| Rabbi’s Corner – Every Voice matters
This week I read a story that summed up for me the difference between Israeli society and that of its enemies: An Arab Woman Randa Aweis received a lifesaving Kidney transplant from Yigal Yehoshua, a Jewish man who was killed by the Arab rioters in Lod. Yigal was a man who believed in co-existence and was pained by the civil unrest that had erupted in Jewish-Arab cities. Tragically he lost his life by the hands of murderous haters who do not hold life sacred. And yet even in death Yigal gave another lease of life to this lady irrelevant of who she was.
In contrast Hamas fired rockets at the Israeli convoy that was sent to provide humanitarian aid.
This past week has been draining watching the hate fest circulating social media and a mainstream news media that is deliberately blind to the facts.
We live in an age where feelings are primary and facts secondary. Where subjectivity trumps objectivity.
In this world of competing narratives we can easily despair as we see an inversion of rationality and logic and morality itself, as Israel is cast as perpetrator of the crime of defending itself. That we even need to justify such actions is an absurdity.
But the story of Yigal Yehoshua (and there are so many more such stories) reminds us of the moral righteousness of our people.
We believe in life because every person is created in the image of God.
The concept of individual dignity and the sacredness of life comes from our Torah.
Parshat Naso this week continues the narrative of counting every Jew.
Naso literally means to lift up. When we count another person then we literally lift up and reveal the Godliness inherent in their soul.
But this concept of individual liberty and dignity is not something that can ever be taken for granted.
What is happening in Israel not only affects Israelis and the Jewish community in the diaspora. This is really the front line for the very soul of our free society.
In the post modern world people are being labelled as part of a group which defines them in terms of whether they are privileged or persecuted- identity politics. This is leading to an us/them society which is extremely dangerous. It is stripping people of their personal freedom and is corrosive to the fabric of our liberal society.
May Hashem protect the Jewish people and may the priestly blessings in this weeks Parsha come to fruition.
Shabbat Shalom. |
נָשֹׂא, a little word with hidden depth, that Rabbi Danny’s d’var indicates. Superficially, Nasso means to be counted, as in a census, but unlike modern day electronic head counts, in the past people literally raised their head to be seen and therefore to be included in the tally of the tribe. And that for me is the essence of the parsha, for each and everyone of us is to be counted as significant, as worthy, at least in the eyes of G-d, and, hopefully, since we are a reflection of G-d’s spiritual image, valued by those we encounter on a daily basis. However much we strive to love our neighbour as ourself, we very often fall well short of this ethical imperative. Tell Israelis who are living in fear of the next barrage of rockets from Gaza to regard Hamas with kindness and respect. Tell the Palestinians to see in the Israeli response to aggression, a people who have a right to a homeland and a desire to live in peace with their neighbours. Making peace is the toughest pursuit of mankind. It takes hard work, mutual respect and a willingness to rise above the many disappointments that are inevitably encountered when both sides believe they have justice on their side. Let us pray the ceasefire will calm minds and lead to constructive rather destructive dialogue and that, in our lifetime, “the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem”.