Vaetchanan
Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
Isaiah 40:1-26
As I sit down to write, the Jewish people the world over wait in tense anticipation as the planned date of evacuation of settlements in Gaza approaches. With so many others, I am grieved by the knowledge that many will have to leave the homes they love, and pained by every dire news report that suggests that there may be fierce conflict, even violence, between Jewish settlers and Jewish soldiers.
I opened Vaetchanan, this week’s parashah, looking for comfort and found a commentary that speaks directly to this moment in Jewish history, in a way that I found both heartbreaking and hopeful. The Degel Machaneh Ephraim (the grandson of the Ba’al Shem Tov) looks deeply into the riveting verse, which we recite each time the Torah is read, “You who hold fast to Adonai your God are alive today,” (Deut. 4:4) and offers the following teaching.
“It is well known that God is one and Israel is one … which is why Israel holds fast to God, because it is wonderful for the one to hold fast to the One,” wrote the Chassidic rabbi. “When does Israel hold fast to God? When they are united and connected to one another in complete unity, then God, Who is One, rests with them. But when they are separated and divided among themselves, they cannot be one, and God does not rest with them. … This is like death. … And this is hinted at in our verse, ‘You who hold fast to Adonai your God are alive today.’ When you are united and connected to one another, then you are connected to God, and this is the essence of life … and the one (the people of Israel, united) connects to the One, and God rests with you.”
For the rebbe, the fullness of life is to be found in our connection with the Jewish people and in our collective connection to God. As Jews we most readily trust our collective experience of the divine. Yet the rebbe holds us to a high standard, asserting that it is only when we are united as a people that the Holy One is with us.
The teaching is heartbreaking, for we are anything but united these days. Israelis march in fierce demonstrations and counterdemonstrations, make outraged speeches impugning the integrity and loyalty of those on the “other side,” and all fear violence — interpersonally, existentially and perhaps even physically. Surely, this can be viewed as evidence of Israel’s vibrant democratic spirit. But at this time the disagreement seems to have severed any sense of commonality among us. Even we in the diaspora join in the verbal violence, regarding those who hold views different from our own as the enemy. We are anything but united.
We have long been a contentious people. As is well known, the Talmud is one extended series of debates among scholars. While some of the disagreements may have been harsh, every page is suffused with the vitality of sacred disagreement. Overall the Talmud testifies to the reality that no one scholar, no one side of a dispute can possibly have access to the totality of divine truth. “These and these are the words of the living God.” It is only by learning from one another that we can possibly listen together for the word of God.
Part of the tragedy of the present moment in history is that Israeli society, and by extension, all of us, have failed so dismally to sustain a sense of unity, even as we disagree deeply on ideology and policy.
We must find a way. Although the iconic phrase “We are one” rings hollow right now, we must rediscover its deeper truth. We must learn again to find the commonality beneath our disagreements, recognizing again what unifies us all: our common experience through history, the fear that has been engraved in all of us, our shared love for the land and people of Israel, and our collective identity as a people of God.
Whatever happens in the coming weeks, we must find a way to live again, as one people, united with our God. May it be so.