As this post is being written, Israel continues to be under a spate of terror attacks. This latest round began during the holiday of Sukkot when a young couple was gunned down in cold blood in the presence of their young children.
Unfortunately, there has been little respite since then, with some ten or so related incidents being reported each day as we speak. This surge in terrorism has garnered little media attention, but the death and injuries on innocents are all too real and all too devastating.
So as the world is silent with this recent spate of violence against Jews, who have been attacked because we they are Jews living in Israel, we cannot be silent. We stand with Israel. We are Israel.
We pray for peace and for the language of hate to be replaced by voices of love, for the voices of dishonesty to replaced by the voices of truth. Yet, we know that while everything we hold as holy, our Torah, our ethos, our laws, calls upon us to Choose Life and truth unequivocally, that voice is often drowned out by the shrill calls to Choose Death and deceit. Voices that seek to de-legitimize our people, our land and our history.
This week, as we begin anew the cycle of Torah reading, starting from Breishit, Genesis, one cannot help but be struck by providential timing of the reading. On the very first verse in the Torah, Breishit Bara Elokim...In the beginning G-d created, the commentary by Rashi literally jumps out and begs to be read. Rashi, a.k.a. Rabbenu Shlomo Yitzchaki, is the foremost commentary on the Torah. No Chumash is printed without it, as his teachings are considered indispensable.
Rashi is troubled by the fact that the Torah begins with the account of creation. The Torah is above all, a book of laws, a constitution of sorts for the Jewish people. The word Torah, itself, means teaching. What then, asks Rashi, is the purpose of beginning a book of laws and teaching with tales of the creation of the universe? What lesson can there be for us in this narrative?
Rashi answers his question. Clearly, says Rashi, there is a law to be learned from the creation of the universe, the laws of territory and lands. For by establishing G-d as the creator of the Universe, we establish that the right of territories and lands comes from the Creator. Therefore, says Rashi, if the nations of the world band together and accuse Israel of thievery for having conquered the land of Israel, they will reply that G-d created the universe and gave the land to whom He deemed proper, and that He gave it to the Jewish people.
What is astounding about this commentary is that Rashi lived in Troy, France, almost 1,000 years ago! Almost one thousand years after the exile from Israel, and the destruction of the Temple and Jewish commonwealth, and, almost one thousand years before the Jewish state today. It wasn't a political commentary that Rashi was writing. It was a moral one. A legal one. It had no application at the time, as Zion was but a memory or a dream waiting to come true. For one thousand years, Jews studied this teaching while the land of Israel lay in ruins. That did not diminish its truth, only its application. But in our day and age, is this teaching not as relevant as ever?
In a time where history has been obfuscated by distortion, this simple teaching reminds us that truth brings clarity and blessing and life.
In a time where history has been obfuscated by distortion, this simple teaching reminds us that truth brings clarity and blessing and life.
May the voice of truth and peace triumph in a world that finally, collectively, seeks to choose life! Amen.