you.

31 And I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors.

32 And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it.

33 And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you; and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

Pretty bad, so bad that it sounds almost like what some pundits are predicting will happen to Israel if it accepts the Obama parameters. But it still isn’t the end of the earth.

To make it clear, Judaism rejects these prophecies of doom, partly because they are directed in part against Jews (recalcitrant non believers that we are), but mostly because we’ve been there, and every time Jews and others have tried to predict when apocalyptic visions will be fulfilled, the result has been disastrous. Even from a Christian perspective, as this posting from Beliefnet shows, “there have been thousands and thousands of Christian predictions of the end of the world since Jesus’ time. None of them have been correct. NONE. Zero-for-thousands is a horrible batting average, and to think YOU are the only one who’ll be correct, in all the history of mankind, is the Mt. Everest of arrogance” (see other Beliefnet commentary on this here).

Judaism is a profoundly optimistic faith. It likes life, and this world, flawed though it may be, ain’t so bad after all. Look at how the commentators dealt with those foreboding verses. Like Monty Python, they were always looking on the bright side of life. So yes, we’ll be scattered among the nations, BUT…we’ll accumulate lots of frequent flyer miles! And, as the Talmud states, that way no one will be able to destroy us all at once. Yes, the land will be in total ruins, but then at least our enemies won’t enjoy the spoils – Rashi saw merit in that one.

The Maharal adds that Rashi was troubled by God’s saying “I” will bring the land to devastation. How could a God so full of lovingkindess do that? So for Rashi, this action must be guided by kindness.

Ramban gives historical elaboration: It’s true, God has indeed made the land a wasteland – the place has been a mess since we left it! He had seen it first-hand, having made that treacherous journey to the Holy Land. His feelings shared much later by Hovevey Zion and the early Zionists. The land would wait patiently in ruins for 2,000 for the redemptive hand of the Jewish people.

That theory of course presupposes that no one was actually living in the land at the time of the Jews’ miraculous return, which was a fallacy. Which brings us to current events.

So, to repeat, the world will not come to an end tomorrow. You can take it to the bank. But if you are not sure, why not come here to pray with us this Shabbat? The experience will be comforting as we read about…. all the disasters that await us.