What Parents Can Tell
Children About Matsav:
Yom Ha-Atzmaut Milken Community Center
April
16, 2002
Rabbi Ed Feinstein
I want to talk to the children tonight.
Because I'm concerned for your souls and your faith. You've heard that we are
aggressors -- savagely invading, occupying, oppressing a sovereign people.
You've heard we have brutally destroyed their cities and towns, their homes and
shops, desecrating holy places, turning once-thriving centers of life into
fields of destruction and death. You've heard that we have committed atrocity;
that we have massacred hundreds of innocents, bull-dozed living people into
rubble, shot pregnant women and little children, halted ambulences from
attending to the wounded.They say we've even prevented the burial of their
dead. And when we did bury the dead, it was only to cover up the mass murder.
And it seems that everyone says it. You hear it on CNN and ABC and NPR, you
read it in the LA Times, you hear it from world leaders and organizations
devoted to humanitarian causes. The Portuguese Nobel Laureate, Jose Saramago
visited the Palestinian West Bank as one of a group of famous authors, called
the International Parliament of Writers and declared that "what is happening
here is a crime that may be compared to Auschwitz". Robert Sheer, in this
morning's Los Angeles Time, compares Ariel Sharon to the Serbian butcher,
Slobodan Milosovitch. This, after a weekend of prominant, front page articles
describing the wanton destruction and ruthless mass murder carried out by
Israeli soldiers against Palestinian civilians in Nablus and Jenin. (And you
had to read to the fifth paragraph of the story to discover that none of the
reports were independently confirmed, verified, or corroborated.) The annual
session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, last week, condemned
Israel for "mass killings" of Palestinians, "gross violations" of humanitarian
law" and affirmed the "legitimate right of Palestinian people to resist."
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch condemned Israel's "brutal
practices in the occupied Palestinian territories." UNESCO issued a resolution
condemningthe Israeli attacks on the cultural centres and holy sites in
Palestine. (Strangely, they said nothing of synagogues burned in France or
exploded in Tunisia.) The European Parliament adopted a resolution last week
that called on the European Union to suspend its 6-year-old trade Treaty with
Israel. You, our children, you hear these things, you read these things. You
witness demonstrations on college campuses and in the great cities of the
world. And you have to wonder: Is this the truth? Are these really my people?
What kind of people are we? What kind of society is Israel? What happened to
the dream that once was Zionism? Koffi Annan, the Secretary General of the
United Nations put it succinctly: "Is it possible," he asked, "that Israel is
right and the whole world is wrong?" As long as you live, I want you to
remember this night. Tonight, something extraordinary is happening. Tonight, we
have come, your parents and grandparents, your rabbis and teachers,
distinguishe leaders from every corner of the Jewish community -- Orthodox,
Conservative, Reform, religious and secular, right-wing and left-wing, to say
one thing: Is it possible that Israel is right and the whole world is wrong?
You bet your life it is. You bet your life, because we've bet our lives. It is
true now and it always has been. From the time the world worshipped rocks and
trees and Abraham discovered the Creator of all. From the time the world bowed
low to Pharoah and Moses commanded that we stand up and be free. From the time
when the world idolized and revered Roman power and Akiba risked his life to
teach Torah. And it's true today. Because the world has no memory. They forget,
but we remember. In 1947 the United Nations voted to partition Palestine and to
create two states between the Jordan and the Mediterranean: One, the Jewish
state of Israel. The other, a homeland for Palestinian Arabs. The Zionist
leadership, the acting government of the Yishuv, accepted the plan. In 1947, we
affirmed our desire to live in peace, side by side with a Palestinian State.
