Fantasy & Yitro

When I was in high school, I had a favorite teacher who loved saying the word “appalled.”

He spoke with a pretentious British accent, drawing out the word.

“I am appaaaawwlled at your behavior,” he would say to us collectively.

Outside of class, we would imitate and laugh at him.

Now I find myself using the word quite often, and I can never quite get his voice out of my head.

But I feel like I’m living in a constant state of “appalledness” or “appawllation.”

Funny how we become our teachers.

This week, I was appalled by something I heard on the podcast, For Heaven’s Sake, of the Shalom Hartman Institute.

The hosts told the story of an Israeli army chaplain speaking to a group of soldiers at the beginning of the war on Hamas in Gaza.

The chaplain told the soldiers that the attacks on Israel of October 7th were something to rejoice; it portended the coming of the Messiah.

(Appalling, isn’t it??)

The episode, entitled “The Politics of Fantasy,” is a discussion of the conference, Settlements Bring Security, that was held this past Sunday in Israel.

The Jewish “Religious Right” is promoting the idea that this war Israel is currently engaged in is the war to end all wars.

It’s the war that will bring about the messianic dream of Jews repossessing the land that God promised us in the Torah.

If you take the Bible literally, as the fundamentalist religious right does, whether Jewish or Christian, then this story has to play out.

It’s the reason (or excuse) for possessing land, as recounted repeatedly in the Torah—and for repossessing land.

For Jews, it’s based on the idea that we are God’s Chosen People—and that God promised us “The Land.”

It’s the reason Chistian fundamentalists support Israel as a state—even while they call for Jews to convert to Christianity and will openly show disdain for our “Old” Testament.

They believe that the Messiah will come (back) when Jews have repossessed the land.

The idea of choseness, as it’s been translated, appears for the first time in the Torah in this week’s Parsha.

Now “free,” the Israelites are just beginning to be exposed to what it means to be—well, them.

Becoming them as God wants them to be, begins with trembling at the foot of Mt. Sinai, receiving the Torah—

—which really means hearing the Ten Commandments, or Ten Utterances, more properly translated, for the first time.

Being them—Israelites (or us, Jews)—will mean living by these words.

Among the words are some key utterances I think we should pay special attention to at this time as Jews:

You shall not swear falsely…    

You shall not murder.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor…

But there’s a key stipulation:

The people are told they will be God’s chosen, God’s “segula,” or treasure, if they listen to God’s voice.

God promises the land—but God also specifically says the land belongs to God, not to the people!

We’re in a very difficult position at this time, as Jews, as Americans, as Israelis.

It’s a dangerous game that’s being played.

We as a people, as Jews, whether American or Israeli, need to make sure we’re not being played.

It’s a dangerous game we’re caught in, between politics, fundamentalist religion, and fear.

It’s a dangerous idea when a sense of specialness, singled out by God, coupled with trauma, along with a messianic vision, and military power, all come together.

What happens to our inner moral compass when this happens?

What has happened to our inner moral compass?

Perhaps we should each stop pretending to know the answers.

Perhaps we should start by stopping pretending to be, each of us (because we all are guilty of this!) the only possessors of Truth and Solution.

Perhaps we all need a little more humility, and to examine ourselves, our thoughts, our beliefs, more carefully.

And can we do that without making excuses or giving reasons?

We should ask, are we in fact following God’s commandments?

Is it a fantasy that we can create peace in a world so fraught?

Maybe.

But we have to try.

And doesn't it start with each one of us that collectively become a "we"?

Because the way things are now is just appaaaawwwling.

Don’t you agree?

If so, say Amen.