Reflections for Shabbat Atzmaut
Not a sermon, but a few words that feel like they could be helpful for us as a community.
I've been working my way through the copies of Manna in the atrium. This shabbat I wanted to take you to the winter of 2004 when Rabbi Professor Tony Bayfield declared that he 'is not the Archbishop of Canterbury'.
Perhaps that seems relatively obvious to us... but he was writing it as a preamble to a selection of letters published in response to an open call he had made to the movement. What about? About Israel. Not the Archbishop of Canterbury, but certainly a brave leader.
Rabbi Bayfield asked the question: "I am definitely not the Archbishop of Canterbury and just as definitely not the Chief Rabbi. But I am the professional head of the British Reform Movement and one of its leaders. What do I say on the subject of Israel?" He explained the challenges of speaking out, and the cost of staying silent, asking "Are we wise or are we failing in our responsibilities? Should we be public advocates or measured critics? Is my relative silence sensible discretion or moral cowardice?"
There are two letters from members of FRS published in the replies, one entitled 'Deafening Silence' and the other 'Regal Silence'. Everything about this could have as much been written today and not just 21 years ago. (You can read the full letters page here)
It leaves me with a question of what is helpful, how do we move forwards together in community, what does meaningful and helpful leadership look like and how do we not become paralysed by these questions.
In the same issue of Manna, Rabbi Michael Marmur, formerly of these parts and subsequently the dean of Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and now Professor of Jewish theology there wrote an essay that I want to share with you. Again, it could have been written yesterday, but it remains helpful, and I think it could offer us some ideas for how to approach things.
He writes:
In my country there is no shortage of people who are right. Almost everyone is right about almost everything.
Arab citizens of Israel are right when they point to injustice and lack of opportunity. The Jewish Right is right when they mock the Left for wishful thinking and naivety. The Left is right when it asserts that unless major concessions are made, our future looks grim and blood-soaked. The Palestinians are right when they claim that they have been offered little chance of a viable State, and the Israelis are right when they point out that an offer had been on the table, and was rejected. The Arabs are right to talk about justice and respect, and the Israelis are right to talk about peace and security.
Militant Secularists are right when they object to bearing the burden of taxation while Ultra-Orthodox Jews draw child support and study the Talmud. The Orthodox are right when they claim that many secularists know less and less about Judaism, and when they warn of anti-religious fervour. The kibbutznikim are right when they remind us of the role they played in building the country, and the Sephardi pressure groups are right when they say that the kibbutzim have received State lands which they should return to the State rather than selling off to private developers. The development towns are right when they claim that the periphery in Israel is under-funded and ignored; and the cities are right when they cry about a chronic lack of investment in transport and civil improvements.
And he continues:
Don't get me wrong. Not everyone is right, at least not all the time. Those who think that the people on the other side of the fence are stupid, or bloodthirsty, or unworthy of civil and political rights - they are wrong. The people who believe that everything is rosy in the garden, and that the only problem is bad publicity - they are wrong. Those who believe love of Judaism can be achieved through legislation - they are wrong. Those who regard every act of the State of Israel as innately sinful, who believe that the Jewish State represents the very worst of imperialism and bankrupt nationalism, and that nothing that Israel could ever do would ever be enough to atone the primal sin of its existence - they are wrong too.
How are we to survive in an environment where so many people are right and some are so spectacularly wrong? How are we to cope with complexity?
Good question!
If I try to articulate why I find this helpful. It's certainly not reassuring that intractable issues haven't gone away - that bit is a bit miserable - it's that these questions are really significant, essential and big, and not likely to be solved by one of us making a statement or other from up here or by any rash or quick action. They signal deeper work is needed, and that means feeling able to say that things are extremely febrile at the moment, and we can afford a certain humility that the perspective of time grants us.
Here's how Rabbi Marmur suggests we cope in the face of this reality, it's an approach that I think would be really helpful for us here at FRS. You can read his full piece here.
1. Don't Despair. I offer this advice not as a panacea, but as a theology. However tempting it may be to conclude that the problems are too intractable, the bloodshed too awful, the seductive powers of despair are to be resisted at all costs.2. Don't Demonize. Many are coping with the complexities of the Middle East situation by concocting comic-book readings of the situation. They know who the baddies are - for some it's the Palestinians, for others the Israeli Government, or the Ultra-Orthodox, or whoever - and they blame all the ills of the world on the chosen object of their opprobrium. My own sense is that any position you wish to take - any of the "right" opinions listed above with which you wish to identify - can be taken up with love and with real involvement. By love I mean, among other things, a real generosity of spirit which allows you to see what is happening in Israel through the eyes of real men and women, and not simply in generic terms.
3. Don't Delegate
Some years ago my father coined the term Vicarious Judaism, wherein Jews get their fulfillment at one remove. Rather than take a constructive interest in Judaism, we like to sponsor an Authentic Jew to do the honours. Rather than create a vital link to Israel, we find an intermediary, and pay where appropriate.
...Instead of Despair, I recommend Hope (not to be confuse`d with optimism). instead of slick one-dinen- sional explanations, I recommend messy, three-dimensional personal involvements. Instead of vicarious cheap thrills, I recommend genuine engagement.
Each person will choosetheir"right" cause, and some will opt for people and projects I consider to be profoundly wrong. No matter: the way to break out of the Diaspora Double Bind is to forge genuine links with people and institutions. If you have a meaningful connection with a congregation, a student, a social or communal initiative, you are likely to be pat of the solution. If you just wring your hands, or alteratively walk away, you are part of the problem.
Reform Judaism has always been conventional and revolutionary at the same time. Now we are called upon to reproduce this feat, to be simultaneously comfortable and uncomfortable. Only prophets and saints can live their lives constantly exposed to the gritty realities of life, and even they need a night off from time to time. On the other hand, the attempt to carry on as if everything is just as it should be, to ignore the three challenges of Rescue, Renaissance and Responsibility, is doomed to failure. Armed with Reason, Faith, Honesty and Hope, we can look into the heart of the current crisis and resist both the seduction of despair and the illusion of false certainties.
...When almost everyone is right and almost nobody agrees, sometimes a miracle is the most practical solution of all
I hope we here at FRS, if we can agree on not much else, can agree that resisting despair, not demonizing others, and not delegating but instead trying to bridge the collosal ideological and geographical gaps in our world can offer a mandate for moving forwards. We owe it to each other and to the future to give it our best shot.
