Dear TBZ Community:
This Sunday I leave for six weeks in Israel, the second part of my sabbatical and vacation time. It is meaningful to me that I get to write about Parshat Shlach Lecha before leaving. This week’s Torah portion is the famous story of 12 scouts (sometimes referred to as spies) who go into the land of Israel and bring a report back to the people as they prepare to enter Israel. Ten of the scouts come back with one report while two others, Yehoshua bin Nun and Caleb ben Yefuneh, have a very different account. Not that I am going to scout the land, but it feels meaningful to have the opportunity to spend six weeks in Israel, especially now, during these very difficult times and I look forward to sharing with you my experience upon my return.
Please note that this message contains my current political views regarding the government of Israel and I recognize that some people will disagree with me. I write these words from a place of deep love and care for Israel. I write this as I believe in the urgency of calling out the extremist government of Israel. I write this because I believe the American Jewish community needs to call out the extremists too. We live in times where it is hard to be in conversation with those who disagree with us, but I hope you can hear my voice and my words from a place of love and care.
Rabbi Roly Matalon, one of my mentors and teachers, gave a powerful d’var Torah (sermon) last Shabbat at B’nai Jeshurun in New York, which I recommend watching. In it, he spoke about the role of the one who sees from the outside the reality that happens on the inside. He spoke about the importance of the voice of those who can see things that cannot necessarily be seen by others. Rabbi Matalon, in speaking about parshat Beha’alotcha, referred to the invitation that Moshe makes to Hovav ben Reuel (his father-in-law, who we also know as Yitro), to come into the land with him, asking him to bring his perspective, a different one, one that can see things that Moshe cannot see. Rabbi Matalon quotes Rabbi David Silver, who explains that Hovav has critical distance and better perception, and that is why Moshe invites him to come.
Following this teaching, I am also thinking about the twelve meraglim, the twelve spies, as those who go from the outside to the inside to see what is possible.
Yehoshua and Caleb say that the people who inhabit the land are powerful and that the cities are well fortified. They also say that it is a land of honey and milk. They are capable of seeing the complexity of the place, the complexity of the reality, and their commitment to that allows them to both recognize the challenges and step up with courage and hope. The other ten scouts see the same challenges but their perspective is very different. They see themselves as small and the challenges much too great. They can not imagine being able to move forward; they stay silent to the possibilities ahead.
Coming to any situation from the outside is difficult and has its challenges. We bring our own fears, baggage, questioning, story, and of course perspective. That is what the twelve scouts do. Their perspective shapes the future. It is understood that at that moment, Moshe and God realized that the people of Israel need a longer journey before entering the land. Their fate changes and what was supposed to be “three days turns into an excruciating journey of 38 plus additional years, enough time for the entire generation that was born in Egypt to die and a new generation to emerge that will enter the land” (quoting Rabbi Matalon).
Rabbi Matalon, after speaking of the Torah portion, reviews the steps that have led Israel to be administered by an extremist government, before quoting a piece from the New York Times Magazine (“The Unpunished: How Extremists Took over Israel”), and ultimately speaking about our role as American Jews.
I have come to learn, in my 19 years living in the United States, that as American Jews it is sometimes hard to understand our role when it comes to Israel. It is hard to understand our power, and how to use it. What we are allowed to say and what aren’t we? When can we share our opinions and when is not our role? Are we outsiders that are supposed to just support everything no matter what? Or are we called to bring our voice, as critical allies and with a different perspective?
Rabbi Matalon speaks in strong words and his words spoke to me deeply, inspiring me to share this with you. This is just a selection and I encourage you to listen to his whole d’var Torah:
We, American Jews, are the outsiders, like Hovav ben Reuel. We were supposed to see things from a distance that the insiders, our brothers and sisters in Israel, either did not see, or did not want to see.
We were supposed to see. We saw, but we said nothing.
On the contrary, sometimes we held our noses and continued to voice our total and unconditional support.
We failed.
Our major Jewish organizations failed…
We failed.
We didn’t want to appear to be disloyal.
It was forbidden to be critical, to say anything negative about Israel, even when we clearly saw it was about to fall into a precipice…
Silence is consent. We consented. Even more so, we were complicit.
In the name of what? In the name of loyalty. In the name of unity…
Hovav ben Reuel saw what Moshe didn’t see or didn’t want to see in his people: that among these people there were people who were bad. He knew, Hovav ben Reuel knew, it was bad. But he had, as they said, as people say,
Hovav ben Reuel had no skin in the game. So he said nothing. He declined politely and he went home.
But we, we have a lot of skin in the game. Because we’re connected to Israel, and because our brothers and sisters in Israel and us are connected to Torah and to Judaism and it affects us all, what’s happening there.
We have a lot of skin in the game. And yet, we chose to stay silent.
It may be already too late. Who knows… But just in case, maybe it’s time we start speaking up.
I know these are hard words to hear. Like Rabbi Matalon, and like many other Jewish leaders, I care for our beloved Israel and for its people (and in my case, I speak not only as a leader in the American Jewish community but as an Israeli). I believe (I do, and I don’t want to give up) that there is a future for a democratic Israel alongside the existence of a Palestinian state. That peace is possible. That coexistence is possible. For me, the trauma of the aftermath of the horrific acts of terrorism committed on October 7th by Hamas is intertwined with the pain and despair of seeing Israel led by extremists who put in danger the Israel I love and I dream of. Leaders who do not care about the hostages or the suffering of their own people. This is the voice I hear from my friends and colleagues in Israel. Israelis are protesting this government and Israelis are calling us, American Jews, to stand up, to raise our voices, to speak up. They need our voices and our major Jewish organizations are not responding to this ask. A group of the hostages’ relatives is calling the leaders of the American Jewish community to help them pressure our elected officials to call out Netanayu’s government. Read this opinion piece in the Forward to hear their voices and what they are asking from us.
Our voice matters. And like Yehoshua Bin Nun and Caleb ben Yefuneh, we have the opportunity to bring a message that says things are bad and we won’t give up. We must call it for what is, and both recognize the challenges and step up with courage and hope and a clear moral voice.
During my time in Israel, I will be participating in the eighth cohort of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI Cohort VIII), a rigorous three-year rabbinic fellowship program with 25 exceptional rabbis from across North America. I also plan to join Israelis in protests and action to bring our hostages back and to bring my voice to the plea for this war to end. I am even hoping to make it to a demonstration on Monday in Tel-Aviv, if my flight is not delayed, organized by many Israeli organizations calling for a deal and for peace, which you can learn about in “It’s Time: To Make a Deal. To Stop the War. To Make Peace.” I will stand there, as an Israeli and as an American Jewish leader. I will join the call to other American Jewish leaders to be courageous, calling out the danger that not only comes from the outside enemy, but also from within. (Solidarity rallies are also being organized in many places including Boston, Sunday, June 30, 10:30-11:30am in front of the State House.)
I continue to pray that we may have the audacity to build, to believe, to love, to forgive, to create, and to imagine a better world for all human beings and to live in ways that bring blessings to each of us.
May this Shabbat bring blessings and consolation to all of you and your loved ones. May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity. May all those who are ill find healing.
And may the hostages soon be returned to their families and friends; may the Israeli and Palestinian peace workers in the land continue their sacred work and not be deterred or turn away from the vision of peace and dignity for all.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Claudia
P.S: Shabbat N’kabla emails will continue to be sent weekly with Shabbat information. However, the weekly messages on the Torah portion will pause during July. Resuming August, Rav Leah will write the first two weeks and I will write once I return from Israel.
You can read more about the plans during my absence and staffing and summer updates in the email we sent earlier this week.