Kol Nidre 5779 Sermon Rabbi Andrew Vogel “A State of of the Prophets”

Thirty-two years ago, as a brand-new, bright-eyed high school graduate (with big, a bushy head of hair!), I kissed my parents, and boarded an airplane to a destination that would change my life. I was making my first trip to Israel, with 35 other Reform Jewish teens on a summer trip. The moment we arrived, I remember, I fell in love with Israel. I remember being so surprised as I looked out the windows as our tour bus traveled on the roads to : modern Hebrew was everywhere! For some reason, I hadn’t expected this! The Hebrew I knew, growing up in my Reform temple, was “prayerbook Hebrew,” ancient Hebrew from the Torah and the Haftarah, the Prophets, but now, it was everywhere I looked, for ordinary, everyday things! The signs for car mechanic’s shops were in Hebrew, Hebrew was on billboards advertising dance clubs, on restaurant menus and on the sides of garbage trucks. In these first moments in Israel, I saw with my own eyes that the rebirth of Jewish people was real. I met and learned the stories of of all types, kibbutznikim and city-dwellers, native-born Sabras, , from all over the world. I visited the modest building in Tel Aviv where David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel in May 1948. And I saw how, in the ancient places, the State of Israel was alive and that in it, the Jews were living a vibrant, and a normal life, a people just like all other peoples.

Since that first six-week trip to Israel as an 18-year-old, Israel has become a central part of my identity, my soul. I’ve traveled to Israel too many times to count: I studied there as a college student, and as a rabbinic student. In my early 20s, I lived on a Reform kibbutz in the desert for nearly a year, where I was part of a team of seven people managing 3,000 trees growing dates; and my kibbutz co-workers made the mistake of putting me in charge of tractor maintenance! (I am sure that I broke more tractors than I fixed!) Eight years ago, during my first Sabbatical, my wife and I scooped up our two daughters, and moved to Haifa for six months, because we wanted them to have their own relationship with Israel; and, I plan to spend a few weeks in Israel during my upcoming Sabbatical this winter, as well. I once seriously considered making to Israel, because I wanted to be part of the story of the rebirth of the Jewish people in our ancient land.

In my many visits to Israel, one place I keep returning to is Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, the small room in the building on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv where, in May 1948, David Ben- Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel into existence. (I accompanied the members of our Temple Sinai tour group to that site this past February, as well.) On the eve of war, Ben-Gurion pronounced the words on the historic document, which first recalled the exile of the Jewish people, and our precarious position throughout history, persecuted and stateless, even in the modern period of the so-called Enlightenment, having no place of our own, and no one to look after us, a condition that culminated in the unfathomably cruel destruction of the Holocaust. That tense Friday afternoon in Tel Aviv in May 1948, was a fragile moment; Arab armies were poised to attack from all sides. Nonetheless, as Ben-Gurion came to the microphone, he made sure to include critical words in Israel’s Declaration of Independence. He extended full citizenship to its Arab residents, and said that the Jewish State would exist: “for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.”1

These words in Israel’s Declaration of Independence represented the best vision of what the Jewish state could be: living out the highest Jewish values of the Biblical prophets in a modern

1 Israel’s Declaration of Independence, accessed at https://www.knesset.gov.il/docs/eng/megilat_eng.htm.

1 sovereign state, ensuring and protecting the basic rights and dignity of all the residents of the State of Israel. Even though Ben-Gurion and the others were devoutly secular, they insisted on invoking those prophetic Biblical moral standards – and on creating a state that would balance “Jewish” with “democratic.” Fulfilling that vision would never be easy – and through the decades, Israel fell short in many ways2 – but nonetheless, to a large degree, Israel strived to fulfill the goals and vision of equality, justice and peace inspired by the Biblical prophets.

Flash forward to today, to 2018 and this New Jewish Year. Israel has become so contentious, it is so hard to talk about Israel, and Israel a flashpoint for division and conflict. Some communities have been split in two because it’s so hard to discuss; and, as a result, most people tend to just shy away from discussing Israel at all. But Israel is important, precisely because it evokes so many feelings, because it so laden with meaning and symbolism – not to mention our very real experiences and relationships in Israel – we can’t afford to avoid talking about Israel as a community – even if doing so is difficult. And we have to speak from the heart.

