Moving Forward-Rabbi Boris' Blog

Just a few days ago we had the first official gathering for the Honeymoon Israel group from Montreal, a wonderful mix of twenty couples who will be joining me on a nine day trip to Israel in December.  The group was not entirely unknown to me, since for four of the couples I had officiated at their wedding, but as we went around and did introductions, I was genuinely impressed by the diversity of the people.  There were many interfaith couples, Jewish-Jewish couples, and a few same sex couples.  The stated goal of HMI is to give the group, mostly newlyweds and a few soon-to-be-married couples an opportunity to explore their Jewish identity, bring Jewish life into their homes, and to grow a meaningful relationship with the land of Israel, all the while leaving plenty of time for dates, good food and maybe even a party or two.  I was the rabbi on the trip four years ago, and found it to be a profoundly meaningful experience, and saw first hand how life changing the trip was for the participants.  

As the group educator, I was excited to share with the couples my passion for Jewish life and tradition and introduce the couples to the liberal, accepting Judaism which is not as well known in the Montreal Jewish community.  Yet at the same time, I was also excited to share my love for Israel with everyone.  

I can’t wait to be there with the group when we drive up the hill to the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem for the first time, or when they touch the bricks of the Kotel connecting with the many generations who came before them.  I want to be there with them when they walk the streets of Tel Aviv or watch the sunset on the beach, when they visit Masada for the beautiful, if somewhat cliche, experience of watching the sunrise from the mountaintop fortress, when they wander the blue streets of Sefat, or just revel in the history and culture that flows from every place and every moment of a trip to Israel.  Israel rightfully has a power to change people, and I knew that looking at these twenty smiling couples that their lives would never be the same.

But as everyone settled down to their dinner that night, I knew in my gut that the beauty of this land, the pride which I have tried so hard to hold onto was sinking fast.  The news was now undeniable that a new government was being formed, with Benjamin Netenyahu  at the helm that would turn the Land of Israel, or at least the leaders and its government, into a much more scary place.  The new coalition government is being formed with a dark mix of the most right wing, fascist leaning, political and ultra-orthodox leaders, including some of the most anti-Arab, racist people with some of the most extremist views imaginable--something that we hoped seemed unfathomable in a modern democratic state.  Put together, these men are ready and waiting to tear apart the freedom and democratic norms which were already tenuous, while also doing what they can to alienate Jews living outside the land of Israel.  This is now the  reality lurking in the shadows of any visit to the Holy Land.

Now yes, I am not an Israeli citizen, and I have no choice but to accept the results of the election, close as it was, as the result of what we hope was a free and fair election.  But at the same time, I think that this may be the time when all those who have supported Israel, all those who love Israel, may finally have to ask, can you continue to defend the Jewish state no matter what it does as a free democratic county when it is on the verge of becoming something simply unfathomable to its founders?

Here’s what we can expect to see in the months and years ahead with this new government in power, not because of any vague predictions, but because this is what these new leaders have vowed in words and actions to move forward.  Arab Citizens will be turned into enemies and moved even further to the edges of society, and violence against them will be supported,  LBGT rights will be weakened, illegal settlements will be strengthened and expanded, and religion, the Judaism of the Jewish people will be in the hands of the Ultra Orthodox who will extend a greater control over how everyone is allowed to live their faith and culture.  All this being led by Netenyahu, an accused criminal, Itamar Ben Gvir who was convicted of supporting a Jewish terrorist organization and for inciting racism and Betzalel Smoltrich, the leader of the religious Zionist party who among other things has advocated that Jewish mothers be separated from Arab mother at hospitals, and has said with no hesitation that “there is not such thing as Jewish terrorism” when confronting violent acts by Jeiwsh extremists.

All of this is not Israel, but it is whether we like or not what Israel is going to become.

Alon Pinkas put it well in a recent op ed in Haaretz:

Israel isn't a far-right/religious country. But soon it will have a far-right/religious government.

Israel isn't an ethnocratic Jewish supremacist country. But soon it will have an ethnocentric government filled with racist Jewish supremacists.

Israel isn't a fascist country, but soon it will have a government that smells a lot like fascism.

