Jewish Unity

There is a great story about an embarrassed guest at the Shabbat table of a famous rabbi. The Shabbat table was meticulously set: a beautiful white table cloth that was used only to celebrate the holiness and joy of the family Sabbath. The guests were talking and enjoying when one of them accidently hits his wine glass with his hand and out spills the wine, soiling and staining the table cloth and everyone gasps in horror. With barely a moment passing, the rabbi takes his hand and intentionally hits his wine glass spilling the wine and making an even bigger mess.
To the rabbi, the table cloth was unimportant. How his guest felt was paramount. At the moment of the first spill, the guest was singled out: the center of negative attention; he felt alone and embarrassed and in a sense, alienated from the others around the table. The rabbi would not allow it; he spilled his wine to bring his guest back into the fold --people spill wine; you are one of us, we are all together despite our clumsiness, despite our flaws, despite our superficial differences.

Something similar happens in our parasha this morning. Moses is atop Mount Sinai, the people of Israel are down below. Seeing that Moses is delayed in coming down from the mountain, the people panic and insist that Aaron build them a Golden Calf. God is angry and tells Moses that He will destroy the people for their sin and make Moses and his descendants, God’s people. As Moses descends the mountain seeing the Golden Calf, he too is angered and throws down the tablets, breaking them as the base of the calf.

On the surface of the text, it looks like Moses throws down the tablets because he’s angry. But a midrash takes this passage in another direction. For the Midrash, Moses throws the tablets as an intentional sinful act. After all, God will not be pleased with Moses smashing His holy tablets. In effect, Moses is saying to God: the people sinned, but I too have sinned. If you are going to destroy them, then you will have to destroy me too. Moses will not let God separate his fate from the fate of his people. They are one, they are unified; leader and people and God spares them both.

I mentioned in my sermon last week about Esther, reticent to approach the king to advocate for her people. And Mordechai comes to her and tells her explicitly: do not think that you are somehow different and separate from your people. Their fate is your fate; if the Jews are destroyed, so will you be. And, of course, Esther does approach the king and in the end, saves her people, saves her crown, saves her own life.

In World War One, many German Jews distinguished themselves as officers and soldiers in the German Army. They were war heroes and the German government decorated them and honored them as loyal and courageous citizens of the German reich.

With the rise of the Nazi government, these war heroes assumed they and their families were safe –they had risked their lives for Germany; they were more German than Jewish. In fact, most German Jews as the Nazis were amassing power, believed that ultimately, in the end, the German people would not allow Nazi anti-Semitism to prevail; Jews had lived in Germany for generations. They lived, worked, had friends, were integrated and assimilated into German culture and society. But they were wrong for most all of them were murdered –the war heroes, their families, their children and grandchildren. If you had a Jewish grandmother, you were a Jew and you would die. Jews in Nazi Germany all suffered the same fate: as Mordechai said to Esther two and a half millennia before Hitler –do not think that you of all Jews will escape with your life by being in the King’s palace.” You won’t, we didn’t and we never will. History has shown us that the fate of world Jewry is our fate whether we like it or not; whether we are assimilated or not; whether we practice our Judaism or not.

If we are all in the same boat, than we had better figure out a way to get along and present a united front to what has always been a hostile world. It was for good reason that the original motto for United Jewish Appeal was “We are One.” We weren’t at that time, nor have we really ever been –but the motto stood because we knew then that internal division in the Jewish community threatened Jewish lives. In the second Temple period, the rabbis attributed the destruction of the Temple not to Roman invasion, but to divisiveness in our own community. They called it “sinat chinam,” senseless hatred among Jews. Their divisiveness made them weak so that the Romans had an easy time of it wiping them all out and leveling our Holy Temple.

There is dissension in the Jewish community today. Between those who understand their Judaism differently. Between Jewish Democrats and Jewish Republicans. Between Jewish hawks and Jewish doves. And of most concern to me now: diverse approaches to the support of the State of Israel. It has been since 1967 already, that the demonization of the Israel by many in the world, has grown and prevailed. We see it coming out of the Arab world, which we expect, but now we see it throughout Europe and in many quarters in America: particularly on college campuses and growing among some American Protestant denominations.

We are not immune to these characterizations and our children are even less immune. Most young Jews don’t know all that much about Israel so they are all the more likely to fall under the sway of Israel’s enemies. Israel, as a Jewish state is under attack. In the last several years, the notion of a bi-national state has been proffered as a solution to the problem. A bi-national state means that Israel would annex the territories, Palestinian refugees return, everyone gets a vote, and suddenly, Jews become a minority and Israel in no more. The greatest Jewish experiment in modern times is over. And make no mistake, the fate of Israel is the fate of world Jewry. If Israel were to fail, I am convinced, world Jewry would follow.
In the Jewish community, we can debate the merits of this Israeli government verses that one, this policy or that: that debate happens publically in Israel every single day. But to my mind, the American Jewish community must present a unified front to the world --American Jews support Israel as a Jewish State, today, tomorrow, forever. Divisions between younger Jews and older, between liberal Jews and conservative must not pull us apart for we have one message that only we can and must make: we support Israel as a Jewish state and will do whatever we can to protect it for the safety and security of Israelis and the for the future of our Jewish communities all over the world.

The rabbi spilled his wine all over his table cloth to let his guest know that no matter how clumsy, no matter how different on the surface, really, no matter what: we are the same. We are one family, one community, one people and as such, we will accept each other unconditionally and we will stand together so we don’t fall apart. When we have forgotten this lesson in the past, Jews perished. The fate of the Jewish people has been placed in our hands. It’s our responsibility now and soon we will hand it down to our kids. We have to be ready and we must equip our kids to do the same. We are called upon today to step forward to do our part. We really have no choice but to do so. Shabbat Shalom