Excerpted from Rabbi Zelizer's sermon on Erev Rosh Hashanah Monday, September 17, 2001.
What does the term "Memshelet Zadon" mean? Our Machzor, our prayerbook, translates it as "the Kingdom of Tyranny." Other translations use the term "Kingdom of Arrogance." Rabbi Ephraim Rubinger, a colleague of mine from Long Island suggests it be translated "The Dominion of Evil" " May we see the Dominion of Evil pass away." He writes: "I think we now have to keep this word "evil" in front of us now and forever. When I use the word "evil" I am not talking about some supernatural satanic realm. By and large mainstream Judaism does not endorse that notion.
I am talking about human evil; about human beings who choose to commit monstrous acts against humanity such as we witnessed one week ago, and such as our brothers and sisters in Israel have been experiencing all these many years, but especially this year."
We need to revive the word evil. The Jerusalem Post in its editorial on September 12th put it this way: "Concepts such as good and evil have gone out of fashion, but we must relearn how to think in these terms. We have become used to rounding the corners off everything, so that what used to be a chasm between good and evil has been "whittled down to a matter of opinion." But the fact that there are people in this world who would crash an airplane full of innocent people into a building full of innocent people should revive the concept of evil."
Our country, America, has serious flaws. We know that; but when it combats the dominion of evil, the world must be supportive of America. America is a beacon of hope and freedom in this suffering making a moral equivalency with its enemies is a gross distortion. Israel has serious flaws, also with its treatment of its Arab citizens and the Palestinian population. But its killings are targeting at killers and not at innocent civilians in pizza parlors and discos. When CNN and the New York Times use phrases like "breaking the cycle of violence" they are obfuscating the issues involved. When they report the news in such a way as to blur the difference between those who are committing evil and those who are trying to prevent the evil people from doing their vicious, work, then they are aiding and abetting the dominion of evil. And they need to know that and they need to be told that.
When we obliterate moral distinctions, when we make erroneous moral equivalencies, then we boost Memshelet Zadon, the dominion of evil. I heard a Christian colleague say at the Metuchen High School service that our spiritual obligation is to love our enemy more, even these terrorists, rather than pursue justice. On that point Jewish and Christian theology part ways. Love and forgiveness can only be forth coming when there is contrition. Other wise, we are religiously obligated to "pursue the pursuer." This clergyman added, "striking back at the terrorist only ratchets up the next terrorist action to the next level." I thought: "You mean in contrast to appeasement, which will lower it?"
Of course, terrorism has many economic and political roots, but we have to now insist that reactions be separated from causes. As Americans, we should acknowledge and join to solve the causes, but simultaneously draw a line in the sand that causes will not be allowed to yield action against innocents.
Michael Kelly pointed out in The Washington Post, "The whole world was stolen from somebody, most of it repeatedly; there are claims and counterclaims and counter-counterclaims for every inch of the planet that is desirable and for much that is not." If poverty, corruption, tyranny, suffering, ethnic conflict, and territorial disputes were the sources of terrorism, than sub-Saharan Africa would be terror center of the world.
Of course, the United States, in seeking stability in the mid-East for example, chooses between the lesser of two evils and supports and oppressive Egyptian government, the U.S. is contributing to suppression and totalitarianism and spreading western culture and influence. But more suppression is directly caused by Third World Dictatorships without much relationship to the U.S-countries like Iran and Iraq, which not coincidentally oppress and impoverish their own people.
My last point: History has demonstrated that over and over again the Jewish people remain the litmus test for the world.
Let me relate to you a true story. It happened in Manhattan just before the attack on 9-1-1. Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Chief Rabbi of Efrat, formerly of Lincoln Center Synagogue, was giving a breakfast lecture in Manhattan's Upper West Side. In the course of his lecture he was explaining that every evil of modern times first began by an attack on the Jews and then later spread to the rest of the world. He cited Nazi Fascism where first the Jews were the targets and everyone was silent and then of course the rest of the world was attacked. He then cited Stalinist Communism.
And THEN he said, the third such scourge is Islamic Fundamentalism which today is against Israel but tomorrow will attack the rest of the Free World, and at that very moment, as if on que, somebody burst open the doors and shouted that the World Trade Center had just been bombed. Absolutely true story. Word for word.
Did anyone really believe that something as elemental and as powerful a force is terrorism could be confined to Israel's borders? Did anyone really believe that?
Just a few weeks ago, prophetically, Prime Minister Sharon in responding to State Department Criticism of Israel's retaliation of a bombing in Jerusalem threw up his hands in frustration and said, "Well, what would YOU Americans do if Washington, D.C. or New York City were attacked? But nobody took him seriously. The Jew has always been the canary sent into the mine to test the air. We are shy as Americans to publicly say that, but what happens to the Jew often then happens to the world.