Weekly Messages

On Thursday, six new Jews came into the world. Not at the hospital, but at the local mikvah. Six individuals of different ages, from different prior religious backgrounds, from different communities, each chose to join the same religion, community, and people. Their many months-long process of study culminated when each individual immersed themselves in the mayim chayim, the living waters of the mikvah.

While immersion in the mikvah is the final step in conversion to Judaism, I think the final question the potential convert is asked is the most telling about what it means to be Jew. After months of learning and experiencing Judaism as outsiders, the potential convert is asked a series of questions before a beit din, a rabbinic court. The final question is not “will you continue to learn Jewishly” or “will you make sure to give tzedakah” though obviously, those are important values. Instead, the final question is, “Do you bind your personal destiny to the destiny of the Jewish people?”

I wish this question was asked of every Jew, whether born Jewish or Jew-by-choice. The question demonstrates a fundamental truth of our religion. We are more than a religion, we are a people, and our peoplehood means that our destinies are fundamentally intertwined. It means we are bound together, inseparable, indivisible, no matter our disagreements or divisions. To be Jewish means to share a destiny with every other member of our ancient, modern, and ever-growing people.

Whether being Jewish was something you chose or a gift of DNA, I hope each of us is able to consider that fundamental question, “Do you bind your personal destiny to the destiny of the Jewish people?” and answer “yes!” as resoundingly and unequivocally as the newest members of our people.

Rabbi Jeremy Fineberg

The past two weeks have been painful for Zionists and Jews across the globe. Once again, we are reminded how lightly antisemitism sleeps.

One year has changed things dramatically.

Last summer, I was proud to march for racial equality with my black brothers and sisters. I will continue to march with them until our country becomes a better place for all peoples.

I will continue to use my pulpit to speak out against any form of anti-Asian hate in our community.

I will not sit idly by when people are discriminated against for their sexual orientation or their gender.

Likewise, I will not stay still or quiet while Israel is being bombarded with rockets!

I ask my Asian neighbors, my black brothers and sisters, my gay, straight, bisexual, and transgender family to march with me arm in arm against terrorism and hatred.

Israel and the Jewish community are facing a two-pronged war. One on the battlefield and one on the airwaves. Many keyboard commandos muster minimal amounts of courage to be brave from a safe distance and arm themselves with lies, libel, and falsehoods to denigrate Israel and the Jews who support Her.

Social media was rustling with sentiments last week that one could be liberal or pro-Israel but not both. BLM claimed you could support Black Lives or Jewish lives, but not both. Some insinuated that we can aim to stop anti-Asian hate or anti-Jewish hate, but not both.

Those sentiments are naïve, silly and two scoops of wrong!

I cry for infants in Gaza that do not have milk to drink. And I am mad at Hamas for investing money in a labyrinth of terror tunnels, financing rockets, and rocket launchers, purchasing guns and grenades all while allowing their children to go hungry.

I am heartbroken for young Palestinian children that are used as human shields and played as pawns in a war of terror against Israel. Yet, I feel immense pride that Israel chooses to shield their children, and invest in shelters, and ensures an iron dome to keep their citizens safe.

I can feel empathy for innocent Palestinian teenagers who were born into a third generation of a conflict they did not start and had nothing to do with. But I have not lost sight of the parents and grandparents of these very teenagers who bequeathed them this fortune. After all, it was these teenagers’ parents and grandparents who embraced terrorism and who rejected peace offers in 1948, 1967, 1973, 1985, 2000, 2007, and even today. The older generations of Palestinians left these teens a miserable inheritance.

I am troubled that an Associated Press and Al Jazeera office that was in the heart of the Gaza Strip was flattened. I am more incensed though, that Hamas chose to locate its operations in that building, cowardly hiding behind that global cover. The AP and Al Jazeera should be livid with Hamas for endangering the lives of their journalists and appreciative Israel warned the correspondents of the target with plenty of time for them to find safety. I’m surprised but not shocked condemnation comes to Israel for leveling the building but not at Hamas who plays fast and loose with other people’s lives.

My love for Israel is strong. I love Israel when Benjamin Netanyahu is the Prime Minister. I love Israel when Ehud Olmert was the Prime Minister. I love Israel when Ehud Barak was the Prime Minister. I love Israel when Ariel Sharon was the Prime Minister. I love Israel when Shimon Peres was Prime Minister. I love Israel when Yitzchak Rabin was Prime Minister. My Zionism is far greater than any one person who holds the democratically elected office, or any particular policies any of these people espouses. My Zionism is not fickle. It is unwavering.

