As the Jewish Holidays drew to a
conclusion, life in Israel has grown more anxious as a wave of terrorist
activity has intensified. More rockets have been launched from Gaza. While some
have landed harmlessly in barren spaces in Israel, other rockets have required
the use of the Iron Dome to protect Israelis safety. However there has be a rash of Israeli Arabs
walking up to Israeli Jews and stabbing them or running them over in cars.
Almost two weeks ago parents were run over and killed while standing at an
intersection and their four children looked on. Stabbings and murder have
occurred in Haifa, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv. The targets, such as they are, are
NOT, military targets, government targets, symbols of Israeli industry, capitalism
or Judaism. The targets are not even Israeli citizens who are military
officials, political officials, or any “strategic” member of the population.
Rather the targets and the victims of these random stabbings are just regular
ordinary people going on about their day: running errands, going to work, or taking
their kids to school or practice. The attacks are random, occurring on a
crowded intersection during the day, or on an empty street at night. These
attacks occur in nice upscale neighborhoods such as Raanana or less upscale neighborhoods.
The tension as a result of these random attacks has become so palpable that one
Israeli shot another Israeli because he thought the other was an Arab and
appeared as if he were preparing to attack. If the Palestinian leadership, Hamas,
and Fatah, strategy was to engage in a wave of random terrorist attacks so as
to breed chaos and confusion; in one respect they have succeeded. The United
States, the EU, Canada have all condemned these attacks. However the U.N. seems
a bit confused. The U.N. General Secretary called on Israel to review whether
Israeli security forces have demonstrated excessive force when dealing with
these attacks and its response to Gaza as rockets continue to be fired from
there.
This
Shabbat we read from Parshat Noach. Comprised of two distinct narratives; both
deal with the theology of chaos and confused boundaries. First we read the story
of Noach, God’s disenchantment with creation and mankind’s behavior, the
instruction to build the Teva (the Ark), the Flood as punishment for mankind’s
unethical behavior, the covenant made between God and Noach and the resulting
offering to God, and then an odd story about Noach’s drunkenness and one’s sons
inappropriate behavior. The second distinct narrative is also about chaos and
confused boundaries. This time mankind confuses boundaries and trying to build
a tower up to the heavens. The result is that God scatters mankind across the
earth by making mankind speak numerous languages and making communication
difficult.
The
Parsha begins with God’s recognition that the order previously establish established;
has grown increasing disordered. That is
to say, when left to themselves, mankind was unable to establish and maintain
order but rather gravitated towards chaos. VaTishacheit
HaAretz Lifnei HaElokim BaTimalei HaAretz Chamas Now the earth had become corrupt before god; and the earth had become
filled with ChaMaS violence. Literally the word ChaMaS means “violence as a
form of extortion.” So the corruption that God saw was that Mankind grew
increasingly violent as a way of trying to acquire what it wanted. Unlike the
thief that steals an object, ChaMaS suggests that people took or acquired what
they wanted and if nobody stood up to it, then the “armed robber” would
continue to take and acquire without prosecution. Certainly we can understand
this idea of ChaMaS in terms of acquiring property illegally. However after
reading about the first murder, the first fratricide of Kain and Abel; we can
understand that ChaMaS also includes the idea of taking anything for the sake
of extorting a third party and when the object has lost all its value and the
extortionist is beyond prosecution, the object that lost value is eliminated.
That went for inanimate objects, cattle, and people. This kind of chaos, when
there is no orderly way to acquire or transfer property, no orderly way to deal
with disagreements, but rather to extort is the chaos that angered God, and
brought the flood.
As we continue to watch events
unfold in Israel; as we watch the growing unrest in the West Bank and Gaza, as
we watch the random acts of terrorism upon innocent Israeli civilians; it
become increasingly clear that the violence, the terrorism is all about
extorting something from Israel. What is that something? Well as the perpetrators of the terror become
younger and younger, including 14 and 15 year olds, as the weapons become
cruder and cruder: screwdrivers, sharp kitchen knives, even a vegetable peeler,
those calling for these terrorist acts to be perpetrated are indeed corrupt.
Those calling for these desperate terrorist acts are indeed ChaMaS-
extortionists. Yes they will continue to engage in this until Israel capitulates
by giving them all of Israel (not going to happen); or until some Palestinian
young person realizes and is able to explain to his/her people that the
leadership doesn’t care at all about Palestinian youth, a Palestinian future,
or Palestinian people for if they did; they wouldn’t be sending kids off to
stab people and risk death. The Palestinian leadership Hamas and Fata, in some
perverse way, are not only trying to kill Israelis, but they kill their own as
well. Nothing could be demonstrate a corrupt society more than that, even
compared to the days of Noach.
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