Posts Tagged ‘zarim’
Post-genocide, ethnic cleaning trauma? Extending to fourth generation?
Peter Cohen is right.
A lot of our reactions emerge out of post-Holocaust trauma. It does not mean they are right but it explains that when we think Hamas will exterminate us given the chance, it makes peace impossible and leads to the justification of aggression.
Peter Cohen: “This is the problem. Many Jews have an existential connection to the idea of Israel as a refuge against the next holocaust. It is a deeply emotive – not rational – need for an imagined safe haven from the threat of persecution by the “Other.”
It is a phenomenon ultimately based on fear. And the search for “security” too often at the expense of the Other, leads to the absurdities we are seeing today.
It has become clear to me that, for many Jewish people like Aaron, the issue of a Jewish State is non-negotiable.
It is value they place above virtually all else, including the sanctity of life.
Now that the realization of this dream has caused so much wrong and suffering, it is time to reexamine this value and ask ourselves if it is really even necessary to – or compatible with – the making of a better world.”
Note: And I say the Palestinian cause is existential. And there will be no peace until the current apartheid practices of “only-Jewish” villages and cities are abolished and all villages shared by Palestinians everywhere in Palestine.
The below was written by Naomi Wolf, a Jewish american author.
Last week, she walked out of the synagogue because she was saddened of the lack of any mention of Gaza (‘where is God if not in caring for others?‘ she asked…She looks into her book in an attempt to understand and grasp it all, below is what she shares.
Okay, so I was challenged below: “Read the Bible! God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people.”
So….I may get crucified for this but I have started to say it — most recently (terrified, trembling) to warm welcome in a synagogue in LA: Actually if you read Genesis Exodus and Deuteronomy in Hebrew — as I do — you see that God did not “give” Israel to the Jews/Israelites.
We as Jews are raised with the creed that “God gave us the land of Israel” in Genesis — and that ethnically ‘we are the chosen people.” But actually — and I could not believe my eyes when I saw this, I checked my reading with major scholars and they confirmed it — actually God’s “covenant” in Genesis, Exodus and Deuteronomy with the Jewish people is NOT ABOUT AN ETHNICITY AND NOT ABOUT A CONTRACT. IT IS ABOUT A WAY OF BEHAVING.
Again and again in the “covenant” language He never says: “I will give you, ethnic Israelites, the land of Israel.”
Rather He says something far more radical – far more subversive — far more Godlike in my view. He says: IF you visit those imprisoned…act mercifully to the widow and the orphan…welcome the stranger in your midst…tend the sick…do justice and love mercy ….and perform various other tasks…THEN YOU WILL BE MY PEOPLE AND THIS LAND WILL BE YOUR LAND.
So “my people” is not ethnic — it is transactional. We are God’s people not by birth but by a way of behaving, that is ethical, kind and just. And we STOP being “God’s people” when we are not ethical, kind and just. And ANYONE who is ethical, kind and just is, according to God in Genesis, “God’s people.”
And the “contract” to “give” us Israel is conditional — we can live in God’s land IF we are “God’s people” in this way — just, merciful, compassionate. AND — it never ever says, it is ONLY your land.
Even when passages spell out geographical “boundaries” as if God does such a thing, it never says this is exclusively your land. It never says I will give this land JUST to you.
Remember these were homeless nomads who had left slavery in Egypt and were wandering around in the desert.
At most these passages say, settle here, but they do not say, settle here exclusively.
Indeed again and again it talks about welcoming “zarim” — translated as “strangers” but can also be translated as “people/tribes who are not you” — in your midst. Blew my mind, hope it blows yours.
Note: It blows my mind when people still refer to Books as spelled out by a God or a messenger of a God.
Adonis Diaries 