Parshat Shemot -
5780
Rabbi Shaanan
Gelman
“Know
Thine Enemy”
On Parshat
Vayigash I was invited to serve as scholar in residence in Givat Ze’ev. The weekend was arranged by the Rabbinical
Council of America and the Barkai Center for Practical Rabbinics in
Israel. Barkai trains and educates
Israeli rabbanim by developing the pastoral skill set which has historically not
played a role in Israeli shuls and communities.
This coming May, their Rabbi, Rabbi Motti Simpson, will be coming to KCT
to spend Shabbat with us. The goal is to
learn from one another, to appreciate some of the unique characteristics and
challenges of Jewish life in the diaspora and in Israeli communities.
At an Oneg
Shabbat, I fielded questions from the tzibur, curious to learn about the
new-antisemitism we are facing, at the same time - we took a moment to
appreciate the new Israel, one thankfully more safe and secure than ever
before, even with the periodic missile attacks from the south.
I was blessed to
meet with and speak with our teens, who are growing in such remarkable ways in
Yeshiva and Seminary. They have fully
embraced an ahavat Torah and an ahavat Eretz Yisrael. They are thinking critically about some of
the most important issues of the day, I could not be prouder of them. We as a shul ought to be proud of them.
Finally, I spent
this past a week engaged in intensive meetings with religious leaders, politicians
and military personnel and leading thinkers of our day discussing the most
serious meta question affecting Israel today - namely the Israeli - Palestinian
dynamic. Because whether we wish it were so or not, most predictions see the
ratio of Jew to non Jew reaching equilibrium in the very near future. And there are no simple solutions in sight-
because either Israel must annex the West Bank , which means forfeiting her
democratic ideals to preserve its status as a Jewish nation. But this also means, withholding equal
democratic rights from Arab citizens.
Alternatively, we can continue to explore the “two state solution”,
which at best, leaves hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the newer
developments (of the West Bank) isolated and vulnerable, and at worst serves as
a catalyst for a repeat of Gaza.
I want to tell you about one such person I met.
Qaz, he is a student, 20 years old from Nablus, known to us by
the biblical name of Shechem. He is part
of a youth movement called Zimam, a non-violent, anti Chamas group, attempting
to build a base of future moderate leadership.
He told me a frightening fact which I understand is fairly
representative of a broader sampling - that he is the only person in his
building who isn't affiliated or sympathetic to the cause of Hamas. Qaz and his friends face constant pressure
to join the extremist terrorist organization.
All of that aside, he believes that he is living in an unfair
and unjust reality , he speaks passionately about checkpoints, long waits in
traffic to get into Jerusalem, the pain of living behind a wall, poor
healthcare and a handful of other difficulties of his life.
While Qaz was taught to blame Israel for his predicament, he is
capable of pointing a finger inward as well.
I then said to him -
"I know what it's like to not be able to access my sacred places - my
people came to the Holy Land - 3000 years ago, we brought with us our ancestor
- Yosef HaTzadik. As I am sure that you
know, he was buried in one of the first cities immediately beyond the Jordan
river - Shechem - your city of residence”.
I told him that I remember 17 years ago, when he was only a toddler - I turned on the television
after Rosh Hashana and I’ll never forget the scene - Arabs violently tearing
apart the grave of Yosef, the first Jewish landmark established by us as a
nation.
If I want to visit Yosef, I continued - I cannot do so freely -
I need an IDF escort, and can only do so if prearranged. It is virtually impossible.
Then I took a piece of paper and I proceeded to jot down the Hebrew
names of my members and other cholim,
I folded it over and asked him to deliver the note to the kever. He was taken aback -
but he thought about it, and he agreed to do so, to be my shaliach and bring my kvitel
to the kever.
=======
And so, lest you imagine otherwise, world peace was not
established, but, for a brief moment, there was a human connection forged - one
in which two people, who will never agree looked over and saw more than a
savage before their eyes. I was no
longer an occupier, but a believing human being, with family and congregants
for whom I needed to daven. Call me
naive, but I would like to believe that what I said resonated with him.
And while I don’t think this provides much of an antidote to the
larger issue at hand, it is instructive when it comes to smaller scale
conflicts.
It is most interesting that this lesson is derived from Yosef
HaTzadik in the first place: Yosef,
arguably the central figure for the back half of Sefer Bereishit, dies in the
final possuk of last week’s parsha
but makes one final cameo appearance in Shemot:
וַיָּקָם מֶלֶךְ חָדָשׁ עַל מִצְרָיִם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָדַע אֶת יוֹסֵף
And a new King presided
over Egypt, one who didn't “know” Yosef.
Immediately, the
persecution begins:
וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל עַמּוֹ הִנֵּה עַם בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל רַב וְעָצוּם
מִמֶּנּוּ.