Israel isn't an apartheid state. But in a few weeks it will have a government that will set policies and make statements that are sure to stoke the false accusation of apartheid.

And I’ll tell what is so heartbreaking about this reality is that this is not the Israel that we had to see today, but it is what happens when we ignore the warning signs, when we don’t question enough and when we say again and again, that being a Zionist and being a Jew, means supporting Israel, no matter what.  This is what happens when we push back questioning, honest reflection and criticism for an unwavering commitment that cannot be moved.  This is not love, it is ignoring reality, and the Israel we see today is the product of not fighting for something better.

This week’s Torah portion, Lech Lecha, gives us an important and timely message about the purpose and the responsibility that we hold with the land of Israel.  As Abraham, the first Jew is blessed by God, he told that he will be the father of a multitude of nations, and that through the covenant God says: “I assign the land you sojourn in to you and your offspring to come, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting holding. I will be their God”(Genesis 17:8).  God further says to Abraham, “As for you, you and your offspring to come throughout the ages shall keep My covenant”(Genesis 17:9).

But this gift of the land is not without a demand for hard work to make it real.  The land of Israel is undeniably given as a privilege not a right.  Abraham must “walk in God's ways and be blameless” and do whatever he can to bring peace, justice and security to the land of Israel and for the Jewish people.

Now of course, no people are perfect, and the Jews have never been blameless.  But through the model and the message of God's call to Abraham, we are clearly being told what this message is not.  Being blameless is not vocally supporting those who call for the deaths of Arabs.  Walking in God's ways is not working to deny the rights of social justice activists, liberal Jews, LGBTQ people and anyone who supports a just peace between Arabs and Jews.  This is the new government of Israel. This is extremism, and for a people who have been the victims of extremism in our own history, we should know better than to accept it from our own people.  This is not the land of Israel that its founders imagined.  All we have to see this truth look at is Israel's Declaration of Independence.

THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations. 

As bad as our current situation  is, as horrifying as this new reality may be, I will say this with confidence, this does not take away my love of Israel.  But that love is why I have never been more ashamed to say these words.  Because now all of those people who have been working so hard to fight anti-Semitism, and all of the anti-Israel rhetoric from the college campuses where not just a political discussion, even wearing a kippah on campus can be a risk, to the activist groups, the scholars and the millions of synagogue goers and proud Jews around the world, now have to accept that Israel may not actually be the free democratic state that we want it to be.  Our fighting hand is now weakened, and our cause is now one that may be far less stable.  

Regardless of all of this news, and no matter how distraught I feel, I will be in Israel one month from now.  I will soon be standing on the same ground where Abraham, Abraham Avinu, once stood, and I will be facing the land, standing with the people, embracing and confronting the country which I both love and fear for its future.  

I want to show those couples who will be joining me that Judaism is a civilization that is strong, proud and beautiful.  And I want to introduce them to the land of our people and of our history, and also the land and the peoples who share that land with us, and hold their own different yet real and honorable narrative of this place.  I want above all to stand tall and with pride, say this is the land of peace of wholeness and of hope that Ww are told God promised to Abraham so many generations ago.  And I will share my love and my commitment to the land of Israel in the clearest way I know how.

I know that we will have a great time, and the memories we share will change us all, as any trip to Israel should.  Yet this time, I also know that when that plane flies over the dark blue Mediterranean seas and makes its way to Ben Gurion airport, I will be thinking of those words that God gave to Abraham that we should be “blameless and walk in God's ways”.  And my response, this time with my head held low will be as sure and clear as the water below, that we have not lived up to our side of the covenant, that we have broken that trust.  

But the holy acts of covenant and commitment do not stop just because of a very earthly government of corruption and hate, it should instead only make us more resolute in our love and our fight for peace and freedom. As the Talmud tells us, “The entire Torah was given on account of the ways of peace, as it is written: “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace”(Proverbs 3:17). 

If we want an Israel that is worth believing in, if our love of the people and the land is true, then we need to take up the fight now, and clear that path towards peace and justice, knowing in our hearts and in our actions that we can do better.