R’ David spoke on a panel this Wednesday, August 27 with Reconstructionist Expanding our Conversation on Israel/Palestine. The question at hand was “how we might think about and make reparations for Israel’s destruction of the Gaza Strip – personally and as Jewish communities – as we approach the 5786 High Holidays.” In leuix of a weekly dvar torah, read R’ David’s remarks in part below or in full on our Kadima blog. Click here for a recording of the evening when it is downloaded. Make a contribution to Gaza Soup Kitchen as Kadima seeks to tithe our High Holidays donations there.
Click to watch the full panel discussion here.
____
Good evening all, and thank you so much for taking time to grapple with these questions tonight. An enormous thank you and sh’koyach to the organizers of Expanding our Conversation – the years of conversations you have brought to thousands of members of Reconstructionist communities and beyond is a profound addition to the movement and generally to Jewish discourse in this era. Thank you. And thank you to Rabbi Emily and Dr. Love for saying yes to be here and for your preparation and your sharing tonight.
When Elul began on Sunday night, I was feeling pretty good about the ways I have helped prepare my community in Seattle on Coast Salish Territory for the upcoming High Holidays, and generally thankful for the slow-er-ness of summer in my personal and family life that has now mostly ended. Of course, this slowerness and personal satisfaction this summer have been happening in a time of a Jewish genocide. Not a genocide of Jews, but a genocide by Jews. Indeed, we are living through a time of an army and a government made up predominantly of Jews, acting on behalf of what they consider a Jewish state actively committing a genocide. It is happening ongoingly and has been for a grotesque amount of unchecked time. It is happening right now as we sit here together on zoom.
Many of us on this call, if not every single one of us in some form or another, has tried to stop it. Has tried to mitigate it. Has tried to help people escape from it. Has stood against it to friends, to family, to coworkers, to neighbors, to gathered masses. And quite likely, many if not all of us have experienced some form of personal loss in the midst of it. Whether you are like me and had someone you were close to murdered on October 7, or taken hostage, or killed by rocket fire, or missing, or had their house, school, hospital, neighborhood, or city destroyed, or sit here right now or have sat for a moment of these past 2 years with fear or worry that any of these might happen at any moment. The happenings in Gaza and the events that have led to it are in our bodies, our souls, our minds, our hearts.
I ask that we take time to notice this and feel it. It is real. And it hurts. And avoiding how we feel means our emotions will fester and delay us in ending these atrocities.
The question in the marketing announcement for this event asks how we as North American Jews might think about and make reparations for Israel’s destruction of the Gaza Strip.
My heart hurt as I attempted to answer this question in preparation for tonight. Grounded in two decades of earnest Jewish study and practice and over twenty five years of working and organizing in Jewish communities, my heart says that of course we cannot at all yet begin thinking about reparations for Israel’s destruction of Gaza. How can we possibly calculate the destruction when the death toll continues to climb daily, hospitals and schools continue to be destroyed, journalists continue to be killed, and the devastation of the land and all its residents has no end in sight?
Reparations, as it is discussed on the Reconstructing Judaism website, is an enactment of both teshuvah, or accountability, and tzedek, or justice.
Teshuvah is a multistep process. Condensed from the work of Sephardi Rabbi Musa ibn Maimon, known to the world as Maimonides and to Jews as the Rambm, who wrote in 12th century Egypt in his Mishneh Torah, enacting teshuvah is 1) regretting the act, 2) abandoning, ceasing, stopping the act, 3) confessing what you’ve done, 4) apologizing to the point of appeasement, 5) making reparations, and 6) setting up your life to ensure you refrain from ever doing it again.
As Reconstructionists, I could take for granted that you are likely someone who believes that humans are humans, that Judaism contains universalist wisdom in a particularist framework, that we are all created in the image of divinity, and that teshuvah is just as required when a Jew harms a Jew as when a Jew harms a non-Jew, and perhaps useful to add, also potentially useful when a non-Jew commits harm as well. To drive this point home, though, the Rambam tells us that these steps of teshuvah apply to transgressions committed by humans against humans. He uses the phrase bain adam l’chavero, literally between a human and their friend. While this last word, l’chavero, at its core, is the word “chaver” which is most commonly translated as friend or colleague, the root is chet-beit-reish which means to join or enjoin, to tie, or to fasten – it can be understood as people with whom we are “in it” with. We could say all Jews for example, in a sense, are chaverimot – people bound in an enjoined destiny, our fate fastened to one another. And, Jews and Palestinians, without question in my opinion, based on geopolitical factors alone, are enjoined, fastened, and certainly tied to and with one another. We are chaverimot as well. And one chaver, on a collective level, is committing perhaps the most colossal transgression of all against another chaver.
In this month of potential transformation, Elul, we are required to reflect and see: 1) do we regret what is happening in Gaza? 2) Will we stop what is happening in Gaza? 3) Will we own and confess what we have done? 4) Will we sincerely apologize for it? 5) Will we make reparations? 6) Will we not do it again?
