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 The Books Are Still Open-Rosh HaShana Thoughts
The Books Are Still Open-Rosh HaShana Thoughts
Rabbi Arik Ascherman

Around the Jewish world, there are those who emphasize Rosh Hashana as a joyous beginning to the new Jewish year,   while others place greater emphasis on Rosh HaShana as Yom HaDin, the Day of Judgment.  "On Rosh HaShana it (our fate for the coming year) is written.  On Yom Kippur it is sealed.  For human rights victims, there is much less apples and honey and sweetness, and a great deal of fear as to what the future has to offer.  I can't help but think this year of Gilad Shalit and his family, the Ghawi, Hanun and El-Kurd families in Sheikh Jarakh, the Palestinian farmers who have seen their trees burnt and uprooted as a part of "Operation Price Tag," their fruit rot because they were denied timely access or effluents from settlements flowing into their olive groves, the poverty stricken choosing every day between medicine and food.   I think of Ata Jabar's mournful plaint after yet another evening when settlers gathered around his home and lay the cement for a new outpost, "Ten years I have lived this way.  How much longer must I endure this?".  And there are so many others living out their worst nightmares.

I have always thought that the teachings that the books remain open between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, and that the gates of teshuvah (answering God's call, turning and returning to our true selves) remain open all year long are a wonderful and relieving message of hope.  However, in terms of human rights victims, I am not sure who suffers more:  Those who have already suffered roa hagzeira (A bitter and terrible decree), or those who are fearfully waiting for the decree to come: Israeli families in Beit Shaan threatened with eviction from their homes, the families in Silwan and so many other places facing home demolitions, the families in Sheikh Jarakh with pending cases, the 400 children of foreign workers who may be sent "back" to countries they have never seen.  I remember my conversations with the Dari family between their first and second home demolitions describing what it was like to wake up and look out the window every morning wondering if they will see police and demolition equipment, asking "Will this be the day…"   I have been told in Silwan of the fearful questions children ask their parents, and I have known families literally with packed suitcases so that they could save as much as possible when and if the fateful demolition day would come. 

Then, there are those who have been seemingly redeemed from their nightmares, but now face the cruel prospect of being plunged back into the terrible past they know only too well.  Whereas this year we are so the amazing victories we have accomplished this year ending the Israeli Wisconsin Plan and returning the villagers of Bir al 'Id to their homes after 10 years, I am painfully aware that for many former Wisconsin participants their joy at being freed from the Israeli Wisconsin Plan has turned to fear that it will be restored in the 2011 Economic Arrangements Law (Khok HaHesdarim).  The residents of Bir al 'Id have been given demolition orders on the tents and outhouses they have built to supplement their caves.  The message is that "You can return, but we won't allow you to exist."  Today, they ask if they will need to leave their village again.

My hope and prayer for victims of human rights violations around the world as we begin a new year is that they will find some sweetness and hope. I hope they will be able to live the words of Rabbi Nakhman of Bratzlav, "The entire world is a narrow bridge.  The point is not to be afraid."  However, that is easy for me to say…

Although we are now thinking about the High Holy Days, and Passover is far away, I learned from my rabbi and teacher Rabbi Larry Hoffman that the Passover Haggadah implies that when the Jewish people is in a state of gnai (degregation) such as the slavery of Egypt, God too is in a state of gnai.  The transition of the Jewish people from degradation to redemption also moves God from a state of degradation to a state of praiseworthiness. 

This is also true for our country and our people.  This not true just because of criticism around the world when Israel violates human rights, sometimes with cynicism and double standards.  It is primarily true because we have failed ourselves and we have failed God.. 

However,  the book is still open.  In addition to direct HR violations, I think of the threats to Israeli democracy.  When Im Tirzu and their partners behind the scenes such as NGO Monitor launched their vicious and libelous attack on the NIF and former deputy speaker of the Knesset Naomi Chazan in January,, I thought that history would record that this was ,moment when Israelis recognized the threat to their democracy and rose up to defend it.  That didn't happen.  Many were disgusted, but polls indicated that some 57% of the Israeli public bought into the lies and believed that it should be illegal to expose Israeli HR violations.  The NGO monitor is pushing a bill to cut off the funding of NGO's from foreign governments and brand us with the mark of Cain.  Another proposed would to make it illegal for NGO's to report human rights violations to "foreign entities.", etc.  There have been attacks on the courts, on universities, etc., However, not everything is dark. Saner  voices in the Government and Knesset have moderated the Elkin bill.  Law and Constitution committee chair MK Rotem, who seemed totally insensitive to our concerns, committed himself to seriously considering modifying the bill even further, so that instead of singling out foreign government fund received only by the NGO's that the NGO Monitor attacks, the same rules will apply to all funding sources.  The fact is that, if this is truly only about transparency, than it is just as important to know which individuals and foundations are funding the takeover of homes in East Jerusalem or the NGO Monitor as it is important to know which governments (or foundations or individuals)  support Israeli HR NGO's.  Every dollar has the same effect on Israeli democracy, and HR NGO's are much more transparent than many of the human rights violators.  I would like to know much more about the funding of the NGO Monitor (Although there is somewhat more information on their website today than their used to be.)    While we are at it, when the Monitor so frequently and blithely accuses HR NGO's of reporting unsubstantiated information, I would like to know how they substantiate many of the statements on their website which they present as authoritative and/or as fact. 

