I have been feeling a bit remiss in not speaking about Israel this year given that it has been in the news so much. But every sermon I started to write ended up becoming one of political analysis and you don’t need to hear that on Yom Kippur and you certainly don’t need to hear it from me.
But it is essential that we pause and say something about Israel given its importance in our lives, the precariousness with which it exists and the active hatred that it inspires in so much of the world.
Israel inspires pride within us, American Jews, and also frustration. We acknowledge that. There are many valid criticisms of Israel – regarding its foreign policy, its domestic policies, its corruptible political system in which minority political parties can blackmail the government.
But let us remember three things as we consider Israel in our daily lives, and we should consider Israel in our daily life.
First, as a Jewish nation, Israel is composed of our family, our greater Jewish family. And as in all families there can be frustration , disappointment, embarrassment and even anger at what family members do – but they are still family. And our Israeli family are good and powerful family. Extended Jewish family in Ethiopia, the Former Soviet Union, every Arab country, Iran, South America, South Africa and even Western countries at times such as France, have been saved because of our Israeli family. So no matter how much one might be frustrated with Israeli politics or even what some find as brazenness in Israeli personalities, let’s remember that our Israeli family members have saved millions of Jewish lives.
Secondly, much of the criticism of Israel that we hear currently – that Israel is intransigent towards the Palestinians, that they continue to defy the world and build settlements on Palestinian land, that they really like it better not having peace because they don’t have to make any concessions – much of this criticism is exaggerated, overblown, and driven because it fits the media’s mega narrative of an indigenous, homeless Palestinian people fighting against a militarily strong colonial power. Some criticism is valid, too valid, but the situation is not one sided. The Palestinians and the Arabs have been just as, if not more, intransigent and cynical about compromise because they still refuse to accept the reality that is Israel and they believe that time is on their side
Finally we must always remember this:
Israel is a miracle in our era not only to us Jews but to humanity and human society.
No other nation of the world has reconstituted itself after thousands of years in Diaspora and without political sovereignty.
How many nations in less than a century of existence have contributed so much good and beneficence to the world? Recently the 10th Israeli received a Nobel prize. The three who won the Peace prize don’t impress me as much as the six who have won Nobel prizes in just the last 10 years in Science and Economics. Numerous inventions and innovations have been developed in Israel or by Israelis that make our modern life more comfortable and have saved lives.
How many nations at war with enemies whose goal is to destroy it and commit genocide against it allow sympathizers with those enemies to run in civic elections? Israel has members of Knesset who openly advocate the end of a Jewish state. Journalists in Israel, I am speaking of Jewish writers, mind you, write pieces in Israeli newspapers that were they written anywhere else would be accused of the most vile anti-Semitic expressions. Yet Israel continues to permit a free press and free elections.
And finally Israel has allowed the Jewish people a glimpse of what a true organic indigenous Jewish culture can be in all its glorious and irritating reality. A chance for Jews anywhere in the world to come and absorb the spirit of our holiest places, to experience our ancient, medieval and modern history and to recite a bracha that heretofore could not be recited:
Baruch Atah Hashem Elokeiynu melekh Haolam Khacham Harazim. Praised are you Lord our God Sovereign of the universe Who knows all Secrets. This is a blessing that can only be recited when one sees at least 600,000 Jews in one place.
God is the Knower of Secrets and hidden things but he has blessed us with the revelation that is Israel. Let us now rise to recite this prayer for the state of Israel.