Defending Israel: Sermon for Yom Kippur

Defending Israel

Sermon for Yom Kippur 5775

By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman

© 2014 by Boaz D. Heilman

One of my favorite political cartoon strips comes from Israel.  Drawn by Yaakov Kirschen for the Jerusalem Post, it’s called Dry Bones, a reference to the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of Bones. Earlier this week, the strip featured a husband and wife talking about the current situation in Israel and relating it to Yom Kippur.  The wife opens the conversation:  “Yom Kippur is the day we use to list our sins and shortcomings. The whole world needs a day like that.”  Looking up from his newspaper, the husband replies:  “No they don’t!  They use the entire year… to list our sins and shortcomings.”

It’s an amusing observation, but it’s also all too true.  In the last few years, it’s become fashionable to criticize Israel, to find fault with any number of its policies, both foreign and domestic.  Israel bashing is now widespread and common, not only among terrorist groups, but in polite, sophisticated and enlightened countries as well. 

And so, since for much of the world, every day is Yom Kippur, I decided that today I am going to give myself and my home country a break.  Today, instead of pointing out Israel’s faults and sins, I am going to point out some of the things she actually does right.  Tomorrow we can go back to business as usual. Today, we count our blessings instead, as I look at the values that Israel prizes and endeavors to achieve.

So as everyone who has access to a TV, computer or a newspaper knows, Israel was involved in a war for much of this past summer.  I won’t get into the details, but I would like to mention that Israel went into this war reluctantly; that it agreed to, and accepted, eight ceasefires—which Hamas broke; that all through the war, Israel continued supplying Gaza with electricity and with literally tons of humanitarian aid every day, even as Hamas continued firing thousands of rockets and mortar rounds indiscriminately at towns and cities throughout Israel; and that the ground-force incursion came only after the attack tunnels were discovered.  The entrances to many of these tunnels were concealed inside apartment buildings, under mosque floors and within supposedly-UN-run clinics and hospitals, places where a bomb dropped from the sky would cause damage that Israel deemed excessive.  So instead, Israel ordered its foot soldiers to go in there.  Many of the Israeli soldiers who fell in Operation Protective Edge died because Hamas had booby-trapped these very building, with the full knowledge of Israel’s sensitivity to accusations of genocide and disproportionate response.

In fact, Israel took extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties among the Gazan population.  No other country in the world can claim, as Israel does, that before each bomb it dropped, every effort was made to let people know that it was coming.  Printed leaflets were dropped.  Calls were made to cell phones to make sure everyone who didn’t see the leaflets got the message anyway.  Then came “roof knocking,” in which a non-explosive or low-yield device is used as a warning for anyone who might still be in the building to leave.  Then and only then, after every chance to evacuate was given, did Israeli warplanes drop their bombs on the target.

In war and peace, Israel struggles to define and maintain its Jewish identity.  To be Jewish doesn’t just mean to recite prayers devoutly several times a day.  You must also strive to live by the highest Jewish ideals, even if on occasion you fall short.

One example is how Israel deals with the precept of freeing the captives—a mitzvah that today relates to a huge international problem:  the plight of refugees.

Israel has had to deal with more refugees from more places around the world than any other country in recent history.  While there are many problems—such as what to do with the thousands of Sudanese who fled persecution in their own country, made the dangerous trek across the Sinai Desert and finally arrived in Israel—only to find themselves unwanted there; yet many others, such as the 100,000 Ethiopian Jews who arrived in Israel in the 1980’s and 90’s, have managed to integrate and create new, productive lives for themselves in their new homeland.

I admit that when I first saw people of color—I must have been 8 or 9 years old—I must have stared and gawked shamelessly.  I hope I can be forgiven for that, though I still cringe at the memory.  What I knew at the time is that they came to Israel from Ghana to learn about farming and agriculture.  What I didn’t know is that the program that sponsored their studies was called Mashav.  Initiated by then-Prime-Minister David Ben Gurion and Foreign Minister Golda Meir, Mashav is Israel’s agency for international development and cooperation.  Since its inception in 1956, Mashav has trained more than 270,000 men and women from 150 countries.  Among other things, Mashav teaches developing countries about water conservancy and energy efficiency.  (By the way, it isn’t only third-world countries that benefit from Israel’s experience.  Even as we speak, Israeli water experts are helping California deal with its worst drought in history).

Ten years ago, Mashav sent a dairy farmer named Lior Yaron to China.  His job? To bring modern technology to China’s failing dairy farms. Israeli dairy cows, as it turns out, are the most productive in the world, yielding almost twice as much milk as their American counterparts.  China, on the other hand, has had to ration the milk that its cows produced.  That is, until Farmer Yaron arrived.  Within four years, cows in China doubled their production of milk; they have become the wonder of China and actually attract a huge number of visitors from all over Asia.

Poverty and hunger today are among the greatest challenges that the developing world is facing.  All over the world, global warming has caused some of the worst droughts ever.  Guess who is leading the world in the field of food production in drought conditions?  You guessed it:  Israel, observing the mitzvah to feed the hungry.

