"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

What's the Message?
This Shabbat is called Shabbat Hazon - the Shabbat of the vision, based on the opening words of the haftarah: "the vision of Isaiah son of Amotz..." Tish'a b'Av [the 9th of Av] is around the corner. This haftarah, the last in a series of three, drives home the dire warning that terrible destruction is at hand.  What is the prophet expected to do? Heschel wrote, "Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profane riches of the world. It is a form of living, a crossing point of God and man. God is raging in the prophet's words. " In other words, the classical Hebrew prophet, according to Heschel, was a social critic.

Isaiah
"Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: "I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner's manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him..." 

One sad truth: people generally loathe these kinds of messages. The words bruise the conscience like burning arrows. Members of the enraged audience might decide that they've had enough: "kill the messenger!"
Looking back from the Hellenistic period, Ben Sira sang a song in praise of famous men and praised Isaiah as "the great prophet whose vision could be trusted.”  In due course, this revered prophet became the model of a saintly life. According to rabbinic and pseudepigraphical traditions, Isaiah died the death of a monotheist martyr, hacked to death during the reign of the ruthless paganizing King Manasseh. 

The prophetic voice of the social critic is of vital importance. It is a lonely decision, standing at the margin and speaking truth to power.

Dylan
And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son ?
And what did you hear, my darling young one ?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'
I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'
I heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'
I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

The words of indictment don't only pain the listener. Even for the speaker, they're nearly impossible to bear.

Isaiah
“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches? Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.”

The May 7 edition of The Forward contains a sobering open Letter to all Jewish communities. The collected signers of the letter decry the decision of the San Francisco Federation to issue new guidelines on Israel-Related programming that limit debate, threaten dissent, and establish a litmus test for loyalty to Israel. The SF Federation leadership's policies will serve to silence controversial speech. Some people will feel better because they no longer will be confronted by fellow  Jews sharing ideas that annoy or enrage them. But the silence itself bodes ill for all of us. We are impoverished when we punish messengers who speak words that trouble us. I pray that the misguided litmus test of the SF Federation does not become a model for the leadership in our larger Memphis kehilla.

Even if the prophetic message rubs us the wrong way, it's important to learn how to hear it.

And now, a P.S. Note:

Tziyon B'mishpat Tipadeh - Zion will be Redeemed through Justice!
Well over a year ago, I gave a Shabbos morning drash that was highly critical of Israel's border fence. In short, my message was:  (1) the fence - too often - slices up  Arab farmers' lands, and many people suffer, (2) while Arab land is taken by the Israeli government under the rationale of "security,”  many observers have a good reason to suspect that those lands are being readied for construction to house Israeli Jews, that there is a larger pattern of theft. I also decried the  heavily neo-conservative lens through which the Middle East is viewed here. Put another way, while Israel is blessed with a wide spectrum of political expression, and while there's a robust - often loud - exchange of views- that discourse does not take place here; with regard to this story [and too many others like it], nothing from AIPAC, nothing in the Hebrew Watchman, nothing from the Federation. It's as if the story never happened! And we are impoverished as a result. Without going out on much of a limb, I'd venture to say that the drash I shared was likely viewed as the [shrill] preaching of a left-leaning reader of Ha'aretz, and, therefore, not too many takers.

This week - finally - the IDF announced a probe into the events that led to the death of an unarmed Arab protester at Bil'in. The Ha'aretz article is pasted immediately below. Why is this important? Because all of us [I believe] view Israel as a democratic society blessed with a healthy judicial system. On the day [Heaven forbid!] that we can no longer say this honestly, Israel - and all our people - will be staring  into the abyss. We would do well to consider Isaiah's declaration: "Zion will be Redeemed through Justice!"

IDF to probe death of Palestinian protester at West Bank rally
Military Advocate General back-pedals, orders probe into death of protester who was killed by a tear gas canister at a demonstration in Bil'in in April 2009.
By Anshel Pfeffer [Ha'aretz, Monday July 12]

The Military Advocate General on Monday ordered the army's criminal investigations unit to investigate the death of a Palestinian protester who was killed by a tear gas canister at a demonstration in Bil'in in April 2009.
The Military Advocate General had refused to open a criminal investigation into the death of Bassem Abu-Rahma, but on Monday changed its mind after expert testimony showed that the tear gas canister was aimed directly at Abu-Rahma and was fired in violation of military orders. The Military Advocate General notified Abu-Rahma's family and human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, who had planned to petition the High Court of Justice over the case. Video footage filmed during the April 2009 protest against the separation fence in the Palestinian village of Bil'in showed Abu-Rahma, who was 30 at the time of his death, standing on the eastern side of the fence, and also showed Israel Defense Forces troops firing tear gas canisters directly at demonstrators while in the presence of commanding officers.

Abu-Rahma's family welcomed the decision. "We are extremely happy that an investigation is finally being opened," said Ahmed Abu-Rahma, the victim's brother. "This should have happened on the day [he was killed], and it is clear that the army opened the investigation because it was forced to, and that in the past year and a quarter it has tried to cover up the shooting of a non-violent protester that it had no reason to harm, let alone kill," Ahmed Abu-Rahma continued. The original decision not to investigate Abu-Rahma's death ignored the video footage and relied on IDF solders' testimony that the tear gas canister hit wire along the separation fence and then ricocheted, striking Abu-Rahma. However, experts said that had the soldier who fired the canister followed IDF instructions, it would have landed hundreds of meters past where Abu-Rahma was standing.

Rights groups B'Tselem and Yesh Din said they were satisfied by the decision to probe the events surrounding Abu Rahma's death, but stressed that the delay in reaching the decision was unjustified. "We hope the amount of time that has passed since the event won't affect the effectiveness of the investigation, and that today's decision by the Military Advocate General will bring justice to Abu-Rahma's family and the village of Bil'in," the groups said in a statement. 

To which, I can only add: ken y'hi ratzon - so may it be God's will [and all of ours].

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Aaron

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