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June 28, 2024 - 22 Sivan 5784 Parasha Shelach Lecha: This Week’s Lowlights: What’s A Giant?
I hope this correspondence finds you well and enjoying the summer. Please join us this Saturday morning for Shabbat services which begin at 10:00 am in our beautiful sanctuary. The services will be available on our regular Zoom prayer link and will be followed by a Kosher Shabbat Kiddush. This Shabbat, we will welcome Rabbi Joshua Strom, who will lead our liturgy and participate with the community in an “Ask the Rabbi” session after services. Please attend. Please welcome him and introduce yourselves. I am sure he will enjoy meeting YOU! Friends, as I sit down to compose this article, I reflect with dismay on recent local and global headlines from around the world. As your Rabbi, I am inclined (expected) to try to connect these troubling events to this week’s Torah portion. As an aside, there is an old story of a traveler who comes to town just before Shabbat. The traveler is worried that he cannot find a spot to tie his horse over the Sabbath. One of the townsfolk suggests to him to go speak to the Rabbi. The traveler responds, “Why would I seek the advice of the Rabbi? I am just looking for a place to tie my horse over the holy day?” The townsfolk say, “Friend, you don’t yet understand, our Rabbi can tie anything to the weekly Parasha!” Here are some media reports of lowlights of this week’s events: Lowlight #1: On Sunday from Russia: An attack on the Derbent synagogue took place about 40 minutes before evening prayers were due to start. “The synagogue in Derbent is on fire,” the chairman of the public council of Russia’s Federation of Jewish Communities, Boruch Gorin, wrote on Telegram. “The synagogue in Makhachkala has also been set on fire and burned down.” The Russian news agency TASS, citing law enforcement agencies, reported that the gunmen were members of “an international terrorist organization.” Lowlight #2: On Monday from Los Angeles: PICO-ROBERTSON, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Violent clashes broke out in the Pico-Robertson area as pro-Palestinian protesters encountered counter-protesters, prompting L.A. Mayor Karen Bass to call for beefed up security at places of worship throughout the city. The violence happened outside the Adas Torah synagogue on Pico Boulevard Sunday morning. Videos posted to social media showed punches being thrown, people wrestled to the ground and kicked. Some social media posts indicated it started when pro-Palestinian protesters tried to prevent people from entering the synagogue. Lowlight #3: On Tuesday from Brooklyn: ABC NEWS: Lana and Johan, a New York City couple attending their children’s elementary school graduation at P.S. 682 in Brooklyn were attacked in a recent shocking incident. Trouble started when they tried taking family photos near a school banner and were confronted by another family wearing pro-Palestinian attire, according to the report of Fox News. According to Lana’s account in the New York Post tensions rose when an elderly man made provocative pro-Palestinian remarks leading to a verbal dispute. Johan intervened to calm the situation but faced hostility and curses in Arabic. The confrontation turned physical when another man suddenly attacked Johan hitting him in the head. Lowlight #4 (the lowest of the low): Last Monday from NYC: CBS NEWS: On Monday night, pro-Palestinian demonstrators lit smoke canisters and flares outside The Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Lower Manhattan, which pays tribute to the victims of the terror attack. Mayor Eric Adams visited with victim's families there on Tuesday, where he condemned the messages from the protesters. "You do not call for peace and wave flags of Hamas. You do not call for peace and then come to a memorial site. That's like you are desecrating the graves," Adams said. “The egregious behavior on display, designed to justify the killing of Jews, has no place in a civilized society.” In this week’s Torah portion of Shelach Lecha, we read the famous stories of the spies who Moshe sends to reconnoiter the Holy Land. The scouts venture for forty days and travel both the length and breadth of Eretz Yisrael. They marvel at enormous pomegranates, delectable figs, and fertile soil, while famously describing the land as overflowing with milk and honey. Nonetheless, they are erroneously intimidated by the Land’s inhabitants, who they perceive as giants (Bem 13:33: וְשָׁ֣ם רָאִ֗ינוּ אֶת־הַנְּפִילִ֛ים). Even more detrimentally, they self-perceive from a posture of pathos: וַנְּהִ֤י בְעֵינֵ֙ינוּ֙ כַּֽחֲגָבִ֔ים וְכֵ֥ן הָיִ֖ינוּ בְּעֵינֵיהֶֽם …and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them” (Bem. 13:33). Despite the misgivings of these biblical Ten Spies, Caleb, a man of faith and courage is the first one to respond to Moshe and hush the people with a resounding voice of confidence: כִּֽי־יָכ֥וֹל נוּכַ֖ל לָֽהּ We shall surely overcome them! Today, I invoke Caleb’s message of dissent and apply it to the troubles of our land (as outlined above) and more specifically, apply my thinking to the rampant pro-Palestinian movement in these United States. Antisemitic protestors & pro-Pal agitators are not giants. Rather, they are masked cowards, who typically cannot accurately discuss nuanced political matters, know nothing of historical facts, voice rejectionist ideology, miscomprehend the consequences of radical Islam, imperfectly utilize accepted military terminology, and behave spinelessly in an ongoing attempt to persuade through superficial social media posts, antisemitic vitriol & tropes, and large-group intimidation, all typically characterized by hateful rhetoric, and physical intimidation. They are, however, not giants. They are mostly disenfranchised people, who lack depth in their knowledge and seek meaning/purpose in their personal lives. Whether due to COVID or overexposure to video games, truth be told, many of those we encounter are simply looking for a cause to rally against. At college campuses, they are either paid participants, generational antisemites (bequeathed the familial gift of hatred and jealousy), or unfortunate student biproducts of an ultra-progressive and biased liberal education funded by billions of dollars of donations from the Muslim Brotherhood seeking to destabilize American culture. (And yes, I can back up that statement with recorded contributions to this country’s most “elite” universities). They are, however, not giants. As a country, we have been fooled into allowing such “protesters” to mask-up and not take accountability for their hate speech and activities. Whether it is more appropriate to indict them for hate speech or simply for inciting violence, there must be legal ramifications for these deplorable actions. If nothing else, vocal, and visible endorsements of global intifada and “the H-group” should be seen as a violation of the basic tenets of the Department of Homeland Security. These are indictable crimes. They are, however, not giants. As a people, we must hold fast to the words and attitudes of Caleb, as cited above. We shall surely overcome them. We overcome them when we perform Mitzvoth, pray, sing, and study. We overcome them when we raise our Jewish voices in joy. We overcome them when we come together in community and practice our traditions both at home and away. Despite my rant, please understand that I by no means suggest that neither Israel nor its government are perfect. Mistakes happen in war. Mistakes happen every day. I do not dehumanize the Palestinians and I understand their need for self-determination. I honor the sanctity of each life. As we enter Shabbat, I pray that collectively we will cling to our Torah-based moral compass and seek to make the world a better place for everybody we encounter. We are all created in the Divine image. By accepting this holy mission, it is we, as the Jewish people, who will remain the true giants of history and civilization. And to quote both MLK and the prophet Caleb, “We shall surely overcome.” Shabbat Shalom and Am Yisrael Chai, Rabbi Eric L. Wasser, EdD, Hon DM.
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