In response to those who claim we must be for one side or the other, I would say that approach is neither woke nor accurate.

Israel is a state that hosts a supreme court with men and women, Jews and Muslims. The Miss Israel pageant recently crowned Titi Aynaw, a black, Ethiopian Jew, and Rana Raslan, an Arab, has most recently won the crown and is representing the country in the Miss Universe Pageant of 2021.

In the IDF, Arab Druze men and women are soldiers and officers and serve in the police force with distinction. The largest hospital in Israel is served by a chief of surgery who is a Muslim Arab.

That isn’t apartheid. That is pluralism.

And for those who deign to call these examples whitewashing, I would quickly counter that ignoring the crimes of Hamas in defense of the Palestinians is a whitewash with a wider and thicker brush!

Israel offers universal health care as a mandate for every citizen. The military of Israel permitted openly gay men and women to serve way before the phrase ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ was ever conceived. The Knesset of Israel is populated with men and women, Arabs and Jews, straight and gay, Orthodox, and secular, which is a microcosm of the voices of the land. Israel is the first to respond when national disasters strike, regardless of location, voting history, or hostility. Whether in Nepal, Haiti, Turkey the Philippines, by earthquake, tsunami, or volcano, Israel is there to offer medical triage and support, unconditionally.

These are the very same agenda items that fit neatly into the caucus of the liberal-left wing in America. These values are shared, not different. I will not be ashamed for protecting and defending our families and children and will not put them in harm’s way because some claim it is the only way to be a bonafide liberal or Israel supporter. That is inane.

The values of Israel put us in lockstep with those who have mobilized last summer for a better world, and we should stand should shoulder with them today. Their injustice is our fight. Targeting us is a target against them too!

The fight for Israel’s legitimacy has transcended the cities of Sderot and reached Tel Aviv. But that is only the war of rockets. There is a second conflict that has crossed the borders to London on Snapchat, Chicago on Facebook, and to New York on Instagram. For this battle, we are all deputized as soldiers on the front lines. We have to fight lies, falsehoods, and untruths with facts every time we see them on social media. When print news or cable television slants a story, we must write them and tell them they are wrong and unbalanced and share the evidence and truth. When very few elected officials protect the Palestinians but find Jewish lives expendable, call their offices, write letters, and lobby them by saying loudly and clearly Jewish lives matter and Israeli lives matter!

Israel and the Jewish people face many threats, some existential in nature. For people who clack away on their keyboards with binary choices for us to choose as a litmus test and a form of allegiance is as dangerous as a nuclear Iran or re-arming Hezbollah.

We must fight this confrontation with facts, passion, and unwavering commitment that allows the space for us to be proudly and fiercely liberal, pro-Israel and pro-peace, with no apologies or explanations.

Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner

Right now, reading the news out of Israel, it feels like the only thing that matters are numbers. Numbers of the injured, of the murdered, of attacks on civilians, of hate crimes, of targeted airstrikes, of missiles that Iron Dome has shot out of the sky, of the missiles that Iron Dome missed. As these numbers rise we find ourselves taking refuge, outrage, or moral high ground in the numbers. X allows us to do X, and Y means we should dismiss Y.

We must be careful of numbers, our sages teach, especially when we come to care more about the faceless numbers than the people who sit behind each digit.

Our parsha, Bamidbar, opens with the command for a census of Jewish people a year after the Exodus. The ancient rabbis read this census with consternation and confusion, since didn’t God prohibit directly counting the people earlier in the Torah (Exodus 30:12)? They explain that there’s a difference between when God counts humans and when people count humans. When people count other people, we have a tendency to lose the individual for their integer, a full human life becomes just a statistic. When God counts, God takes care to raise up the head of every individual being counted, never forgetting that more important than the number of the person is the person themself.

As we share in the worry, pain, and fear of our brothers and sisters in Israel, let us not be consumed by the numbers. Let us be careful in our counting, always remembering that in front of each number is a person, an individual who deserves to have God raise their head, and deserves the full counting of their days.

With Prayers for the Peace of Jerusalem and a Shabbat of Comfort and Peace for all of Israel,

Rabbi Jeremy Fineberg