In Africa, which is particularly and disastrously affected by the global climate change, for decades now Israel has been teaching and enabling farmers to turn from subsistence farming to commercial farming. In Kenya, it’s helping to protect the water of Lake Victoria and is currently expanding its work to water treatment and management.  In Ethiopia, the focus is on drought resilience and dryland agriculture.  And in Ghana, Israel’s help is in the field of citrus production.

Another huge problem that Israel tackles both locally and globally is domestic violence, particularly violence against women.  How big is this problem?  It is estimated that in the US alone, domestic violence is the third leading cause of family homelessness.  In some other cultures, the murder of women who are perceived as bringing shame to their families is considered acceptable and even honorable. Their crimes? Refusing to enter an arranged marriage, seeking divorce from an abusive partner, or venturing out on the street unchaperoned by a male relative.

Here is where Mashav, Israel’s agency for international development and cooperation, does some of its most important.  Not far from where my mother lives, in Haifa, Mashav runs an international education center named after Golda Meir.  This center assists in the training of women engaged in community work, a beautiful phrase that basically means women’s rights and empowerment.  Since its founding in 1961, the Golda Meir Training Center has helped train nearly 20,000 women from 150 countries and regions, including the Palestinian Authority and Gaza.

Healing the sick is yet another commandment Israel observes diligently.  You may know already about Teva Pharmaceuticals, about CT scanners, MRI’s, surgical lasers and the pillcam, all developed in Israel.  But did you know that Israel is one of the world’s leaders in stem cell research?  Or that Israeli scientists are currently working on medicines proven effective in the treatment of MS and pancreatic cancer?  Did you know that there are about 1,000 companies in Israel that are involved in healthcare or life-science products?  

 

It’s well known that in the last few years, biomedical technology has become one of Israel’s chief exports.  What isn’t as well publicized is that a large part of the results of this work is actually dispensed for free—in medical and educational aid that Israel sends all over the world to victims of wars, earthquakes, fires, disease and other disasters. 

Helping the poor, feeding the hungry, healing the sick and freeing the oppressed—the very mitzvot we read about in this morning’s haftarah--these are some of the precepts that help define Israel’s mission and purpose today.  What’s so amazing is that Israel does all that while facing constant challenges to its existence and even to its very right to exist.   

Yet this idealistic and humanitarian work is rarely in the news.  It’s so much more interesting to show full-color pictures of war atrocities supposedly committed by the Jewish State. 

But Israel’s sacred service to the world does not go unrecognized.  The work of Lior Yaron, the dairy expert, won him the “Great Wall Friendship Award,” a prestigious prize conferred by the mayor of Beijing.  Perhaps more significantly, earlier this summer, Israel was appointed to serve as vice-chair on an important UN panel dealing with refugees and human rights.  More than 140 countries overrode a coordinated effort by Arab states to thwart this appointment.  The selection of Israel to serve on this committee displays both gratitude and acknowledgment of the Jewish state’s many contributions to humanity and the world.

In the past, it was customary on Yom Kippur to ask for contributions for impoverished Jews living in Israel. 

In my parents’ generation, it was the Israel Bonds campaign.  The 1948 War of Independence had taken a terrible toll on Israel’s economy and population.  On top of this came the complexities of absorbing hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors and almost three quarters of a million refugees from Arab countries.

But today, I’m not here to ask you to buy Israel Bonds.  I’m not even going to suggest that you invest in Israeli stocks.

But I do ask that you invest something else in our Jewish homeland:  More than ever, Israel needs your support:  At home or at work; on college and high school campuses; in the daily newspapers and in all the social media; and not least, in Congress and the White House.  We need to support Israel.  Not because Israel is pure and blameless; it does have its faults, and it does makes mistakes, and we don’t even have to agree with all of its policies.

But Israel deserves our support for three basic reasons:  First, because Israel is probably America’s best and most trusted ally, if not in the whole world, then definitely in its region of the world.  Second, because we, as Americans and as Jews, share Israel’s values and, like Israel, try to live by the highest standards, ethics and principles. And third, we must support Israel because criticism of Israel does not stop with Israel. As anti-Israel protesters marched in Europe and elsewhere this summer, slogans such as “Death to the Jews!” in Belgium and France and “Gas the Jews!” in Germany revealed the true identity of the evil ideology behind the protesters’ masks.

By defending Israel’s right to defend herself, we stand up for Israel’s right to exist.  By supporting Israel’s vital work around the world, we become partners with its cause and mission. And by being there for Israel, we ensure that Israel is there for us too. 

Thousands of years ago, when we stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai, we affirmed our unity.  From rich to poor, men, women and children, we declared ourselves, as one people, ready to accept the mission God set out for us.  Today, I call on each one of us to reaffirm our solidarity with our people, to be there for one another, to find new strength and hope for the future

as we stand together, arms linked, shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart.

Am Yisrael chai!  The People of Israel lives!

G’mar chatimah tova, may we all be inscribed and sealed for a good year of health, happiness, love and peace. 

Kein y’hi ratzon, may this be God’s will.