Rosh Ha-Shanah | 5th September 2013

Ha-Tikvah – The Hope: For Israel and Palestine

Rosh Ha-Shanah is a demanding day. The year changes, but more importantly, today the blasts of the shofar call us to account and confront us with a challenging equation: on the one hand, our painful experiences and misdeeds of the past year, and on the other, the unknown and unknowable future.

And then, as we attempt to balance this impossible equation, and take our courage in our hands for the task of looking back and looking forwards, we are also confronted with our collective experience as a people, past and present. This morning we are going to be reading Genesis chapter 21, verses 1 to 19. Selected by our sages for reading on the first day of Rosh Ha-Shanah, because the passage begins with the birth of Isaac, this chapter also relates the expulsion of Abraham’s first son, Ishmael and his mother, Hagar.

The way the passage is written makes it clear that we are expected to feel empathy for Ishmael and Hagar – and for Abraham, too, as we read about how he ‘rose early in the morning, took some bread and a skin of water’, placed these items on Hagar’s ‘shoulder, together with the child’, and sent them away into the wilderness (Gen. 21:14).[1]

But this isn’t simply a story about a divided family – a human tragedy that invites our recognition and empathy. The passage goes on to make it clear that just as Isaac is to inherit the covenant made by God with his parents, Abraham and Sarah, Ishmael too, is heir to a Divine legacy. And so we read that when they have run out of water and Hagar is in total despair, fearing that her child might die (21:17-21):

God heard the cry of the lad, and a messenger of God called Hagar from heaven and said to her: what troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heeded the cry of the lad where he is. / Come, lift up the lad and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.’ / Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water, and let the lad drink. / God was with the lad he grew up; he dwelt in the wilderness and became a bowman. / He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

‘God heard the cry of the lad’ – although, actually, the passage relates that it was Hagar who wept (:16). The child – ha-yeled: beloved, both, of his father who, nevertheless, sent him away and of his mother, who couldn’t protect him – is actually, ha-na’ar: ‘the lad’; a teenager.[2] The words, ‘God heard’ – Va-yishma Elohim – are also very significant. Hagar had been in the wilderness and met with God before. In an earlier chapter of the family drama in parashat Leich L’cha, narrated at Genesis 16, she had fled there, pregnant with Abraham’s child, when the surrogacy arrangement that was supposed to solve the problem of Sarah’s barrenness undermined the relationship between mistress and servant. On this occasion, the Torah recounts that a messenger of the Eternal found Hagar by a spring of water and promised Hagar descendants, too numerous to count, and then declared (16:11):

Behold, you are with child and shall bear a son; and you shall call him Yishma’el, for the Eternal has heard – shama – your suffering.

Yishma’el – literally: God (El) will hear (Yishma). That is the name of the heir of God’s other promise. What an important reminder as the Jewish people across the world, in all our different communities and denominations, gather together on Rosh Ha-Shanah – harat ha-olam, ‘the birthday of the world’: Adonai, Eloheinu – ‘the Eternal, our God’ – is also, Adonai Echad, ‘the Eternal One’ – the God of all peoples – every individual people, including the descendants of Isaac and the descendants of Ishmael.

4000 years ago Isaac and Ishmael were brothers, sharing a common father in Abraham. Today, Jews and Muslims remain sibling peoples. But, surveying the on-going conflict in the Middle East, who would know it? This Yom Kippur will be the 40^th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, which began on October 6, 1973, when momentarily off-guard on the most sacred day of the Jewish year, Israel was attacked by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. There have been so many anniversaries in the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours. This year’s 65^th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel is also the 65^th anniversary of the war between the newly created state and the surrounding Arab nations.

But the core of the conflict is much closer to home. The Palestinian people have a very unique identity within the Arab world: both, narrower than that of their Arab compatriots, and broader, embracing, both, Muslims and Christians. But it is the particular nature of the contest between Israelis and Palestinians, over one particular, narrow piece of land that is home to both peoples that remains the most intractable. In just over a week’s time, on September 13^th – Erev Yom Kippur, as it happens – it will be the 20^th anniversary of that famous handshake on the White House lawn between the two late leaders of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat[3] – a handshake that earned both of them, along with Shimon Peres, the Nobel prize for peace.[4] And still, there is no peace.

