“Es Brennt, Brider, es Brennt!”
Out town is burning, brothers, burning,
Our poor little town is burning.
Angry winds are fanning higher
The leaping tongues of flame and fire,
The evil winds are roaring!
Our whole town burns!
And you stand looking on with folded arms,
And shake your heads.
You stand looking on with folded arms,
While the fire spreads!
Our town is burning, brothers, burning,
Our poor little town is burning.
Tongues of flames are leaping,
The fire through our town goes sweeping,
Through roofs and windows pouring.
All around us burns.
And you stand looking on with folded arms,
And shake your heads.
You stand looking on with folded arms
While the fire spreads.
Our town is burning, brothers, burning.
Any moment the fire
May sweep the whole of our town away,
And leave only ashes, black and gray,
Like after a battle, where dead walls stand,
Broken and ruined in a desolate land.
And you stand looking on with folded arms,
And shake your heads.
You stand looking on with folded arms
While the fire spreads.
Our town is burning, brothers, burning.
All now depends on you.
Our only help is what you do.
You can still put out the fire
With your blood, if you desire.
Don’t look on with folded arms,
And shake your heads.
Don’t look on with folded arms
While the fire spread
My dear friends,
This poem which I read yesterday and was so appropriate and relevant then is the opening of my remarks today as well. It is exactly how I felt yesterday, how I feel today, and how I will probably feel tomorrow. The world is on fire. The two worlds that I love so dearly and of which I feel so much a part are both on fire.
Yesterday I spoke about our world here in America. The Twin Towers, the Pentagon, the burning fireball of hatred that exploded and engulfed us all.
Today I wil speak about the very same flames of hatred and evil that have been consuming our beloved State of Israel for the past 12 months. Before last Tuesday those flames had not at all touched us the way they should have. Perhaps today, at this moment, they are as real as the flames that rose from the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Perhaps today we have a much more vivid understanding of what Israelis have come to call “hamatzav,” “the condition.” But will this be true a week or two or three from now? Or will we return to that terrible state of indifference and insensitivity that has created an unacceptable distance between us and Israel as it faces one of the most dangerous threats to it’s existence.
Today is the first anniversary of the Al Aksa Intifada. The State of Israel is for all practical purposes at war. But we, the American Jewish Community-and I mean all of us, including myself and all the Rabbis, and especially the Rabbis who should know better- we all have been so complacent and uninvolved and not upset and not concerned that I worry not only for the wellbeing of the State of Israel, but for the state of our souls-our neshamahs-as well.
What is it that had made us so indifferent? Where is the sense of urgency that should have been impelling us take some action, whatever we could have done here to make our bothers and sisters there know that we are concerned and are with them.
Open any newspaper on almost any day before September 11, and what did we see? Take September 9, just two days before September 11. Just another ordinary day in Israel! Hohum! Violence in the West Bank. Violence in Gaza. A suicide bombing in Naharya-four dead, including the bomber. 71 wounded-but thank God none seriously. Oh yes, there was a “first” in this bombing. It was the first time that the bomber was an Israeli Arab, an Israeli citizen from the nearby village of Abu Snan. Oh well, we knew it would happen eventually. We have our first “in-house” terrorist, so to speak. Let’s see, what else happened on September 9? Only one more shooting. A van carrying Israeli teachers to a kindergarten was ambushed leaving two dead. And of course the appropriate Israeli reaction followed. Just another ordinary day in Israel. Nothing as dramatic as the discotheque in Tel Aviv or Sbarro’s in Jerusalem! Just an ordinary day! That was september 9-2 days before September 11.
Why should it take a dramatic, horrible, cataclysmic disaster involving four huge jet planes, the destruction of the World Trade Center, a major attack against the Pentagon, hundreds of wounded, and thousands of dead to make us empathize with the pain of human suffering and loss that our Israeli brethren have been enduring for the last year?
Where were we, the American Jewish Rabbinate, the organized American Jewish community, America’s 6,000,000 Jews! Where was our outrage, why were we not taking to the streets, why were our attempts to respond and show of support for Israel so half-hearted and dispirited? Why had the passion gone out of our responses?
