Dear Friends,
It all began in the opening of this week’ s Torah portion...
God said to Abram, “I am giving this land to your descendants.” (Genesis 12:7)
And, since then, either we have sojourned there, been expelled from there, governed our own kingdom or nation there, or yearned to be there.
According to Genesis, God gave us the land, not the governance.
Admittedly, especially in today’s social and political environment, both are complex. Few periods have been more fraught with controversy than the last 75 years of the State of Israel’s existence, and of those years, surely the last two have been as difficult as any.
The Tanach – the Hebrew bible - consistently addresses the other peoples who lived in the land. In next week’s portion, we will learn that “the Jebusites and the Peruzites were then in the land;” later our texts will wrestle with the Midianites and the Philistines, and more. In truth, never have our ancestors, or our contemporaries in the Land of Canaan or the Land of Israel, ever enjoyed exclusive ownership of the Land.
Yet, let’s face it: God did not promise exclusive ownership when God spoke to Abram in our portion this week. Rather, Torah records God indicating to Abram, later to be named Abraham, “I am giving this land to your descendants.”
The fault has been for 3500 years, that some – Jews and others – have claimed a flawed exclusivity. Surely, there are some among the Jewish people, and among the Palestinian peoples, who would like to own every dunam of the land, entirely, with no others, strangers or visitors sharing a grain of sand. But that never has been, and never will be. The geopolitical world just does not work that way, at least in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Hence, as we read this week’s Torah portion, I believe that it is vital and imperative that we widen our perspective and accept the grounded truth: we share the land, and we share the governance. That reality still accords with God’s covenantal promise from Genesis, and it adds diversity, respect and richness to our experience in the land which we call Holy.
Personally, I love the land of Israel, and I love the nation of Israel, even amid her foibles. Yet, I love them both for their fabulous complexity, the many languages and flavors found in both, and in the possibility that the land promised to Abram’s descendants, may be home to all who call him their forebear – Jews, Muslims and Christians!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Doug Kohn
It all began in the opening of this week’ s Torah portion...
God said to Abram, “I am giving this land to your descendants.” (Genesis 12:7)
And, since then, either we have sojourned there, been expelled from there, governed our own kingdom or nation there, or yearned to be there.
According to Genesis, God gave us the land, not the governance.
Admittedly, especially in today’s social and political environment, both are complex. Few periods have been more fraught with controversy than the last 75 years of the State of Israel’s existence, and of those years, surely the last two have been as difficult as any.
The Tanach – the Hebrew bible - consistently addresses the other peoples who lived in the land. In next week’s portion, we will learn that “the Jebusites and the Peruzites were then in the land;” later our texts will wrestle with the Midianites and the Philistines, and more. In truth, never have our ancestors, or our contemporaries in the Land of Canaan or the Land of Israel, ever enjoyed exclusive ownership of the Land.
Yet, let’s face it: God did not promise exclusive ownership when God spoke to Abram in our portion this week. Rather, Torah records God indicating to Abram, later to be named Abraham, “I am giving this land to your descendants.”
The fault has been for 3500 years, that some – Jews and others – have claimed a flawed exclusivity. Surely, there are some among the Jewish people, and among the Palestinian peoples, who would like to own every dunam of the land, entirely, with no others, strangers or visitors sharing a grain of sand. But that never has been, and never will be. The geopolitical world just does not work that way, at least in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Hence, as we read this week’s Torah portion, I believe that it is vital and imperative that we widen our perspective and accept the grounded truth: we share the land, and we share the governance. That reality still accords with God’s covenantal promise from Genesis, and it adds diversity, respect and richness to our experience in the land which we call Holy.
Personally, I love the land of Israel, and I love the nation of Israel, even amid her foibles. Yet, I love them both for their fabulous complexity, the many languages and flavors found in both, and in the possibility that the land promised to Abram’s descendants, may be home to all who call him their forebear – Jews, Muslims and Christians!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Doug Kohn
