Molly Blumnethal

By Rabbi Loren Sykes

Mr. Prime Minister, 

 I am a Zionist. I love Israel. I love what it is, what it represents, and that to which it aspires to be – a light unto the nations. 

 I love Israel so much that I uprooted my family nine years ago and made Aliyah from Chicago to Jerusalem. Like so many American Jews, I did so not because I was running away from something but because I was running toward something: the highest fulfillment of Zionism, to “throw our fate” in with that of the modern State and People of Israel.  

 I made Aliyah to be part of the greatest Jewish creation of the modern period: a Jewish and democratic/democratic and Jewish State that strives to embody the values of our Torah, our Prophets, and our Declaration of Independence. The country to which I moved is and must remain one that “will be based on freedom, justice, and peace…;” and “will ensure the complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex;” and “will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education, and culture.” 

 As I write, Mr. Prime Minister, I feel the torment in my heart. These words come from the depths of my neshama (soul): 

 Prime Minister Netanyahu, you are wrecking this beautiful, miraculous country! 

 You, and the members of your party and coalition who have embraced a combination of extremism, messianism, racism, and fascism, are causing the greatest rift among the Jewish People since the Second Temple period. 

 One need not be an attorney to understand that the combination of: 

• Emasculating the Supreme Court and the judicial branch of their role as a check and balance to the executive and legislative branches;

• Giving the coalition government the unbridled ability to nominate only their judges to the Supreme Court;

• Creating a coalition mechanism for investigating prosecutors, especially those investigating and trying Knesset members of the coalition and Government Ministers;

• Changing the law so a convicted criminal can be a Minister in the government (the Deri law);

• Permitting civil servants, from the Knesset down, to raise funds for “defense” and family “medical” issues.

Along with other misguided measures being advanced by and rushed to final approval in the Knesset by the Justice Minister and by the chair of the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee creates the real possibility of a dictatorship. One only needs a little common sense to understand that a judiciary branch devoid of power, a police force, and the office of the prosecutor are fearful for their jobs if they dare investigate or try members of the Knesset, not to mention a Prime Minister, means that the Prime Minister and his government have absolute power and, as you well know, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” 

The time has come to cease listening to the extremists in your government and begin listening to the over 500,000 Israeli citizens: 

Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze; 

Religious and Secular; 

Right, Center, and Left; 

Tzabarim and Olim; 

Ashkenazim, Sefardim, and Mizrahim; 

Seniors and teens; 

Tzfonim and Daromim (Northerners and Southerners), Tel Avivim and Yerushalmim; 

Peacefully protesting and engaging in peaceful, non-destructive acts of civil disobedience who are sending you the message that we will NOT live under a dictatorship. I, and I am certain that most citizens, will not permit our sacred country to be soiled by those who seek to reduce it to a puppet, weak “democracy” rather than the robust, Western, liberal democracy it is today.   

There are those who claim that we are protesting because we do not accept the outcome of the election. This is false! True, I do not like the outcome of the election. I am not happy that you, on trial for three serious corruption charges, are the Prime Minister. Nonetheless, I refer to you as Prime Minister, an act which many Knesset members from your party refused to do regarding the previous two Prime Ministers. While I speak only for myself, I suspect that there are millions of others who feel the same way.  

There are those who claim that the coalition is acting in a democratic fashion and that those of us who oppose this legislation are anti-democratic. Either they do not understand, or they choose to twist the meanings of and the differences between democracy, majority rule, and dictatorship.  

Only you can stop this madness, Mr. Prime Minister. Only you can tell the Justice Minister and the Chair of the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, to immediately and fully halt all judicial “reform” legislation.  

The Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, has prohibited you from any involvement in this legislation due to your personal conflict of interest. It is the case that instructing your ministers and committee chairs to advance your judicial “revolution” IS a conflict of interests because it can lead to your ending your own trial. However, requiring them to freeze all related legislation, something that is not in your best interests, is clearly not a conflict.  

