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NITZAVIM-VAYELECH 5784
The Time For Change
Rabbi Andrew Shaw Chief Executive, Mizrachi UK
I have changed.
I think we all have changed.
This Rosh Hashanah we all need to recognise that with the beginning of the New Year, we are new Jews.
I was reminded of this on Wednesday night.
I had been given tickets to watch Arsenal, so my son and I headed off to the Emirates I have been going to Arsenal for over 40 years and I did something I had never done before, I wore my Kippah – as did my son.
For years it has been a cap, I just felt that I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, and you never know what type of people are at a football match.
This time was different In today’s upside-down world, I am proud to be a Jew and a vocal supporter of Israel.
I didn’t expect anything to happen, so when it did, I felt even more vindicated in my choice of wearing the kippah.
As we left our seats at the end of the game, a boy came up to me and in Ivrit asked me if I was Israeli. I replied that I was British and then his whole family came to speak to us. They were on a much-needed holiday from a town north of Tel Aviv. They were not dati, but they said that my son and I wearing our kippot gave them a lot of chizuk and the mother had told her son that he could now display his magen david necklace
I told them that my attitude had changed since October 7th, and that it was time to stand up for who we are, and to proudly state ‘Ani Yehudi’
There was a real connection between us, a sense that we were joined in this ongoing struggle against a world that refuses to see what is staring them in the face.
‘Am Yisrael Chai v’Shana Tova’ , said the parents to us as we parted. ‘Yachad N'natzeach’ –Together we will be victorious - I replied.
Yesterday, my attention was brought to the BBC documentary ‘We will Dance Again’ made by an independent lmmaker.
I have not watched and will not watch the documentary – I have been to Beeri and Kfar Aza, I have seen the horror, the destruction. I have met families who were at Nova, I have spoken to them – I do not want to see images and lms that I cannot unsee. I know what those animals did to my people. I fully understand the need for others to see this lm, especially the wider world, and it seems from the hundreds of comments on the Telegraph website, it had an impact.
‘I wept at the sight of a butchered Israeli woman being driven through Gaza and being spat upon...by children. That the BBC could broadcast such scenes of carnage and yet refuse to term the perpetrators as terrorists is an insult to all those who were so brutally murdered that day.’
‘Just watched this. Truly horri c and heart-wrenching, and I applaud all those young people who bravely helped others, did their best to survive against the odds, and who lmed it so the world could see what happened that day, even if the worst bits were understandably blurred. This was just one of the atrocities, what went on in the kibbutzes was even worse, with families slaughtered and unimaginable depravities. Never forgive, never forget. Blast Hamas from the face of the earth.’
And then there was one from an Israeli which really hit home:
The key word and goal in our lives was peace, our only goal was to achieve and live in peaceShalom.
‘We built our lives, our state and our beliefs that we could nally be free The pogroms, Holocausts were over and we could live as everyone else.
That was my hope and goal, and Israel was the means and end - we would achieve peace.
On the 7th of October that core hope and belief died.
On the 7th of October and every day afterwards, I knew: we are alone, we are not judged as others, we are not treated as are others, our deaths, our actions and our very beings are different to everyone else's.
I am not saddened, I am not frightened; I am bitterly disappointed in a world that showed me and mine yet again what we always knew:-
We are alone; we will stand alone, be a light unto the nations, and ourish.’
New Jews
Proud Jews.
This Shabbat we read the last Parshiot heading into a most dif cult Rosh Hashanah and Yom Tov period.
Parshiot Nitzavim and Vayelech are all about who we are and the world we want to make, the world we need to make.
It says it perfectly towards the end of Niztavim:
19: This day, I call upon the heaven and the earth as witnesses [that I have warned]you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. You shall choose life, so that you and your offspring will live;
20: To love the Lord your God, to listen to His voice, and to cleave to Him. For that is your life and the length of your days, to dwell on the land which the Lord swore to your
forefathers to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give to them
Hashem exhorts us to choose blessing and life while our enemies have chosen curse and death.
He tells us what it means to choose life, to love Hashem, to keep the mitzvot and to live in the land of Israel, our ancestral homeland.
That is all we have ever wanted, and we have to recommit ourselves to our national vision more than ever.
The Ohr HaChaim points out that these verses are a repetition of verse 15 which read:
15: Behold, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil,
So why repeat this idea just four verses later?
The Ohr Ha Chaim explains that Moshe is speaking both about Olam Hazeh and Olam Habah, how our actions determine our outcome not just in the physical world before us but also the spiritual battle we are engaged in.
However, he points out that the addition of the latter verse 19, ‘Choose life’ shows that:
‘This is the purpose of our existence in this world. Moshe means that we should concentrate on immediate problems ’
The Ohr Ha Chaim gives the example of Hashem granting rainfall. I think in our case it is Hashem helping us to defeat our enemies across the globe. First, the physical enemies, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the lone wolf attackers. Also, the spiritual enemies who collectively exhibit a blindness to truth and reality as demonstrated by the media, politicians and a lamentable portion of the west.
The world doesn’t understand, it is too busy giving platitudes and trying to see ‘both sides’.
We do and we need to realise the battle that we are involved in However, we also need to realise that the battle has a spiritual component as well and our dedication to the mission that Hashem has given to us, is crucial.
Yes, be proud, but also be proactive – Judaism is far more than externals it is a lifelong commitment to our holy mission.
Assemble the people: the men, the women, and the children, and your stranger in your cities, in order that they hear, and in order that they learn and fear the Lord, your God, and they will observe to do all the words of this Torah. Devarim 31:12
Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova
Read HaMizrachi for Rosh Hashana
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