From the Rabbi's Desk

Rashi was an 11th century Rabbi who is probably the greatest commentator to ever exist in our people. His commentary to the Torah and the Talmud is so indispensable that when the first Hebrew Bibles were published to the masses, following the invention of the printing press, they created a special font just for him so his comments wouldn’t be mistaken for the printed text of the Bible. That script is now referred to as Rashi Script although he never read it since it came well after his passing.

Rashi’s first comment on the Torah questioned why the Torah began with the creation of the world. He pointed out it should have begun in chapter 12 of this week’s reading: “This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you. Speak to the community leadership of Israel and say that on the tenth of this month each of them shall take a lamb to a family, a lamb to a household”. (Shmot 12:2 – 3) This is considered to be the first commandment given to the Israelites. Prior to this command there were others, but they were given to individuals and now they were given to the covenanted people. So Rashi asserted this is where the Torah should have begun but it didn’t because God needed to explain to the world that the Israelites had a special relationship with Him and with the land.  He explained this was to also demonstrate that we didn’t steal the land but that God gave it to us, as God owns all the land in the world.

I’d also like to explain the Torah didn’t commence here because it needed to begin in the universal and work its way to the specific. God is the only God in the world and is thus the God of all, as explained in Bereshit/Genesis. After the Torah demonstrated this universality, it was able to express the specificity of us, as the Torah is a book for us and not for other religious traditions with other relationships with God. Regardless, what’s intriguing about this assertion of Rashi is he recognized then, as we do now, that we would be accused, wrongfully, of taking something that belonged to another people. Rashi saw back in France, in the 11th century, that the Jewish people would be criticized and their connection to the Land of Israel would be usurped. It was as true then as it is now.

The Land of Israel is uniquely positioned and situated at the center of the ancient world. If you look at a map, you’ll notice Europe, Asia and Africa are actually connected and thus one mega continent. At the center of that continent is Israel. It’s impossible to travel from Africa to any place in Europe or Asia without passing through Israel. In pre-modern times there was no knowledge of the Americas, Antarctica or Australia. Thus, the civilizations of that time period placed a greater emphasis on the land at the crossroads of the world. That was the geopolitical reason, but there’s so much more.

Judaism is the mother religion to the three great monotheistic faiths. Without Judaism, there wouldn’t be Christianity or Islam. It was only natural that Christianity, with its supersession or replacement theology/philosophy, would want to have control of the land that was holy to the people it intended to replace. The same would be true later on when Islam arose on the Arabian Peninsula and asserted its own version of supersession theology. It would prove to be awful, as for nearly 1,000 years, Christians and Muslims took turns trying to forcefully control the land we call Israel.

To assert, after all of the back and forth, that we “stole” the land from others ignores the reality that we were always there, and we were the ones who originated the idea of it being elevated and sacred. To accuse us of being the ones who moved there, and that we’re colonizers, is to completely ignore history in all its meanings. This is why when we travel to Israel, we’re not merely visiting some place, but rather we’re returning home. That’s why we have to uphold that we’re not foreigners but natives who’ve come back. Jews were never “home” anywhere else in the world except in Israel.

However, we can’t ignore the reality that there’s another people in Israel holding to a narrative that they’re the inhabitants of the land. There’s much to be said about when Palestinians became a people, and there’s never been a nation called Palestine, but that doesn’t help anything at all. It does us no good to ignore their claims since it’s not enough to be right. The cost of us being right is too great and would simply leave us in an endless war with terrorists who know no limits in terms of depravity and ugliness. When Hamas is defeated, and Gazans are liberated from oppression at their hands… When Israelis are able to return to their homes and not need to worry about another October 7… When leadership is present on the Palestinian side who are ready to take steps to end this war… And, yes, when Israel has leadership with courage and vision… Then it will be time to extricate ourselves from a part of our land so it can be their land. In the long run, that’s the only way there will be a lasting ability for Israelis to live in security and thus in peace.