As we enter this New Jewish Year, like many American Jews, I feel deep concern over the direction of the State of Israel today. Jewish nationalism is growing. The power of Jewish religious extremists is growing. There is no peace process. The occupation of the West Bank and millions of Palestinians continues, and with it, grow Israeli settlements on land that belongs to Palestinians. I am angered that Reform and Conservative Jews have few rights, and that the African asylum seekers in Israel face severe official xenophobia and racism. I am also troubled by the detentions of activists at the airport, which intimidates and attempts to shut down the voices of dissent.3

To top it off, this past summer the Knesset passed the Nation-State Law, which has status equivalent to a constitutional amendment, and lays the foundation for deeper discrimination against Arab citizens inside Israel, who make up 20% of Israel’s population. The Nation-State Law proclaims that the right to self-determination within its borders “unique” to Jews.4 It states that the “development of Jewish settlement” is a national priority, and thereby paves the way for annexation of the West Bank, and it demotes Arabic from being an official language to just having “special status.” Nowhere does it mention the word “equality” that Ben-Gurion had emphasized in the Declaration of Independence at Israel’s founding.5 This Nation-State Law does a great deal to undermine Ben-Gurion’s delicate balance of the values of “Jewish” and “democratic” within the State of Israel; it clearly prioritizes “Jewish” well above “democratic.”6 And so, in many ways, I fear that Israel is slowly becoming an illiberal democracy.7 All this is deeply painful and concerning to me.8

In a few cautious conversations I had this summer about these developments – with family members, members of our congregation, with friends beyond our temple, I sense that many people are seriously questioning their relationship with the State of Israel today. Over a meal at a restaurant

2 See, for starters, Tom Segev’s 1949: The First Israelis, and Simcha Flappan’s The Birth of Israel, each of which describes very serious shortcomings and violations of equality in Israeli democracy in the early years of the state. 3 See New York Times, “Israeli Airport Detention of Prominent U.S. Jewish Journalist Prompts Uproar,” August 14, 2018, and a number of other airport detentions of Jewish and non-Jewish activists. 4 See Max Fisher, “Israel Picks Identity Over Democracy. More Nations May Follow,” New York Times, July 22, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/22/world/middleeast/israel-jewish-state-nationality-law.html. 5 Noted by Bret Stephens in “The Jewish State’s Nation-State Bill Non-Scandal,” NYT, August 10, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/opinion/israel-nation-state-bill.html. 6 See Max Fisher, ibid.. 7 Among the commentators saying this are Prof. Dov Waxman of Northeastern University, in a recent talk at Temple Sinai, August 28, 2018. 8 The Reform movement has also expressed its outrage, as has the Israeli Labor party, now called the Zionist Union party. See the URJ press release, July 18, 2018: “URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs Statement on Israel’s Nation- State Law.”

2 earlier this summer, one friend said to me: When we say that Israel is a Jewish state, what do we mean by that? In fact, what does it mean to be Jewish at all? It struck me that this is a core question of Yom Kippur every year, and as we think of Israel, it’s very important this year.

In the history of Zionism, many people have suggested their own answers to the question: “What does it mean for Israel to be a Jewish state?” One possible answer is that the Jewish state’s primary raison d’etre is for the protection and the safety of the Jewish people. After all, if you can’t survive as a people, questions of identity and values don’t much matter! Another possible answer is that to be a Jewish state is to fulfill the dream of settling in our ancient and sacred land – and there are many Jews whose lives in Israel is animated by this dream: to live out their lives settling the land that the Bible promised to the Jews.

Aspects of both of these answers are compelling to me, but I believe they are deeply problematic if they are the only answers. It is a core Jewish value that every individual and every people have the right to self-preservation, the protection of their own life. But Judaism also teaches that self- preservation cannot be an end unto itself.

It was the prophets of the Bible, whom Ben-Gurion evoked in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, who explicitly taught what Jewish politics would be, what made a Jewish state Jewish. They taught that God cared about official acts of state and society, how the kings and rulers of Israel would conduct their business, and the values their acts embodied. God wanted justice, compassion and fairness, and hated hypocrisy and falsehood. Amos said: “Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate.”9 Hosea said: “I will espouse you forever, I will espouse you with righteousness and וּלְהַ גֵּרִ ים֙הַ ֣ גָּרִ ים בְּתֽ כוֹכְ ֶ֔ ם ... וְהָי֣וּ לָכ ֶ֗ ם :justice, goodness and loving-kindness.”10 Ezekiel said You shall treat the stranger among you like Israelite citizens where he resides.”11 Here“ כְּאזְרָ ח֙ The Holy God is made holy by“ - הָאֵ ל֙ הַקָּדֶ֔ וֹשׁ נִקְדָָּ֖שׁ בִּצְדָקָֽ ה: :was the culmination: Isaiah said your acts of tzedakah, justice.”12 To be Jewish is to sanctify life, to bring dignity and goodness to human life, to bring an awareness of the holy mystery and beauty of life to all our actions. Jews are taught to sanctify life by treating everyone justly and fairly, because each person is made in the Divine Image. And the laws of a Jewish society have to reflect that.

