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Rosh Hashanah 5762 Sermon by Rabbi Stanley Davids (2001)
Oh, the horror. The horror.
In the Book of Jeremiah it is written: "Ko amar Adonai: Kol b'Ramah nishmah: n'hi b'chi tamrurim. RACHEL m'vah-kah al ba-neh-ha. May-ahna l'hinchem al ba-neh-ha, ki ayneh-nu." "Thus saith the Eternal: A voice is heard in Ramah, a voice of lamentation and of bitter weeping. Mother Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, she cannot be comforted for her children, for they no longer exist."
Oh, the horror. The horror.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is an American Orthodox rabbi who made Aliyah in order to found a religious community near Bethlehem, a community called Efrat. Riskin spoke with the members of our special Atlanta mission just four weeks ago. His message was unforgettable: "Kobe Mandel and Yosef Yishran were two young students of mine. They were murdered while exploring an area in which to have a picnic…. People would think that children should be able to travel around their home area safely, and that you could picnic safely there and that you could hike safely there. Their faces and their heads were so brutally battered, their bodies were so cruelly smashed, that we had to use dental records in order to determine which youngster was which. That is how unrecognizable their bodies were.
"I need to raise money now to buy bulletproof buses," Riskin continued, " so that our kids can go to school in safety. I need to raise money to buy bulletproof vests, children's size. What will you be appealing for on Rosh Hashanah that is more needed than this? Is there anything that any American Shul needs that is more important than bulletproof vests, children's' size?"
There are other voices now echoing in our souls as well, voices that were carried through cell phones: "Honey, something terrible is happening. I don't think I am going to make it. I love you. Take care of the children." "I love you. I'm in the World Trade Center. The building was hit by something. I don't know if I'm going to get out. But I love you very much." "Somebody's got to help us. This place is filling with smoke." "Hi, Mom. We've been taken over. There are three men that say they have a bomb. I love you. I love you. I love you." "Hey, Jules. It's Brian. I'm on a plane and it's hijacked and it doesn't look good. I just wanted to let you know that I love you and I hope to see you again. If I don't, please have fun in life and live your life the best you can. Know that I love you." "Mommy, the building is on fire, there's smoke coming through the walls. I can't breathe. I love you, Mommy. Goodbye."
Oh, the horror. The horror.
Sbarros pizza is located at the very heart of Jerusalem. The terrorist entered when the restaurant was crowded with mothers and little children, as well as with those working in nearby shops and offices. The bomb was strapped to the man's body. Layered over the bomb were taped packages of nails. Very soon, what remained of the restaurant would be marked by torn human remains, by bits of baby strollers - and by survivors who had been brutally, horribly maimed.
My dear friends, my troubled, stressed out, confused and frightened friends. We Americans have now suddenly, cruelly, found ourselves paying an incredible price for our open skies, for our democratic ways, for our support of freedom, and for our opposition to terrorism and tyranny across the world. We Americans have been bloodied on our own soil in ways that we have not experienced for over 130 years - not since the close of the Civil War. And this time our catastrophic losses, losses that could range beyond the unthinkable number of 6,000 in New York City, in Washington, D.C., and on a field 80 miles outside of Pittsburgh have overwhelmingly been civilian lives: the innocents, the non-combatants. We have experienced an outrageous cruelty that has shaken our nation to its very core, threatening our hold on those values that make us the nation we are.
Perhaps now the American people - weeping, fearful, mourning, and raging at the impotence of our awesomely powerful defense to protect its own civilian population - can understand in ways that we could not begin to comprehend before September 11th how foolish we had been to believe that the first foreign sponsored terrorist assault on the World Trade Center eight long years ago should have been downplayed by our leadership, leaving our only response to our court system - even as we left the terrorist bombing of an American plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, just for the courts to resolve. And how foolish we have been in not pursuing far more rigorously those who attacked the USS Cole near Yemen, or those who bombed our embassies in Africa. Those events were the true beginnings of what our President now calls the first war of the 21st century. And we ignored them.
We wanted to pretend that terrorism would only afflict Ireland and the Middle East. So we committed the unforgivable sin of forgetting - allowing commentators to pontificate that what occurred on September 11th was "the first." It wasn't the first. Not nearly. And it is that same forgetfulness that allowed Americans to forget the scene of Palestinians dancing on their rooftops, firing their weapons into the air in honor of Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait at the start of the Gulf War, or the scene of Palestinians dancing in the streets when two Israeli soldiers captured in Ramallah were brutally beaten to death by a mob gone wild with ecstasy at the sight and smell of Jewish blood. That same forgetfulness will probably try to blot out more recent scenes of Palestinians rejoicing at the assault on the World Trade Center - rejoicing that only stopped at a direct order from the Palestinian Authority. The PA also issued overt threats against any news agency that continued to carry such images into the world press. We forget our enemy's rejoicing at our own risk!
