CHAYEI SARA 5784 The Future Is? Rabbi Andrew Shaw Chief Executive, Mizrachi UK For over a decade I have been taking non-Jewish 6th formers to Auschwitz. It has been part of the exceptional ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ programme of the Holocaust Education Trust. Every year HET with government funding, takes over 2500 students from 1250 schools across England, Scotland and Wales to Auschwitz for a day. They are accompanied by one of the Rabbinic Team which includes myself. Since 1999 they have taken over 41,000 students. The trips took on more urgency during the Corbyn years and we spoke out to the students about the importance to stand up against 21st anti-Semitism. It was my turn to take a group of Scottish students last Wednesday. It was my first visit since October 7th. These were my opening words to the students, delivered in front of the destroyed gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Friends, what is the message of this accursed place? We have said it throughout the world since 1945 - Never again! Never again! Never again Jewish babies burned alive. Never again Jewish children shot and murdered. Never again Jewish women raped and slaughtered. We came here to learn what happened when evil perpetrated the worse crimes against the Jewish people. I tell you today, while one of my best friends child is a hostage of Hamas. I tell you today that what happened here, this hell on earth, has happened again. I tell you today that what Hamas did on October 7th when they brutally murdered 1400 souls in cold blood was the Einsatzgruppen, killing squads murdering Jews where ever they were, women, children, babies and yes, Holocaust survivors. And they took 250 of them hostage.
As a Jew, I come here with tears, because never again -has happened again, and the world must realise that the Nazi’s barbaric ideology has been reborn in the terrorists of Hamas. My son asks me, why do they want us dead? They hate us, just for being Jewish. And yet, that was just the beginning. Friends, I have seen so much hate since October 7th. Yes, naively, I thought the world would embrace the Jewish people after the worst attack on our people since the Holocaust. I did not expect the hatred, the revulsion, the evil. We heard ‘Gas the Jews’ in Sydney There was calling for genocide of Jews in London There were mobs chasing Jews on campus in New York, barricading them into the library! The Jewish people are scared, we don't know if we have a future in Europe, but I can tell you this, we are no longer a poor defenceless people. 80 years ago the world stood by as we were massacred - you are witness to the result. Those 3000 fully armed terrorists would have carried on going, kibbutz to kibbutz, every rave party, every town, every village, they would have slaughtered tens of thousands. Thankfully the Jewish people can now defend ourselves, we can fight back, we will not go any more like sheep to the slaughter. Am Yisrael Chai – the Jewish people lives! Friends, you must realise tonight, Auschwitz is not history, the hatred has returned with a vengeance. The rest of my words were my normal message to them, speak up, to be Ambassadors of light in this darkness. To realise that it may start with words of hate, but it doesn’t end there. The last month has shown us who are friends are, people like Douglas Murray, many columnists in the Daily Telegraph and The Prime Minister to name but a few. We have had great spokesmen speaking truth to power, Eylon Levy, Naftali Bennet and Ron Dermer. Yet, the polls coming out say that the western world, especially young people don’t have any sympathy with Israel. Of those over 65 in the UK, 30% showed sympathy for Israel and 42% for both Israelis and Palestinians – so 72% with some sympathy to Israel. For those 18 – 24 that number crashed to just 26%. What is happening? Are people so blind? Then we have the protests on the streets of London growing larger and larger each
week. Spewing hatred toward Israel and Jews and the police seem powerless to stop it. There is also the litany of hatred emanating from Mosques up and down the country And then came last Tuesday in the Mizrachi office, I was getting ready to leave for Poland, and the office phone rang. I thought about letting it go to answer phone, but I answered it. ‘Good Afternoon, Mizrachi UK, can I help you?’ I said. A voice shouted at me: ‘This is Ahmed, you are live on Instagram with my 56,000 followers, can I ask why your organisation supports the slaughter of innocent children in Palestine?’ The vitriol and hate in his voice was almost overwhelming. I kept calm and simply replied. ‘We too are devastated about the slaughter of innocent children by Hamas.’ Ahmed was not happy. ‘I mean in Gaza, do you support their slaughter?!’ he yelled Again, I calmly replied. ‘We think it is absolutely terrible and horrific than innocent children are being killed in Gaza and we blame the terrorist cowardly group Hamas for hiding behind them.’ He hung up. My heart was beating so fast, my team came to ask me who had just called. We called the CST and gave them Ahmed’s number. I left my office moments later to head off to Poland with a stark reminder of the enormity of our challenge. Are we seeing Yishmael v Yitzchak? Is the future going to be a growing Muslim world that will be in constant battle with the Jewish world and be responsible for a surge in Anti Semitism globally? For this we need to turn to Parshat Shavuah. There are two types of Yitzchak/ Yishmael interactions that we can examine. The first was in last week’s Parsha. After Yitzchak was born, Sarah was very concerned with the behaviour of Hagar and Yishmael and demanded them to be banished from the family home.
