UTJ Viewpoints

1. What happened

2. The responses

   1. Rabbi Avi Weiss

   2. The political left

   3. The political right

3. The Jewishly appropriate attitudinal response

I. What Happened

On December 11, 2009, a Jewish, presumably nationalist settler, desecrate a Mosque in a village called Yusuf, meaning “Joseph. The act of mosque desecration, like synagogue desecration, choreographs contempt, disgust, and revulsion. Regardless of our ethical reaction to the desecration, the settler’s act requires interpretation, if only to understand, which is a prerequisite for initiating an appropriate response. Islam seems to be at war with the Jews, so the Jews are of necessity at war with Islam. Mosques preach a collective hatred of the Jews; mosques, as symbols of institutional Islam, are therefore rightful, fair and appropriate targets for Jewish anger, revenge, destruction, and frustration. In antiquity, Gedaliyya . b. Ahiqam was assassinated even though he was the last symbol of ancient Israelite nationalism; in our time Yigal Amir gunned down Isaac Rabin, the Israeli Labor Prime Minister who to Amir’s warped mind was insufficiently Jewish and Zionist. We lie to ourselves if we claim that our hand are clean. Rabbi Abraham Hecht, a Hassidic rabbi who at the time presided over a large, affluent, nationalist, Sefardic congregation in Brooklyn, New York, had called for the assassination of PM Rabin, who was willing, rightly or wrongly, to trade “Land for Peace” in Israel. And Rabbi Herschel Schachter of Yeshiva University, was taped, jokingly, that PM Olmert should be assassinated. Words do have consequences. The Mishnah [mAvot 1:11] teaches, “sages, be careful of your words.” Those who say careless and dangerous words may be learned, but we must rightly ask, “are they wise?”

II. The Responses to the Desecration

The response of the Mosque community in Yusuf to its desecration was at first violent. Rabbis who were politically to the Left were denied entry to the town. The Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger and his entourage came with security, placing Yusuf in lockdown, in a well intentioned but apparently awkward effort at outreach, and had stones hurled toward them for their efforts at their departure. Rabbis Avi Weiss and Yair Silverman made an effort to extend their peaceful hands, at personal risk to Yusuf. The rabbis were at first asked to remove their kippot [which shares the same etymology as kephiyyia,--the traditional Arab headdress] but responded that they could not do so. After all, an honest conversation requires that the participants be honest to themselves, and the rabbis had come to Yusuf to express their condolences as believing, practicing religious Jews. Rabbi Weiss was then challenged by his angry, cynical, suspicious and critical audience. Rabbi Obadiah Yosef, taken by many to be Sefardic Jewry’s greatest sage, had proclaimed that “Moslems are less than human.” Some rabbis spin Biblical passages to assign collective guilt to any and every Moslem, following Rabbi Yosef; the other response, that all religions are equal, the Arab narrative has to be heard and accepted, and that the politics of the Left must always be right, is also patently wrong. Effective negotiation requires both self respect as well as respect for the other.

Rabbi Weiss was caught in a conundrum of covenant and conscience. On one hand, he must be honest to God, Who in the Torah maintains that no collective guilt is attached to any given individual; on the other hand, R. Yosef has a great memory of sources, and when not railing against wrongs he does not like, he has been known to be lucid, moderate, logical, and on occasion even courageous. The reason I am proud of R. Weiss is that his religion is based upon the Torah book, the book that God wrote; Torah comments and commentaries are human responses to God’s words and can be wrong. Only God is infallible. And our benchmark for morality is recorded in the words of the book, and not in the tantrums of speech-makers.

According to the Book tradition of Israel, if Islamic adherents were indeed genetically deficient, as R. Yosef claimed, then Judaism would not accept former Moslems as converts. Judaism recognizes the image of God that is invested in all humankind , equally. As learned as R. Yosef happens to be, he here was inciting people; he was not citing sources. Those Jews who argue that Jews are racially superior demonstrate to their horrified interlocutors that they are, from a Jewish perspective, religiously inferior.

