I'll be in Texas from Oct. 5 for a couple of weeks. If you're interested in meeting me, hearing me speak, or hosting an event, please email: mike@texansforisrael.com or me at: hebron@hebron.com

---------------------------------------------------

Hakafot Shniot - Dancing and singing with the Torah at Machpela with Mendi Jerufi

The fourth leg by David Wilder

Jews celebrate three major holidays annually: Passover, Shavuot, and Succot. These three festive occasions celebrate our exodus from Egypt, receiving of the Torah, and the Divine presence watching over us for forty years in the desert.  These special times could be figuratively compared to a necessary injection, provided three times yearly, for a certain medical issue. In this case these shots are not required for any physical ailment. Rather they are as intravenous inoculations filled with a unique serum, that being emunah, otherwise known in English as faith.

From the very beginning Jews have had to deal with major trials and tribulations. Even before we were officially a ‘people.’ Let’s take, for example, the founder, the first Jew, Abraham. Our sages teach that Abraham was tested ten times by G-d, including what would seem to be the ultimate trial, that being the command to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac. 

It must be kept in mind that Abraham had been working quite strenuously for decades to convince those around him to abandon not only idol worship, but also such horrific practices as human sacrifice. In addition, he believed that the future, not his personal future, but that of his belief in one G-d, rested with Isaac. Removing his son from the pages of history represented a direct contradiction to all had taught, and seemingly would bring to an abrupt end the Abrahamic covenant. 

Yet Abraham realized that what he believed to be ‘right’ was secondary when compared to a divine decree. He therefore willingly obeyed the Creator’s orders. That very act, his ability to lift a knife to take his son’s life, instilled in Jews from then, through this very day, the trait of ‘mesirut nefesh.’ That is, such total dedication and devotion to HaShem allowing people to be ready for the ‘supreme sacrife,’ in other words, giving our lives for our people, our land, our Torah.

Yet it has been written that Akedat Yitzhak, the binding of Isaac, was not Abraham’s most difficult ordeal. Rather, the tenth and most complex test of Abraham’s faith was the purchase of the Caves of Machpela, to bury his beloved wife Sarah.  Why so?

Abraham and Sarah had known each other all their lives. They were married for many many decades. Their lives were totally entwined, as one. They were perhaps a paradigm of the ideal couple with unbounded faith in one G-d. Sarah died immediately following the above-mentioned story of the near sacrifice of Isaac, which must also have been extremely stressful. Despite his rock-solid trust in G-d, Abraham must still have been left a bit dazed. And then he receives word that Sarah is dead in Hebron.

Abraham hurries back to plan her burial and seeks out Efron the Hittite in order to purchase the field and adjacent caves of Machpela. The negotiations are complex, and conclude with a demand for four hundred silver shekels, which today is in the vicinity of seven hundred thousand dollars.  How did Abraham, following the Akedah and the death of Sarah, have the peace of mind to successfully conclude this deal? He could have accepted the caves for free, but declined, knowing that possession requires purchase; a signed contract, payment, and witnesses. He could have passed up the caves, interring Sarah elsewhere. But Abraham held his own, refusing to compromise the principals he himself defined, and finished the acquisition.

Why? Because he knew the value of this so sacred a site, the original burial place of Adam and Eve, the entrance to the Garden of Eden, the doorway to paradise.

Here too, Abraham instilled within the Jewish people an eternal element of faith, lasting to this very day;  a devotion beginning with Hebron, but spreading far and wide, leading through Jerusalem and all Eretz Yisrael.

What trials and tribulations have Jews not faced while trying live in our land? We have been exiled and murdered. Our holy places were declared ‘off-limits.’ A mosque was built on Temple Mount, site of Beit HaMikdash, the holy Temple. Jews were prevented from entering Ma’arat HaMachpela for seven centuries.  And only a few years ago Joseph’s tomb was abandoned and destroyed.

