Dear Friends,
Like many of you, I was troubled to read that on his visit to Israel, President Trump has a total of 15 minutes to visit Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum. I've been to Yad Vashem at least four or five times. It is a deeply meaningful place which captures the cruelty and barbarity of the Holocaust, and it takes hours to walk through it and absorb the depths of its meaning.
One can, if one were so inclined, walk through it in 15 minutes. Israel's officials reportedly told President Trump's advance team that the absolute minimum time to spend there would be an hour and a half. How much can one possibly take in in fifteen minutes?
On Monday, my dad and I visited the National Civil Rights Museum. We spent two hours walking around, and couldn't take it all in. There's just too much to see, and one could easily spend a full day there. After two hours, we walked our way through the rest of the exhibit, making sure we stopped at the place where Dr. King was shot, which has thankfully been designated as a place for silence and reverence. After two hours, we felt as if we had begun to take in the magnitude of the material on display, and we left, continuing to discuss what we'd seen for a good while afterwards. I had already been to the museum before, and dad grew up in Georgia and experienced much of the troubling daily realities the museum depicted. Nevertheless, we both learned from our time there.Had we spent only fifteen minutes walking around, I can't imagine we'd have had enough time even to walk through the main building, let alone appreciate its contents.
It seems to me that the only way someone could think of going to Yad Vashem in 15 minutes is if they assume they already know all they need to know about it. That phenomenon is one I see more often these days in our country, by citizens of all raced, creeds, political orientations, religions, and walks of life. This closed-mindedness is having disastrous consequences on our country and our planet. The minute I think I already know something is the minute I've robbed myself of a deeper experience. Our children know this - it's why they keep asking questions. I wonder, when do we stop being naturally inquisitive? When does the arrogance of humanity take away the fullness of our beings and the spirit of inquiry we were born with? How might we reclaim it? How might we learn to appreciate the wisdom of those with different understanding and beliefs? When will we understand that when it comes to preventing suffering of all God's creations, never again means it is incumbent upon all of us to set aside our preconceived notions of what we think we know and open our hearts and minds to the suffering of our histories, so we might avoid them in the present and future.
(I am aware that elected officials don't have unlimited time. Nevertheless, I'd much rather a polite apology and a promise of a future visit than a visit that is too short to matter. In my not so humble opinion, fifteen minutes for Yad Vashem is an insult to the victims of the Holocaust.)
It was revealed recently that an active crematoria has been discovered in Syria. The Syrian government is accused of murdering its prisoners and burning their bodies so as to dispose of them without anyone noticing. And yet, we live in an interconnected world, and atrocities like this will always be revealed. What are we to make of this terrible situation and how should we respond?
I read that some members of Israel's Knesset were advocating bombing the crematoria. Had the allies bombed the crematoria in Auschwitz, it's possible that more Jews would have been saved. How many more Syrians need to die before the world puts an end to the atrocities? I agree with those calling for the bombing of the crematoria. I also agree with those saying the Assad regime must not be allowed to continue. I know there are delicate international political realities, and yet, I wonder, how is it that only 72 years after the end of the Holocaust we don't seem to have learned that when we tolerate such cruelty, it doesn't go away on its own?
I'm glad that I'm not in charge of making decisions of this magnitude. And yet, I want us all to insist that we can and must do better. When asked why he was opposed to the Vietnam War, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said the war disturbed his studying. How, he wondered, can we sit and study when innocent people are being killed? I wonder the same question. How can we think it's okay to go on as if everything is normal when men, women, and children are being slaughtered seemingly before our very eyes?
Our Torah reading this week includes a line made famous by the Liberty Bell: Proclaim liberty throughout the land for all its inhabitants. I don't believe the Torah meant that to apply only to Jews. Rather, as Emma Lazarus wrote. "until we are all free, we are none of us free."
May we each have the courage to do our part to make the world more free.
May the dawn of freedom for all God's creatures soon be at hand, for us, for all the Children of Israel, and for all God's people.
Amen.
Tomorrow morning we'll gather at 9:15 for our annual celebration of Jewish learning.
Hope you can join us as we honor all of our learners, young and old.
Many of our young members will be taking part in the service starting right at 9:15. Hope to see you there.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Ilan
