Dear Friends,
“If you do not dispossess the inhabitants of the land, those whom you allow to remain shall be stings in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land in which you live.” [Lev 33:55] Given circumstances in Israel over the last couple decades, or more, this verse in our Torah portion is telling.
Although the biblical text describes settlement by our ancient forebears to enter Canaan following forty years of wandering, I read in the text a sagacious presaging of more recent conditions in Gaza and Lebanon. God instructed Moses directing the people to thoroughly cleanse the Land of any peoples who later would be a thorn in their side.
Read: Hezbollah. Read: Hamas.
Today, there is a firm line between a biblical, Divinely-decreed charge to enter the land and rid it of the pagan, idolatrous enemy under the banner of Joshua, and Israel’s present predicament with terrorist organizations to the north and to the south.
In the ancient day, that of the Israelites conquering Canaan and clearing it of enemies, there was no United Nations, nor international treaties, relations with the United States, or obligations in a community of nations. There only was God and God’s decree. We could destroy the enemy without restraint.
Today, however, Israel lives in a nuanced global village. The world watches through CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and a million bloggers in cyberspace. Israel must weigh its actions on a planet-sized scale, yet it also must protect its vulnerable citizens from an aggressor which has some 12,000 offensive missiles pointing south from the rocky crags of Lebanon. The echoes of our Torah verse ring loudly. To the reactive, the verse is a mandate for an absolute military response: “If you do not dispossess the inhabitants of the land, those whom you allow to remain shall be stings in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land in which you live.”
But, we do not live in a world of biblical justice. Just as God, today, does not execute summary justice on the Sabbath-profaner or the sexually-licentious, neither can Israel act unilaterally against these modern-day thorns. Ours is a complex world of patron terror states and proxy wars and East versus West and proportionality and collateral damage and UN resolutions and UN defense forces and disputed territories and military kidnapping and military tribunals and more which is yet unimagined.
Yes, our verse is an amazing statement, and it is absolutely true: if one does not remove the thorns, they will prick and draw blood again and again. Only, it is not easy to remove the thorns; sometimes one must use pliers, torches and bombs, instead of tweezers.
Instead, let’s pray for a peaceful Shabbat.
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
“If you do not dispossess the inhabitants of the land, those whom you allow to remain shall be stings in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land in which you live.” [Lev 33:55] Given circumstances in Israel over the last couple decades, or more, this verse in our Torah portion is telling.
Although the biblical text describes settlement by our ancient forebears to enter Canaan following forty years of wandering, I read in the text a sagacious presaging of more recent conditions in Gaza and Lebanon. God instructed Moses directing the people to thoroughly cleanse the Land of any peoples who later would be a thorn in their side.
Read: Hezbollah. Read: Hamas.
Today, there is a firm line between a biblical, Divinely-decreed charge to enter the land and rid it of the pagan, idolatrous enemy under the banner of Joshua, and Israel’s present predicament with terrorist organizations to the north and to the south.
In the ancient day, that of the Israelites conquering Canaan and clearing it of enemies, there was no United Nations, nor international treaties, relations with the United States, or obligations in a community of nations. There only was God and God’s decree. We could destroy the enemy without restraint.
Today, however, Israel lives in a nuanced global village. The world watches through CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and a million bloggers in cyberspace. Israel must weigh its actions on a planet-sized scale, yet it also must protect its vulnerable citizens from an aggressor which has some 12,000 offensive missiles pointing south from the rocky crags of Lebanon. The echoes of our Torah verse ring loudly. To the reactive, the verse is a mandate for an absolute military response: “If you do not dispossess the inhabitants of the land, those whom you allow to remain shall be stings in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land in which you live.”
But, we do not live in a world of biblical justice. Just as God, today, does not execute summary justice on the Sabbath-profaner or the sexually-licentious, neither can Israel act unilaterally against these modern-day thorns. Ours is a complex world of patron terror states and proxy wars and East versus West and proportionality and collateral damage and UN resolutions and UN defense forces and disputed territories and military kidnapping and military tribunals and more which is yet unimagined.
Yes, our verse is an amazing statement, and it is absolutely true: if one does not remove the thorns, they will prick and draw blood again and again. Only, it is not easy to remove the thorns; sometimes one must use pliers, torches and bombs, instead of tweezers.
Instead, let’s pray for a peaceful Shabbat.
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
