Dear Friends,
Robert Frost famously penned, "Good fences make good neighbors." For the most part, that has held true. Although, in many locales, especially California, where I have lived for many years, many homes have fully fenced yards such that the fences do not make for good neighbors, but for not even knowing one’s neighbors.
Such is my worry as I look at this week’s Torah portion. We read of the Israelites near the end of their trek in the wilderness as they approached crossing the river and entering the land of Canaan. The Book of Numbers recounts God instructing Moses, "When you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as your portion, the land of Canaan with its various boundaries" (Numbers 14:2).
Knowing one’s boundaries is tantamount to having fences. It demarcates the edges of what is mine and what is not mine. It recognizes the place where the neighbors’ property commences, and it de facto recognizes both the existence of the neighbor and the land belonging to the other party. Hence, Frost was right. It makes for diminished stress and increased recognition.
Except when it doesn’t.
The boundaries indicated in the Book of Numbers were for the biblical threshold of Israel. Since then, much geopolitics have influenced the borders, with the claims of crusaders, Ottomans, the British, Jewish, and Arab settlers, and wars in recent years all bringing real and conflicted borders. It is not so easy to just erect a pillar of stones and claim that this side is mine and that side is yours.
Thus, what can we learn from the Torah and its assertion of boundaries?
Surely, not as some on the political fringes would assert, that we should live in "biblical Israel." Those boundaries came and went millennia ago. Nor, can we claim that the land belongs to any one people or tribe exclusively; the description of borders 3,000 years ago obviates any people’s claim to exclusivity. Rather, Torah offers a vital reminder that ultimately, we share the lands, not the land. And it offers, that we share conflicting narratives. Neither people has a claim on absolutism or absolute truth. In fact, one of my Israeli teachers was known to say, "There are no facts, only narratives." It is a helpful reminder, especially as we read in the Torah this week the foundational narrative which has spurred our people for generations: that we were destined for the Holy Land, without any rivals.
This Shabbat, as news from Israel again intensifies, let’s remember that borders and boundaries come to teach us to live alongside the other, not without the other.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
Robert Frost famously penned, "Good fences make good neighbors." For the most part, that has held true. Although, in many locales, especially California, where I have lived for many years, many homes have fully fenced yards such that the fences do not make for good neighbors, but for not even knowing one’s neighbors.
Such is my worry as I look at this week’s Torah portion. We read of the Israelites near the end of their trek in the wilderness as they approached crossing the river and entering the land of Canaan. The Book of Numbers recounts God instructing Moses, "When you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as your portion, the land of Canaan with its various boundaries" (Numbers 14:2).
Knowing one’s boundaries is tantamount to having fences. It demarcates the edges of what is mine and what is not mine. It recognizes the place where the neighbors’ property commences, and it de facto recognizes both the existence of the neighbor and the land belonging to the other party. Hence, Frost was right. It makes for diminished stress and increased recognition.
Except when it doesn’t.
The boundaries indicated in the Book of Numbers were for the biblical threshold of Israel. Since then, much geopolitics have influenced the borders, with the claims of crusaders, Ottomans, the British, Jewish, and Arab settlers, and wars in recent years all bringing real and conflicted borders. It is not so easy to just erect a pillar of stones and claim that this side is mine and that side is yours.
Thus, what can we learn from the Torah and its assertion of boundaries?
Surely, not as some on the political fringes would assert, that we should live in "biblical Israel." Those boundaries came and went millennia ago. Nor, can we claim that the land belongs to any one people or tribe exclusively; the description of borders 3,000 years ago obviates any people’s claim to exclusivity. Rather, Torah offers a vital reminder that ultimately, we share the lands, not the land. And it offers, that we share conflicting narratives. Neither people has a claim on absolutism or absolute truth. In fact, one of my Israeli teachers was known to say, "There are no facts, only narratives." It is a helpful reminder, especially as we read in the Torah this week the foundational narrative which has spurred our people for generations: that we were destined for the Holy Land, without any rivals.
This Shabbat, as news from Israel again intensifies, let’s remember that borders and boundaries come to teach us to live alongside the other, not without the other.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