Why couldn’t we get our act together the way we did during the 60’s and early 70’s when we all stood up and came forward to support Soviet Jewry? The Soviet Jewry movement started very small. At the early demonstrations maybe 15-20 or 30 people would show up. But by the end there were often 50,000-75,000 people showing up at those rallies. We cried out, we put the Soviet Jewry issue on the world agenda-and we triumphed!
Why couldn’t we get our act together the way we did during the Yom Kippur war when the Arab states launched a surprise attack on Israel and the entire American Jewish Community rose to the occasion? Why then and not now? Why? Why did we have such difficulty responding? Many reasons!
ONE: We had trouble responding because We were numb. We could not believe this was actually happening to us! For eight years, from Oslo of 1993 until September of 2000, last Rosh Hashannah, we were not only living a dream, we were living in a dream world. We believed that peace was on the horizon. We deluded ourselves so well that we refused to look with open eyes and see the reality that was taking place right under our noses. And when it finally happened, when we discovered that the emperor really had no clothes, that the “peace process was a sham, we couldn’t accept the reality. So I say to you now, and we know it well, the dream is over. There is no partner for peace. There is no peace. Its time to counteract the numbness and take action!
TWO: We had trouble responding because We did not understand that the State of Israel was at war and had been at war since the Al Aksa Intifada began one year ago. Perhaps now that we in America are also combatants in the same war, perhaps now we do get it! True, Israel was not being attacked by multiple Arab armies or even by one Arab army. Neither was the United States! But we here in America are now combatants in the same war, directed at us with the same ferocity and tenacity as it is directed at Israel. Maybe now we get it!
The Al Aksa Intifada was and is as clear a statement as you can get that the Palestinians have abandoned a political solution to their problems and returned to terrorist tactics to obtain what they could not get through negotiations. The extent of what Israel offered at Camp David also makes it clear that no matter what we would offer, the Palestinians will not accept it! Maybe now we get it!
The recent fiasco at the human rights convention in Durban, South Africa must also be understood within the context of the Palestinian war against Israel. From their point of view it was another opportunity to attack and deligitimize Israel and isolate her from the world community! Maybe now we get it!
And if, for even one minute, we had ever entertained the thought that Arafat might put a lid on the violence and do everything he could to end the terrorism against Israel, just look at his remarks and actions in the aftermath of last Tuesday. Yes, he had a great photo-op showing his giving blood to be sent to New York City. And yes, he condemned the terrorist action against the United States. And yes he uttered the phrase “God bless America” three times-those words issuing forth from the mouth of this vicious and evil terrorist constitute the most disgusting profanation imaginable of all that we hold sacred.
This time, however, the smooth words can not hide the truth! Throughout the Arab world-and especially in Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority- thousands of people took to the streets this week and lustily cheered the work of the suicidal bombers who destroyed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon.
Even as thousands of Americans lay buried in the rubble, hordes of Palestinians in Nablus and Bethlehem and Jericho handed out sweets and danced in the streets.
And Arafat insists it never happened!
He says it was only the misguided reaction of ten children!
How could he say that?
Because he has every reason to believe that much of the news footage will never see the light of day! His thugs and security “police” kidnapped an Associated Press photographer who shot the most incriminating film and threatened his life if it ever aired! Moreover, the AP officials were specifically warned by Arafat’s own cabinet secretary, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, that the Palestinian Authority “can not guarantee the life” of the cameraman if the footage ever aired. Indeed, an AP photographer at the scene decided not to take pictures after being warned by the Palestinian security forces not to do so.
The AP and other foreign journalists in Jerusalem forcefully protested this intimidation. This led to the cameraman’s release. But as of this moment, key footage of 3,000 cheering Palestinians in Nablus still has not aired. Maybe now we get it!
Moreover, Palestinian newspapers hailed the Trade Center terrorists as “the most honorable [people] among us.” Maybe now we get it.
And with all that has taken place since last Tuesday Yasser Arafat has not yet, and evidently never will condemn the use of Palestinian terrorism against Israel. He has never used the full force of his power to do everything he can to bring it to an end. Maybe now we get it!
THREE: We had trouble responding because We did not understand how the so called “doctrine of evenhandedness” has broadsided our ability to defend. Even the very name of this doctrine, “evenhandedness,” makes it sound as natural and benign and fair and just and American as apple pie and ice cream! But beware, it is dangerous and insidious.
