From the Rabbi's Desk

Where did this all begin? When did our connection to the Land of Israel start? Many have tried to erase the historic and irrefutable record of Jewish/Hebrew/Israelite presence in the Land of Israel and many have failed. At the end of Parshat Noach we meet a new person, Terach, and his family who lived in Ur (modern day Iraq). The text tells us he took his son and daughter-in-law, Abram and Sarai, their nephew (from Abram’s brother), Lot, and left their land and went to Canaan. This journey began but would not be completed right away because Terach died in Haran and Abram, Sarai and Lot settled there for some time. Haran is traditionally understood to be located in Southeast Turkey. That brings us to this week’s parasha, Lech Lecha. God commands Abram and those with him to leave and go to a place that God would show him. This land would end up being Canaan and thus began our relationship to the land of Israel.

It’s important to explain that this is our sacred tradition and our sacred story. We cannot necessarily corroborate this story with archaeological evidence and we cannot demand the rest of the world accept our sacred tradition and story. At the same time, there’s no way to assert that our story, the Bible… the Torah, just appeared out of thin air a few years ago, it’s one of the oldest works ever written and is accepted by a very large percentage of the world as sacred. Christians hold the words of our sacred text to be sacred and authentic to them. Muslims on the other hand have an appreciation of our text being sacred as they reinterpreted them in their Koran. When Abram and Sarai, along with Lot, settled in the land of Canaan, our connection was established. Almost immediately after the trio reached the land of Canaan there was a famine and they needed to leave in order to survive. They went to Egypt and stayed there while the famine subsided and then they immediately returned to their land… our land.

This will be the theme throughout the book of Bereshit, Genesis. The Patriarchs and Matriarchs will live in Canaan (Israel) and spend time away over and over again while returning to their home every time. The other four books of the Torah recount our journey back to the land after our forced enslavement for over 400 years in Egypt. We never forgot our roots and our commitments. We never stopped longing to live in our land. When Joshua leads the conquest, we began a time period where there’s always been a Jewish (a word created much later) presence in the land. Our connection to the land is a religious one, it’s a covenant God made with our people. There are two covenants in the Torah that God formed with us: one was the land and the other was the Torah/law we follow. But the connection isn’t only religious, it’s also national. Judaism is the religion of the Israelite Nation/the Jewish People. We’re the practitioners of the religion and we’re also the members of a people with a distinct national identity. This aspect of our identity is something we need to recognize and assert as our rightful claim to the land of Israel.

I’m not writing this to the belittlement or denial of others and their claims. I’m writing this to correct the malicious and slanderous narrative that Jews are colonizers in their own land. I’m writing this to assert that the Land of Israel is not some random place we chose to take as our piece of land. I’m writing this to demonstrate the real historical and national claims we have. I’m not asserting that no other people can live in the Land of Israel. I’m not asserting our land needs to be purely Jewish. The Jewish connection to the land is eternal. Since the days of Abram, we’ve been connected and since the time of Joshua we’ve seen a constant Jewish presence to this very day. Any assertions to the opposite are lies and fictions that must be negated.

Today we mourn the real conflict that’s been growing since the reestablishment of the State of Israel and Jewish autonomy in our birthplace. The conflict stems from two people with claims to one land and the inability to separate. For our side, I can say we accepted a land that was divided and a state that was diverse and had citizens of different ethnicities and different religions. We accepted a compromise that left us without unfettered access to our holiest city and place, Jerusalem. Over the years we’ve managed to secure peace, or an understanding, with our neighbors and with certain groups of the Palestinians. Over the years, we’ve also watched as some Palestinians became more and more violent and fanatical in their tactics and unbending in their goals and philosophies. Groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah don’t accept a division of the land and they don’t accept the presence of non-Muslims. They see the entirety of our birthright as being theirs and nobody can share it with them.

This article is written from the prospective of a rabbi living in the Diaspora and one who is a staunch, unapologetic Zionist. It’s my attempt at summing up our side and our point of view. We each have an obligation to become well connected to, and aware of, our narrative and our history. Each of us now has an obligation to be advocates and public relations experts for the state of Israel. We’ve been thrust into this position by a world that accepts the words of terrorists who murder babies, women and elderly people. By a people who rapes, tortures, kidnaps and mutilates… they and their unknowing enablers have turned the world upside down and made a world where the victim is responsible for their own victimhood. We, in turn, need to be educated and vocal about our truth, the truth, and from there we must never allow for the lies to be promulgated in the world. We are each in this together… it’s our birthright and it’s our obligation.

To become further educated, I would like to suggest four books I think can assist us in our knowledge of Israel.

Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, Yossi Klein Halevi.

https://www.amazon.com/Letters-to-My-Palestinian-Neighbor/dp/B07BY5873F/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1Q30VK5JWK7P4&keywords=letters+to+my+palestinian+neighbor+by+yossi+klein+halevi&qid=1698334546&sprefix=letters+to+m%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-1

The Case for Israel, Alan Dershowitz

https://www.amazon.com/Case-Israel-Alan-Dershowitz/dp/0471679526/ref=sr_1_1?crid=32ESA4U7AWV56&keywords=the+case+for+israel+dershowitz&qid=1698334604&s=audible&sprefix=the+case+for+israel%2Caudible%2C79&sr=1-1-catcorr

Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, Noa Tishby

https://www.amazon.com/Israel-Simple-Guide-Misunderstood-Country/dp/1982144947/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1698334742&sr=8-1

Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn, Daniel Gordis

https://www.amazon.com/Israel-Daniel-Gordis-audiobook/dp/B01L7HE0OG/ref=sr_1_2?crid=TJMTOVT9EJFM&keywords=daniel+gordis&qid=1698334918&sprefix=daniel+gordis%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-2

We’ll be having an online gathering to discuss the first book, Letters to my Palestinian Neighbors, (now the Sisterhood Book Club selection) on November 9 at 8:00 pm on Zoom. I look forward to discussing it with you.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Hearshen