Without diminishing R. Yosef’s acknowledged erudition, R. Weiss responded, correctly and courageously, “This is not Torah, or “tradition” it is not Jewish, it is not the Jewish belief.” And no, it not “Masorah” to demean members of an alien tribe because of descriptive–as opposed to prescriptive–statements of Jewish lore. Israel is bound by legislated rules, not by selected individual aggadic opinion. Those who invoke Masorah /tradition to justify their private proclivities reflect ethnocentric biases and not Torah values and are acting outside of the boundaries of Masoretic morality. The Torah book provides the norms–the rules that tell us what we must do or may not do– that count. And no rabbi is above review, no sage, beyond question, no leader–including Rabbi Yoserf, is beyond the accounting of the Torah’s explicit dicates. We recall Jacob’s revulsion with the mayhem and murder committed by Simon and Levy against the ancient Shechemites, who inhabited the same neighborhood as Yusuf : Jacob proclaimed “ cursed is their anger (note, not their persons) because it is strong, and their rage, because it is hard]. [Genesis 49:6] Simon’s anger was not directed for good amongst his offspring and the tribe disappeared early in Israelite history. Levi’s zeal was directed for good and his offspring inherited the sacred calling in ancient Israel. And in the heat of hatred, the great Rabbi Yosef had a memory and Masorah lapse.

Just as R. Weiss and R. Silverman would not remove the kippa , the badge that has become for Orthodox Jews a proclamation that affirms authentic Torah–as opposed to political, social, or communal loyalty, God’s rules and God’s honor takes precedence over even the greatest of rabbis when those great rabbis say unworthy words. [Proberbs 21:30] And it is this gesture of sincerity that impressed the Moslems of Yusuf.

III. The Jewishly appropriate response to Mosque desecration

Because Judaism, or the religion called “ Torah,” also known as the “word of the Lord,” is taken by its adherents to be of divine origin, its adherents are servants of the Holy One and may therefore not deviate from God’s divine directives Left or Right. If Simon and Levi are wrong for what they did to Shechem, then self-appointed point people will disappoint humankind when they act as Simon and Levi, who appointed themselves to be judge, jury, and executioners of those of whom they disapprove. Coercive power is an instrument of the Jewish court rules ruled by the Jewish court, and by not the spleen of a mean spirited crowd.

Jews are to be challenged to live up to the Torah rules. If Islam maintains that it has a right to conquer the world by the sword, i.e., din Islam be-sayyif, then the world will react accordingly, defensively, and unhappily.

In Islam, religion and politics are one. To defy the ruler is to assault Allah. In Islam as it is currently constructed, peace is for those who submit , a nd not for those who do not. If Islam requires that no Jew be allowed to live in Judea, Samaria, or Gaza, who insures that Jews under Islam an Islamic regime will be allowed to live anywhere or at all. Official religion Islam actually allows for a Jewish second class status called dhimmi . Islam also allows for hudna , a truce, for a peace that could last 1,000 years. In Islam, might makes right; in Israel might is the instrument of right.

Israel presents a severe test of Islam. It actualizes and does not diminish its citizens. The residents of Yusuf have a right to pray undisturbed. Even rulers are ruled by rules; Olmert was not assassinated; but he may end up in jail. Peace will come in the Middle East only after Islam discovers civility and tolerance.

Islam offers the world a sword, the sayyif ; Israel offers the sefer , the Book. The former bleeds life from people by killing; the latter breathes life into people by means of a value based conversation. Israel’s great challenge to Islam is “ do you pursue enemies, or do you pursue justice?” If the former, we will defeat you on land, sea and air; if the former, we join you at the table. The longer we fight on the battlefield, the longer the table will be empty; the more we hurt each other, either by aggression or in self-defense, we are lessened as human beings because we have not learned the lessons of history. The sooner that we realize that true power is conquering one’s own passions, the sooner we submit to the sanctity that is peace.

In Parashat Miqqets, we find heroes who are unique in ancient writing.

Ancient pagan heroes, both outside and inside the Bible, are mighty men with insatiable passions. They crave wealth, power, sex, glory, and immortality. Their lives are larger than others, but their goals are no less petty and their passions no less pedestrian than others.