I am not known for being a pessimist, but I am faced this Elul with the idea that indeed the collective of the Jewish people is nowhere near taking even the first step let alone others.
With collective teshuvah impossible, I am left wondering if the collective of Jews has hit an irreconcilable impasse. And I find myself asking an uncomfortable question: Can I continue to be a part of a we that fails so utterly terribly at performing teshuvah?
I think I have been able to understand what it means to be a part of a collective we that makes terrible, colossal mistakes. I know I can reconcile being in an imperfect group, one that does horrible things, even. But I do not think I can reconcile being a part of a group that does such things and does not make a move toward teshuvah, but in fact continues to be on an active journey farther from it as I sadly assess it today.
It is from this despairing place about the current and seeming trajectory of so much of the Jewish people that I want to offer a non-linear path toward Jewish reparations for Gaza and in doing so reclaiming an integrity for the Jewish people. It begins with calling in, calling out, disinvesting, and stripping power from Jewish leaders, communities, and organizations that are taking our people away from the possibility of teshuvah and thus enabling the continued devastation in Gaza. Who, whether they want to be or not, whether it is their goal or not, are leading Jews down a path that ultimately is a path of continual war, continual lack of safety, continual separation from others, continual isolation, continual nationalism prioritized above peoplehood and certainly justice, and continual harm, hurt, and distance from healing.
But not to stop there. No in the least. No, that right now, in the limited power and capacity I have to change and direct the entirety of the Jewish world, and certainly the Jewish state, is to invest most of my time and energy and support in, for, and with Jewish organizations and communities who are building a Judaism that will live into the possibility of reparations for Gaza, of accountability, of teshuvah, of tzedek, of justice. It requires a self-assuredness which I find healing in and of itself, and leads me and accompanies others in a journey into our shared humanity, into trust and faith and solidarity. By investing in such a Judaism and such Jewish communities, we are building a long-term future for our people and for the people of Palestine and for the people of the world, each relationship and coalition and neighborhood at a time.
So, is it possible to atone for Gaza during the 10 Days of Awe in 5786? On one hand, are you kidding? Of course not! All signs point to a Yom Kippur Day when Palestinian children will be dying from a Jewish-engineered famine. And on another hand, of course it is. The long game means there is a path for teshuvah, and it is one of active creation of a Judaism and Jewish communities that will face these atrocities, account for them, make reparations, and ensure that this is the last time we do anything remotely similar to it. And while we build, let us direct our hearts toward regret, our power toward stopping, our courage toward confessing and appeasing, our money toward sustaining life, and our designs toward the impossibility of this happening ever again.
May these High Holidays help us face and return from our current reality and also catapult us into a Judaism and a Jewishness of a justice-filled future.
Thank you.
____
Rabbi David
Click to watch the full panel discussion here.
____
Good evening all, and thank you so much for taking time to grapple with these questions tonight. An enormous thank you and sh’koyach to the organizers of Expanding our Conversation – the years of conversations you have brought to thousands of members of Reconstructionist communities and beyond is a profound addition to the movement and generally to Jewish discourse in this era. Thank you. And thank you to Rabbi Emily and Dr. Love for saying yes to be here and for your preparation and your sharing tonight.
When Elul began on Sunday night, I was feeling pretty good about the ways I have helped prepare my community in Seattle on Coast Salish Territory for the upcoming High Holidays, and generally thankful for the slow-er-ness of summer in my personal and family life that has now mostly ended. Of course, this slowerness and personal satisfaction this summer have been happening in a time of a Jewish genocide. Not a genocide of Jews, but a genocide by Jews. Indeed, we are living through a time of an army and a government made up predominantly of Jews, acting on behalf of what they consider a Jewish state actively committing a genocide. It is happening ongoingly and has been for a grotesque amount of unchecked time. It is happening right now as we sit here together on zoom.
Many of us on this call, if not every single one of us in some form or another, has tried to stop it. Has tried to mitigate it. Has tried to help people escape from it. Has stood against it to friends, to family, to coworkers, to neighbors, to gathered masses. And quite likely, many if not all of us have experienced some form of personal loss in the midst of it. Whether you are like me and had someone you were close to murdered on October 7, or taken hostage, or killed by rocket fire, or missing, or had their house, school, hospital, neighborhood, or city destroyed, or sit here right now or have sat for a moment of these past 2 years with fear or worry that any of these might happen at any moment. The happenings in Gaza and the events that have led to it are in our bodies, our souls, our minds, our hearts.
I ask that we take time to notice this and feel it. It is real. And it hurts. And avoiding how we feel means our emotions will fester and delay us in ending these atrocities.
The question in the marketing announcement for this event asks how we as North American Jews might think about and make reparations for Israel’s destruction of the Gaza Strip.