So what is this “evenhandedness?” It is the claim that there is a moral equivalency between terrorist acts of murder against Israeli citizens on the one hand and killing identified terrorists who attack Israel on the other. And what does this mean? It means that if a terrorist kills an Israeli, which is bad, then any reaction on Israel’s part to defend itself and punish such attacks by seeking out and killing the terrorists or those who train them and dispatch them is equally bad. It means that whatever Israel does to defend itself against terror and respond to terrorist acts is just as morally reprehensible and unacceptable as the terrorist acts themselves. Does this make any sense at all? If it did last Monday, did it still make sense on Tuesday!
Take for example the recent State Department response to the murder of Jordan Valley resident Zohar Shurgi, who was gunned down in his car by a Palestinian sniper. On the very day that thousands of Israelis gathered at his funeral, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher had this to say. “We have seen continued violence and bloodshed in the region, including the shooting death of an Israeli earlier today and the Israeli helicopter strike on the West Bank. BOTH SIDES need to recognize that this path leads to disaster. Violence and escalation are a dead-end street that lead nowhere.” This sounds logical and fair-minded. Who would not subscribe to it? Both sides need to simmer down! But far from supporting Israel’s right to self defense, statements like this deligitimize the defensive measures Israel takes-from economic sanctions to attempting to pinpont the terrorists and their handlers. And what is worse, we bought into them because they sounded so logical and just, without realizing they sabotage Israel’s right to self defense!
I wonder, I wonder if the State Department will characterize our government’s responses to the World Trade Center Terrorism as unacceptable because violence and escalation are a dead-end street that leads nowhere? Or will the United States claim the right of self-defense and turn to the same kind of military, economic and political sanctions that we have discouraged the Israelis from effecting?
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FOUR: We had trouble responding because We did not participate in Israelis’ pain! We were so comfortable that we were not motivated to action.
Well known Israeli Rav Aharon Lichtenstein teaches that even a great leader like Moses always made a point of participating in the people’s pain, even when he could have avoided it. He quotes the Talmudic statement that “ A man should share in the distress of the community, for so we find that Moses, our teacher, shared in the distress of the community.” When the Amalekites attacked the Israelites in the desert, Moses watched the battle from a nearby hilltop. As long as his hands were raised toward the heavens the Israelites prevailed. But when he lowered his hands the enemy prevailed. Moses had to hold his hands in the air so long that they became too heavy. They took a stone and put it under him and he sat thereon. Did not then Moses have a bolster or a cushion to sit on? Of course he did. So this is what Moses meant to convey by not using them. When Israel is in distress, I too will share with them.” If they are sitting on stones, we should find a way to sit on stones. But we are here in West Orange, in America. Until last Tuesday, life was comfortable and easy and good. We didn’t worry about terrorists around every corner and in the supermarket or bakery or movie theater. We and our loved ones and friends were not being blown up. It was hard to understand and be motivated by that reality. Tragically, our reality has changed. Now we are not only sitting on stones, they have been dropped on our head like the proverbial ton of bricks. The pain is unbearable. Perhaps now we get it!
But just in case the pain softens and its remembrance disappears, keep this in mind. Especially if you are a parent or a grandparent or an aunt or an uncle, or have a friend who has brought home a newborn baby from the hospital, or have held a beautiful new, innocent baby in your hands. In America when a newborn child leaves the hospital, parents are given diapers and baby powder and baby oil. In Israel, after a baby is born and the child is about to leave the hospital, for that baby the parents are given diapers, baby powder, baby oil. And a gas mask! [Pause and then] Perhaps now we get it!
FIVE: We had trouble responding because Israel is not the emotional homerun that it once was. Gone are the days when the famous cartoonist Dosh portrayed Israel as the young child dressed in a short sleeve shirt, shorts, sandals, and Kova Tembl-that cute Israeli hat perched on his head- innocently facing the Goliath of the Arab world. Today Israelis are portrayed as sophisticated and well armed soldiers facing off against defenseless Palestinian civilians including women and children who only have rocks and a few rifles to defend themselves against the Israeli aggressor. Even when Israel is defending itself it is portrayed as the harsh aggressor. Not exactly an image that elicits sympathy and understanding! For that we can thank the media!
