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BALAK 5784
Getting Real
Rabbi Andrew Shaw Chief Executive, Mizrachi UK
A shocking and worrying event took place this week. The attempted assassination of a former president and presidential candidate of the United States
I am not here to discuss the state of American politics, but rather simply to point out a message that everyone missed.
While the world discussed how the secret service failed, or how Trump turned at the last second or the reasons for the shooter’s murderous intent. I was fascinated by the ear He was shot in the ear
What is the message of the ear?
I remember reading a Dvar Torah many years ago with a comment from Rav Michel Twerski of Milwaukee, a practicing rabbi and psychologist in an essay from Rav Frand.
He said:
‘Patients in therapy can often discuss a problem and see the solution but they just cannot implement it. They hear what needs to be done, but it does not penetrate to their brain. They cannot translate it into a personal reality’. Rabbi Twerski believes that we have become a spectator society. People are conditioned by movies and television to become spectators to the
point that they view even their own lives as soap operas They see the problems, they even see the solutions, but they have no real control. They cannot act to improve their lives and change what is going on in their lives any more than they can change what is happening on the screen. The problem is in the ear. ’
In terms of the Western world – the need for action is clearly obvious but with many politicians ‘They see the problems, they even see the solutions, but they have no real control’
However, I want to focus on closer to home, our community, our problems. As we know there is a global crisis in Jewish and Zionist identity especially in the Diaspora. Israel is investing huge sums of money to try and inspire the Diaspora, especially the youth, to connect to Judaism and Israel. Outside of Orthodoxy in America intermarriage is approaching 80% and assimilation is climbing. It is not that different in other countries
So, do we, as a Jewish nation, hear what needs to be done? And can we actually act on it – or do we also have a problem with the ear? Are we also not in control of our actions and are we powerless to change?
I believe, unfortunately for many, they cannot change, that they are too wedded to their false gods and ideologies. However we have to hope and pray that they eventually understand what needs to be done.
The solution for what needs to be done for the Jewish community is obvious to those of us in the Torah community and it is based on a powerful idea on this week’s Parsha given over by one of modern Israel’s greatest leaders – Menachem Begin. This idea is found in the remarkable book, ‘The Prime ministers’ by Yehudah Avner.
Begin was a ercely traditional Jew – who believed Jews should learn Torah – he had a chavruta and every Monday he held a Bible study circle in his home when he invited top educators, rabbis and scholars to learn with him
One Monday they were discussing Parshat Balak – where as we know the prophet Bilam, accepted King Balak's invitation to curse the Jewish people He was unable to do this, and instead, thanks to God, he actually recounted the praise and described the noble attributes of the Jewish people.
Among these is the uniqueness and separateness of Israel amongst the nations "Hen am levadad yishkon," "Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone, Bamidbar 23:9
Begin opened the discussion on this piece by stating “Is this not a startlingly accurate prophecy of our Jewish people’s experience in all of history?”
One opinion focused on the fact that whichever way one interpreted Bilaam’s prophecy, it stamped the Jewish people as an eternally abnormal nation which ew in the face of the classic secular Zionist creed. Zionism’s aim is to normalize us to be - goy kchol ha goyim - a nation like all other nations.
Once we possessed a land of our own, so they said, we would automatically become a normal nation and antisemitism would wither and die!
That has certainly NOT happened.
Begin concluded that by any reading of the text- the Jewish people did indeed constitute an exceptional phenomenon in world history. He then nished with an amazing Dr Yaacov Herzog quote.
‘The theory of classic Zionism was national normalisation, what was wrong with this theory? It was the belief that the idea of a ‘people that dwells alone’ is an abnormal concept – when actually a people that dwells alone’ is the natural concept of the Jewish people. That is why this one phrase still describes the totality of the extraordinary phenomenon of Israel’s revival
If one asks how the ingathering of the exiles, which no one could have imagined in his wildest dreams came about. Or how the State of Israel could endure such security challenges or how it has built up such a ourishing economy. Or how the unity of the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora has been preserved. One must come back to the primary idea that this is a ‘people that dwells alone’. More than that, one must invoke this phrase not only to understand how the Jews have existed for so long. One must invoke it as a testimony to the Jewish right to exist at all in the land of their rebirth.’
“So there you have it,” concluded Begin, “Cease dwelling alone and we cease to exist”.
What powerful words - Cease dwelling alone and we cease to exist.
Look at us – wherever we have ceased dwelling alone – by detaching ourselves from our traditions, our beliefs, our observances, our connection to Israel – we have or are ceasing to exist.
And on the contrary Whenever Jews act like they are supposed to act, this will be readily apparent to all the nations and they will be in awe and we as a nation will thrive.
This is blatantly obvious, why is this not seen by every Jew globally? Simply speaking, using Rav Twersky’s idea, that to change would mean uprooting so much of what they
believe in and that would mean losing control of all they thought dear There is no penetration beyond the ear – they hear but do not act
The problem is in the ear
We are reaching a critical part of our history –the results of the Pew survey in the USA over the last few year and similar results here in the UK – show that outside a vibrant and growing core – Judaism is struggling – we have forgotte nthe badge of pride that goes with Am Levadad yishcon – a nation that dwells alone.
Alone does not and should not mean total separation It means alone as in our values, our traditions, our observances – while we live our lives in the modern world –that is what we need to be coursing through our veins.
I will leave Rabbi Sacks to conclude:
What makes Jews “ a nation dwelling alone, not reckoned among the nations,” is that their nationhood is not a matter of geography, politics or ethnicity. It is a matter of religious vocation as God’s covenant partners, summoned to be a living example of a nation among the nations made distinctive by its faith and way of life. Lose that and we lose the one thing that was and remains the source of our singular contribution to the heritage of humankind
We need to listen to Menachem Begin.
We need to listen to Rabbi Sacks.
And we need to listen to the word of Hashem through the Torah
Donald Trump thankfully is ne.
His ear is not.
Let us make sure we learn the lesson of the ear –not just to listen but to act rmly on the things we know to be true.
However hard those lessons are!
Shabbat Shalom
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