My heart hurt as I attempted to answer this question in preparation for tonight. Grounded in two decades of earnest Jewish study and practice and over twenty five years of working and organizing in Jewish communities, my heart says that of course we cannot at all yet begin thinking about reparations for Israel’s destruction of Gaza. How can we possibly calculate the destruction when the death toll continues to climb daily, hospitals and schools continue to be destroyed, journalists continue to be killed, and the devastation of the land and all its residents has no end in sight?
Reparations, as it is discussed on the Reconstructing Judaism website, is an enactment of both teshuvah, or accountability, and tzedek, or justice.
Teshuvah is a multistep process. Condensed from the work of Sephardi Rabbi Musa ibn Maimon, known to the world as Maimonides and to Jews as the Rambm, who wrote in 12th century Egypt in his Mishneh Torah, enacting teshuvah is 1) regretting the act, 2) abandoning, ceasing, stopping the act, 3) confessing what you’ve done, 4) apologizing to the point of appeasement, 5) making reparations, and 6) setting up your life to ensure you refrain from ever doing it again.
As Reconstructionists, I could take for granted that you are likely someone who believes that humans are humans, that Judaism contains universalist wisdom in a particularist framework, that we are all created in the image of divinity, and that teshuvah is just as required when a Jew harms a Jew as when a Jew harms a non-Jew, and perhaps useful to add, also potentially useful when a non-Jew commits harm as well. To drive this point home, though, the Rambam tells us that these steps of teshuvah apply to transgressions committed by humans against humans. He uses the phrase bain adam l’chavero, literally between a human and their friend. While this last word, l’chavero, at its core, is the word “chaver” which is most commonly translated as friend or colleague, the root is chet-beit-reish which means to join or enjoin, to tie, or to fasten – it can be understood as people with whom we are “in it” with. We could say all Jews for example, in a sense, are chaverimot – people bound in an enjoined destiny, our fate fastened to one another. And, Jews and Palestinians, without question in my opinion, based on geopolitical factors alone, are enjoined, fastened, and certainly tied to and with one another. We are chaverimot as well. And one chaver, on a collective level, is committing perhaps the most colossal transgression of all against another chaver.
In this month of potential transformation, Elul, we are required to reflect and see: 1) do we regret what is happening in Gaza? 2) Will we stop what is happening in Gaza? 3) Will we own and confess what we have done? 4) Will we sincerely apologize for it? 5) Will we make reparations? 6) Will we not do it again?
I am not known for being a pessimist, but I am faced this Elul with the idea that indeed the collective of the Jewish people is nowhere near taking even the first step let alone others.
With collective teshuvah impossible, I am left wondering if the collective of Jews has hit an irreconcilable impasse. And I find myself asking an uncomfortable question: Can I continue to be a part of a we that fails so utterly terribly at performing teshuvah?
I think I have been able to understand what it means to be a part of a collective we that makes terrible, colossal mistakes. I know I can reconcile being in an imperfect group, one that does horrible things, even. But I do not think I can reconcile being a part of a group that does such things and does not make a move toward teshuvah, but in fact continues to be on an active journey farther from it as I sadly assess it today.
It is from this despairing place about the current and seeming trajectory of so much of the Jewish people that I want to offer a non-linear path toward Jewish reparations for Gaza and in doing so reclaiming an integrity for the Jewish people. It begins with calling in, calling out, disinvesting, and stripping power from Jewish leaders, communities, and organizations that are taking our people away from the possibility of teshuvah and thus enabling the continued devastation in Gaza. Who, whether they want to be or not, whether it is their goal or not, are leading Jews down a path that ultimately is a path of continual war, continual lack of safety, continual separation from others, continual isolation, continual nationalism prioritized above peoplehood and certainly justice, and continual harm, hurt, and distance from healing.
But not to stop there. No in the least. No, that right now, in the limited power and capacity I have to change and direct the entirety of the Jewish world, and certainly the Jewish state, is to invest most of my time and energy and support in, for, and with Jewish organizations and communities who are building a Judaism that will live into the possibility of reparations for Gaza, of accountability, of teshuvah, of tzedek, of justice. It requires a self-assuredness which I find healing in and of itself, and leads me and accompanies others in a journey into our shared humanity, into trust and faith and solidarity. By investing in such a Judaism and such Jewish communities, we are building a long-term future for our people and for the people of Palestine and for the people of the world, each relationship and coalition and neighborhood at a time.
So, is it possible to atone for Gaza during the 10 Days of Awe in 5786? On one hand, are you kidding? Of course not! All signs point to a Yom Kippur Day when Palestinian children will be dying from a Jewish-engineered famine. And on another hand, of course it is. The long game means there is a path for teshuvah, and it is one of active creation of a Judaism and Jewish communities that will face these atrocities, account for them, make reparations, and ensure that this is the last time we do anything remotely similar to it. And while we build, let us direct our hearts toward regret, our power toward stopping, our courage toward confessing and appeasing, our money toward sustaining life, and our designs toward the impossibility of this happening ever again.
May these High Holidays help us face and return from our current reality and also catapult us into a Judaism and a Jewishness of a justice-filled future.
Thank you.
____
Rabbi David
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