January 18, 2002

"A Glimmer of Hope - Unity in Jerusalem"

As Arafat expanded his killing machine by attempting to smuggle a ship-load of fifty tons of arms into Gaza, something extraordinary took place in Jerusalem. Rabbis and Jewish leaders from the former Soviet Union and almost every Jewish community in Europe, joined with others from North and South America, Australia, South Africa and even India, were meeting at the second Orthodox General Assembly. Israel's many factions of Orthodoxy participated, as well. Israelis in attendance represented Shas, Aguda, Mizrachi and every possible view of Torah Judaism. Eliezer Sheffer, the assembly's organizer, almost single-handedly made the impossible possible. 

Granted, the event was not Messianic, but any semblance of Jewish unity today was a miraculous step forward. 

Orthodoxy is by no means monolithic nor should it be. Its strength results from diversity. Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi, the redactor of the Mishna, the major component of the Oral Law of Judaism, included a singular opinion even though it opposed an overwhelming majority view to maintain pluralism within the parameters of Halacha. His achievement assured continued Torah study and practice to this very day. 

Strife, however, is not pluralism but the work of Satan caused by enmity and envy. Jewish unity, which in matters of survival should be all-inclusive, is the essential weapon against all forms of adversity. 

Violence against Israel and the growing acceptance of anti-Semitism around the world should dissuade our people the usual compulsion to strife. The proverbial question Jews face today and have faced for the last two thousand years continues to pop up: If Jews are G-d's chosen, why then would He permit the nation He elected from all others to be the subject of unabating persecution? Surely, after the Holocaust, a compassionate G-d would have said "enough." But wars and terror are the result of a specific transgression our people, unforgivably, continued to perpetrate against each other. 

The transgression sinat chinom, enmity, is the unconscionable sin and remains historically embedded in the collective Jewish psyche. The first Temple was destroyed and Israel was exiled because Jews were guilty of the three worst sins: immorality, bloodshed and idolatry. The Temple was rebuilt and sovereignty restored after seventy years. Israel repented and G-d forgave. The second Temple, however, was destroyed because of causeless enmity, (Is not all hate that?) and we remained without a Temple but still suffer the pangs of terror and destruction as we Jews fail to do teshuva, repent. 

I am neither a prophet or the son of one, and as Rabbi Tarfon in the Mishna lamented, "and we have no one capable of giving rebuke." Neither I nor anyone else in this day of spiritual paucity has that right. But common sense dictates that we can no longer afford continued divisiveness and strife in our midst. I traveled to Jerusalem several weeks ago to participate in the Orthodox General Assembly, and in a conference which included Jews of varied religious belief. I found the Orthodox Conference inspirational and meaningful, but it pleased me to be part of another gathering that brought together Jews of even greater diverse thought "who is like Your people Israel, one nation on earth." (II Samuels 7:23) As Hashem is One so must we be. The singularity of our people applies principally to our nationhood, but it allows multiple diversity which produces a kaleidoscopic tapestry of sheer beauty and glory. "Some with chariots, and some with horses, but we–in the name of Hashem, our G-d, we call out." (Tehillim 20:8) "We" means all of us, as one. Arafat chooses guns and rockets. David, the author of Tehillim, taught the principle of "we" as the antidote to weapons of destruction and the hateful who choose them. 

Shabbat Shalom