Judaism and equality - or lack thereof

The days of Passover command us to remember the story of the Exodus. One of the most fundamental messages of the Exodus is the idea that a nation has decided that "freedom" can take precedence over life itself. In fact, halakha tells us that maintaining our freedom to remain Jews is one of the very few cases in which we must be willing to give up our lives.

In the past, the freedom of religion, in the sense of conducting rituals, was left to a small, elite group and the role of the religious leadership was crucial - that was the reality when man entered the modern age.

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Judaism is not racism

Approximately seven years ago at the World Conference against Racism held in Durban, South Africa in 2001, Rabbis for Human rights faced one of its most difficult moments. As a human rights organization, we are undoubtedly against racism, and feel strongly about efforts to stop the phenomenon. But, this particular conference became a platform for Israel-bashing in which Israel was blamed and Zionism for racism and to avoid dealing with this cross-continent phenomena. Eight years later when the second conference is about to take place, there is great hesitation in the organization about joining the conference; hesitation that is followed by a petition against having it hijacked by anti-Semitism.

For many years now I have been facing this dilemma. As a rabbi and educator I promote sincere and deep learning of the Jewish culture for every member of the Jewish nation, I think that this is essential in order to develop one's full identity. On the other hand, as a human rights activist, it is clear to me that emphasizing the belonging of a person to a community essentially leads him/her to differentiate between the way he sees members of his community from the rest of mankind. I think this is even clearer once dealing with a monotheistic culture that holds within it the concept of the right way and the concept of wrong doers. Because of that, I find it crucial to emphasize the voice within our tradition that points out our obligation to every human being and the texts that are for the basic equality for all mankind, irrespective of religion, gender or race. So what does that mean about the Jewish tradition?

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Killings, robberies and the Mishna

A few months ago, our car was stolen. We filled in a form at the police station and were told that the chances of finding the car were slim. Then, last Shabbat, my mother's apartment was burgled. The routine was similar - the police indicated that there was little that could be done and that we should think about buying a better lock.

What is the interesting part of this story?

Almost everyone we told our sad story to asked us only if the car and contents had been insured. When we answered that they had been, they considered the matter closed. We had been lucky. To tell the truth, even I felt somewhat relieved.

So who takes responsibility when something is stolen? Not the police, who had very little work to do in this case, Not the insurance company, which will probably just raise the premiums. Not the public, who pay less in taxes for less police work. And not even us, since we were able to replace the car using the insurance money, without the trouble of selling the old one. The thief! I hope he is happy with our car. We used to like it.

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Love the Stranger

The commandment to "therefore love the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 10:19) has particular relevance to recent events in the Druse village of Peki'in and how we might view them.

In order to explain what I mean, allow me to begin with a couple of personal memories.

My first visit to the Druse village of Peki'in occurred when I was about eleven years old. I was on a Bnei Akiva trip and the tour guide had one point of importance to make about the village: that there had been a continuous Jewish settlement in the village for almost two thousand years, ever since the Bar-Kochva period. One of the experiences that I guess many visitors never forget is eating one of Raya's paper-thin Druze pita with labbaneh. Many religious visitors stop there, because Raya, an elderly Druse woman, had a special connection with Margalit Zinati who insured that the preparation of the pita was done under supervision of the "Jew of Peki'in". I remember Raya instructing me to join her in stirring the fire, so there would be no doubt of "Pat Akum" (bread baked by a gentile).

Love the stranger

We all tend to associate minorities and foreigners with 'strangers' and feel a natural alienation from them. The commandment to love the stranger is more than a law ensuring the stranger's basic rights, or an edict to lend him a hand in times of trouble.

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What is Conservative Judaism?

Recently, over the past high holidays, as I was looking over the very diverse crowd of people who came to pray at our synagogue, another definition of Conservative Judaism occurred to me, and I would like to share it with you.

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