Gone are the days when Israel was the young, romantic, fledgling country struggling to survive against unimaginable odds. Today it is a powerful military, industrial, medical and technological complex whose economy and resources and rapid growth over the last 53 years are the envy of every third world nation. Such an image does not invite the same kind of passionate response as does the earlier one. “Horas” around the campfire are no longer the image. Stem cell research, sophisticated prostheses, and state of the art defense missiles are not romantic.
For all these reasons and more we have come much too close to ignoring one of the most important Mitzvot of our century. Al Ta’Amod al Dam Raecha” Do not stand idly by while the blood of your brother is being spilled.” I say this not to dramatize the situation but to capture the sad reality that lies just below the surface of our indifference. Remember: this is not the first time in this century that this Mitzvah came to the fore. In November of 1942 a small article appeared on the inside pages of some American newspapers that revealed that two million Jews had already been exterminated by the Nazis. Peter Bergson was most upset that the American Jewish community was not doing enough to save the Jews in Europe. From that time on, Bergson dedicated all his efforts to try to garner support to save the Jews of Europe. Together with his literary partner Ben Hecht, a number of articles, plays and pageants were performed in this country to alert American Jews to the tragedy that was unfolding in Europe. The American Jewish community basically dismissed Bergson’s frantic calls for immediate assistance, but he was undeterred.
One of his more audacious plans saw him recruit some 400 Rabbis from around the country who descended on Washington, DC two days before Yom Kippur. Ultimately this particular march helped force congress to conduct its first hearings on the worsening situation of European Jewry and eventually contributed to the creation of the government’s rescue agency, the War Refugee Board, which was established in January 1944. But that was not until 6,000,000, the exact number of all the Jews in the United States, were exterminated.
As Peter Bergson was not indifferent, we must not be indifferent. As Peter Bergson was not silent, we must not be silent. As Peter Bergson was not deterred, we must not be deterred! However, there are major differences between then and now that should make it much easier for us to step up to the plate and be counted!.
In 1942 we seemed to have known very little of what was happening to European Jewry, and what we did know was not so well circulated. Today there are no secrets from the media. Every event is flashed around the world in painful detail as soon as it happens. We are not unaware or uneducated. We don’t have to wait for a Peter Bergson to write a play to let us know what is happening.
Today we have the ability to organize, publicize, and get our side of the story out. We have the organizational ability to get the numbers out, to initiate letter writing campaigns, to march and demonstrate, to contact out congressmen and senators, to write to the President and Vice-President and all our elected officials. Via the internet it can be done in a flash.
Unfortunately we also now know what happens when we are silent. The most frequent questions we hear about the Holocaust these days are asked of those who were alive but not caught up in the destruction. Where were you? What did you do? Why were you silent? Why did you do nothing? A young child asked this of his father and his father had no answer. From that day on the father could never again look his son straight in the eye. Do we want to put ourselves into the same position? When our children and grandchildren ask us, “Where were you then, what did you do, were you silent?” I hope we will have a better answer! If we don’t, we may not be able to respond!
I don’t know what those who perished in the Holocaust would tell us or ask us, if they could. But I do know what Israelis are saying to us today..“We want you to know that we feel very much alone. We would have expected American Jewry to take to the streets, to scream out against all of the so called evenhandedness…the fact is that it was never a war about Judea, Smaria and Gaza. Ehud Barak gave up Judea, Samaria, and Gaza at Camp David…Arafat’s position still was to shoot us.
This war has nothing to do with the territories. It has to do with our right to Israel…There has to be unremitting pressure, there has to be a tremendous Kol Kore-a voice calling out on the part of everyone of our synagogues…there have to be telegrams to the White House every single day…we are fighting a war for survival..we are so very much on the front line….and we feel that we are very much alone.
