Hi chaverim,
this week is a simple one because I'm on my way to Melbourne for a short visit back home. I'll try and write my usual shabbat e-mail whilst I'm at home but may not get a chance. This week is a simple one, some bits from an article (in blue), and my thoughts (in red).
to check out past articles, go to: http://www.habodror.org.uk/chinuch/chinuchweekly.html
for a summary of this weeks parasha that will put the article into context, go to: http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Weekly_Torah_Commentary/shemot_summary.htm
Some excerpts from an article at:
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Weekly_Torah_Commentary/shemot_socialaction2001_Prn.htm
as I always do, i've taken some editorial liberties (taking gratuitous god references out of the equation to make me feel comfortable and mixing up the order of paragraphs to make it easier to understand my point), check the real article to see if i've taken it completely out of context
In his book The Prophets, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote: "Justice is not...a value, but a transcendent demand..."
Moses' ability to emerge whole has less to do with who he was when God came upon him, than with what he was doing. Or rather, where he was going. Moses was on his way to free a people, and it was this mission which supported him through the terror. More broadly, there is something about liberating other people that affects one's relationship with God.
All oppression is a desecration of the divine image, a hillul HaShem: in Baghdad, or in Addis Ababa, or in the Sudan, or in Gaza. This is threatening to us, and rightfully so. Not because of the enormity of the obligation it imposes; we have plenty of obligations which we rarely meet. It's threatening for the simple reason that oppression is bad for the oppressed. It warps their souls, filling them with a bitterness and violence and hate that is not always directed at the oppressors. The duty to free the oppressed is threatening because it means living with them, and at best that can be a dangerous prospect.
Moses knew that. After all, what was Moses' experience of the Israelite slaves, even after he had demonstrated where his sympathies lay?
He went out again on the next day, and here: two Hebrew men fighting! He said to the guilty-one: For-what-reason do you strike your fellow? He said: Who made you chief and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? (Exodus 2:13-14)
Both before and after the Exodus the Israelites were as obstinate, as proud, and as violent a group as could be found, and yet never once did Moses suggest that their liberation was a bad idea, that they did not deserve their freedom. People don't deserve freedom because they're good. People deserve freedom because they're people.
And what does this week's parasha mean to me?
It is a counter argument to something we hear far too often in the UK.
Ever heard someone say this to you whilst claiming not to be racist:
All Arabs want to kill Jews
The Palestinians haven't earned a state like the Jews did
When the terror dies down then we will discuss a Palestinian state
I'm not racist, some of my friends are Arabs
The point that the article is making is that people deserve freedom. And in Habonim Dror's world today, this couldn't be more appropriate. Israel occupying the Palestinians does so much harm, it ruins Israeli society and ruins Palestinian society. The interesting thing about the politicians in Israel is that most of them are only concerned with the former, the effect it has on Israelis. I think as Habo we have a duty to point out that the most harmful part of occupation is the effect it has on the occupied, the Palestinians. Terrorism is used for only the benefit of the terrorists, not the Palestinian people. Don't fall into societies trap of not caring. Obviously Israel would be morally better off by not occupying, but don't forget the Palestinians who live with the tangible and debilitating effects of occupation.
What do you think?
Shabbat shalom
Benji
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