And worse than that, in recent years, the Israeli government strategy has shifted from the goal of peace – shalom – to taking measures to ensure a very different kind of peace – sheket – a state of ‘quiet’ in its relations with the Palestinians. And so, having evacuated the Jewish settlements in Gaza and sealed off Gaza as a security threat, following the election of a Hamas government, the Israeli government has also taken action to ensure that all is ‘quiet on the Eastern front’ – by erecting the security/separation barrier to keep the terrorists out.[5] These measures have not only achieved sheket – ‘quiet’ – they have also effectively divided the Palestinian people in two. Meanwhile, the barrier, weaving along and beyond the ‘Green Line’ established in the 1949 Armistice Agreements,[6] also functions as a de facto border between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which ensures that the largest settlement blocs, built on land occupied during the June 1967 Six-Day War,[7] may be claimed as the territory of Israel.

And all of these measures – and more – have been taken unilaterally, without even the hint of an attempt to negotiate with the Palestinian leadership. No wonder hope for peace has given way to a deep cynicism and pessimism among Palestinians in certain quarters – a cynicism and pessimism that may be more bearable on an emotional level than the humiliation and anguish of continuing occupation. No wonder the majority of Israelis, only too happy that the terrorist attacks have diminished and they no longer have to feel so wary of taking a bus or sitting in a cafe, have become preoccupied with more internal issues – not least, the increasing levels of poverty and inequality within Israeli society.

So where does all this leave us? Perhaps, we catch the cynicism and the pessimism – and the anguish. Perhaps we also catch the relief that sheket brings. Perhaps, we read in the Torah’s account of the division between Isaac and Ishmael, evidence that just like the sons of Abraham, the Israeli and Palestinian peoples will always be divided from one another, and so feel that sheket is good enough? Alternatively, perhaps, we find in the Divine promises for both Isaac and Ishmael and their descendants, the seeds of hope that both peoples may become a blessing to one another and find peace – the real peace of wholeness and reconciliation, of shalom/salam – at last.

To discern signs of hope – tikvah – one needs to feel hopeful. Fifty years ago, on August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people gathered for a March on Washington DC ‘for jobs and Freedom.’ Up to that point, there had been protests in the southern states still scarred by segregation, but the March on Washington brought together not only black people and a host of black groups involved in the struggle for justice, but also white people of all faiths and ages, from all parts of that vast nation. The high point of the gathering, in front of the Lincoln Memorial, was Martin Luther King Junior’s address, subsequently known as the ‘I have a dream’ speech because of how, Southern Baptist preacher that he was, Martin Luther King repeated the refrain, ‘I have a dream’, again and again. Despite lynch-mobs, persecution, and segregation, Dr King dared to dream – and to hope that the day would dawn ‘when’, as he put it, ‘all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”’[8]

So, do we dare to dream dreams of peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians? Do we feel hopeful? Perhaps we were hopeful once – at least, back in 1993 – but what about now? As it happens, after years of sheket, and numerous unsuccessful attempts on the part of the United States and the Arab league to encourage a resumption of negotiations between Israelis and the Palestinians, a new peace process has been initiated. US Secretary of State John Kerry has been determined and relentless over the past year and it seems that his determination has paid off. Watching the TV footage of him presiding over a press conference on July 30^th with a weary Saeb Erekat, the Chief Palestinian negotiator on one his left, and a sombre, but determined, Tzipi Livni, the chief Israeli negotiator, on his right, was not exactly like witnessing that famous handshake.

Nevertheless, learning what has been agreed at the start of the process should make us hopeful: that in the coming months of negotiations, everything, including all final status matters, will be on the table – and that they are working to a nine-month timetable. Ever true to my adopted middle name, Tikvah, I am bound to be hopeful, but still, I was genuinely impressed by Tzipi Livni’s statement at that press conference – in particular, her final remarks – and I quote:[9]

You know, Saeb, we all spent some time in the negotiations room. We didn’t reach dead end in the past, but we didn’t complete our mission. And this is something that we need to do now in these negotiations that will be launched today. A new opportunity is being created for us, for all of us, and we cannot afford to waste it. Now, I hope that our meeting today and the negotiations that we have re-launched today will cause, I hope, a spark of hope, even if small, to emerge out of cynicism and pessimism that is so often heard. It is our task to work together so that we can transform that spark of hope into something real and lasting.
And finally, I believe that history is not made by cynics. It is made by realists who are not afraid to dream. And let us be these people. Thank you.

‘Realists who are not afraid to dream’ are exactly the people who have a chance of transforming ‘that spark of hope into something real and lasting.’ Jews have always been realists and dreamers, and people who have held on to hope – even in the shadow of the crematoria. The prophet Jeremiah proclaimed (29:11):

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Eternal One, “plans for peace – shalom – and not for evil, plans to give you a future and a hope – acharit v’tikvah.