Mr. Prime Minister, you are fighting the wrong fights and for the wrong reasons. You should be fighting: 

• To neuter Iran’s ongoing efforts to create nuclear weapons;

• To reduce the cost of living for all citizens;

• To eliminate spousal abuse and murder;
•   To make the country safer for all citizens, especially those Israeli Jews and Arabs alike, living in crime-ridden regions under the daily threat of gangs, protection payments, and murder, not to mention everyone from terror attacks, violent civil disobedience by Israeli Citizens living in the West Bank, and rocket attacks from Gaza; and

• To gain greater normalization for and treaties with Israel throughout the region.

Instead, due to the obsessive focus on the judicial revolution, the economy is faltering, people are suffering, and Israel is becoming a liability to our allies who stand with us if we hold shared Western liberal democratic values. While Amir Ohana and others think our allies will stand with us no matter what, they are wrong. Ambassador Nides, Secretary Austin, and I suspect that many others have told you as much. The frosty relationship that will develop with the US administration will rest solely on your shoulders, as will the collapse of our economy because you chose a judicial “revolution” and dictatorship over shared, Western liberal values.  

You are the only one who can call for real negotiations without “any pre-conditions.” This requires that legislation be stopped in its tracks first. Anyone with basic strategic and tactical understanding recognizes that inviting people to negotiate while the legislation proceeds through the Knesset at lightning speed is a pre-condition in and of itself. It is the legislative equivalent of a shotgun wedding, a trojan horse. Stop the legislation. Come to the table to negotiate in an open, honest, free, and equal fashion and I am certain the opposition will answer your call.  

Mr. Prime Minister, the time has come to act. It is upon you to stop this legislation fully and immediately. Only you can do so and only then can there be real negotiations. At this moment, you must choose:  

Will Israel, under your watch, continue being the greatest modern creation of the Jewish People or will you be responsible for nothing short of the fall of Bayit HaShlishi?

 “עֵ֭ת לַעֲשׂ֣וֹת לַיהוָ֑ה הֵ֝פֵ֗רוּ תּוֹרָתֶֽךָ׃”
(תהילים קי״ט:קכ״ו)

“It is a time to act for יהוָ֑ה, for they have violated Your Torah.”  (Psalm 119:126)

Respectfully,  

Rabbi Loren Sykes 

Rabbi Loren Sykes is the Director of Teen Immersive Israel Programs and Principal of URJ Heller High. A native Chicagoan, he made Aliyah in August 2013 and lives in Jerusalem. 

By Rabbi Fred Guttman

At the end of the sixth day in this week’s Torah portion, we begin reading the Torah anew, beginning with the book of Genesis. Toward the end of the creation story we read the following:

“וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וְהִנֵּה־טוֹב מְאֹד”
בראשית א:לא-

“And God saw everything that God had made, and behold, it was VERY good.”  (Genesis 1:31)

This is the only time in the Creation story that the words “very good” are used.  In previous verses, the text reads: “And God saw that it was good.”

Israel certainly has its share of problems and challenges, not the least of which is that there is a real possibility that an extreme right-wing racist party led by Itamar Ben Gvir could win 12 to 14 seats in the upcoming elections.

I am an American and an Israeli citizen and have worked and lived in both countries.

Nevertheless, as we begin a new year and a new cycle of Torah reading, I feel that it is important to bring forth one particular aspect of something regarding Israel that occurred in this past year; something that was indeed “very good.”

But first a little lesson from our history.

In the summer of 1942, the Nazis began to deport 5,000 Jews per day from the Warsaw Ghetto.  Their destination, 59 miles down the railroad tracks, was the death camp Treblinka, the place where an estimated 800,000 Jews were murdered.

Sometime shortly thereafter, the Jewish physician, Dr. Yanucz Korchak led the children from the orphanage that he founded to the Umshalagplatz, the railway station where they were to be deported and then murdered. He knew well where they were going, but he hid this from the children and proceeded to march them to the train station dressed in their best Shabbat clothes and singing joyful songs as they walked.

Compare this to what happened this past April. Israel succeeded in relocating an entire Jewish orphanage of some ninety children from Ukraine to Beit Meir, a Moshav outside of Jerusalem.

