Observing Passover, the holiday celebrating the liberation of Jewish slaves from Egypt roughly 3200 years ago, has become a problem for many Jews this year.
In the past, poll data indicated that more Jews attended a Passover Seder than participated in any other Jewish holiday. Whether religious or atheist, Jews would sit around the Seder table on the first night of this 8 day holiday (which begins this year Wednesday night, April 8 and goes through April 16th) and talk about the meaning of freedom and liberation, sometimes with family, sometimes with friends, sometimes impatiently waiting for the feast of food, sometimes with serious intention to fulfill the command to tell the story to your children and to experience themselves as though they personally had participated in the great Exodus.
The story itself is so compelling that it has become a metaphor for many other struggles. Black African American slaves sang songs about Moses and the children of Israel as a way of identifying with the possibility that someday they too would be free, and the civil rights movement often used the story as a challenge to the way American society had not yet fulfilled its promise of becoming a land of the free.
No wonder then that through the ages even Jews who questioned the existence of God turned up in large numbers at a Seder.
This year I've been hearing a very different story from my rabbinic colleagues and from many Jews who are not part of any religious community.
Millions of Jews have been watching Israel's role in Gaza and the West Bank with particular horror this year. Most share an anger at the ongoing terrorism that has made life in the Israeli town of Sderot so difficult. Few sympathize with Hamas. They are aware that over the course of the past few years dozens of Israelis have been killed by the missiles sent from Gaza.
Yet the wildly disproportionate response of the Israeli army that led to the killing of over 1,200 Gazans, hundreds of them children and women civilians, has shocked and dismayed many Jews whose identification with their Jewishness came primarily through their commitment to its ethical teachings. Moreover, growing numbers of Jews in Israel and the rest of the world have become aware that the core of the problem lies in the way that Israel's creation in 1948 led to the expulsion from their homes of some 800,000 Palestinians. Some fled in anticipation of a quick destruction by invading armies of the newly formed Israeli state. But Israeli historians in the past two decades have documented that hundreds of thousands of those refugees left their homes because of a fear generated by Israeli terrorists that Arab civilians would be targeted during the war, or to escape a war zone as civilian have traditionally done during active hostilities, or, in the case of over 80,000 of them, because the Israeli army itself forcibly evicted them from their homes and marched them off to Gaza or the West Bank.
And then in 1967 when Israel struck at Egypt, Syria and Jordan in a preemptive war (on the basis of a genuine perception of threat), it conquered the West Bank and Gaza and inherited control over the lives of many of these refugees. Today, some 2.5 million Palestinians live under Israeli rule, without the right to vote in Israeli elections, and demanding their freedom.
The recent election of Benjamin Netanyahu, whose central campaign promise was to never allow an independent Palestinian State, and the selection of Avigdor Lieberman, whose campaign was filled with racist attacks on Arab citizens of the State of Israel, as the new Israeli Foreign Minister, have pushed many American Jews to question how they can celebrate Passover with a full heart this year. As several congregants put it to me, "We Jews have become Pharaoh to the Palestinian people -- so we would be hypocrites to sit around our Passover table celebrating our own freedom, rejoicing at the way the Egyptians were stricken with plague and their first born killed, while ignoring what Israel is doing today in the name of the Jewish people."
This is precisely the kind of discussion that is appropriate for the Seder table this year. But what I fear is that increasing numbers of younger Jews are voting with their feet by distancing themselves from this, one of the most beautiful rituals of the Jewish year.
Rabbbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun Magazine www.tikkun.org, chair of the interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives www.spiritualprogressives.org, and rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue in San Francisco. He welcomes comments at RabbiLerner@tikkun.org.
Follow Rabbi Michael Lerner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rabbilerner
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However, Mr. Lerner chooses to indulge in selective recitation of facts which does great disservice to the genuine discussion of the issue.
Duirng his recitation on the history of conflict to he inexplicably ignores giant swath of that history in order to make a rhetorical point.
Example: While dwelling dramatically on the wrongs of Israelis in 1948 no meniotn is made of treterous attack of Arab startes in 1958.
Example: Mr. Lerner fast forwards from 1948 to 1967 completely ignoring 20 years of Egyptian and Jordanian occupation of Palestinian territories.
Example: Complete avoidance of the period when Israelis voluntarily(!) let in their arch enemy, Arafat in an attempt to build a foundation for a two-state solution.
Reasons for these omissions: inconvenient truth.
Perhaps in cooperation with more successful Arab states, Jordan and Egypt Palestinian Arabs will do a better job of building some semblance o social order.
Let's examine this strange idea of proportionality ---
Since 2001 about 11,000 missiles were fired from Gaza towards Israel.
So to be "proportional"---
every Palestinian missile launch aimed at Israelis cities, Israel should respond with exact amount of missiles toward Palestinian cities.
Oh, wait.....
Proportionality---, what an idea for conflict resolution.
"The figure for Palestinian deaths is extremely conservative, since it is difficult for B'Tselem to report on deaths in the Palestinian territories. The Palestine Red Crescent Society, internationally respected for its statistical rigor, reports significantly higher numbers of Palestinian deaths. We do not doubt the reliability of their data, and only use B'Tselem's more conservative numbers because they collect data on both populations."
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/deaths.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mftoc.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/mbbio.html
Rabbi Lerner is right. The majority of Jews and Israelis have no right to celebrate. They have no right to celebrate anything while they commit and condone vile acts against humans whatever the justification. There is rampant hypocrisy right now in the Jewish community. They need to ask themselves: "Would God approve of what they have done and what they are doing?" Unfortunately, they have disconnected from God's voice and God's will and this did not happen just a few years ago. This decadence has been rotting the foundation of the Jewish state for decades and all who deny their conscience will be responsible for the downfall of the State of Israel.
in 1947 ALL Arab states were sure they'll crush the Jewish state. 5 participated.