הָבָה נִתְחַכְּמָה לוֹ פֶּן יִרְבֶּה וְהָיָה כִּי תִקְרֶאנָה מִלְחָמָה
וְנוֹסַף גַּם הוּא עַל שֹׂנְאֵינוּ וְנִלְחַם בָּנוּ וְעָלָה מִן הָאָרֶץ.
וַיָּשִׂימוּ עָלָיו שָׂרֵי מִסִּים לְמַעַן עַנֹּתוֹ בְּסִבְלֹתָם
וַיִּבֶן עָרֵי מִסְכְּנוֹת לְפַרְעֹה אֶת פִּתֹם וְאֶת רַעַמְסֵס.
What happened in Egypt?
How did the Jews go from being prominent and beloved members of Egyptian
society, essential components of the fabric of Eretz goshen and beyond, to
becoming a fifth column?
How could anyone, let alone the country's leader, not know who
Yosef was?
Sforno tells us that undoubtedly פרעה knew all about Yosef - he was written up in all of the history
books, and on the pictographs, there were monuments of him in the pulbic
square:
ספורנו
ויקם מלך חדש על מצרים אשר לא ידע את יוסף. אף על פי שהיה זכרון ממנו בדברי הימים למלכים בלי ספק, בפרט בענין החֹמֶשׁ אשר שם לחק (בראשית מז, כו), לא עלתה על לב המלך החדש אפשרות היותו מזה העם, ושהיה עם זה ראוי לשאת פנים לעמו בעבורו.
Pharaoh knew of Yosef, how could he not! What he didn't know was
the people who descended from Yosef, the Jewish slaves - he couldn't understand
how they were related to the legendary Yosef.
He knew Yosef but not the people who lived in his own land.
When someone is a complete unknown, it serves as a breeding
ground for contempt, fear and dispute.
Think about our current predicament in the United States and
around the world? Jews are attacked
regularly not because they are known but rather because they are unknown - most
recently the horrific modern-day pogrom in Uman, near the grave of Rebbe
Nachman of Breslav.
Allison Josephs, known for her non-profit “Jew in the City” -
recently unveiled a simple and powerful initiative to combat antisemitism in
New York - it's called “Meet a Jew Make a Friend” a pop-up booth where city
dwellers can get to know Jews - learning about us in a friendly
non-confrontational manner. Those who
stop by enjoy a cup of coffee together with an Orthodox Jew and converse about
parenthood, employment and other relatable topics. The goal - to show the world that we aren't
some “other”.
Because it's a lot harder to hate someone you recognize, with
whom you interact and have a rapport.
This is indeed what Rav Soloveitchik spoke about in his famous
essay “Confrontation” - in which he described the condition of the Jew in the
world through the words of Avraham Avinu:
בראשית פרק כג
(ד) גֵּר־וְתוֹשָׁ֥ב אָנֹכִ֖י עִמָּכֶ֑ם תְּנ֨וּ לִ֤י אֲחֻזַּת־קֶ֙בֶר֙
עִמָּכֶ֔ם
A Jew is an alien, a stranger, but the Jew is also a citizen of
the world.
The stories of attacks and the growing list of casualties must
be ingested alongside the plethora of stories of kidushei Hashem - from the letter of the venue of the siyum haShas attesting to the
cleanliness and orderly behavior of the Jewish guests, to the countless “thank
you’s” doled out to state troopers in Met Life Stadium, or the viral tweet of
the Jew who stopped on his way to the hospital to help a complete stranger
change a tire (keeping her out of harm's way) on the shoulder of a highway.
We are different, but not insular. We study Torah, but we are simultaneously able
to sanctify God’s name in the public sphere.
We are the Ger VeToshav. Yosef
knew it, but one generation later - the Jews became Gerim. All the world was able to know about us was
that we remained a mystery, an "other". And when we don't embrace the second side of
this equation, who do they meet? A financial
scandal here, a chillul Hashem there, a radical leftist who apologizes for the
State of Israel bearing no pride or historical awareness.
We mustn’t ever allow
ourselves to be unknown.
This has bearing on our personal encounters and our familial
ones as well - Remember, פרעה wasn't the first
person to look upon Yosef as a stranger, the brothers did years earlier והם לא הכירוהו. The Avodas Yisrael
comments that the terrible atrocity of the mechira
(the sale of Yosef) was the result of them not knowing Yosef - as he
approached - they saw him, but only from afar.
They did not recognize him - ויראו אותו מרחוק.
I hope one day to not have to go beyond a wall to visit the
Maarat haMachpeila in Chevron, I remain hopeful that I will be able to pray for
my family and community in person at Kever Yosef, I believe that we can fight anti-Antisemitism
by consciously seeking out ways to sanctify God’s name. Let’s not be strangers - not to the world and
especially not to those in our community or family. In doing so, may we witness an end to hate,
violence, indifference, and pain, ushering a period of connection and
sensitivity.
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