When the children arrived, Prime Minister Bennett entered the aircraft to welcome them, introducing himself to one boy by saying, “I am Naftali, Prime Minister of Israel. Would you like to come to Israel?”

My how times have changed!

The war in Ukraine has impacted Israel’s overall immigration figures significantly. Net immigration for the past 12 months stands at 63,000, including 59,000 who qualify as olim, new immigrants.

According to Israel’s Ministry of the Interior, 47 percent of this year’s olim came from Russia. The next largest group of immigrants came from Ukraine (25%), followed by the U.S. (6%), France (4%), and Ethiopia (2%).

Three-quarters of this year’s new immigrants are linked to the war in Ukraine.

But it does not stop there.  As a result of Putin’s mobilization, Israeli passports are in high demand for Russian Jews and there are now an additional 55,000 Russians eligible for Aliyah who are desperately trying to get out of the country and come to Israel.  Last week, Israel approved an additional NIS 90 million, around $26 million, for absorbing immigrants from Russia and Ukraine.

If you ever wondered why there must be a free and independent Jewish state, the contrast between these two stories illustrates not only the need for an Israel, but an affirmation of the entire Zionist enterprise.

Natan Sharansky who grew up in Ukraine recently commented: “The world has changed. When I was a child, ‘Jew’ was an unfortunate designation. No one envied us. But today on the Ukrainian border, identifying as a Jew is a most fortunate circumstance. It describes those who have a place to go, where their family, an entire nation, is waiting for them on the other side.”

But that is not all that Israel did this year in terms of welcoming Jews. Some two thousand-plus Ethiopian Jews arrived from war-torn Ethiopia.

Once again, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett greeted a planeload of children, this time accompanied by Immigration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata.  Tamano-Shata is the first Ethiopian-born woman elected to Knesset as well as the first Ethiopian-born minister to serve in an Israeli governing coalition.

As a matter of fact, many Jews in Israel are Jews of color. The Ethiopian Aliyah is significant in that it is the only time in history that people from Africa were brought to freedom rather than to slavery.

The story of immigration to Israel this year is indeed inspiring!

As we begin a new Jewish year, let us not forget that, with all of the problems and challenges Israel faces, Jews are far better off because someplace on this planet there is a “postage stamp” sized country wherein Jews have the right of self to the determination and wherein oppressed Jews can find refuge.

Some of the times, we need to remind ourselves of the “good” in Israel. Immigration to Israel this year made this last year one of those times.

As we approach the 75th anniversary of the founding of Israel, let us take the inspiration from this week’s Torah portion and say regarding the Jewish State:

“וְהִנֵּה־טוֹב מְאֹד”

“And behold, it was VERY good!”

By Rabbi Josh Weinberg                                                                  Friday June 18, 2021 – ח’ בתמוז תשפ”א

וַיָּ֨רֶם מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶת־יָד֗וֹ וַיַּ֧ךְ אֶת־הַסֶּ֛לַע בְּמַטֵּ֖הוּ פַּעֲמָ֑יִם וַיֵּצְאוּ֙ מַ֣יִם רַבִּ֔ים וַתֵּ֥שְׁתְּ הָעֵדָ֖ה וּבְעִירָֽם
(במדבר כ:יא)

“And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Out came copious water, and the community and their beasts drank.”

In one of the more dramatic weeks in Israeli politics, a new government was voted on and sworn in, and the new ministers assumed their appointments and began work in their offices. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett faced one of his first tests with the ‘Flag March’ in Jerusalem.

While the route of the march usually passes through the Damascus Gate, police ordered that it be changed so that marchers entered the Old City through the Jaffa Gate instead, passing and pausing outside of the Damascus Gate on their way there.

“I am under the impression that the police are well prepared and that a great effort has been made to maintain the delicate fabric of life, and public safety,” New Public Security Minister Omer Barlev said on Monday.

The Flag March has become an annual parade where mostly right-wing Jewish groups walk through the Old City of Jerusalem carrying Israeli flags and dancing in celebration of Israel gaining control of the Western Wall during the 1967 Six-Day War.