American reservists are being called up. Battleships have moved into active patrol along both of our major coasts. Fighter planes have been scrambled to provide a rapid response to those who would turn civilian aircraft into deadly missiles of destruction. Perhaps the American people - now preparing to loose the dogs of war in what will be a prolonged, difficult war on terrorism - can also understand that the radical Muslim terrorist is very different than a battlefield soldier. Harder to find and harder to stop, this terrorist is supported by supply networks that include not only our highly visible enemies such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Afghanistan - but also by countries so tightly linked to us through the global economy that we are in fact powerless to take direct military action against them - countries such as Saudi Arabia. This terrorist operates in cells, not in divisions, and is fed and nurtured by pervasive and festering hatred. This terrorist has no fear of death, believing that Paradise awaits him. And because the terrorist is so profoundly motivated, even the killing of a leader like Osama bin Laden - as emotionally gratifying as it might be - will do very little to reduce the threat.
Understand: terror is not designed to overthrow a government or to destabilize communal structures. Those who practice the black art of terror do so in order to plant fear into the hearts of ordinary people: to force us to change our patterns of behavior, to burden our lives with the necessity not to ignore an untended package, not to ignore people whose behavior triggers warning bells of suspicion, not to gather in public places, not to travel any more than is necessary. Terrorists want to shatter our will to be free. Whether in Jerusalem or in Lower Manhattan, the common enemy wants to end "freedom, tolerance, prosperity, religious pluralism and universal suffrage." It is Western democratic capitalism that is the ultimate enemy - NOT Zionism or support for Israel or opposition to Saddam. We are hated most of all for what the terrorist fears will be the infectious attractiveness of our core beliefs.
We know that the cancer of Palestinian terror has exacted an enormous price in hundreds of Israeli deaths since last October. In addition, $1 billion in tourist income has disappeared. Foreign investment has totally dried up. Israel's diplomatic isolation, as exemplified by the disgusting charade carried out under the UN banner in Durban, has intensified. The Israeli political scene has been dramatically reconfigured, with supporters for peaceful negotiations being reduced to a pitiful 30% level in all recent polls.
Why not? 60 live bombs have gone off in Israel these last 12 months. There have been 6000 recorded incidents of terrorism. Body parts in the streets. Organizations of volunteers to help frightened and bereaved families discover where their loved one's remains have been taken. Life in Israel has NOT gone back to normal; neither will life in the United States. Those who say otherwise are simply deluding themselves. No matter what anyone's resolve, no matter how sturdy our spines, life under terrorist threat cannot go on as before.
The cost to the United States, beyond the dead and injured, beyond the psychological toll, has yet to be tallied. We will have losses far in excess of many tens of billions of dollars. Our political battle lines in Congress will be dramatically redrawn. The institutions of international finance will be reconfigured and relocated. Our major airlines will face insurmountable challenges just to survive. Our go-it-alone foreign policy will be rapidly reshaped into a pursuit of alliances built on consensus. Our sense of splendid isolation from the world's problems will be buried - along with our innocence.
Let there be no doubt as to my personal beliefs, no gray areas in understanding where I stand. ANI MAAMIN, I BELIEVE. I believe in the triumph of peace. Peace in our country. Peace in Israel. Peace will come. A negotiated peace. A fair peace. A secure peace. It will come. Not easily. Not without a bitter, probably bloody struggle. But it will come.
ANI MAAMIN. The American people will struggle back. We will be fueled by a resurgence of patriotism. We will not take for granted the gifts our citizenship bestows. We will be called upon to make sacrifices, and sacrifice we will. We will beat back the all-too-easy temptation to label every Arab our enemy, all of Islam our adversary. We will not make the same morally disastrous decisions that we made toward Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor. We will quickly learn who stands with us. We will quickly learn to distinguish between those who support us and those who wish us harm. Our great nation will persevere. Our way of life will continue to be a source of blessing, of dreams and of hope. We will wage successful war against international terrorism. Whether it takes five years or fifteen, we will not lose this war.
