10/11/2023
This past weekend was profoundly difficult, doing our best to celebrate Shabbat, the conclusion of Sukkot in Shemini Atzeret, and the start of a new year of Torah reading in Simchat Torah - all while absorbing the news coming in from Israel of a horrific Hamas assault on innocent civilians.
I know that many of you, like me, are grieving for the lives that have already been lost and becoming sick with worry for those who have been taken captive and who are being called to Israel’s defense, among whom are many family and friends. Though our people have witnessed such inhumanity before, it’s been long since we’ve witnessed this much. There can be no doubt that these are crimes against humanity - transgressions against the very dignity that ought to be afforded to each and every human being.
And I know that many of you, like me, have deep reservations about the precipitating circumstances that have led up to this moment and about what the reaction from Israel’s leaders and its armed forces may yet be. There is no moral universe where crimes against humanity justify further crimes against humanity. The strategies pursued both by Israel and its Palestinian-Arab neighbors have failed to end this conflict. Further violence, no matter how righteously wielded, cannot bring true peace.
I’m terrified for our people, bodies and souls.
There’s a way in which I think of all Israelis already as heroes, giborim, who have risen time and again, and who rise even now, to defend one another and to defend their home. There are no good choices left for them. There are no paths ahead that do not lead to further suffering.
For me, the Torah I needed to hear in this moment came to me from Pirkei Avot 4:1. The sage Ben Zoma asks rhetorically, eizehu gibor “Who is a mighty hero?” And he answers himself, ha-kovesh et yitzro “One who subdues their [evil] inclination.” Then citing the book of Proverbs to support his claim, “Better to be forbearing than mighty, to have self-control than to conquer a city.”
The nation of Israel is one body and we have been badly wounded. Our instincts tell us to strike back in anger, and who am I to say that this is irrational? I hurt too.
We must be brave now. We must be giborim who stand for our own humanity and the humanity of all the innocent. Though we are far from the fighting itself, we can stand for humanity by sending our money to organizations that work for healing and peace. We can stand for humanity by continuing to speak of peace and to pursue it. And we can encourage one another to bear up under their fear by coming together, by listening, and by supporting each other.
A community-focused gathering is being planned at Beit Am this Wednesday evening as an opportunity to do just that. I’m also in conversations with Rabbi Menachem Angster of Chabad of Corvallis and with Michala Katz and Lev Silberstein of OSU Hillel about the possibility of a more public display of solidarity of support. And our Friday night and Saturday morning Shabbat services are yet more opportunities to be together, to mourn, and to pray that healing and peace come swiftly.
Oseh shalom bimromav hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu v’al kol yisrael v’al kol yoshvei teivel.
May the One who makes peace on high make peace for us, for all Israel, and for all who dwell on earth.
Shalom,
Rabbi Phil Bressler
Beit Am — Corvallis, Oregon