MK Mansour Abbas, head of the Ra’am party and a member of the new coalition, called the march a “reckless provocation” and accused the march of being about hate speech and the shouting of provocative slogans.

It is a display of ultra-Nationalism and a show of force that is designed to celebrate the unification of Jerusalem and display power and strength.  Why do certain Jewish groups feel the need aggressively to exert power?  Israel is already the sovereign in Jerusalem and we have power, so why do some of us need provocatively to lord our power over others?

It is, in fact, the weaker person and group that succumb to dazzling displays of power. Like Moses hitting the rock, one’s show of strength and might are so often a cover for insecurity and self-doubt. Moses felt that he needed to be heroic. He needed the people to think that he, their leader, could provide for them, and that they could trust him. God instructing Moses with a speech impediment to speak exacerbated his shortcomings. He let his need to appear authoritative get the best of him. Thirty-nine years earlier, God instructed Moses to strike the rock, but now God told him not to. What was different this time?

The two commands two retrieve water from a rock, reflect the period before and after receiving Torah at Sinai.  After Sinai, Moses and the people were bound by a covenant in which words replaced violent actions and that reverting to violence represented a violation of the covenant and a dismissal of the significance of the giving of Torah.

Here we witness a process towards greater maturity. How many times have we as parents told our children to “use your words” instead of acting out or resorting to hitting? Maybe God’s instruction was a way to model impulse control and to gain composure. A way to avoid aggression or resort to violence.

In Avot (4:1) we learn:

“Who is mighty? One who conquers their impulse to evil, as it is written, “One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and one who rules over their spirit than one who conquers a city” (Proverbs 16:32)

We learn that might, strength, and power come not from brawn and excessive displays of force, but from one’s ability to conquer their [evil] inclinations.

Would Moses or Itamar Ben Gvir pass the test of Pirkei Avot?

I’m not sure. Certainly not Moses, and Ben Gvir, well, he seems threatened all the time as his violent and rash nature suggests. It appears that a constant state of provocation somehow elevates his status as superior over other people.

Just as Moses was punished for striking the rock, others in our tradition have been rebuked for their violence as well. Take King David as an example. Only later in our evolutionary tradition did the rabbis laud him as the great Psalmist and lyricist, but his biography depicts him as a warrior and mercenary.

Tradition attributes God’s decision not to grant David the privilege of building the Temple in Jerusalem because: “You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You shall not build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.” (Chronicles I 22:8)

David’s background as a shedder of blood in times of war was God’s reason for choosing David’s son instead (see also I Chronicles 28:3). God wanted a man of peace to construct the Temple, not a man of war. God’s house was to be “a house of prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:7)

L’havdil, it was the same message that Oskar Schindler tried to impart to Nazi Commandant Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List. “Power is when we have every justification to kill… and we don’t.”

Israeli extremist Knesset Member Itamar Ben Gvir insists on displaying  Jewish Power (also the name of his political party).

He said:

“The Flag March will take place in spite of Hamas and Islamic Jihad opposition. I will participate in the Flag March and will fly the Israeli flag with pride. We don’t need permission from Hamas, Islamic Jihad  … to march in Israel’s capital.”

For those who question our sovereignty, we have the luxury of simply ignoring them. This march was simply a display of fear and over-reaction to a perceived threat. If we are afraid that the world is somehow questioning our sovereignty over Jerusalem, here’s the thing – they’re not.

They’re just questioning our behavior.

As the prophet Zecharia (4:6) said:

לֹ֤א בְחַ֙יִל֙ וְלֹ֣א בְכֹ֔חַ כִּ֣י אִם־בְּרוּחִ֔י אָמַ֖ר יְהֹוָ֥ה צְבָאֽוֹת׃

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit—said the Lord of Hosts.”

Perhaps when the new government is more firmly in place, it will find the strength to restrain Ben Gvir and his lot and will cancel such marches of ultra-nationalist provocation under the guise of patriotism. Perhaps the new government will model the lessons taught in Pirke Avot. That would, indeed, serve to maintain the delicate fabric of life in the city of Jerusalem, and public safety as well.

Shabbat shalom,

Josh