Amidst the Shifting Tides, Go Deeper!
Be Empathetic, Care & Share, Be Human
Rabbi David Gelfand
Hillel, taught us, “In a place where no one behaves as a human – BE HUMAN!” Being humane is not exactly what we’re witnessing from Gaza/ Israel to Russia/Ukraine to Washington/NYC! I’m losing sleep, moral insomnia! It is all so terribly troubling!
Jewish sages teach that the Temple, 586 BCE & again, 70 CE, was destroyed because of the egregious sins of senseless hatred and the total lack of empathy. Today, again, we are surrounded by senseless hatred and a frightening lack of empathy for our fellow human beings. We live in the shadow of the barbaric pogrom of October 7th. “Victims don’t hold hostages, savages do.” (Geert Wilders, Dutch leader) And not that we needed to be reminded, but we no longer need empires and armies to devastate us when a single shooter with a semi-automatic assault rifle here on Park Avenue (what civilian needs such a weapon?!) can wreak as much havoc as did a group of Babylonian invaders or Roman legionnaires! (Zichronam Livracha, May they be remembered for blessing: Wesley LePatner, Officer Didarul Islam, Aland Etienne, Julia Hyman as we express our condolences to their families and communities. Rep. Ritchie Torres responded to this tragedy, “A city is only as strong as its people, and Wesley LePatner represented the very best of New York…with civic purpose, compassion and a commitment to something greater than herself.”)
Hatred and violence have resisted change. Ignorance, bigotry, and gun violence have resisted change. The fangs of prejudice, racism, misogyny, antisemitism, homophobia, and the dehumanization of “the other,” seem sharper than ever. Hillel taught us, “Strive to be humane” and Jesus instructed, “Love your enemy as yourself.” But it is never easy; people talk but few listen as we are shaken not only by polarization but by the heartbreak of war, and the complexity of holding grief, empathy and identity.
Our Jewish Bible demands of us, “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.” (Proverbs 25:21). This has never been negotiable. As one of my teachers, a committed Zionist, as am I, Rabbi Shai Held, teaches us that “Your enemy. All the more so, his child and neighbor.” Or as Chef Jose Andres of World Central Kitchen that has been trying to operate not only in Gaza, but in Israel for 22 months in a war zone, “If we want to light the darkness, we need to extend our soul to the hungry. And we need to do it now.”
We can acknowledge and feel deep pain for the crisis in Gaza. There is no contradiction between being a committed Zionist and caring deeply about Palestinian lives. There is no contradiction between mourning our Israeli civilians, soldiers, and hostages, and feeling heartbroken over the deaths of so many Palestinian children. There is no contradiction between calling out Hamas as a death-cult and terror organization that has corrupted the teachings of Islam and demanding that Israel do more to end the war and protect starving children in Gaza. There is no contradiction between blaming Hamas for October 7th and the deaths of so many that they have used as human shields and blaming those who swore to defend Israel but miserably failed. For the Jewish people there is no room for either/or. It is all so complicated because it is both, always both.
While Hamas created this crisis, the Israeli government must heed the call of 70% of its citizens to end the war, bring the hostages home, and ensure humanitarian aid reaches those in need. This is now echoed by the Conservative Rabbinic Assembly and the Reform Central Conference of American Rabbis. Though much of the world no longer cares about the horrors Hamas has, and continues to inflict, we carry our history of persecution and exile, even as we cannot abandon our values for which we have frequently been despised. The very soul of our tradition is lit by the lights of empathy and hope!
These days, as a rabbi, it feels that speaking from the heart is very risky. I don’t know how to end a war, bring the hostages home or how to deliver aid to starving children in Gaza. I’m not a general, a diplomat, nor Prime Minister or President. I’m a rabbi and I refuse to abandon the people of Israel, many our Jewish brothers and sisters. I’m a rabbi, and I refuse to not say that “Hamas is evil.” I’m a rabbi, and I refuse to close my eyes to Gazans starving, even knowing that the media reports are frequently manipulated to blame Israel from the Left and the Right! Since when is everything you read truthful! It was not true yesterday, and it is surely not true today. I’m a rabbi, and I abhor that the catastrophe unfolding in Gaza is used by politicians, here and especially in Europe, without consideration of transparency but based on fake news and bigotry. (Note recently released instructions of the BBC to limit transparency lest they show anything but what Hamas shows them).
We American Jews are being pulled apart. We mourn, as we’re afraid to say too much and too little. As Elie Wiesel eloquently wrote, “The greatest sin is the sin of indifference.” As my colleague, Rabbi Asher Gottesfeld Knight recently wrote: The truth is in war there are no clean hands. Only broken hearts. The truth is, the world is on fire. And some of the matches are in our pockets. The truth is, I do not have a single answer, but I do have questions. And those questions are keeping me up at night… But I am not trying to win an argument. I am trying to hold the complexity of all of this, the sadness, the pain, the exhaustion, and the mirror I think we need to examine ourselves closely.
As a rabbi, I want to keep lit the flames of empathy and hope. And I am truly not alone knowing, as journalist Martin Fletcher reminds us “All the useful idiots around the world praising murderous Hamas look mighty dumb when the world’s Arab countries for the first time have unanimously called for Hamas to lay down its weapons release the hostages and end its rule of Gaza.” The surprising declaration by its 22 members nations condemned Hamas’s Oct 7 attacks! Yes, in the shadow of Tisha B’Av, I am a little less confused and a little more hopeful knowing that they want to end the decades long conflict between Israel and Palestinians and yet find a way to create a two-state solution. How, I don’t really know. But, I’m a rabbi and I remain a believer in the light of hope. Let us with empathy in our hearts now feed the mouths of hungry Gazans and also comfort the shattered hearts of Israelis! AMEN. AMEN.