My hopes for Israeli democracy this year were not fulfilled, but the book is still open. 

The Hassidim bring sweetness and judgment together when they speak of Hamtakat HaDin, literally the "sweetening" of the judgment.  We pray to God for this, but it starts with us.  As I always remind people, it is often harder to forgive than to ask for forgiveness.  Some of the most powerful prayers in the High Holy Days liturgy are those in which we forgive others as a prelude to asking for forgiveness.  We in the HR community, who see the most awful things first hand and experience such huge frustration when our fellow Israelis simply do not believe that these things could possibly be true (Who would want to believe?), can often judge our fellow Israelis out of our frustration and anger.  We must sweeten our judgment, retaining our believe in the basic goodness of our fellow Israelis.  We must take responsibility for our failures to expose them to our reality in a way they can comprehend.  I have told the story before, but the event that drove this home to me a year and a half ago was when in a critical committee debate on the Israeli Wisconsin p
Plan an MK from a party that is very negative toward Israeli Arabs used the personal story of an Israeli Arab woman from our empowerment group to passionately and successfully argue against the Wisconsin Plan.  This taught me never to pre judge, never to write anybody off, and never to discount the power of the truth we hold in our hearts.  It is perhaps for this reason that, just before the Kol Nidre prayer we will say "In the heavenly court above and in the earthly court below, we declare that it is permissible to pray together with those who have sinned."  (As if there are those among us who have not sinned.)  As many of you know that I told the judge when on trial six years ago, we must then remember as a society that, if we wish that God in the heavenly court move from the throne of strict justice to the throne of mercy when judging us at this time of year, we must do the same in the earthly courts and institutions in which we are responsible both for justice and for mercy.       

The books remain open for us as individuals and as a society.  May we sweeten the Judgment, and build a society which is praiseworthy in the eyes of God, our fellow human beings, and in our own eyes.

Shana Tova U'Metukah (For a Good and Sweet Year)

Around the Jewish world, there are those who emphasize Rosh Hashana as a joyous beginning to the new Jewish year,   while others place greater emphasis on Rosh HaShana as Yom HaDin, the Day of Judgment.  "On Rosh HaShana it (our fate for the coming year) is written.  On Yom Kippur it is sealed.  For human rights victims, there is much less apples and honey and sweetness, and a great deal of fear as to what the future has to offer.  I can't help but think this year of Gilad Shalit and his family, the Ghawi, Hanun and El-Kurd families in Sheikh Jarakh, the Palestinian farmers who have seen their trees burnt and uprooted as a part of "Operation Price Tag," their fruit rot because they were denied timely access or effluents from settlements flowing into their olive groves, the poverty stricken choosing every day between medicine and food.   I think of Ata Jabar's mournful plaint after yet another evening when settlers gathered around his home and lay the cement for a new outpost, "Ten years I have lived this way.  How much longer must I endure this?".  And there are so many others living out their worst nightmares.

I have always thought that the teachings that the books remain open between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, and that the gates of teshuvah (answering God's call, turning and returning to our true selves) remain open all year long are a wonderful and relieving message of hope.  However, in terms of human rights victims, I am not sure who suffers more:  Those who have already suffered roa hagzeira (A bitter and terrible decree), or those who are fearfully waiting for the decree to come: Israeli families in Beit Shaan threatened with eviction from their homes, the families in Silwan and so many other places facing home demolitions, the families in Sheikh Jarakh with pending cases, the 400 children of foreign workers who may be sent "back" to countries they have never seen.  I remember my conversations with the Dari family between their first and second home demolitions describing what it was like to wake up and look out the window every morning wondering if they will see police and demolition equipment, asking "Will this be the day…"   I have been told in Silwan of the fearful questions children ask their parents, and I have known families literally with packed suitcases so that they could save as much as possible when and if the fateful demolition day would come. 

Then, there are those who have been seemingly redeemed from their nightmares, but now face the cruel prospect of being plunged back into the terrible past they know only too well.  Whereas this year we are so the amazing victories we have accomplished this year ending the Israeli Wisconsin Plan and returning the villagers of Bir al 'Id to their homes after 10 years, I am painfully aware that for many former Wisconsin participants their joy at being freed from the Israeli Wisconsin Plan has turned to fear that it will be restored in the 2011 Economic Arrangements Law (Khok HaHesdarim).  The residents of Bir al 'Id have been given demolition orders on the tents and outhouses they have built to supplement their caves.  The message is that "You can return, but we won't allow you to exist."  Today, they ask if they will need to leave their village again.

