Passover Thoughts from Rabbis for Human Rights

My liberation is not complete until all are free. in that spirit, I'm reproducing a note from Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights.

PASSOVER THOUGHTS
Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman

We all know that Pesakh is a time where Jews traditionally clean their homes of khametz (leavened grain products) and that many speak of cleaning our souls of khametz as well. Many traditional sources draw a link between the swelling that takes place as part of the leavening process, and the exaggerated pride and self importance which becomes arrogance. This may seem like a personal, introspective thought more appropriate for the High Holy Days than for Pesakh`s emphasis on the collective. However, it can certainly be applied on a national, collective basis as well. In fact, nationalism itself all too often takes on an extremely chauvinistic tone. Each of you, wherever these Pesakh thoughts reach you, can apply this to the various collectives of which you are a part. Where does healthy pride and self-respect end, and where does arrogance begin? In the words of the seminal sociologist of racism, Gordon Allport, when do in-groups create out-groups? I will offer a few thoughts in the Israeli context.

We Israelis tend to believe that the laws that apply to the rest of the world don`t apply to us. As the Tamir commission worked to create the Israeli Wisconsin Plan, we often suggested that more attention be paid to studies conducted on similar programs around the world. These studies indicated that very few programs actually reduced unemployment, and almost all of them increased poverty. I have no doubt that many of the preeminent scholars on the commission were familiar with the studies, but almost nobody on the commission was willing to explain how these studies impacted on the Israeli plan. It was as if these studies simply didn`t apply to us. (For some bureaucrats, ideologues and those who saw their narrow self interests served by reducing the welfare roles, increasing employment was never the goal.)

Most Israelis truly believe that we have the most moral army in the world. Looking at armies around the world, it may be true that few would do as well ours were they to be facing the situations that the Israeli army faces. However, that is cold comfort given what ought to be our demand that the Israeli army live up to the higher standard mandated by the Jewish Tradition as we understand it. Furthermore, given the evil inherent in warfare, we must do more to avoid the situations in which the Israeli army, or any other army, must put its morality to the test. While I have very serious concerns about the conduct of the Israeli army in the recent Gaza War, and no illusions about the morality of some of those we face, I first ask whether we could have avoided the renewal of rockets on Sderot that precipitated the war. As I have written previously, few Israelis are aware of the connection between the mood in Gaza and our failure to uphold our commitments in the June cease fire agreement to open up the border crossings and let in essential goods. What would have happened if Gazan civilians had more of their basic humanitarian needs met and saw that Israel could be trusted to abide by agreements? What would have happened had we spoken to Hamas? What would have happened had we taken more decisive steps to ending the Occupation? We might have found ourselves in exactly the same position, but I suspect not.

The insistent, blind and arrogant belief that we have the most moral army in the world has become sop to our conscience insuring that we will not have the most moral army in the world. By internalizing a response to an often hostile international community, we have both absolved ourselves of the vigilance necessary to maintain our own standards and given ourselves an excuse to ignore international standards. One reason for an independent State inquiry into what happened in Gaza is to remove the khametz of arrogance from our collective consciousness. Even as we all pray that our worst suspicions are unfounded, an inquiry forces us to admit the possibility that our children might have committed acts which contradict what the vast majority of Israelis want to believe of ourselves. Admitting that it is possible is the first step to making sure that it not be possible.

One of the most painful moments in my life was the moment that I realized that I could no longer say "We have the most moral army in the world." I want to be able to say those words. I don`t know enough about other armies to say whether we are less moral. Leaving comparisons aside, I simply can not ignore the mounting evidence that the Israeli army co-opted its own legal department and the ethicists to justify what it wanted to do in the name of protecting our soldiers, even as the Army Rabbinate distributed pamphlets encouraging akhzariut (cruelty). There is no consensus, even within RHR, as to what happened in the Gaza War. That is another one of the reasons we join our fellow Israeli human rights organizations in calling for an independent State inquiry not in the hands of the army. However, we must face our own pain to free ourselves from the chains that enslave our minds and prevent us from actualizing our own most deeply cherished beliefs and desires.

In Israel, the khametz of arrogance leads us to oppress our fellow Israeli Jews because we are the Jewish State protecting world Jewry from oppression and can make programs work here that have not worked elsewhere. We can turn Sudanese refugees back at the borders because we who suffered from closed borders could not possibly be responsible for doing to others what was done to us. We can legally expropriate land, evict people from their homes and demolish the homes of others because our legal system would not allow a contradiction between the legal and the ethical, and we have nothing to learn from international law used by a hostile world to attack us. We can fight wars without betraying our own values because we have the most moral army in the world.

Author of Freedom, help us on this Holiday of Freedom to rid ourselves of the khametz of arrogance that enslaves our personal and collective conscious in so many spheres. In so doing, may we be freed to be Your partners in building the world You would have us create.

Pesakh Sameakh V`Kasher - Wishing You a Joyous and Kosher Pesakh

Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman
Executive Director
RHR