In 1967 MOST Arabs were almost sure they'll crush Israel. 3 participated.
In 1973 FEW Arab countries were sure of victory. 2 participated.
In 2009. No Arab states think they have a change against Israeli.
But keep dreaming.
Conventional therapy. only choice.
After Arafat's antics and lies Israeli public opinion have little illusions left about Palestinian sincerity of wanting peaceful co-existence.
http://www.cleveland.com/world/index.ssf/2009/01/israelis_in_patio_chairs_watch.html
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090427/leibovitz?rel=hp_currently
I just attended a speech by George Galloway here in Los Angeles and was pleasantly surprised. It was not a simple condemnation of Israel as many would ascertain by his caustic personality, but a warning on the continuation of imperialistic policies in the Middle East. I think many Palestinians in the audience were shocked, pleasantly, when Galloway turned his focus onto the puppet kings and dictators across the region who not only didn't lift a finger to help their Arab brothers but actually prevented aid from getting to them.
There is a solemn meekness in the Jewish traditions that have always garnered my respect for a long-besieged people who not only understand the feeling of being under the boot of tyrants. The fact that the tyrannical boot is worn by the Israeli govenment, I believe, puts many Israelis and Jews into a great quandry between nationaly unity and what is right and moral. I wish more of your flock would stand up and reach out a hand to their Arab brothers and sisters. The recent election of Netanyahu prevents me from gathering too much belief in this but still I hope. The recent talks between Gordon Brown and Hisbollah bolsters my hope forward.
Great post, Rabbi.
Here's an example of debate at Gaza University.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spu1XHhVD5A
Once this issue is resolved trustfully then Palestinians themselves will speak against Hamas, as then Hamas will not have any agenda to continue being radical...and if Hamas continues it's radical activities pretty sure Palestinians will reign them down...as in 21st century no one likes to live like an outcast....
Your argument, in a nutshell is, "Well, those people can't rule even themselves, so let the Israeli government do what it wants..." This is not acceptable.
When you post a realistic solution please let me know.
It took half of a century and a series of catastrophic Arab defeats, before Arab leaders became reconciled to the fact of Israel existence. These defeats lead Jordan and Egypt made peace. Not because suddenly they got to respect Jews.
And despite all the rabid anti-Israeli and antisemitic propaganda, this fact is the best hope for peace.
You don't earn respect from the barrel of a gun -- all you earn is fear, and loathing. People like you have proven that Zionism is violent and immoral and inherently racist, and that will drive Jews away as surely as the reactionary stance of the current Pope is driving young Catholics away from the Church.
Rich coming form the camp enthusiastically supporting all forms of Islamo- fundamentalist warfare throughout the world.
OK, let's gently return to the real world..
Egypt and Jordan made peace with Israel only because their repeated attacks failed.
Jordan wisely stayed out of the attack on Israel in the Yom Kippur war because King Hussein had enough in 1967.
Soon after Egyptian crushing defeat ion 1973--peace treaty.
That's the reality in the Middle East. Weak don't survive. It was always thus in the Middle East.
Example: poor Lebanon weakened by Palestinian-induced civil war is now a play ground for Israel, Syria and Iran.
As it was they pre-empted any attack out of paranoia and the desire for the land. Tom Segev's extraordinarily detailed account proves that without a shadow of a doubt. Israel simply lied and told Johnson that Egypt had attacked even though all of the airforce was demolished the day before.
As for passover and being in Egypt, Shlomo Sand pretty much proved that is tripe. Not a trace of evidence has ever been found that it was anything but a myth invented many thousands of years later.
Sorry, but all these imaginary friends are barbarians of the lowest order.
"The former Commander of the Air Force, General Ezer Weitzman, regarded as a hawk, stated that there was 'no threat of destruction' but that the attack on Egypt, Jordan and Syria was nevertheless justified so that Israel could 'exist according the scale, spirit, and quality she now embodies.'...Menahem Begin had the following remarks to make: 'In June 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.' "Noam Chomsky, "The Fateful Triangle."
"I do not think Nasser wanted war. The two divisions he sent to The Sinai would not have been sufficient to launch an offensive war. He knew it and we knew it." Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's Chief of Staff in 1967, in Le Monde, 2/28/68
Unquestionable fact:
President of Egypt Nasser demanded the removal of U.N. forces that stood as a buffer between Israel and Egpyt.
Reason: planned simultaneous attack on Israel from Egypt, Syria and Jordan.
Israel begged U.N not to do it. U.N. couldn't care less and moved out.
Nasser bragged about how swift the victory will be.
Instead Egypt suffered a crushing defeat. And Nasser himself died shortly thereafter.
End of that chapter.
This is from Palestinain propaganda website:
http://www.al-awda.org/zionists7.html
Got any facts?
“The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear - to wipe Israel off the map” - President Aref of Iraq
“Egypt has decided to terminate the presence of the United Nations Emergency Force from the territory of the United Arab Republic and Gaza Strip. Therefore I request that the necessary steps be taken for the withdrawal of the Force as soon as possible.” - Egyptian ambassador Kony informs U Thant - U.N. A/6730/Add.3 26th June 1967
And thanks be to the many Jews who are joining him in directing the kind of critique Israel desparately needs if it is to thrive in the family of nations. And love and respect for those who still live in fear and defensiveness.
Last night I attended a Seder that was half gentiles of many nationalities, races and creeds. It was a very beautiful thing and an example of how we can all relate to the Exodus and yearn for the promised land.
And we inserted "next year, Gaza in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters" in the appropriate place in the Haggadah ritual.
The truth is, the whole world is a Holy Land and it is time we all acted like it.