VAYIKRA 5777
SESAME STREET AND THE IDF
March 31, 2017
3 Nisan 5777
Ha lach'ma an'ya –This is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate in the land pf Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat. Let all who are needy come and celebratre [The Haggadah].
We form a magical circle when we sit at the Seder table with family and friends. The Seder begins with the Kiddush and enjoying the first of the traditional four cups of wine. What follows is the reading of the Haggadah, but wait. . . before proceeding any further we are required to pause and to recite the beautiful passage in which we invite all who are hungry to enter our circle of family and friends and join in the evening festivities.
At this point, however, it's obviously too late to add to our guest list. Rather the passage reminds us that there are men and women in our midst who because of poverty and homelessness struggle to survive in the margins of our society. It also reminds us that there are many besides the poor who feel isolated because of various disabilities.
Two years ago Sesame Street the children's program that defines its mission to socialize and sensitize children, invited Julia to join the Sesame Street circle of friends. Julia is autistic. Her illness causes her to be hyperactive, sensitive to loud noise, and prone to a variety of uncontrollable motions. Yet these symptoms were not a reason to prevent her from entering the Sesame Street friendship circle.
The Julia puppet was fashioned, and the puppeteer mastered many of the uncontrollable movements caused by autism. The script writers created narratives that taught child viewers not to marginalize the "Julias" when they appear in their schools and classes, but rather to be open and welcoming. The ultimate goal was to transition Julia's identity from the autistic child to just another child.
This past Monday the IDF inducted and swore in eleven recruits with development disabilities ranging from Down syndrome to autism to limited mental capacities. They will not serve in combat units but in various supportive roles. The parents were delighted and proud to see their children in their uniforms sporting the IDF beret. For the first time in their lives these young men feel that they are not on the margins but in the center. Hopefully this IDF experience will make it easier for them to integrate into society.
Closer to home, we all know individuals who suffer from various debilitating diseases. How often have we hesitated to call or visit them—fearful of what to say or how to deal with the physical changes caused by illness. As a result, our friends now have the hurt of being marginalized and forgotten, in addition to the pain of their suffering.
Jews know how anti-Semitism marginalized us the past, and continues to do so in many places of the world. Dare we be unresponsive and fail to respond to the challenge of "let all that are in need join us" that calls us to enlist in the efforts to help the marginalized "Julias" to come in from the cold to the warmth of an accepting community?
It's very much in the spirit of our tradition and the welcoming call of the Seder to explore our response to the marginalized. Will we widen our circle to invite in those who may be different because of physical or mental disabilities? Will we reach out to friends in need battling illness to include them in our circle of friends? The Passover seder reminds us that that the many "Julias" living on the margins await our response.
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From Jerusalem, my best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach– a Shabbat of peace and of blessing.
Rabbi Arnold M. Goodman
VAYAKHEL SHABBAT HACHODESH 5777
WOMEN'S WORK AND THE DESERT SANCTUARY
March 23, 2017
25 Adar 5777
And all the skilled women spun with their own hands … in blue, purple and crimson yarns and in fine linen… [Exodus 35:25]
The Torah portion this week is a reprise of earlier chapters in which God commanded Moses to have the Israelites build a sanctuary that He might dwell among them. The chapters this week describe the steps taken to translate that command and that vision into reality.
The chief artisans, Bezalel and Oholiav, were exceptionally gifted men; they assigned tasks to many, many men who carried out their instructions to build the Ark, the Show Table, the sacrificial altars, and all the hardware needed to make the rods and poles for the curtains that would enclose this holy space.
These curtains plus other "soft" materials needed were sewn, spun, woven, and crafted by women. Their contribution is amply commended in the Torah and undoubtedly much of the beauty of the Mishkan was crafted by talented feminine hands.
Yet, I wonder if there were women who may have had the desire to work with wood, metal, gold and silver. Were there women who resented and were even angry to be relegated to these gender determined tasks?
Would these have eagerly participated in an international Women's Day Strike? Would they have taken to public squares to demonstrate their dissatisfaction of being confined to what can best be described as variations of household tasks? If assuming, many had so chosen, would they have been welcome in this international effort?
According to Linda Mansour, the Palestinian-American activist who had a key role in organizing the American women in the Strike, their credentials would have been suspect. After all, they were Israelites who were marching toward what they conceived as their Promised Land, to conquer and then to colonize and occupy the territory of the indigenous people.
Were that the case, even the most ardent Israelite feminists would have felt not merely unwelcome but ostracized.
Flash forward to the recent Women's Strike Day and the discomfort felt by many Jewish women who define themselves as Zionists and supporters of Israel. Mansour et. al focus virtually exclusively on Israel and Zionism's alleged shortcomings. She typifies this single minded focus on Israel by the hard Left's embrace of intersectionality i.e. that true liberal movements must resist, decry and combat all prejudice, discrimination and oppression The Mansours and her allies persist in picturing Israel as the oppressor of the Palestinian people and hence not welcome in the large liberal tent. Emily Shire, in a recent NY Times article, documented the absurdity of singling out Israel for approbation despite its openness to women in government, industry, education, science and medicine.
The international LGBT movements dismiss Israel's open embrace of the gay community as pinkwashing. Israel support of gay rights is a cloak to hide its otherwise oppressive and undemocratic practices, vis-a-vis the Palestinians.
Black Lives Matter, the umbrella organization combating police brutality of African-Americans, decries in its mission statement what it perceives as unwarranted Israeli oppression of Palestinians. This one sided condemnation simply overlooks any Palestinian responsibility for this difficult situation and Israel's avowed commitment to fashion a truly democratic society.
Intersectionality adherents simply dismiss Israel's embrace of feminism, gay rights, police accountability and a commitment to the rule of law as fig leaves to conceal its myriad of shortcomings. This all too often makes it difficult, if not impossible, for liberals who are Zionists and supporters of Israel, to find a home in many liberal movements. . No supporter of Israel should avert his/her gaze from Israel's failings. Yet a true perspective recognizes that Israel is a striving democracy that like every democracy is in a constant struggle to live up to the high ideals of the perfect society. We who support Israel recognize the accuracy of Winston Churchill's famous observation that democracy may be a poor form of government but it is the best yet to be devised in history.
The challenge we face is not to divorce ourselves from movements and causes that are committed to bettering our communities and our lives. Yet we dare not abandon the struggle to shine a light upon those whose commitment to intersectionality has transitioned into rank and abhorrent anti-Semitism…
Intersectionality advocates have little, if anything, to teach us about democracy and tolerance. As we prepare to celebrate Pesach, we can be rightfully proud that our story of the Exodus continues to inspire challenges to oppression wherever it rears its ugly head, even if within our democratic societies.
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From the holy city of Jerusalem, my best wishes to all for a Shabbat shalom u'mevorach, a Shabbat of peace and of blessing.
Rabbi Arnold M. Goodman
This is the fourth in the series of special Shabbatot that connect the beginning of the month of Adar to Pesach. On the Shabbat prior to Rosh Chodesh the selection read from the second Sefer Torah, Exodus ch 12:1-20, begins with God's command to recognize the month pf Nisan as the "first" of the months of the year. The selection continues with the instruction to choose the lamb to be offered as the Pesach sacrifice.
