(Dedicated to my late father Boris Green (Yahrzeit this week)
and brother Sam (shloshim tomorrow)
After the narrative of the sin of the golden calf that we read in this week's Torah reading we read how Moshe Rabbenu reacts to God's threat to wipe out the people of Israel. Moshe presents a unique argument against this that the prophet Ezekiel subsequently refers to as will. Ezekiel develops a unique theological idea regarding the meaning and purpose of Jewish existence of which we learn in this week's haftorah, which is read because it is also Parashat Parah this coming Shabbat. Ezekiel's basic claim is that the survival of the Jewish people and their return to the promised land and their future prosperity there are outstanding examples of the Sanctification of God's name (Kiddush Hashem.) Let us look at the texts to broaden our understanding of this.
I quote below verses from the haftorah (Ezekiel Chapter 36) in which I find great inspiration but also a challenging problematic. These words of the prophet echo those of Moshe in our Torah reading Ki Tisa, mentioned above: “Therefore, tell the house of Isra’el that Adonai Elohim says this: ‘I am not going to do this for your sake, house of Isra’el, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have been profaning among the nations where you went. I will set apart my great name to be regarded as holy, since it has been profaned in the nations — you profaned it among them. The nations will know that I am Adonai,’ says Adonai Elohim, ‘when, before their eyes, I am set apart through you to be regarded as holy.…
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit inside you;
I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
I will put my Spirit inside you and cause you to live by my laws, respect my rulings and obey them.
You will live in the land I gave to your ancestors.
You will be my people, and I will be your God" (Ezekiel, 36, 22:28).
And here are Moshe's words in our Torah reading (Exodus, Chapter 32, verses 9-14): "GOD further said to Moses, “I see that this is a stiffnecked people.
Now, let Me be, that My anger may blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation.”
But Moses implored the ETERNAL his God, saying, “Let not Your anger, O ETERNAL One, blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand.
Let not the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth.’ Turn from Your blazing anger, and renounce the plan to punish Your people. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, how You swore to them by Your Self and said to them: I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I will give to your offspring this whole land of which I spoke, to possess forever.”
And GOD renounced the punishment planned for the people."
Ezekiel's interpretation of the concept of Kiddush Hashem here is based on Moshe's argument with God but he expands the concept. In my eyes this is a challenging theological problem. About this further on.
Here is a quote from an article by one of the leading religious Zionist rabbis regarding this very understanding of Kiddush Hashem.
"The argument, "What will the nations say?" is not the fear that the nations will accuse the Lord of lies as if he had no power to save Israel and fulfill his promises, but rather the fear that if the people of Israel were to disappear from the world, there would be no one to guide humanity, and the divine will that was in the creation of the world would not be fulfilled. Then "the purpose of creation in man would be completely nullified, so that there would be no one left who knew his Creator, only angered Him." And this was the purpose of choosing Abraham as the father of the nation, when it was said to him, "And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed" (Genesis 12:3).
Rashi interpreted: "There are many legends, and this is simply 'A man says to his son, you shall be like Abraham.' And so are all the 'and they will be blessed' in the Tanakh. And this proves, "In you Israel will bless, saying, 'May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh'" (Ibid. 40:20). The people of Israel are therefore the model to imitate, and so it will be in the future, when all the nations will flock to the mountain of the Lord and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for the Torah will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2:3). If, God forbid, the people of Israel are destroyed, the entire purpose of creation will be nullified.…"
(The State of Israel – The Great Kiddush Hashem, Rabbi Mordechai Greenberg, President of Yeshivat Kerem BeYavneh).
This is the approach of the messianic followers of Rav Kook. It differs from the more conservative notion of Kiddush Hashem according to the Book of Leviticus (chpt. 19, Parashat Kedoshim) and many of the Talmudic sages (later codified by Rambam) that emphasizes free choice in devotion to the commandments of the Torah both in normal times and all the more so in times of crisis, an approach that focuses more on the ethical and moral as a basis for Kiddush Hashem rather than the eschatological.
The danger in a metaphysical-historical approach of this kind as presented above us clear in my eyes. It implies that in a deep sense, however many sins (and crimes) the Jews might do they will always be forgiven as a people. For the people of Israel is at the centre of the cosmic drama. Their existence justifies the very creation. It is in itself Kiddush Hashem.
This is a very attractive theology for Jews, but it is profoundly disturbing and dangerous.
We see the problematic expression of this extreme ethnocentric view daily in Israeli society, particularly in the violent and criminal phenomenon of the devotees of Jewish messianic extremism in those territories under Israel's control where Palestinians live.
Underlying this behaviour theologically is this deterministic approach that posits the people of Israel at the centre of the human narrative and takes the additional step of separating it from individual moral behaviour.
This notion of Kiddush Hashem ironically leads to Hillul Hashem of the worst kind.
May we find the strength and wisdom to restrain this craziness in our midst and educate towards the humility of a more modest and balanced world view in the complex reality in which we are now living.
Wishing us all a Shabbat of peace and sanity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann was ordained as a Masorti rabbi at the Schechter Seminary in Jerusalem (1991), graduated from the Hebrew University with an MA in Holocaust history and Jewish education in 1979. He served as a congregational rabbi for ten years, specialized in teaching modern Jewish Thought for adult education. He was a field activist and senior staff member and is now active in the organizations Rabbis for Human Rights and Tag Meir, and an active congregant of Kehillat Yedidya in Jerusalem. Before retiring he taught at the Massuah Holocaust memorial centre, served as director of the Ot VeEd institute for Holocaust education and as a high school teacher in Jewish history and civics for ten years. In recent years he has authored two novels: "Far Away From Where?" and "The Partisan's Coat" (Mazo Publishers)
and brother Sam (shloshim tomorrow)
After the narrative of the sin of the golden calf that we read in this week's Torah reading we read how Moshe Rabbenu reacts to God's threat to wipe out the people of Israel. Moshe presents a unique argument against this that the prophet Ezekiel subsequently refers to as will. Ezekiel develops a unique theological idea regarding the meaning and purpose of Jewish existence of which we learn in this week's haftorah, which is read because it is also Parashat Parah this coming Shabbat. Ezekiel's basic claim is that the survival of the Jewish people and their return to the promised land and their future prosperity there are outstanding examples of the Sanctification of God's name (Kiddush Hashem.) Let us look at the texts to broaden our understanding of this.
