Shabbat Pikudey 2016/5776:
Unfinished, Unsettled
Lo alecha hamlacha
ligmor, lo alecha ligmor, ve’lo atah ben ‘chorin le’hibatel mimenah…lo atah ben
chorin…
The murder of Taylor Force this past week by a Palestinian
terrorist, while he was on a school-sponsored trip in Jaffa, is a great
tragedy, a tragedy no less appalling or disturbing than any other terrorist
attack, but there is the element here that he is an American, he was on a group
trip, and he was also a veteran – graduate of West Point, a field artillery
office with tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, a person who as I understand
his story was enterprising and enamored to experience Israel, the Start Up
Nation, that he might take lessons to bring home.
The words I started with are a quote from Rabbi Tarfon in the
Mishnah, Pirkay Avot, the Ethics of the Sages (2:21) and it means, “It is not
up to you to complete the work, but you are also not free to avoid it.”
For nearly 68 years, Israelis, Jewish people of the world
and our friends and allies have lived unsettled and unfinished in the project
of creating a safe place to live, and grow, for all those who live within her
borders – Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and all others.
I’d like to think there still could be a paradigm-shift in Israel
during my lifetime, but the prospects for that began to tumbl down painfully many years ago, after
Ehud Barak’s camp David meetings with Yasir Arafat in 2000 when I was,
coincidentally, in Israel on one of the maiden-voyage Birthright trips that
have since brought many thousands to see Israel, many for the first time.
Unfinished and unsettled – a feeling we take walking forward
from this past week’s events in Israel.
Rabbi Tarfon’s wisdom hopefully proves reassuring for us, that maybe the
effort and investment of time and energy is enough even though we may not see
the ‘finish’.
And then we read today, “Vaychal Moshe et Hamelachah”, Moses
completed the work of assembling the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary – in
language similar to when God completes creating the world Vaychal is the same
root as Vay’chulu, Vay’chulu ha’shamayim ve’haaretz (God completed the creation
of heaven and earth’, in similar language, Moses puts the final touches on the
Mishkan and immediately God’s presence fills the holy place so completely that
even Moses himself cannot enter.
Finished.
Complete. And the proof is in the
Presence with a capital “P”.
Only the empty space between paragraphs in the Torah scroll
suggests the breathless pause between the completion of the structure and the
infusion of God’s Presence – the moment when the hope turns into reality.
We’re still waiting and holding our breath for Israel.
We’re still waiting and holding our breath right here.
We’re watching our children, grandchildren, our students
grow – wondering how their lives will progress, will they fulfill the
expectations and dreams we have for them?
Will they fulfill, even surpass, the expectations and dreams they set
for themselves?
As we’ve discussed in the past, Israelis are not the other,
not strangers across the sea, they are our family, and for some of us they are
literally family, mishpachah. And they
represent the renaissance of Jewish nationhood and self-determination. We hope they can pursue their visions for the
future without always having to look over their shoulders, without living in
fear – a fear fanned by hatred preached in pulpits, condoned, and praised, by
the very leadership with whom the Israelis have engaged in negotiations for a
settlement.
If we are obligated to persist, then it is an obligation not
only for ourselves and our families here to stay true to our values and dreams -- over and against people and forces who try to convince us we’re not good
enough, or that our most passionate ideas are unrealistic and unattainable.
If we are obligated to persist, then the best way to
remember Taylor is to support Israel, the "Start up Nation", Israel the democracy
in a region of tyrants and bloody civil wars, Israel the underdog – scapegoated
too often by the media.
On the very slightly lighter side of the darks events in Tel
Aviv-Jaffa, let’s remember the Israeli guitarist who was strumming by the sea –
who used his guitar to smash the knife-wielding terrorist and was back
strumming the same guitar the next day when a reporter from Yediot Achronot
came by to ask him to describe what happened.
The upside here, the message of hope and continuing strength is the
response to him by which he’s received so many offers of new guitars to replace
the one he used to defend himself and others.
What is broken will be made whole again, perhaps not 100%
complete, perhaps limping forward like Jacob after the fight with the angel,
but inspired by a renewed commitment to the memory of those whose lives were
taken in pursuit of their dreams.
Lo Aleca ha'melachah ligmor...
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