We are well into the Omer weeks before the holiday of Shavuot, but somehow my mind is still in Passover mode. Certain images keep flashing through: the people hurrying to leave Egypt with no time for their dough to rise, and the obsession we have with leaven -- cleaning, burning, and disavowing it the way we do before Passover.
It is serious, some would even say stressful. We know there is no minimum amount of chametz that doesn?t count ? God has a zero tolerance policy there, and the punishment for eating chametz at Passover is the cutting off of one?s soul from our people. It sounds harsh ? a punishment so severe for what could be a slight oversight, unintentional or even unaware.
But I have always thought it to be more of a natural consequence than an imposed punishment. It simply acknowledges a state that exists. Someone who is so dissociated from Jewish life as not to know it is Passover, or so disaffected as not to care, has a soul already thoroughly cut off from Jews and Judaism.
So maybe Passover is refusing to leave my thoughts this year because its essential question seems to be still open. The mitzvoth of Passover form an identity and loyalty test, a chance to check the strength of the bonds that bind us to God and to each other. But maybe it isn?t the only such test. Maybe Ariel Sharon is presenting us with another.
The Prime Minister of Israel says he is about to put an Israeli stamp of approval on an act of ethnic cleansing. He is telling the world that ethnic cleansing isn?t always a crime against humanity; The surrounding non-Jews won?t live in peace with them? The terrorists keep murdering them? OK. Solve the problem by forcing the Jews to go somewhere else. It is OK to uproot people from their friends and neighbors, destroy their businesses, steal their homes, traumatize their children and turn them into refugees ? as long as it is done to Jews.
This government, and every other government in the world, would consider it a reprehensible crime if forced on any other people. The Arabs responsible for turning the area into a war zone in the first place don?t have to worry about being forced out ? only the Jews. And of course, if it is OK to do it to Jews in Israel, where our residential rights come from the Almighty himself, then surely it is OK to do it to Jews anywhere else in the world where our presence is found to be irksome.
Now, I see a logistical problem here. Jews from all over the world come to Israel as a haven when their current host country lets them know they have worn out their welcome. But if Jews are made to be unwelcome in disputed territories in Israel, where are they to go? You might assume, to the non-disputed parts of Israel. Unfortunately, there are none. The Arabs claim all of Israel, piece-by-piece, and city-by-city. There will be no end to their pressure to push us out, because there is no place anywhere in the Land that appears on Arab maps as legitimately Israel, the Jewish State.
To the world, the State of Israel represents Jews, if not exactly Judaism. Is ethnic cleansing of innocent Jews, and only Jews, really something you want to recommend as acceptable policy to the world? To France? To Britain? To Holland? To Germany? To Russia? To the Arabs? To Iran?
This is where the dough is now, and there is no middle ground. Either you eat matzo or you eat chametz. Either you vote against forced deportation of Jews in Gaza and the West Bank, or you vote for it. But there was no referendum in which to vote? Then you make your position known in other ways. Plant your feet firmly on Jewish soil and say, ?No. Not in my name. Not in my lifetime. Not ever again.? For if you do nothing, you acquiesce and give sanction to a precedent that will encourage terror, invigorate our enemies, and increase Jewish suffering all over the world, even in your part of the world.
So no one should sit this one out. No one should say, ?I don?t live there, it?s not my business.? If you are Jewish, it is your business.
Spread the word ? you can start by copying this column and sending it to everyone on your e-mail list, and try to get it into your local newspaper, and your synagogue or Jewish Center newsletter, too. Speak up about the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, and you will find many people don?t know that some of these ?settlers? have lived and built there for three generations, and that Sharon is planning to give everything they built out of bare sand dunes to the terrorists who are your enemies and mine.
The more people know, the more pressure there will be on the Prime Minister to explain to the free world why he thinks forced disengagement of Jews from Gaza is rational, let alone legal or moral, so be as informative as you can.
Step two is action: take your summer vacation time and camp money and come to Israel. Demonstrate with your presence your support for the principle of Zionism, the ethics of the Torah, or plain Jewish solidarity. It?s too soon, and you?re not prepared? Well, after months and months of prophecy and miracles, the Jews were unprepared to leave Egypt too.