Yet we are not a people to give up.  We never lost hope, never said never, and notwithstanding the tremendous hardships, arrive back home and declared a state. Hebron is an excellent example.  Following the 1929 riots and massacre who ever believed that Jews could ever again live in Hebron? But home we came. Following the Hebron Accords, when eighty percent of the city was transferred to Arafat and the PA, who expected Jews to remain in this ancient city? But we stayed. When the second intifada, which I call the ‘Olso War’ began on the eve of Rosh HaShana in the year 2000, and snipers shot from the surrounding hills into the Jewish neighborhoods in Hebron for two and a half years, who could have imagined that the community would continue to not only exist, but thrive? But thrive we did. And continue doing so at the present.

This past week of Succot well over 50,000 Jews visited Hebron. This isn’t the first time such huge numbers of people throng to Hebron. Almost every holiday season, Passover and Succot, tens of thousands worship at Machpela and walk through the streets to the various Jewish neighborhoods: Tel Hebron, Beit Hadassah, Beit Romano-Yeshivat Shavei Hevron and the Avraham Avinu quarter. This is Am Yisrael, remembering our past and looking to our future.

The three annual holidays, Passover, Shavuot and Succot, are called, in Hebrew, ‘Regalim’ which literally means ‘legs.’ Yet a table cannot rest on three legs, it would be much too shaky and fall. So, what is the ‘fourth regel’ the fourth ‘leg’ on which we rest? Clearly the fourth leg is the Jewish people, a nation imbued with a faith which commenced at the very beginning of our existence, starting with the first Jew, the first believer, Abraham.  These are our four ‘legs,’ the stability of our existence, and the insurance of our eternity, in our land, forever.

50,000 Vist Hebron - Succot 5771 - 2010

What, don’t you think I know where Hevron is… you think I’m stupid… you think I’m afraid… you Americans don’t get it
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF HEBRON WISHES ALL A
CHAG SUCCOT SAMEACH!

Almost 40 years ago as I was walking along the beach in Mykonos , I picked up a book titled The Magus. In it an old man tries to help a young man understand the wisdom of age as he reflected on the moral values of the day:

                We lay on the ground and kissed. Perhaps you smile that we lay on the ground and kissed. You young people can lend your bodies now, play with them, and give them as we could not. But remember that you have paid a price: that of a world rich in mystery and delicate emotion. It is not only species of animal that die out, but whole species of feeling. And if you are wise, you will never pity the past for what it did not know, but pity yourself for what it did. (The Magus, John Fowles, p.134)

Not long ago, while at a kiddish after a bar mitzvah, I overheard a twenty-something ask someone nearby - “What’s a yahrtzeit candle?” and I was reminded of the words in The Magus. It’s a question both profound and sad. It’s a question that our grandparents could not even have imagined. It’s profound for it tells of where our American Jewish community is and how painfully we have failed the commandment in our Shema to teach our children diligently. Sad because our peoples rich heritage and miraculous history gave in to the gods of assimilation and indifference and our community’s Jewish and Zionist future is in serious trouble…

In 1950, America had a Jewish population of 5 million and of those 5 million; over 90% had an affiliation with a Jewish institution, whether it was Federation, Bonds, JNF, a synagogue or an organization.  By 2008 America had tripled in size yet in the 2008 demographic survey, there were still about 5 million Jews, but of those 5 million Jews less than 25% had a Jewish affiliation. In the survey the majority of Jews talked of being Jews by heritage or Jews by culture – Jews by observance and affiliation were a shrinking minority. And, painfully, a more recent survey of American Jews responding to the Jewish Agency’s Education Department showed that only 26% of respondents said they were very emotionally attached to Israel . Support and pride in Israel has also been in serious decline.

As is written in the Torah, “Ask your father and he will tell you. Ask your grandfather and he will explain it.” – The overwhelming majority of today’s fathers have been too busy focusing on their golf handicaps rather than dealing with their Jewish handicaps and Jewish grandfathers are too busy watching the stock market not realizing the real stock losses they are taking is in their grandchildren. 