But the armies of nine Arab states came pouring over the borders, to extinguish
the nascent state of Israel and to murder yet another million Jew. When a truce
came, the territory for the Palestinian Arab State had been devoured by Egypt
and Jordan and Syria. They forget, but we remember that thousands of
Palestinian Arabs fled in the face of that Arab invasion. But when they reached
the borders of Jordan and Egypt, they were not permitted to enter. Israel, tiny
beleagured Israel managed to absorb and settle millions of Jewish refugees from
Europe and the Middle East. But the entire Arab League and all 26 Muslim
nations, with all their oil-wealth, couldn't find room for their poor
Palestinian brothers and sisters -- and left them to rot in squalid refugee
camps, festering in hatred and rage. They forget, but we remember every time
they came across our border to murder and to destroy. We remember 1948, 1967,
1973. We remember the Olympics in Munich and the school in Maalot. And we
remember that when Sadat came to Jerusalem, we dismantled settlements, and
relocated whole cities, and gave Egypt back the entire Sinai, in return for
peace. We remember Yitzchak Rabin and his dream. And we remember that his
protege, Ehud Barak went to Camp David and then to Taba, and offered, for the
second time in 50 years, to create a Palestinian State, comprised of 97% of the
West Bank and all of Gaza with sovereignty over half of Jerusalem including the
Temple Mount, and $30 billion in world economic aid. And we remember the
answer. They forget, but we remember, just months ago, a bomber in the
Dolphinarium Disco in Tel Aviv killed 21 tens. And what did we do in
retaliation, what did we hit? Nothing. We practiced restraint. And months later
when another bomber destroyed Sbarro's Pizza and dozens more were killed. What
was our retaliation? Nothing. We practiced restrain. And the Bat Mitzvah in
Hadera and the mall in Netanya and the restraurants and cafes in Jerusalem and
Afula and in Haifa -- we retaliated by destroying buildings. Empty buildings.
Because we called them hours in advance of each mission, to warn them to
evacuate. And then came Pesach. This year, the Angel of Death did not pass
over. Whole families were murdered at the Seder table. But even now, do we bomb
from the air, like America? Risk hitting hospitals and schools and embassies
like America did in Bosnia and Afganistan? No. We send our kids through the
alleyways and byways -- to face booby traps and snipers and mines. Tonight,
your parents and grandparents, your rabbis and teachers, your community have
gathered here in the thousands to testify that the whole world is wrong and
Israel is right. And we will not apologize for doing what's right -- for
defending our children and their dreams from murderers. We mourn for innocents,
Palestinian and Israeli, who are caught in the struggle. We take no pleasure in
the suffering of any human being -- we dip out wine from our cups -- but we
will not apologize for taking steps to survive in that vicious corner of the
world where, mezmerized by murder and blood, they dance and sing when their
children blow themselves up. We will not apologize for demanding our land and
our freedom and our security in this world. Jews no longer apologize for
surviving. You must not apologetic for Israel or ashamed of Israel. You must
not be embarassed by Israel or afraid to stand up for Israel. And you must
never, ever grow bitter, cynical, or dark. The prophet Jeremiah witnessed the
destruction of all he loved: Jerusalem, the Temple, his people. And through his
tears he wrote, lo yeshama b'aray yehuda, uv'chutzot yerushalayeem, kol sasson,
v'kol simcha, kol chatan v'kol kalah. Never again will Judah or Jerusalem hear
the sounds of joy and the voices of gladness, the song of the bride and grooms.
But the Rabbis who came generations later knew the prophet got it wrong. They
believed that one day, we would return to Judah and to Jerusalem. But only if
we hold fast to hope and resist despair; only if we cling tight to our dreams
and refuse to surrender to bitterness. The Rabbis knew that the death of our
faith is a greater tragedy than the destruction of our city; and the crushing
of our vision, a bigger disaster than the ruin of the Temple. And so they
changed one word in the prophecy. Instead of Lo yeshama, we sing Od yeshama. In
every bride and groom, in every Jewish family, in every community and
synagogue, in every place where Jewish life lives, Jeremiah is proved wrong. Od
yeshama b'aray yehuda. For once again, the hills of Judah and the streets of
Yerushalim will ring with the sounds of joy and celebration, with the music of
love and melody of hope and the song of peace. Amen.
Copyright ©
2002 Temple B'nai Sholom.
All rights reserved.