17 Tammuz, Tablets and Boycotts
17 Tammuz, Tablets and Boycotts

When I was a kid, I knew little about boycotts. I did know that my family didn't buy Pepsi Cola because Pepsi abided by the Arab League boycott of Israel.  So, if Jews in Israel couldn't buy Pepsi, my mom, shopping at The All-American Market in Palo Alto, California, wouldn't let us drink it either. Well, that's not entirely true. One year when Pesach rolled around, the only soft drinks with a Kosher for Passover symbol on them were the two-liter bottles of Pepsi, so we made an exception. Fortunately, in 1992 Pepsi started being sold in Israel, so our soda boycott days were over.                      

Israelis have unfortunately become all too accustomed to being boycotted by outsiders. We all know about other countries imposing 'politically' inspired boycotts on Israeli goods and how universities abroad boycott Israeli academics.

Last week the Knesset approved the 'anti-boycott' bill making it illegal for any Israeli company or entity to participate in a boycott of any other Israeli company or entity. Any company that violates the law could be subject to a fine and civil penalties. The rationale behind the law was to prevent domestic boycotts between entities in Israel no matter where in Israel those companies or entities are located.

The prime example that comes to mind was last year's boycott by Israeli artists who refused to perform in Ariel's new cultural center based on its location in the heart of Samaria. The new anti-boycott law has spurred lots of controversy in the week since its passing in the Knesset. 

But all this talk about boycotts got me wondering where it all started. Who came up with the word 'boycott' anyway? Internet research pointed me to the answer. The term “boycott” refers to an actual person, Captain Charles Boycott, an Englishman who was responsible for managing land in Ireland in the 1800's. When his tenants pressured him to lower their rents, he refused to do so, and evicted them.

In response, the angry tenants organized themselves, denying him goods and services. His crops rotted in the fields because he had no farm workers, he was unable to get deliveries of food and supplies, and he found himself cut off from the community. By 1880, the “Boycott Treatment” was being used in other places, and the word quickly spread to other languages and regions of the world as well.

This Tuesday is the 17th of Tammuz, a 'minor' Jewish fast day commemorating the breach of the walls of Jerusalem exactly three weeks before the destruction of the Temple on Tisha B'Av. Although the aforementioned breach of the walls is the main reason for the fast day, the 17th of Tammuz also commemorates a much earlier event, the destruction of the twin tablets of the Ten Commandments.

The Seventeenth of Tammuz occurs forty days following the holiday of Shavuot. Moses ascended Mount Sinai and remained up there those forty days. The Children of Israel built the Golden Calf on the afternoon of the sixteenth of Tammuz when it seemed that Moses was not coming down when promised. Moses descended the next day (forty days by his count), saw that the Israelites were violating many of the laws he had received, and smashed the tablets. "…Moses displayed anger, and threw down the tablets that were in his hand, shattering them at the foot of the mountain" (Exodus. 32:19). 

But a careful reading of the text shows that Moses already knew more or less what was going on. God himself told him while he was up on Mount Sinai. "The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”’ (32:7-8).

So, why did Moses get angry and break the tablets? What did Moses really expect to see? God had already told him about the Golden Calf. In addition, on his way down the mountain, when he ran into his faithful servant Joshua, they discussed the sounds emanating from the Israelite camp. Moses says to Joshua, "…it is the sound of revelers that I hear." So, it's quite obvious that not only did Moses know he was going to see a Golden Calf, the sounds he heard indicated some kind of wild party going on too. 

But the telling point is the first part of the verse quoted above, preceding the smashing the tablets. "And he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing..." (32:19).  Knowing that the calf was built, its sight, while quite upsetting, would not have set off his fury causing him to smash the tablets.  Rather his anger seems to have been kindled by the "dancing", dancing that continued even in the presence of Moses and the Tablets.  It is one thing to sin, it is quite another to continue sinning and rejoicing in the presence of the true lawgiver. 

Earlier in the narrative the Torah says, "When the people saw that Moses was not coming down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him make us a god to lead us.  We have no idea what happened to Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt" (32:1-2). 

Their indiscretion was due to the need for a tangible leader, as these recent slaves could not yet understand the concept of an abstract God.  Yet when Moses came back, instead of relief and joy at seeing him, and more importantly the realization of their error, the Jewish people shamelessly continued dancing. 

What was their excuse now?  How dare they continue as if nothing had happened!  Sadly Moses had to take the calf himself and destroy it, an action that should have been done by the Jewish people themselves.  With no remorse shown and the dancing continuing it is no wonder Moses angrily broke the tablets.

Boycotts are an effective tool if used wisely. Recently a grassroots effort was made to encourage Israeli shoppers to boycott locally produced cottage cheese in an effort to cause their high prices to drop. That fight looks like it will continue for a while.

But boycotts are not intended to last forever. Boycotts are designed to exert pressure on companies –or countries, forcing them to reform their ways in a way which satisfies the people involved in the boycott. But when Israeli academics are boycotted by foreign universities or Israeli produced goods are boycotted by foreign supermarket chains, we, as proud Israelis, need to fight the boycott. Furthermore, we as Israelis should not be boycotting other Israeli business or merchants simply based on their location in other parts of Israel.

Moses knew full well that he'd find a Golden Calf and noisy revelers. But as he was descending the mountain, with the whole tablets in hand, perhaps he thought that what was going on down below in the Israelite camp was just a passing phase, a 'temporary boycott' or protest, if you will, against himself and God, and that it would pass as soon as he returned and they recognized the error of their ways.

But when they did not, and continued dancing, and Moses realized this was no 'innocent boycott' or protest, but a severely misguided act by a people who had strayed way off the proper path, he had no choice but to smash the tablets, the divinely written commandments from God, in the presence of the people.

But there is hope. Eventually Moses went back up the mountain for another 40 days and brought back a second set of tablets, carved by Moses this time. But the pieces of the original smashed tablets were not disposed of. They were kept in the Holy Ark, next to the second (whole) set, as a reminder of what had occurred.

 And as far as boycotts of Israel go, there is always hope. In fact, as soon as the fast is over, I think I'll have a Pepsi.