I quote below verses from the haftorah (Ezekiel Chapter 36) in which I find great inspiration but also a challenging problematic. These words of the prophet echo those of Moshe in our Torah reading Ki Tisa, mentioned above: “Therefore, tell the house of Isra’el that Adonai Elohim says this: ‘I am not going to do this for your sake, house of Isra’el, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have been profaning among the nations where you went. I will set apart my great name to be regarded as holy, since it has been profaned in the nations — you profaned it among them. The nations will know that I am Adonai,’ says Adonai Elohim, ‘when, before their eyes, I am set apart through you to be regarded as holy.…
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit inside you;
I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
I will put my Spirit inside you and cause you to live by my laws, respect my rulings and obey them.
You will live in the land I gave to your ancestors.
You will be my people, and I will be your God" (Ezekiel, 36, 22:28).
And here are Moshe's words in our Torah reading (Exodus, Chapter 32, verses 9-14): "GOD further said to Moses, “I see that this is a stiffnecked people.
Now, let Me be, that My anger may blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation.”
But Moses implored the ETERNAL his God, saying, “Let not Your anger, O ETERNAL One, blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand.
Let not the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth.’ Turn from Your blazing anger, and renounce the plan to punish Your people. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, how You swore to them by Your Self and said to them: I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I will give to your offspring this whole land of which I spoke, to possess forever.”
And GOD renounced the punishment planned for the people."
Ezekiel's interpretation of the concept of Kiddush Hashem here is based on Moshe's argument with God but he expands the concept. In my eyes this is a challenging theological problem. About this further on.
Here is a quote from an article by one of the leading religious Zionist rabbis regarding this very understanding of Kiddush Hashem.
"The argument, "What will the nations say?" is not the fear that the nations will accuse the Lord of lies as if he had no power to save Israel and fulfill his promises, but rather the fear that if the people of Israel were to disappear from the world, there would be no one to guide humanity, and the divine will that was in the creation of the world would not be fulfilled. Then "the purpose of creation in man would be completely nullified, so that there would be no one left who knew his Creator, only angered Him." And this was the purpose of choosing Abraham as the father of the nation, when it was said to him, "And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed" (Genesis 12:3).
Rashi interpreted: "There are many legends, and this is simply 'A man says to his son, you shall be like Abraham.' And so are all the 'and they will be blessed' in the Tanakh. And this proves, "In you Israel will bless, saying, 'May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh'" (Ibid. 40:20). The people of Israel are therefore the model to imitate, and so it will be in the future, when all the nations will flock to the mountain of the Lord and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for the Torah will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2:3). If, God forbid, the people of Israel are destroyed, the entire purpose of creation will be nullified.…"
(The State of Israel – The Great Kiddush Hashem, Rabbi Mordechai Greenberg, President of Yeshivat Kerem BeYavneh).
This is the approach of the messianic followers of Rav Kook. It differs from the more conservative notion of Kiddush Hashem according to the Book of Leviticus (chpt. 19, Parashat Kedoshim) and many of the Talmudic sages (later codified by Rambam) that emphasizes free choice in devotion to the commandments of the Torah both in normal times and all the more so in times of crisis, an approach that focuses more on the ethical and moral as a basis for Kiddush Hashem rather than the eschatological.
The danger in a metaphysical-historical approach of this kind as presented above us clear in my eyes. It implies that in a deep sense, however many sins (and crimes) the Jews might do they will always be forgiven as a people. For the people of Israel is at the centre of the cosmic drama. Their existence justifies the very creation. It is in itself Kiddush Hashem.
This is a very attractive theology for Jews, but it is profoundly disturbing and dangerous.
We see the problematic expression of this extreme ethnocentric view daily in Israeli society, particularly in the violent and criminal phenomenon of the devotees of Jewish messianic extremism in those territories under Israel's control where Palestinians live.
Underlying this behaviour theologically is this deterministic approach that posits the people of Israel at the centre of the human narrative and takes the additional step of separating it from individual moral behaviour.
This notion of Kiddush Hashem ironically leads to Hillul Hashem of the worst kind.
May we find the strength and wisdom to restrain this craziness in our midst and educate towards the humility of a more modest and balanced world view in the complex reality in which we are now living.
Wishing us all a Shabbat of peace and sanity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann was ordained as a Masorti rabbi at the Schechter Seminary in Jerusalem (1991), graduated from the Hebrew University with an MA in Holocaust history and Jewish education in 1979. He served as a congregational rabbi for ten years, specialized in teaching modern Jewish Thought for adult education. He was a field activist and senior staff member and is now active in the organizations Rabbis for Human Rights and Tag Meir, and an active congregant of Kehillat Yedidya in Jerusalem. Before retiring he taught at the Massuah Holocaust memorial centre, served as director of the Ot VeEd institute for Holocaust education and as a high school teacher in Jewish history and civics for ten years. In recent years he has authored two novels: "Far Away From Where?" and "The Partisan's Coat" (Mazo Publishers)