Friday, July 25, 2014

A Shabbat message from Rabbi Andy Vogel

Parashat Mas'ei

This has been an extremely difficult week for Jews around the world. The violence between Israel and Palestinians has been terrible this week, and the headlines and stories that have unfolded have been deeply painful: the tremendous loss of life on both sides; the deaths of Israeli soldiers this week; the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians; the inability and refusal by Israel and Hamas to achieve a cease-fire; the eruption of angry anti-Semitic and anti-Israel demonstrations across Europe; the continuing rocket fire sent into Israel by Hamas terrorizing Israelis; the devastating incursion by Israeli ground forces into Gaza. The cycle of violence and killing goes on and on. And the confusion that some of us feel with the whirlwind of emotions that accompanies this dizzying list of events is profound.

As we enter Shabbat, how can we respond? It could be easy to let despair overwhelm us, or to disengage emotionally. But I don't think that is the Jewish way. For one thing, I feel in my heart that as Jews we are inextricably linked to Israel and to Jews around the world, and so we are part of the story, just as it is part of us. Even more, however, is my feeling that if we experience pain at the unfolding of events this week and this month, we should not walk away from brush that pain aside, but we should allow ourselves to experience it so that it can instruct us.

This week's Torah portion, Mas'ei (Numbers 33-36) includes a list of all the places where the Jews journeyed in the desert in previous years where various calamities occurred to us in earlier chapters of the Torah. Rather than forget those places or episodes, we recite them once again, to re-live our painful experiences, so we can learn from that pain. As this Shabbat arrives, I suggest that that be our starting point. If this Shabbat cannot promise us peace, the cessation of anger, the end of hatred, anxiety or violence, perhaps it can offer us the opportunity to just feel our pain at the place where we stand today - to feel the pain of Israelis, and the pain of the Palestinians as well. I deeply hope and pray that Israelis and Palestinians will choose to extricate ourselves from the worsening cycles of violence and retribution, and I pray that the Jewish age-old dream to be a people at peace will come to pass. As we enter a Shabbat acknowledging that we are far from that dream, we also accept that our pain can be our teacher, if we let it. Perhaps we can learn from it that we do not have to repeat the past, and that the future can be better.

I wish you a Shabbat shalom, as I pray for a peace that we all very much need. May the people of Israel find the blessing of peace.

- Rabbi Andy Vogel

ALSO: Please join us on Tuesday evening, August 5, at 7:30 p.m. (the conclusion of Tisha B'Av) for an opportunity for a directed, thoughtful Temple Sinai community discussion about the events in Israel and Gaza, in which respectful dialogue and careful listening and learning will be primary values.