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Thinking Aloud - Praying for Peace

September 11, 2007

There has never been a time when someone, somewhere, was not at war. Cain killed Abel and nations have followed to this very day. The League of Nations after the First World War failed. Some say that today's United Nations has failed. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's President, has threatened “to wipe Israel off the map,” and the United States maintains that Iran is developing nuclear weapons in spite of its president's denials.

Killing and war seem to be indigenous to human behavior, but can we cynically push war aside as indigenous to humans as it always was? A rogue nation, or even one person, can produce a dirty nuclear bomb. Concealed in a briefcase, it can, in a matter of minutes, kill and maim hundreds or thousands. War today means the possibility of planet obliteration.

Yet, the yearning for peace has never been greater. Many ask when will the prophecy be fulfilled: "When nation shall not lift up sword unto nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." (Hosea 2:4)

For Jews, Rosh Hashanah is a time when the yearning for peace takes the form of prayer. Our liturgy beseeches God to grant peace and understanding to all people. Jews have said these prayers for 2,000 years. We are a people who continuously hope for a world without war or bloodshed, despite the hate and enmity we have known throughout history, including the Holocaust a short sixty years ago.

Critics argue that prayers accomplish little, but prayer is more than the beseeching of God. It is the articulation of a personal and community commitment. Either we begin to live together as one people, in a family of nations, or recognize that the ultimate end of man and life is at stake. Prayer is where we start. If I pray for something, I must believe in it and be committed to it. In Judaism, prayer is the language of the soul.

Last Rosh Hashanah, a young marine asked me to pray for him as he was ordered to Iraq. "Is there anything in particular you want me to pray for?" I asked.

"Pray that I won't have to kill anyone."

The young marine died a few weeks later in a suicide bombing. Some will argue that the young marine made himself more susceptible to his own death because of his recalcitrance to killing. Maybe so, but consider this: His request, I am passing on to you, and maybe you will pass it on to someone else. And maybe someone else will pass it on to the political leaders who sent him to war, and maybe someday, if our leaders will believe in peace as he did, we will avoid wars entirely.

Of course, it takes both sides to offer the same hopes and aspirations, but this Rosh Hashanah, as I pray for a new year, and hope again that the love of life will surpass the lust for blood, I know I will be taking the first step to committing myself to peace. Because we're all children of the same God, I ask each of you to cry out in your diverse languages and faith: "We have had enough."

And maybe today's wars will be the last in history.

Rabbi Grossman is the senior rabbi emeritus of the Baron Hirsch Congregation in Memphis and past president of the Rabbinical Council of America. He is currently the president of the New University in Israel.