My hope and prayer for victims of human rights violations around the world as we begin a new year is that they will find some sweetness and hope. I hope they will be able to live the words of Rabbi Nakhman of Bratzlav, "The entire world is a narrow bridge.  The point is not to be afraid."  However, that is easy for me to say…

Although we are now thinking about the High Holy Days, and Passover is far away, I learned from my rabbi and teacher Rabbi Larry Hoffman that the Passover Haggadah implies that when the Jewish people is in a state of gnai (degregation) such as the slavery of Egypt, God too is in a state of gnai.  The transition of the Jewish people from degradation to redemption also moves God from a state of degradation to a state of praiseworthiness. 

This is also true for our country and our people.  This not true just because of criticism around the world when Israel violates human rights, sometimes with cynicism and double standards.  It is primarily true because we have failed ourselves and we have failed God.. 

However,  the book is still open.  In addition to direct HR violations, I think of the threats to Israeli democracy.  When Im Tirzu and their partners behind the scenes such as NGO Monitor launched their vicious and libelous attack on the NIF and former deputy speaker of the Knesset Naomi Chazan in January,, I thought that history would record that this was ,moment when Israelis recognized the threat to their democracy and rose up to defend it.  That didn't happen.  Many were disgusted, but polls indicated that some 57% of the Israeli public bought into the lies and believed that it should be illegal to expose Israeli HR violations.  The NGO monitor is pushing a bill to cut off the funding of NGO's from foreign governments and brand us with the mark of Cain.  Another proposed would to make it illegal for NGO's to report human rights violations to "foreign entities.", etc.  There have been attacks on the courts, on universities, etc., However, not everything is dark. Saner  voices in the Government and Knesset have moderated the Elkin bill.  Law and Constitution committee chair MK Rotem, who seemed totally insensitive to our concerns, committed himself to seriously considering modifying the bill even further, so that instead of singling out foreign government fund received only by the NGO's that the NGO Monitor attacks, the same rules will apply to all funding sources.  The fact is that, if this is truly only about transparency, than it is just as important to know which individuals and foundations are funding the takeover of homes in East Jerusalem or the NGO Monitor as it is important to know which governments (or foundations or individuals)  support Israeli HR NGO's.  Every dollar has the same effect on Israeli democracy, and HR NGO's are much more transparent than many of the human rights violators.  I would like to know much more about the funding of the NGO Monitor (Although there is somewhat more information on their website today than their used to be.)    While we are at it, when the Monitor so frequently and blithely accuses HR NGO's of reporting unsubstantiated information, I would like to know how they substantiate many of the statements on their website which they present as authoritative and/or as fact. 

My hopes for Israeli democracy this year were not fulfilled, but the book is still open. 

The Hassidim bring sweetness and judgment together when they speak of Hamtakat HaDin, literally the "sweetening" of the judgment.  We pray to God for this, but it starts with us.  As I always remind people, it is often harder to forgive than to ask for forgiveness.  Some of the most powerful prayers in the High Holy Days liturgy are those in which we forgive others as a prelude to asking for forgiveness.  We in the HR community, who see the most awful things first hand and experience such huge frustration when our fellow Israelis simply do not believe that these things could possibly be true (Who would want to believe?), can often judge our fellow Israelis out of our frustration and anger.  We must sweeten our judgment, retaining our believe in the basic goodness of our fellow Israelis.  We must take responsibility for our failures to expose them to our reality in a way they can comprehend.  I have told the story before, but the event that drove this home to me a year and a half ago was when in a critical committee debate on the Israeli Wisconsin p
Plan an MK from a party that is very negative toward Israeli Arabs used the personal story of an Israeli Arab woman from our empowerment group to passionately and successfully argue against the Wisconsin Plan.  This taught me never to pre judge, never to write anybody off, and never to discount the power of the truth we hold in our hearts.  It is perhaps for this reason that, just before the Kol Nidre prayer we will say "In the heavenly court above and in the earthly court below, we declare that it is permissible to pray together with those who have sinned."  (As if there are those among us who have not sinned.)  As many of you know that I told the judge when on trial six years ago, we must then remember as a society that, if we wish that God in the heavenly court move from the throne of strict justice to the throne of mercy when judging us at this time of year, we must do the same in the earthly courts and institutions in which we are responsible both for justice and for mercy.       

The books remain open for us as individuals and as a society.  May we sweeten the Judgment, and build a society which is praiseworthy in the eyes of God, our fellow human beings, and in our own eyes.

Shana Tova U'Metukah (For a Good and Sweet Year)