ANI MAAMIN. the drums of falsehood are already beating. Hear them! They would have us believe that Israel's struggle with the Palestinians is at the heart of current American agony. Remember that Muslim fundamentalism most despises Israel because it is a thriving western-style democracy in the Arab backyard.
ANI MAAMIN. THERE IS NO MORAL EQUIVALENCE between Palestinian terrorism and Israeli acts of self-defense, just as there will be no moral equivalence between the events of September 11th and the American response to it. The corrupt, dictatorial, anti-democratic Palestinian leadership wants the progressive dismemberment of the Jewish State, not just the establishment of a Palestinian State. Do Palestinians and Muslim fundamentalists have both rights and complaints? Yes, they most certainly do. But so did Timothy McVeigh. And so does Osama bin Laden.
Let America remember words written in his autobiography by our current Secretary of State: "America should enter fights with every bit of force available or not at all…..Overwhelming U.S. force assures success at minimum risk to Americans in uniform….[We should] use all the force necessary and don't apologize for going big if that is what it takes. Decisive force ends wars quickly and in the long run saves lives." You are right, Mr. Secretary. You are 100% correct. Funny, though, how you recently called Israeli use of force disproportionate. But of course your comment was made before September 11th.
ANI MAAMIN. Terrorism is not a precursor to war; terrorism IS war. In the United States. In the Middle East. For Americans, we are just waking up to the reality of a war that started a decade ago. For Israel, efforts to deny the Jewish people our historic right to have a state of our own on a land that has been part of our soul for close to 3000 years is nothing less than an extension of Israel's War of Independence.
ANI MAAMIN. We Americans and Jews ought to wake up and start caring. Most of us don't care. Not nearly. Because I define caring as DOING - not as sighs of regret. Sighs of regret serve the person who sighs. They relieve anxiety. But they accomplish nothing. It is time for us to start caring.
How? By being vocal. By bombarding the local press and our elected officials with letters indicating the strength of our support for the full partnership of Israel and the United States in warfare against a common enemy. How? By making certain that neither by word nor by deed do we join those who would demonize ALL Muslims, ALL Arabs, because of the horrific deeds of religious extremists.
How? By buying Israel Bonds. The Israeli government has just issued a directive that it needs us to participate in a campaign this year to sell close to $1.25 billion in new Bonds, as compared with less than $1 billion last year. Those Bonds and the money they represent will help close some of the most difficult gaps in the Israeli budget. How? By becoming informed, by actively learning who our enemies are and what motivates their behavior so that we can filter the news we hear and come to informed conclusions about what is happening in our world. How? By contributing to September 11th relief funds, by speaking with our children about patriotism, by flying the American flag, by including prayers for America in our family bedtime rituals, by supporting our police and fire departments.
How? By supporting the efforts of Harvey Ruttenberg and his incredible committee to create a community-wide interfaith gathering here at Temple Emanu-El on September 30th that will offer moral and spiritual support to both the United States and Israel.
How? By visiting Israel. Perhaps in January on the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta's massive Community Mission. There is no reason not to go. There is EVERY reason to go. IM LO ACHSHAV, AYMATAI. If not now, then when? Resa and I were there in August. We will be there in January. We will be there again in March as the Central Conference of American Rabbis gather. We love our children and grandchildren. We are not in the least bit suicidal. But our obligations as Jews offer us no choice. Will you join us? Will you also plan to be with us in late March of 2003 as we host a wondrously special joint Temple Emanu-El and Melton mission to Israel?
Rav Aaron Lichtenstein, one of Israel's great scholars, taught the following lesson about peace to three of his disciples: "In Isaiah we read, 'And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion together…'" "So how," Rav Lichtenstein taught, "is this truly such a miracle of messianic proportions? Such a thing has already happened. It was in the Ark of Noah where all of the animals lived together peacefully during the days of the Flood. So why are the words of Isaiah such a special prophecy?"
Rav Lichtenstein concluded: "During the time of Noah [the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the calf and the young lion] lived peacefully together because they confronted a common enemy: the Flood. But [true peace, a peace we would call Messianic, will be come about when the wolf and the lamb choose to lie down together] without [needing to be pushed into it] by the presence of a common enemy.
We pray for that day when lions and lambs will lie down together because they have chosen to do so. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and we pray for the peace of America. We pray for the day when the cries of newborn babies will drown out the cries of the grieving. We pray for the day when our cell phones will ring with good news, a day when horror will be no more. May that time come soon, O God. AMEN