August 18, 2017 / 26 Av 5777
I had planned just to write about Jerusalem this week.
After all, this year we celebrated fifty years to the city's reunification; and the first mention of the city occurs some seven times in this week's parasha of Re'eh. Strangely, the Torah never actually names the city as the place where the people of Israel would come to worship God. The Torah repeatedly just calls it "the place which God will choose."
I cannot only write about our beloved Jerusalem, however, because too much else is taking place in the United States right now. Unsurprisingly relevant (as usual), the Torah reading this week begins with the mitzvah of getting rid of old monuments - specifically, those that were used for idol worship. Moshe was clearly concerned that these places would influence the people of Israel, and they are therefore told to get rid of them.
One can debate whether the same rule holds true for removing monuments to the Confederacy. What is inarguable, however, is the need to condemn those who use violence and hate in their protests over the issue. I will quote the Republican Jewish Coalition National Chairman, Senator Norm Coleman and Executive Director, Matt Brooks, who said, in part, that the "Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacists are dangerous anti-Semites. There are no good Nazis and no good members of the Klan... We join with our political and religious brethren in calling upon President Trump to provide greater moral clarity in rejecting racism, bigotry, and antisemitism..." (the full statement is available here: [
www.rjchq.org]).
Many of the mitzvot in this week's parasha deal with the need to rid of evil in the midst of society: we are told to kill the false prophet and the mesit, or "tempter;" and we are told to destroy the ir ha-nidachat, or "subversive city." Evil must be identified as such and only then can it be stamped out.
I will also share the Rabbinical Council of America's statement (available here: [
www.rabbis.org]), which "condemns any suggestion of moral equivalency between the White Supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville and those who stood up to their repugnant messages and actions." Rabbi Mark Dratch, RCA Executive Vice President, said, "The RCA joins with politicians of all parties, citizens of all political persuasions, and people of all faiths calling on President Trump to understand the critical consequences of his words. We call on all the leaders of our country to denounce all groups who incite hate, bigotry and racism, while taking action and using language that will heal the terrible national wounds of Charlottesville."
Rambam in his Guide for the Perplexed offers several explanations as to why the Torah would not reveal the name of the holiest city on earth. He suggests that if its location were known, the nations of the world would wage war over it or even destroy it once they knew its importance to the Jewish people. We are not a popular people: we have never been so and the events in Charlottesville only again remind us of that reality. Our job is to call evil out for what it is, if only so it will not become contagious.
But Rambam offers an additional reason for the anonymity of Jerusalem: if its location were revealed too early, each tribe would want the city for itself and internal fighting would occur. We can only make the city our capital once a king is appointed and all tribes agree to follow him and his choice of a capital.
If we stick together and avoid infighting, we will hold onto our beloved Jerusalem. If we tear ourselves apart, it is lost. Rabbi Joseph Soloveichik and Menachem Begin suggested in 1977 that Tisha b'Av become the day we commemorate the Holocaust, both because it was already a day of mourning and because it is a day of unity as we stop hating one another senselessly and remember who our real enemies are.
May we have the strength, the wisdom and the courage to call evil by its name, and to stay united no matter what or whom we encounter.
Shabbat shalom.
Rabbi Jeffrey Kobrin
Rosh HaYeshiva / Head of School
North Shore Hebrew Academy
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2017 05:02PM by mlb.