The Pharaoh image of the archeological record as well as the Scriptural report appears as an absolute monarch who presents himself as a totalitarian autocrat, all powerful, always in control of everything, who really rules by image and for the biblical reader, is in actual fact a lot less in control than he he projects himself to be. The Pharaoh of the exodus cannot parry ten plagues and Joseph’s Pharaoh cannot understand his own dreams, much less know what he ought to do with those dreams. Alternatively, Joseph and Moses are both smart and ethical; they are given power by God because they are good to other people. They can be trusted with extraordinary power because they are moved by ethics, not instinct, by principle, not passion, and by selflessness, not selfishness.

For the pagan, the human king is a god; for Israel, God is the king. For people who revel in power, the hero has a strong will and strong muscles; for Israel, the hero has a strong will and a strong internalized moral code that with God’s help actually makes a difference in history.

Both Joseph and Judah overcame their sibling rivalries. First, we consider Judah. He participate in the sale of his hated brother and bother. Joseph would report to Jacob that Judah was doing wrongly, acting in a way that disappointed the ethical Jacob. Recall that when Judah was consorting with Tamar, his daughter-in-law who had a moral claim to his son, Joseph was resisting Mrs. Potifer. In order to look like the harlot, Tamar seduced Judah by covering her face. To this day, some Muslim women cover their face. This face covering is the professional uniform of the harlot. In this oldest of professions, anonymity is essential. This covering is not about modesty. Excessive covering does not conceal; excessive covering really reveals. Tamar is renting her body but hiding her identity; Judah wants pleasure without responsibility. After the sexual encounter, when Judah leaves his signet ring and staff, the modern equivalent of a credit card, Judah realizes he has acted irresponsibly; he has yet to admit that he acted wrongly. He knows he should be prudent but is not yet willing to be proper.

Pregnant from her incognito encounter with Judah, a stunning echo of Leah’s marital first encounter with Jacob, Tamar’s belly begins to bulge.

Assuming his role of sheikh, judge, and upholder of public morality, Judah is called upon to judge the pregnant out of wedlock wench, and decrees that for her crime of fiery passion she should be burned to death. Tamar produces the signet ring and staff of the father of the child, she produces the credit card of her client, the double standard, double dealing, double talking Judah, the hypocrite who just sentenced her to death. Judah at that moment matures, conceding her claim, “she is more righteous than I.” He admitted his wrong, he saw that his shame was because he was unfaithful to his father’s ethic.

Joseph’s star was rising as Judah’s star was dimming. Because he can tell dreams, organize food distribution, and manage other men, Pharaoh invests Joseph with political power because Joseph possesses what Pharaoh mistakes for magical power. Meanwhile, back in Canaan, there is a famine and the brothers who sold the person of their brother are sent to purchase bread from their brother, who has it within his power to wreck vengeance upon his brothers, to even scores, to set history straight. After all, the brothers bow down to him, as predicted in the dream. Joseph put his siblings to the test; did they grow up or not? Will they act as pagans or as son’s of Israel, is right might or is might right?

A chastened, mature, and ethical Judah now confronts Joseph; like Pharaoh who in his dream walks on water but in real life is king with an image, Judah becomes good. He will sacrifice himself to save Benjamin, having nothing to win but his integrity, nothing to preserve but his conscience, nothing to gain but his goodness. Judah has by his selfless act grown into Joseph, who never acts wrongly, who suffered by denying the advances of Mrs. Potipher.

Once Joseph becomes reconciled to his brothers, Judah by means of a courageous conscience and Joseph by refusing to wreck vengeance, God intercedes. Israel is enslaved but endures because it is a nation with a conscience and moral compass. Israel is a nation that values kindness and fidelity, real and not false modesty, that nurses care for others and not vengeance upon others.

The ethical values that for the Narrator, i.e., God, that carry valence are:

• Being good is better than being strong of body.
• Sacrificing oneself for other people means that we respect the image of God in the other.
• Loyalty to marital commitments is not prudish, it is not merely prudent, it is a commanded commitment.
• Grudges are dehumanizing.
• Ethics are the essence of biblical nobility.

For pagans, law is the shackle that keeps order for the king’s coffers; for Israel, the law is the good reminder for good people that a good God demands goodness. Shabbat reminds us not to enslave each other, kashrut reminds us to eat and celebrate with each other, and every commandment for which we say a blessing is a commandment to be a blessing. The king of the universe took a good people out of Egypt so that this people may become great. Our sages teach that far better than using strength to conquer others is the application of conscience to be heroic we conquer are selves, for good.