I hope that you will tell me that I am wrong…that we are not alone..but that is how I feel. I have to ask you: where are the Rabbis? And what are they talking about to our people this year on yontef? What are they talking about that is more urgent, that is more vital, than Israel is?” PAUSE
I first read these words before last Tuesday and wept. I wept because I knew he was right. I wept because I knew I had not done as much for Israel as I could have done. I wept because I have not done what I could have done to combat our indifference and disinterest. I read these words after last Tuesday and I wept again. Now that I understood how much greater Israel’s pain had been than I ever could have imagined, how could I have been so silent? My own personal “Al Chet” list this year will have additions I could never have imagined!
And so I decided that on this second Day of Rosh Hashannah I would cry out, “Ess brennt, brider, ess brennt!” Our House is burning.
I decided after days and nights of agonizing and discarding sermon after sermon that on this second day of Rosh Hashannah my remarks would be connected with Israel. To do any less would be to fail you in my obligation as a Rav B’Yisrael-Rabbi in Israel! And as the Rabbi of B’nai Shalom! Yes, there are many matters of concern that deserve to be mentioned on the High Holy Days. And not withstanding the events of last Tuesday, on this day, at this moment, at this time in Jewish history, difficult as it may be to make the comparison, there is no issue, I repeat no issue, more important for us as the Jewish People and more on fire than Israel.
We, as a congregation, we at B’nai Shalom must act. We must do something concrete that demonstrates the intensity of our love and support for Israel. But what? We cannot sit in the negotiations on Israel’s behalf. We can not join the army and fight on Israel’s behalf. Most of us will not uproot ourselves and move to Israel.
But we can go to Israel. And I do not mean for a visit or for a tour or for a vacation. I mean specifically a B’nai Shalom Israel Mission.
When? To quote the famous Talmudic sage Hillel, “Im lo achshav aymatai?” “If not now, when?” Today is September 18. Our first mission will leave in late October or early November. It will last 4 days. We will meet with Israelis, we will eat with them, we will study with them and talk with them. There may be very few times in our lives when Israel really needs us to be there. This is one of them. These days Israelis are so grateful to their American visitors. They do not merely mouth the words of thanks. They mean them. They are so glad to see that Jews are coming and are there in their time of anguish and isolation. And are not afraid to be with them. We can give them the great moral boost of our presence! They certainly have given it to us in so many ways over the last week, both publicly and privately!
As a Rav B’Yisrael I can do no less for Israel and for them. Go to Israel and be there with them! As your Rabbi, I can do no greater mitzvah for Israel and you than bring you with me. I believe that every synagogue should be sending groups to Israel all the time. At least once every two months. More if possible. That is what I propose that we do this year, but you have to help me. Once every 8 weeks, as long as we have at least 10-15 participants, we will send a group to Israel. On our very own B’nai Shalom Mission. We will spend four days in Israel. Not for the impressive security briefings and fancy photo-ops and big name lecturers that so many other missions are providing. This will be different. Our purpose is first and foremost to be in Israel, to eat in restaurants with Israelis, to shop in stores with them, to be seen on the streets, to meet with them and hear how they are making their way in these difficult times. To show them through our presence that we are with them! We will study Torah in Jerusalem at the Conservative Yeshivah. We will hear the latest from an outstanding political analyst. We will travel to the Tel Aviv area for other social meetings. We will leave our mark. When we come home we will discover that an even greater mark was left upon us! And we will forever know that we were not silent and unresponsive when our town was burning! Maybe now we do get it!
In addition every one of us can get to Temple B’nai Abraham- this Sunday, September 23, at 12 Noon- for a massive community outpouring and rally! The Solidarity With Israel Rally originally scheduled for this Sunday in New York City has been cancelled. Not, I repeat, not because we are afraid, but because with all that has happened the City of New York can not now be expected to host such a gathering. As a result, every Jewish community throughout the United States is having its own gathering. Join me on Sunday at Temple B’nai Abraham to demonstrate our support of our beloved United States, our support of Israel in it’s battle against terrorism, and our determination to do what ever it takes to forcefully oppose and destroy terrorism and all those who support and promote it. We will be there for everyone! Ourselves, Israel, America-for every democracy in the world!
Join me in these two concrete demonstrations of love, concern and justice! Join me at B’nai Abraham and join me in Israel. That’s what we can do. That’s what we can do to show the world and Israel and ourselves that, at long last, we really do get it!
ALL READ POEM TOGETHER!