They took their matzo and came anyway, and so should you. At least think about it. Because if you are so dissociated from Jewish life not to know what is happening here, or so disaffected as not to care ? you might find yourself metaphorically eating chametz on Passover.
It is serious, some would even say stressful. We know there is no minimum amount of chametz that doesn?t count ? God has a zero tolerance policy there, and the punishment for eating chametz at Passover is the cutting off of one?s soul from our people. It sounds harsh ? a punishment so severe for what could be a slight oversight, unintentional or even unaware.
But I have always thought it to be more of a natural consequence than an imposed punishment. It simply acknowledges a state that exists. Someone who is so dissociated from Jewish life as not to know it is Passover, or so disaffected as not to care, has a soul already thoroughly cut off from Jews and Judaism.
So maybe Passover is refusing to leave my thoughts this year because its essential question seems to be still open. The mitzvoth of Passover form an identity and loyalty test, a chance to check the strength of the bonds that bind us to God and to each other. But maybe it isn?t the only such test. Maybe Ariel Sharon is presenting us with another.
The Prime Minister of Israel says he is about to put an Israeli stamp of approval on an act of ethnic cleansing. He is telling the world that ethnic cleansing isn?t always a crime against humanity; The surrounding non-Jews won?t live in peace with them? The terrorists keep murdering them? OK. Solve the problem by forcing the Jews to go somewhere else. It is OK to uproot people from their friends and neighbors, destroy their businesses, steal their homes, traumatize their children and turn them into refugees ? as long as it is done to Jews.
This government, and every other government in the world, would consider it a reprehensible crime if forced on any other people. The Arabs responsible for turning the area into a war zone in the first place don?t have to worry about being forced out ? only the Jews. And of course, if it is OK to do it to Jews in Israel, where our residential rights come from the Almighty himself, then surely it is OK to do it to Jews anywhere else in the world where our presence is found to be irksome.
Now, I see a logistical problem here. Jews from all over the world come to Israel as a haven when their current host country lets them know they have worn out their welcome. But if Jews are made to be unwelcome in disputed territories in Israel, where are they to go? You might assume, to the non-disputed parts of Israel. Unfortunately, there are none. The Arabs claim all of Israel, piece-by-piece, and city-by-city. There will be no end to their pressure to push us out, because there is no place anywhere in the Land that appears on Arab maps as legitimately Israel, the Jewish State.
To the world, the State of Israel represents Jews, if not exactly Judaism. Is ethnic cleansing of innocent Jews, and only Jews, really something you want to recommend as acceptable policy to the world? To France? To Britain? To Holland? To Germany? To Russia? To the Arabs? To Iran?
This is where the dough is now, and there is no middle ground. Either you eat matzo or you eat chametz. Either you vote against forced deportation of Jews in Gaza and the West Bank, or you vote for it. But there was no referendum in which to vote? Then you make your position known in other ways. Plant your feet firmly on Jewish soil and say, ?No. Not in my name. Not in my lifetime. Not ever again.? For if you do nothing, you acquiesce and give sanction to a precedent that will encourage terror, invigorate our enemies, and increase Jewish suffering all over the world, even in your part of the world.
So no one should sit this one out. No one should say, ?I don?t live there, it?s not my business.? If you are Jewish, it is your business.
Spread the word ? you can start by copying this column and sending it to everyone on your e-mail list, and try to get it into your local newspaper, and your synagogue or Jewish Center newsletter, too. Speak up about the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, and you will find many people don?t know that some of these ?settlers? have lived and built there for three generations, and that Sharon is planning to give everything they built out of bare sand dunes to the terrorists who are your enemies and mine.
The more people know, the more pressure there will be on the Prime Minister to explain to the free world why he thinks forced disengagement of Jews from Gaza is rational, let alone legal or moral, so be as informative as you can.
Step two is action: take your summer vacation time and camp money and come to Israel. Demonstrate with your presence your support for the principle of Zionism, the ethics of the Torah, or plain Jewish solidarity. It?s too soon, and you?re not prepared? Well, after months and months of prophecy and miracles, the Jews were unprepared to leave Egypt too.
They took their matzo and came anyway, and so should you. At least think about it. Because if you are so dissociated from Jewish life not to know what is happening here, or so disaffected as not to care ? you might find yourself metaphorically eating chametz on Passover.