And Sarah said to Avraham, "Drive out this handmaid and her son, for the son of this handmaid shall not inherit with my son, with Yitzchak. "But the matter greatly displeased Avraham, concerning his son. And Hashem said to Avraham, "Be not displeased concerning the lad and concerning your handmaid; whatever Sarah tells you, hearken to her voice, for in Yitzchak will be called your seed. But also the son of the handmaid I will make into a nation, because he is your seed." Bereishit 21:10 13
As we learned last week, Yishmael almost dies in the desert but..
And Hashem heard the lad's voice, and an angel of Hashem called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What is troubling you, Hagar? Fear not, for Hashem has heard the lad's voice in the place where he is. Rise, pick up the lad and grasp your hand upon him, for I shall make him into a great nation." And Hashem opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the pouch with water and gave the lad to drink. And Hashem was with the lad, and he grew, and he dwelt in the desert, and he became an archer. Bereishit 21:17-20 This is the first narrative, two separate nations, two great nations, seemingly destined for enmity. Avraham pushes out Yishmael and holds onto Yitzchak. There will forever be a separation. Is this what history has shown us? Forever divided? Then we have this week’s sedra, the father of both Yishmael and Yitchak passes. Both of them come together to bury Avraham.
And Avraham expired and died in a good old age, old and satisfied, and he was gathered to his people. And Yitzchak and Yishmael his sons buried him in the Cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which faces Mamre Bereishit 25:8-9 But it goes further, toward the end of the parsha, we learn of the generations of Yishmael. How he fathers ‘twelve princes’. The Rabbis point out Hashems promise of a great nation and how both nations grew from ‘twelve’. And then he dies, and the Torah uses the same expression as Avraham. ‘Vayigvah, Vayamat, Vayeasef el Amav’.
These are the sons of Yishmael, and these are their names in their open cities and in their walled cities, twelve princes to their nations. And these are the years of the life of Yishmael: one hundred years and thirty years and seven years; and he expired and died and was gathered to his people. Bereishit 25:16-17 Rashi notes:
and he expired: Heb. ַוִיְגַוע. [The term] ְגִויָעהis mentioned only regarding the righteous. Bava Batra 16b Another side to Yishmael, a righteous man. A partner and friend of Yitzchak and the Jewish people. If we look closely at the current situation – we can see some of this: Mansour Abbas, an Arab Israeli politician who heads the United Arab List, called on the leaders of Palestinian factions to take a “moral, humanitarian stance reflective of the values of Islam” and to free all of the hostages: “This is the time to prove a valuable human stance according to which it is forbidden to hurt the innocent and kidnap women, children, and the elderly. To free them would have a positive and human impact.” Then there was the news that President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed's had decided to establish a field hospital in Gaza fully coordinated with Israel. A recent friendly match between soccer teams from the Arab towns of Umm Al
Fahm and Kafr Qasim began with a moment of silence for the victims of the October 7 Hamas massacre. Association board member and Umm al-Fahm team owner Muhammad Abu Alam said in a statement that he jointly made the decision to hold a moment of silence along with his Kfar Qasim counterpart Bilal Badir. “Out of great pain that has not let up, we expressed the deep partnership and unity of all of us in a symbolic act of a minute’s silence in memory of the fallen. Wishing for better and beautiful days, for Arabs and Jews alike,” We have to hope and pray that this side of the Arab/Muslim world dominates, unfortunately it does not look likely but as I told the students in Auschwitz – the Jewish people never give up hope. So yes, we are subjected to anti-Israel propaganda from useful idiots on Twitter, Sky, BBC etc. Yet this week I drew inspiration from the 200 Scottish 6th formers, they came, getting up at 3am and returning home at midnight. They saw and after meeting a survivor last week, spending the day at Auschwitz this week, I hope they understood, many of them expressed their solidarity with the Jewish people to me before we parted. They will be speaking in all their schools about what they have learnt. We wish them well in their mission. We also wish the IDF success in their mission, to destroy Hamas and bring the hostage’s home. And then there is our mission, the Jewish mission, to keep strong, to keep davening, to keep learning, to keep realising who we are and what we stand for and despite the darkness we will continue shining the light of Torah through the lives we lead. Am Yisrael Chai.
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