Greetings to my faithful readers; I hope you all managed to "get a life" during the last four weeks of this column's absence... I must confess that I needed the break, and I'm not sure that I'm up to resuming my weekly struggle with the Parashah/haftarah, but two center-stage events, macro and micro, impel me to write: both happenings, the latest chapter in Obama's presidency, as well as Tony's visit to Minerva House relate directly to the Middle East conflict, and resonate within Parashat Naso (and, for Israeli readers, the haftarah of B'ha'alot'cha).
. אל נא תאמר הנה דרכי האחרונה
את אור היום הסתירו שמי העננה
זה יום נכספנו לו עוד יעל ויבוא
ומצעדנו עוד ירעים: "אנחנו פה!"
Al na tomar hiney darki ha'aharona
et or hayom histiru sh'mey ha'ananah
Zeh yom nechsafnu lo, od ya'al v'yavo
u'mitz'adenu od yar'im anahnu po!
Don't say this is a dead end --
the light of day is only hidden by a cloudy sky
It's a long awaited day, bring it on --
Our parade will yet thunder: we are here! (from the Jewish Partisan's Hymn, Glick/Shlonsky)
1. The long awaited day -- in the Minerva/Shiber house
וְהֵשִׁיב אֶת אֲשָׁמוֹ בְּרֹאשׁוֹ וַחֲמִישִׁתוֹ יֹסֵף עָלָיו וְנָתַן לַאֲשֶׁר אָשַׁם לוֹ
v'heshiv et ashamo b'rosho vahamishito yosef alav v'natan la'asher asham lo
" ...He shall make restitution in the principal amount and add one-fifth to it, giving it to him whom he has wronged." -- Numbers 5:7
"Tony's father was around the age of 11 when Zionist soldiers came to the doorstep and informed them that they had 48 hours to vacate the home in the West Jerusalem neighborhood of Talbieh...I looked around and wondered to myself, what happened to the furniture and household items, where did all the clothing go, how much has been removed and redone, what about kitchen supplies and food items, where did the ghosts of the home settle?" (http://onefire.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/finding-tonys-house-in-jerusalem/ )
We had heard that George Shiber built two houses, and believed he'd rented this one out and lived in another, larger house that he'd built around the corner; while that version took a bit of the heat off of us, it didn't significantly diminish Tony's rights to the house. But he wasn't here to reclaim his property (it isn't always easy for an American citizen with an Arabic name to enter Israel; Tony told us he felt lucky he'd made it in); he had basically come to find his roots. His traveling companion wrote about us (op. cit.), "They both seem to be very calm at our arrival, almost as if the home has been telling them that one day the Shibers would come back in search of their home, and now this 'one day' has arrived," but the truth is that I'm very happy and excited to meet Tony and to have brought him into the house;
וְאִם אֵין לָאִישׁ גֹּאֵל לְהָשִׁיב הָאָשָׁם אֵלָיו הָאָשָׁם הַמּוּשָׁב לה' לכהן
v'im ein lai'sh go'el l'hashiv ha'asham elav, ha'asham hamushav l'hashem lakohen
If the man has no kinsman to whom restitution can be made, the amount repaid shall go to the Lord for the priest (Numbers 5:8)
We had heard that George's children had gone to Beirut and Kuwait, from which it is not that easy to enter Israel, and I figured we'd never have a living connection with that family.Who would be the priest who would receive restitution instead of George Shiber's exiled children? Lucky for us, Tony's father John had made it to the United States; If they are interested, I hope his grandchildren will have the same access to their past as my own; will our leaders do the honorable but inconvenient thing, or will they continue to play games, play war games, play with our lives and the lives of our loved ones? (hint: God willing, my grandson will turn 18 in 17.8 years...)
2. The long-awaited day that arrived in Cairo, in Dar-al-Islam (the rest of the Moslem world) and in Dar al-Harb (the rest of the world that is not yet Moslem -- just kidding, folks)
Both Naso (Numbers 4:21-7:89) and B'ha'alot'cha (Numbers 8:1-12:16) provide ready-made springboards for peaceful preaching; the priestly blessing (Numbers 6: 22-26), which inspired a sublime series of midrashim that all begin with Gadol Hashalom ("Peace is the Greatest"), and B'ha'alot'cha's haftarah, with "Not by power and not by might rather by my spirit," (Zecharia 4:6) will hopefully resonate in homilies throughout the Jewish world tomorrow. However, even the most powerful sermon will not be able to penetrate the insularity of fear, victimhood and privilege that allows the Jewish establishment to be dismissive of every peace initiative and hostile to the idea of justice. For them, peace means "they should stop bothering us", i.e., what we have, we can keep; sooner or later they'll settle for crumbs. Bush seemed to think that was fine, and apparently, hopefully, Obama does not. Is he serious enough to be willing to pay the price of meaning what he says? Do supporters of Israel really think there can be any kind of long-lasting stability, let alone peace, without ending Israel's systemic discrimination againist and marginalization of the Palestinian people?
You guessed right if you thought Obama's words in Cairo yesterday gave me hope; wouldn't it be wonderful if his denounciation of violence brought about a cessation of attacks on Israel and Jews worldwide? What was significant, in my mind, in his approach yesterday, was what appeared to be his giving Jewish and Palestinian nationalism equal weight, which basically means that not all means can be used to achieve national ends. I hope Jewish leadership internalizes this message, because I have begun to despair of the worship of the state, i. e., the religion of Israel. The Land and the State can be no more than instruments in the worship of God; the People is not essential but is rather a framework of a covenanted community. But I'm slipping into a sermon or a seminar here, and that's not where it's going to happen. For that -- surprise, surprise! -- we'll go back to the text:
Numbers chapter 5 begins with two ostensibly unrelated topics: ostracism of the leper (verses 1-4) and מעל, ma'al, the restitution of misappropriated property (verses 5-8). We've talked about the second pericope above, in the story of Tony's house; now I feel I can (or rather, I must) use the homiletic principle of סמיכות פרשיות smichut parshiot (the adjacency of passages) to derive a truth and deliver a message: what we -- Israel, with the connivance of the western world -- have been doing to the Palestinians has been a ma'al, a misappropriation of sancta and this is becoming evident worldwide, where Judaism is increasingly seen as hideous because it is inextricably linked with Zionism, itself resembling more and more a form of moral leprosy. Oh, but we made the desert bloom while defending our land from infiltrators, we said. Actually, they were refugees who just wanted to come back to their homes and families (ושבתם איש אל אחוזתו ואיש אל משפחתו תשובו v'shavtem ish el ahuzato v'ish el mishtahto tashuvu, Lev. 25:10), and most of the world is learning that now. As for us, the innocent and gullible are in denial and are still spun by propagandists, while the more brazen say, "So what?" (the former group could have their eyes opened, as their hearts have not been hardened; the latter will probably only learn the hard way). Which tendency do you think got Netanyanu and Lieberman (and maybe Barak) elected?
May God who healed Miriam and Na'aman of their leprosy heal us of ours. And may redemption come to Zion.
Shabbat shalom,
Jeremy
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