In contrast, Israel in 1950 had a Jewish population of fewer than 1 million, yet Israel ’s population today is approaching 6 million and is expected to be close to 8 million by 2040. From an America that in the 1950’s was the center of the Jewish world, it is undeniable that today the center of the Jewish world is Israel . Today the average age of American Jewry is 44.  The average age of Jewish Israel is 28. As the American Jewish population continues to get older with fewer marriages and fewer children, the Jewish population of Israel is growing to where in the last three years it has set records of Jewish baby births and it’s not only the ultra-Orthodox who are having babies. In a 2008 demographic survey in Israel over half the respondents described themselves as traditional and traditional families are having more babies. Today it is in Israel that centers of Jewish learning universities, yeshivas, colleges, hospitals and technical centers are growing… even in Tel Aviv. Mr. Liberal Jewish American, Alan Dershowitz wrote in his book The Vanishing American Jew…  “There may well be fewer than one million Jews in America by the year 2050.”

As Israel continues to become less secular and American Jewry becomes more indifferent, there are two very different Jewish communities evolving. Some believe that in ten years the Conservative Movement will no longer exist, while the Reform Movement hasn’t really existed Jewishly for a long time. Eric Yoffe, head of the Reform Movement, in watering down its Judaism and in its superficial support of Israel, has realized too late that if you don’t give Jews something of substance and value their congregations will lose interest. Distracting from the abject failure of his leadership, he has realized too late that the Reform Movement and its anything goes overt tolerance has little substance while the Masorti or Conservative Movement has become shriller in its condemnation of the Orthodox in Israel, becoming more irrelevant with each attack. Many Conservative leaders quietly now recognize that in focusing on the academic and too little on Zionism, they have created rabbis that may be scholars but have forgotten how to be Zionists. Famous Israeli writerA.B. Yehoshua, in an article in the left-wing Ha’Aretz called American Jews “Luftmenchen, a people without substance… a people without a land…” 

One day I met an Israeli cab driver.

I walked out of the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem to a waiting cab. The cab driver looked like a typical secular Israeli with his shirt unbuttoned half way down his somewhat hairy chest, sun glasses perched on top of his head as he slouched over his shiny Mercedes with his head cradled on his cell phone. He interrupted his conversation to ask me where I wanted to go – I told him to take me to the Jerusalem bus station. No, he asked, where do you want to go – I told him, you’re not going to want to take me where I’m going and raising his voice he demanded, “Just tell me!” I told him I was going to Hevron. He stared at me for a moment, opened the cab door, said get in, and said good-bye to whomever he was talking to. I asked him if he was sure and, with an air of having been insulted, he said “What, don’t you think I know where Hevron is… you think I’m stupid… you think I’m afraid… you Americans don’t get it” –  Caught a bit off guard it was the beginning of another Israel realization, and as we traveled south passed Gilo, I noticed in the mirror he began to button his shirt, he lowered his sunglasses and then as we circled around Bethlehem, he opened his glove box, pulled out a kippah, slapped it on his head, and with a smile, a sparkle in his eyes and wagging his finger he said – “When you go to Hevron you must wear a kippah! It’s out of respect… Hevron is a very great place… You know Hevron? It’s the place where our forefather Avraham bought the cave of Machpelah from Efron the Hittite for the burial place for his wife Sarah…” and as we drove south he told me of how his family made their way to Palestine from Yemen in the 1920’s and we discussed how David began his reign as Melech Yisrael, King of Israel in Hevron. Secular perhaps, proud of his country and knowledgeable of our Torah – No doubt. “And I will gather you from the corners of the earth and I shall bring you back to the land I promised to your forefathers…” and future generations.