I imagine that this teaching from the prophets was in the forefront of Ben-Gurion’s mind at the Declaration of Independence. The Israeli commentator Yossi Klein HaLevi has recently written that Ben-Gurion and his contemporaries took it for granted that Israeli democracy would be a natural outgrowth of Israel’s Jewishness;13 because they saw “Jewish” and “democratic” as values in harmony. For Israel to be a Jewish state, back in 1948, and still today, must mean that it would must strive to treat others with dignity, to build a society of equality, freedom and justice. That is how we sanctify and elevate our lives, and it is the essential core of being Jewish – for Jews of every time and place. I recognize Israel exists in a tough neighborhood of the Middle East; its reality is not the reality of Massachusetts, and Israel’s enemies surround her and they are real and they are armed and many are hateful – but Israel is strong, even stronger than when Ben-Gurion declared the Declaration of Independence. I believe it is a tragedy of Zionism14 that his noble vision, of the balancing and harmonizing of Judaism and democracy, has become slowly eroded

9 Amos 5:15. 10 Hosea 2:21 11 Ezekiel 47:21-23. This passage goes so far as to require dividing up portions of the Land of Israel and providing non-Israelites with land and settlements of their own. 12 Isaiah 5:17. 13 Yossi Klein HaLevi, “Letter to My Palestinian Neighbors,” in The Times of Israel, August 5, 2018, https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/letter-to-my-palestinian-israeli-neighbors/. 14 Note the title of Bernard Avishai’s book, The Tragedy of Zionism.

3 by Jewish nationalism. Because it’s not Jewish for one people to build its future at the expense of another people.

And yet…. Israel’s story isn’t over yet – in fact, it’s just beginning! Israel is only 70 years old, and so much is still in play. Israel was built because Jews of previous generations had a vision and kept at building it, despite many obstacles, and that must be true for us as well. There is a way forward in our relationship with Israel. What is it?

First, I ask you: Please do not disengage from Israel. As a rabbi, I’m deeply concerned that many American Jews will choose to walk away from Israel, that they will throw up their hands, and say that someone else can fight for a just and fair Israel – especially in the next generations.15 I ask you to not turn away from Israel. Personally, I will never give up on Israel, and I will always work for Israel as a just society. The creation of a Jewish society in Israel is far from complete; it is still young and in process, and it is a very, very complex project. So I want to ask you: Make sure that Israel is among all the worthy and urgent causes you care about. Go to Israel. Read and other Israeli newspapers so you’re aware of what’s going on. When Israeli activists and speakers come to town, show up, show Israel matters to you, ask hard questions. Attend the conferences of J Street (in which I’m involved), or AIPAC. Israel is, I believe, as writer and activist Leonard Fein has said, “the most important project of the Jewish people in the modern period,”16 and we have to be a part of it. Build your relationship with Israel, even if it means struggling – struggling is a very valid way to be in relationship with anything, and certainly, with Israel.

Second: Support the courageous Israeli allies who are fighting every day for the prophetic vision of Israeli society. Israel has a strong culture of civil activism, many ordinary citizens are doing the work to build pluralism and shared society, and we can support them. I am inspired by the work of the New Israel Fund and Shatil, which assists organizations dedicated to a Jewish and democratic Israel. ACRI, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel works through the courts, which have often been the last bastion protecting minorities’ rights in the country. The IRAC, Israel Religious Action Center works on religious pluralism issues, under the tag line, “There’s More Than One Way to be a Jew.” There are Israelis dedicated to protecting African asylum seekers in Israel, and to helping them live in safety. Each Friday afternoon, Arab and Jewish women come together on the roads and highways to march and sing publicly together for peace, calling themselves “Women Wage Peace.” The Bereaved Parents Circle is a brave project that brings together Jews and Palestinians who have each lost family members to violence in the conflict, so they can meet each other and learn of each other’s losses, humanize each other, and bring comfort to one another, and thereby build mutual understanding. Our new Israeli Reform partner congregation Kehillat HaLev, is building progressive Judaism in Tel Aviv, and, through its relationship with the LGBTQ center nearby, is giving more Israelis their own place to be Jewish. And there are many inspiring organizations doing the work to build shared society in Israel.17 We can support these Israelis, and more, who are building up Israeli democracy and equality in the spirit of the prophets.

