Shabbat Hazon

Now is Shabbat Hazon, the Sabbath preceding the Fast of Av. It is the Shabbat bearing one of my favorite readings from the Prophets, Yeshaya's delivering Hashem's rebuke of the people of Israel. Odd choice I know, but it synthesizes the mission for our people...what matters, and what doesn't. In a word, it's about priorities.

"What need have I of all your sacrifices?"
Says the Lord.
"I am sated with burnt offerings of rams,
And suet of fatlings,
And blood of bulls;
And I have no delight
In lambs and he-goats.
That you come to appear before Me —
Who asked that of you?
Trample My courts
no more;

Bringing oblations is futile,
Incense is offensive to Me.
New moon and sabbath,
Proclaiming of solemnities,
Assemblies with iniquity,
I cannot abide.

Your new moons and fixed seasons
Fill Me with loathing;
They are become a burden to Me,
I cannot endure them.

And when you lift up your hands,
I will turn My eyes away from you;
Though you pray at length,
I will not listen.
Your hands are stained with crime —

Wash yourselves clean;
Put your evil doings
Away from My sight.
Cease to do evil;

Learn to do good.
Devote yourselves to justice;
Aid the wronged.
Uphold the rights of the orphan;
Defend the cause of the widow.

Pure. Simple. Ritual without cause, ritual for its own sake, without fulfilling the purpose means nothing. It's not the rituals that are the most important, it is what we do when we are not engaged in them that matters.

In the past few months I have engaged critics of Israel, some of them thinly veiling their Jew hate. As I recall, the motivation of one of these critics was that Israel was supposed to be some kind of role model to the rest of the world, and that because of the way they have treated the Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and because of their perception that the IDF is nothing more than a bunch of undisciplined, thoughtless killers whose only strategy is disproportionate response against civilians, Israel has lost the moral authority that a Jewish state is supposed to have.

The truth of the matter slowly surfaces long after the fact, as it always does. The IDF acts with restraint, and takes extreme measures to protect civilians. But no one is perfect. No nation is perfect, but the standard that the nations of the world want Israel to live by mean nothing when those standards are set by those who could never possibly uphold them, and actively operate in such a deep seeded immoral fashion it is as if the message is, "Hear O Israel, you must act rightly all the time because we are incapable of doing so...and it will be hell for you when we say you don't."

Devote yourselves to justice.

Israel is perpetually struggling with Rabbi Hillel's questions: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But, if I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?

Midinat Yisrael has struggled to balance these teachings over the last 61 years, with varying degrees of success and failure. Israel has unabashedly stood against those who would see her destroyed. And why shouldn't she? We know what happens when we roll over and die. We know what happens when we fight. Whether the fight ends with the fate of Rabbi Akiva, whose flesh was flayed from his bones by the Romans (maybe Mel Gibson ought to make a movie about that), or with the reclamation of what was ours as Mattathias and his sons did, and as the IDF did in 1967.

There is a lot of work to do in Israel; whether it is issues pertaining to the Bedouin, the establishing consensus between secular and Haredi communities, or navigating the treacherous road of maintaining security, and all that this entails. And who can say there is not a lack of priorities when ultra-orthodox leaders lobbied to make it a crime for women to pray audibly at the Kotel, and that the punishment for this "crime" should be seven years in jail, when the standard sentence for rape at the time was 3 years? The justification for this was that G-d doesn't listen to the prayers of women. As Yeshaya points out to us today, G-d doesn't listen to those who make a mockery of what we are supposed to stand for. But while the world perpetually decries Israel as an apartheid nazi state, it is Israel who has historically provided more aid and financial assistance to the Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza than any country or NGO. It is Israel that has provided weapons to PA "security forces" that are supposed to be used to break up terror rings but end up killing Israelis. Israel is the party that has engaged in attempts to move the peace process forward by allowing for PA autonomy, lifting restrictions on movement, etc. In the past these gestures have always...always been answered by renewed attempts at killing Jews.

And while the world bemoans the fate of the Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, they fail to see the root of its cause; Arab policy of genocide against the Jews of Israel, and the control of these Arabs by mafia terror regimes that pocket their aid money, steal their humanitarian materials, and then sell them on the street to the very people that material was sent to help.

It is the G-d of Israel whose standards Am Yisrael has striven and often failed to attain, but also achieves to the benefit of all. Medical technologies and procedures developed in Israel are used all over the world from the most sophisticated facilities to war zones and disaster sites. Water conservation and solar technologies developed in Israel are applied across the globe. The list of advancements that Israel shares with the world is vast. These things are pursued as a result of Israel's, and the Jewish peoples' priorities as a nation, as a result of the standards it struggles to achieve. Saving lives has always been central to the Jewish ethic. It translates into these technologies. It translates into programs like Shevet Achim which helps non-Israeli children from across the Middle East get to Israel to receive lifesaving medical treatment, or IsraAid, or Latet. It translates into the large percentage of Israeli tax dollars devoted to humanitarian aid and projects. The attempted imposition of standards of nations who have time and time again set themselves against us mean nothing.

Does the world pursue justice? Fatah leaders have once again stated that they do not recognize Israel and will continue to pursue armed struggle against her. The world reaction? Nothing. If the world wants justice, if the world wants peace, then it should work to abort the Arab policy of Jewish genocide. As long as this fails to happen, talk of peace processes and state solutions are nothing but meaningless rituals that serve no purpose, and make a mockery of human rights. And Israel will continue to have to make its internal domestic issues take a back seat to its constant priority; defending itself against those who seek to destroy her from without, and within.

Ultimately I would like to see the fulfillment of the swords being beaten into plowshares, but from the baseless hatred that continues to fester, from the ludicrous cause-driven policies of the Left that tells us a Palestinian state must happen, regardless of the fact that its leadership hates Jews and is dedicated to their genocide (one can only conclude one of three things from this: the Left is totally stupid, hates Jews, or both) don't count on that happening any time soon.

It's time for everyone to start figuring out what they mean by justice, what they mean by peace, and being honest about it. The current rituals are meaningless, and are of no use to anyone.