In the last several decades American Jews have become less intrigued with the true wonder and awe of the State of Israel, while Jews in Israel are becoming more traditional and more proud of their country. They have much to be proud of. Perhaps what today shows the greatest divergence between American Jews and Israelis is that 56% of American Jews still support president Obama regarding America ’s relationship with Israel , while only 4% of Israeli Jews support his actions. With only 4% support, even a lot of left leaning Israelis are no longer enamored with the President that 78% of American Jews voted for. Choices have been made and from these choices there will be consequences. The sad reality is that less than 1 in 7 non-Orthodox Jewish Americans have ever traveled to Israel . The vast majority know nothing of Israel except what they might read from the less than sympathetic liberal media, and the drivel they hear on that rare occasion they may wander into a synagogue from rabbis being driven by their personal agendas.  In the latest Spertus Institute brochure for fall classes the word Israel doesn’t even appear!

Recently I bumped into a former Board member of Anshe Emet Synagogue. Years ago during the summer the rabbis took some time off and members of the synagogue were asked to give sermons on the parasha of the week. In those days Rabbi Michael Siegel often asked me to give a sermon, and the board member told me that by Monday he would get angry voice mails and messages about my sermons from some of the more liberal congregants.  In those days of Oslo euphoria I often focused on the charade and lies of the peace process, the shallowness of American Jewry, or the culpability of American Jewish leadership in the Holocaust. Parasha Shoftim was a favorite with the words “Justice, justice you shall pursue…” and “if you find the body of a murdered Jew in a field…” who is responsible for that Jews death. The writings of Devarim, or Deuteronomy, are as relevant today as they were the day it was written. I always liked Devarim – still do. In those days this board member would call about congregant’s complaints and my reply was always that at least he knew that they were staying awake and they’ll probably forget about it before the High Holidays… but interestingly, he didn’t forget about it.

He made his way thru the crowd and said when he saw me it reminded him of the sermons I gave in the mid 90’s (almost 15 years ago) and he wanted to apologize for what he had said – “I just wanted to believe in Oslo…I wanted to believe the peace process was real and looking back I thought about it over and over and I finally realized that you were right.” When a senior partner at a big law firm does a mea culpa, it’s a bit like the parting of the sea, but over the years I’ve received dozens of private apologies and even several public apologies. There never was a peace process. There were only Kodak moments and meaningless words that led to 1600 dead Jews, obscenely called sacrifices for peace. My fellow Jews wanted to believe the lie… historically we have been a people who have wanted to be lied to…but the truths of history have always stepped into the breech. The future of Diaspora Jewry, if there is a future, must be tied to our communal pride with eternal love of our homeland Israel .

I once was told by my Rav z’l – “you must believe in our Jewish people because our G-d believes in our Jewish people… and you must always love them as your Jewish brother!” and so even when I reflect on Moses’ words that “these people are too difficult for me” – I want our people who are with us today and those who are not here yet to appreciate with gratitude the special gift that we were given 3300 years ago at a place called Sinai and to profoundly understand the courage, strength, fortitude and love against adversity that our grandparents had to overcome over the centuries to keep our sacred relationship with the Land that was given to us as an inheritance by our G-d. During these days of awe and reflection, at the end of Yom Kippur our community will stand and make a commitment,“Next Year in Jerusalem .”  I certainly hope so.

It is time for our community here in the Diaspora to go back to appreciating with understanding our roots if we want our children and grandchildren to be the inheritors of our unique gift of being a Jew or we can look to a future where American Jewry will be left to be studied at institutions of learning perhaps in the anthropology or history departments of schools and universities.

If that is to come about then the question I overheard - “What’s a Yahrtzeit candle?” may one day be asked on a television game show. Three contestants with names that sound vaguely familiar will hesitate to press their button fearing that a wrong answer might lose some of their winnings… but perhaps one will then remember there was a time when our people knew how to  respect, honor and remember our fathers and mothers.

“It is not only species of animal that die out, but whole species of feeling.  And if you are wise you will never pity the past for what it did not know, but pity yourself for what it did."

More photos at: www.hebron.com