15 This is a hot source of debate. See Peter Beinart, “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” New York Review of Books, June 10, 2010, but also “Trends in American Jewish Attachment to Israel,” by Theodore Sasson et al, Contemporary Jewry 30, nos. 2-3 (2010), accessed at http://www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/pdfs/ Trends.Jewish.Attachment.12.16.10.pdf. 16 See his article, “My Battered Zionism: Liberal Zionists Speak Out,” in the Huffington Post, April 26, 2012, and other similar statements, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonard-fein/liberal-zionists-speak-out-the-many-faces-of- zionism_b_1454082.html. 17 Among those named in an earlier draft of this sermon include: Sikkui, making sure lower income Arab and Israelis have equal access to services like transportation and day care; Haifa University, which offers scholarships to poor Arab students to get their degrees; and Sindyanna, a project that supports Jewish-Arab women in farming and business opportunities up in the north (they have delicious olive oil); and so many more.

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And, a corollary to that, I believe, is opposing BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. On its surface, BDS seems to have justice as its motivation, but, in my opinion, it stands against Israeli society as a whole; it overlooks the historic need for Zionism, and it is generally opposed to the right of the Jewish people to a state as part of the two-state solution. My own opinion is that BDS weakens the cause of Israeli democracy and those who work for it; and that’s why I stand against BDS, and support progressive Israelis.

Third, I believe we need to learn as many of the complex narratives of Israel’s citizens, as a way to embrace pluralism and tolerance in Israel – to listen to the many Jewish narratives that are part of the State of Israel, and also to hear the Arab-Palestinian narratives, as well. We American Jews are relatively unfamiliar with the basic stories, the day-to-day realities, and the subtleties of Palestinian society, and we have a lot to learn. During our congregational trip to Israel this past February, we spent a morning in the West Bank hearing the stories of Orthodox Israeli Jewish settlers and the Palestinians who live in villages near them who have established an extraordinary long-term dialogue project with each other – because they know they need to live next to each other, as neighbors, and understand one another. We need to learn these stories, too. That’s why, often, when I go to Israel, I set aside time to go to the West Bank to meet with Palestinians, and listen to them, to understand the reality they live with, just as I try to understand the real experiences of Israelis on the other side.

And finally, in the spirit of pluralism and democracy, I urge us to affirm the validity of different opinions and viewpoints about Israel, and to resist the divisiveness that even just talking about Israel has brought to many communities and synagogues and school-systems18. We have to carefully nurture a culture in which no one is afraid to voice his or her opinion about Israel, and no one feels their voice is silenced,19 and people can learn from one another. If your opinions are different than the ones I am voicing passionately tonight, or your understanding of the facts is different, or if your energies are focused in a different direction, let me assure you that it’s OK, we can disagree. I promise to listen to you and to your passionate opinions with respect. Within our whole community, we should approach debate and even disagreement as signs of our strength, not as a danger. Free expression, intellectual honesty and respectful questioning are all deeply held Jewish ideas20, and they, too, are a reflection of democracy within Judaism. Let’s continue to talk and listen to one another, and come together in times of both crisis and calm to share what we want for Israel. * One of the purposes of Yom Kippur is to return to our core, our essence, in all aspects of our lives. I don’t believe that it is naïve in the real world to have principles or ideals – on the contrary, it gives us meaning and direction. The visions of the prophets continue to speak to us, just as they have for over two thousand years, and just as they did to Ben Gurion at the founding of Israel 70 years ago. They urge us to create a society of equality, freedom and justice, to sanctify life through creating justice. We can’t give up on their vision. I believe in a better Israel, a Jewish and democratic Israel. Now, more than ever, we have to keep reaching for it. We have a responsibility to ensure that Israel is not just a state where Jewish people will survive, but also where the Jewish values of our people will survive and thrive. That is what a Jewish state is for. Because, in the words of Isaiah: ”.The Holy God is made holy by our acts of tzedakah, justice“ הָאֵ ל֙ הַקָּדֶ֔ וֹשׁ נִקְדָָּ֖שׁ בִּצְדָקָֽ ה

Shanah tovah.

18 Locally, our own Newton Public School system has recently been the target of some groups wishing to sow division and silence voices, and some high school teachers have felt threatened when providing a forum for students in learn and hear diverse opinions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 19 See Dov Waxman, Trouble in the Tribe, conclusion, p. 212ff. 20 See Talmud Eruvin 13b, and many other citations.

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