"To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner.  I am not a teacher, only a fellow student."  (Soren Kierkegaard)

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A FEW PRE-SHABBAT WORDS FROM RABBI AARON

...And A Time to Hate?
We all get email passed around (and around) from various habitual senders (oh, you know who you are; and we love you, anyway!) - some folks send the jokes, others send patriotic stuff, others go for "inspirational" (Lord, have mercy...). I just got something from a family member out West. I haven't yet responded because I'm reluctant to encourage the incessant flow of email; but I may have to grit my teeth and send a reply.

The email is pasted immediately below. I've removed the colors and the huge font sizes. The image of the stamp is a small pdf attachment to this email. For those who feel deprived of the extreme poly-chromatic experience, my apologies...and now for the message I received...

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Looks pretty doesn't it? Pretty deceiving....

PLEASE, DON'T USE THESE STAMPS!  NOT FOR VALENTINE'S,  NOT FOR ANY MAIL!!

USPS 44-Cent Stamp Celebrates Muslim holidays Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha .

If there is only ONE thing you forward today... let it be this!

REMEMBER to adamantly & vocally BOYCOTT this stamp, when you are purchasing your stamps at the post office.

All you have to say is "No thank you, I do not want that Muslim Stamp on my letters!"

To use this stamp would be a slap in the face to all those AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of Pan Am Flight 103! 

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebanon ! 

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Military Barracks in Saudi Arabia ! 

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American Embassies in Africa ! 

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE! 

REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on 9/11/2001 ! 

REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were lost in those vicious MUSLIM attacks!

Pass this along to every Patriotic American that you know and get the word out!  Honor the United States of America !

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OK, people. What's the problem with this one?

Americans (and plenty of Europeans) are pretty riled up - outraged, even - about terror that is perpetrated around the world, near and far. But I urge you to notice the broad brush here: MUSLIM MUSLIM MUSLIM MUSLIM...

You see, this is the perfect email for this week's parasha because the end of parashat Beshalach features the infamous Amalekites attacking our Israelite ancestors. God swears by the divine throne: milchama l'Adonai b'Amalek midor dor - God will always be at war with Amalek throughout the generations! Just who is Amalek? In Genesis 36:12 we learn that Timna, concubine of Esau, is the mother of Amalek. Fast forward to King Saul, Israel's first monarch. He was charged with the obligation to wipe out every man, woman, and child (and all the flocks) of Amalek. While he dealt them a decisive blow, he did not complete the genocidal mission. 

Brief Important Side Note
If you don't like the word genocide, look it up. It's a relatively modern term. Let me know if the biblical account (1st Samuel chapter 15) doesn't perfectly fit the bill. 

Back on topic
But then we move forward from the Torah into rabbinic tradition. Tradition has assigned the role of sworn enemy of the Jews throughout time. Our seder includes an important theme about those who rise in each generation to destroy us. Allow me to briefly quote from a recent posting of The Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan's blog: "...The rabbis teach that successive generations of Jews have been forced to confront the Amalekites: Nebuchadnezzar, the Crusaders, Torquemada, Hitler and Stalin are all manifestations of Amalek’s malevolent spirit..."

It's really no big stretch to move from Stalin to Ahmadinejad. But here is the problem: Our tradition's readiness to wipe out an entire people leaves us with a very toxic rhetoric. How toxic? How do we feel when any leader or writer calls for the destruction of every Jew - and bases it upon some twisted reading of a sacred text? Our Founding Fathers did not treat all Muslims with distrust and contempt. More than a few Muslim-American soldiers (protecting us) have laid down their lives during these ongoing difficult wars - a fact of life that (ex) Secretary of State Colin Powell eloquently made. 

Jews really need to know better. Lumping an entire people together and demonizing them is not an ethically acceptable way to live in this challenging world. Ahmadinejad is a very dangerous tyrant, willing to do the unthinkable. All Iranians are NOT members of Amalek. All Muslims are NOT members of Amalek. How could we not know this? Haven't we seen the suffering of dissenting Iranians arrested, beaten, and killed in the streets? What kind of willful blindness moves us - of all people - to demonize a whole faith tradition? While the writers of the above email invoke the powerful Biblical command to REMEMBER, they have forgotten some important truths.

Yes, Amalek - as a manifestation of human evil - is an ongoing problem; one that is thorny enough to keep God busy all this time. Let this Amalek campaign stay on God's to-do list. We have a very different mission is this world. It is about putting pieces together. There are many broken hearts and broken nations - more than enough work for all of us. This drash is not about waving the white flag and surrendering to terror. We will always have to be vigilant in defending ourselves and others.  Ultimately, Amalek's defeat will have much more to do with our focus on living out our mission of kindness and love.  

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Aaron