Media images of the World Trade Center and Pentagon crumbling, followed by those of jubilant Palestinians celebrating the attack, left a despondent Rabbi Shlomo Zarchi feeling enormous empathy for Israel — as well as a little guilt.
“Israel has been living with this kind of threat for such a long time,” said Zarchi, spiritual leader of Chevra Thilim, an Orthodox congregation in San Francisco.
“It’s time for Americans, and certainly American Jews, to get out of their Mercedes, stop drinking their piña coladas and think about [that] for a moment.”
Zarchi, whose family resides in both New York and Pittsburgh — two of the three locales where terrorist-hijacked planes crashed Tuesday — will sermonize on that issue in great detail during the upcoming High Holy Days.
Zarchi is not alone. Many rabbis plan to use the High Holy Days as a springboard for condemning Tuesday’s terrorist attack.
Rabbi Stacy Friedman of San Rafael’s Reform Congregation Rodef Shalom, for instance, will stress that this is an opportunity for collective healing, not just in the Jewish community, but the American population as a whole.
“This sort of tragedy can serve to unify people if we allow it,” she said. “The outcome will be the eradication of terrorists, not the fermentation of more hatred.”
Furthermore, Friedman echoed Zarchi when she said this attack will allow American Jews to “understand personally what it feels like to be under siege.” It will strengthen Jews’ empathy and sense of responsibility, “not just towards Israelis, but people around the world who have to live in that fear everyday.”
The sermon of Rabbi Ted Alexander of Conservative Congregation B’nai Emunah in San Francisco, meanwhile, will resonate of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was in office when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Alexander will remind his congregants, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.”
“We can’t be frightened by these terrorists,” said Alexander. “If we are frightened, whether as Americans or Jews, then we give them a victory.”
This tragedy is not the only hot button issue that rabbis will tackle during the High Holy Days. They will also talk about the long term Israeli-Palestinian crisis plaguing the Middle East.
Their widely varied topics, as discussed prior to Tuesday’s U.S. attack, include the need for Israelis to protect themselves from terrorism, the Israeli view of the Middle East crisis, the acceptance of Israel’s imperfections and why spiritual strength outweighs military strength.
Rabbi Gerald Raiskin of Reform Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame, for instance, will present his own thoughts about the conflict, as well as the thoughts of well-known Israelis whom he’s currently in the process of contacting.
“I’m asking them how they read the situation, what they think the future will bring, how different things are now from a year ago, and what they think that American-Jews can do to help,” said Raiskin.
He also interviewed Israelis at the outbreak of the violence last year and plans to compare and contrast their answers.
The actual sermon will not be written, however, until the day before services because “the situation is so fluid that the issues change from moment to moment. I want to give my congregation as current a message as possible.”
Alexander’s Rosh Hashanah sermon, however, is freshly written. He tore up his original sermon on Israel and wrote the new one on Israel and America following Tuesday’s attacks. In it he talks about “the very fact that Jewish law commands us to protect ourselves from pursuers.” The original sermon referred exclusively to Palestinian terrorists in the Middle East. Now he refers to both the Palestinian terrorists as well as those who crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
“If someone with a weapon in their hands comes in your window during the night, it is perfectly all right to defend yourself,” he said, by way of an example.
“But I want to make one thing very clear: This Jewish law does not give us the right to hate all Muslims and Arabs.”
Although Raiskin, Alexander and other rabbis agree that the High Holy Days are precisely the time to address the Israeli crisis, there are some who do not. They plan to avoid the subject altogether, citing the divisive effects on the congregation as a primary reason.
Rabbi George Gittleman of Santa Rosa’s Reform Congregation Shomrei Torah said he would not even touch upon Israel during the High Holy Days because of his congregation’s “diversity of opinion” on the topic.
“There’s very little unifying about Israel in our congregation,” said Gittleman. “The topic is so hot that I haven’t been able to find a constructive, healing way to deal with it.”
It’s not that Gittleman doesn’t care. In fact, he said, it pains him to go through the High Holy Days without addressing Israel. His Jewish identity was formed while living and studying there, and he has “a great love” for the country.
“But I’m not able to stand up on the bimah and be solely supportive,” he said. “I think a lot of people would be put off by that. Some are already upset that I haven’t been able to speak about solidarity.”
Since Gittleman wants the synagogue “to be a safe place for the congregation,” and he does not want “to get them enraged,” he added, “I’m better off saying nothing than saying something destructive.”
Zarchi had a difference of opinion. He said disconnecting from Israel would be “disingenuous” for his congregation since “every single prayer during the year and now during the High Holy Days has been and will be saturated with love for Israel.”
Additionally, he said, “there is no question in my mind that almost everything I talk about during the High Holy Days will be devoted to Israel. If I don’t talk about this 100 percent, I will feel I’m not being truthful to myself.”
Zarchi plans to sermonize on his view that while Israel’s military has grown stronger and its weapons more sophisticated, the Jewish soul in its entirety has become that much weaker.
“The Torah talks about how there are going to be times in history when the Jewish people will be outnumbered, but nevertheless, five will pursue 100,” said Zarchi. “Well, for the first time in history Jews are up against an inferior enemy, but nevertheless we are far less equipped than ever before to deal with this.
“Now we’re afraid of people without an army.”
Zarchi explained that this turn of events is the result of a “weakening universal commitment” among the Jewish people, “that we are the people of God.”
“Our only legitimate claim to the land of Israel is that God promised it to us,” he said. “But if we don’t believe the Torah with every iota of our being then we have little reason to be there.”
As Rosh Hashanah is “an opportunity to wipe the slate clean,” Zarchi hopes his words will resonate.
“We have to stop paying lip service to God as our king and really feel it in our bones,” he said, adding that it will take faith, not “one of the greatest armies,” to reinforce the Jewish peoples’ right “to the Land of Milk and Honey.”
Friedman, meanwhile, plans to discuss how the themes of Rosh Hashanah can help American Jews to deal with the Middle East conflict spiritually.
As Rosh Hashanah “is a time to look over the past year,” and the conflict started a year ago, one such theme — that of repentance — applies to this year’s holy days perfectly, said Friedman.
“Just as we rise above the difficulties we have with one another, and love and accept ourselves despite our imperfections, so too should we be encouraged and inspired to embrace Israel,” she said. “We should return to Israel with all the imperfection it has, and even though the situation there is complicated.”
Friedman said that she has been “obsessed with the situation” since it flared-up last year, running to her driveway “every morning to get my paper” and read the news.
“My heart has been breaking over what’s happening in Israel, on both sides,” said Friedman. “Rosh Hashanah is an opportunity for community to come together to express our pain and confusion over this, to look past some of the political issues that separate us and focus on what can bring us together — and make sense of a senseless situation.”