Looking forward to the future with hope, whatever we are experiencing in the present, is part of our legacy as a people. In Zechariah chapter 9 (:12), we find this curious phrase: asirey ha-tikvah – ‘prisoners of hope.’ It seems like a contradiction in terms. Surely, it makes more sense to speak of prisoners of hopelessness? How can ‘hope’ be a prison? In this sense: that, ultimately, ‘hope’ holds us captive and insists on our allegiance, and so, we have no choice but to hope. The root meaning of tikvah, ‘hope’, is Kuf Vav Hey meaning to ‘wait for’. Waiting sounds passive, but it also expresses confidence: we wait because we know that one day, our hopes will be realised. Hope is, and always has been, our people’s watchword and our task. Without hope, we would have ceased to exist millennia ago. The national anthem of the State of Israel is called Ha-Tikvah, ‘The Hope’.[10] This is the English translation:

As long as the Jewish spirit is yearning deep in the heart,

With eyes turned toward the East, looking toward Zion,

Then our hope – the two-thousand-year-old hope – will not be lost:

To be a free people in our land,

The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

We are a free people in our land: Ha-Tikvah – ‘The Hope’ – has been realised. And, after centuries of anti-Semitism, we also live in freedom in many lands across the world. The time has come for a new hope for peace and reconciliation to awaken in our hearts – and for our hearts to awaken to an awareness of the hope deep in the hearts of the Palestinian people: to be a free people in their land. Since the United Nations ratified the partition plan on November 29^th 1947,[11] we have known that for there to be peace we must find a way of dividing the land between the two peoples. Idealists may not hope for compromise, but realists do. And in the context of the on-going relentless conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, we must know that hostility and animosity will never cease unless and until a sovereign, independent State of Palestine has been established alongside the State of Israel. As we begin a new year at a time of challenging anniversaries in the long saga of conflict between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael, let us pledge ourselves to stand in solidarity with Israelis and Palestinians and sew new seeds of hope. And let us say: Amen.

Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah

Brighton & Hove Progressive Synagogue – Adat Shalom Verei’ut

Rosh Ha-Shanah Shacharit 5774 – 5^th September 2013

 

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[1] To be precise, the text says that he sent her away – va-y’shal’checha; the fact that Abraham was sending his own child away was too unbearable.

[1] According to an earlier chapter in parashat Leich L’cha, Genesis 17, Ishmael was 13 years old when Abraham circumcised him (17:25), so he was certainly a teenager when he was expelled from the family home.

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/13/newsid_3053000/3053733.stm

[1] Announced on October 14^th 1994: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/14/newsid_3694000/3694744.stm

[1] The barrier is variously referred to as a ‘wall’ – which it is, in some places, and a ‘fence’ – which it is in some places. The Israeli authorities emphasise that it is a ‘security’ barrier; critics, that it is a ‘separation’ barrier.

For images of the barrier see: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=security+barrier+israel+palestine&client=firefox-a&hs=SAH&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=vVr_UbGWMYTKhAepjIBA&ved=0CF8QsAQ&biw=1600&bih=727

See also: B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories: http://www.btselem.org/topic/separation_barrier

For a report of measures taken to change the route of the barrier around Jerusalem, see HAARETZ, January 21^st 2013:

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-to-change-route-of-separation-fence-near-jerusalem-to-cut-off-palestinians-from-e-1-area.premium-1.495178

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2001/israel_and_palestinians/key_maps/5.stm

[1] For images of the 1967 ceasefire lines see:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=1967+ceasefire+lines&client=firefox-a&hs=R8b&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Q1__UczICJGKhQeXgoG4Dg&ved=0CFQQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=727

[1] ‘I Have a Dream’ printed in The Voice of Black America. Major speeches by Negroes in the United States, 1797-1973. Edited by Philip S. Foner. Volume II: 1900-1973. Capricorn books, New York, 1975.

[1] http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Peace/Guide/Pages/Relaunching-of-Israel-Palestinian-talks-30-Jul-2013.aspx

[1] The lyrics were written in 1886 by Naphtali Herz Imber, an English poet originally from Bohemia.The melody was written by Samuel Cohen, an immigrant from Moldavia, drawing on a musical theme in Bedrich Smetana’s “Moldau.” See: http://www.stateofisrael.com/anthem/

[1] www.merip.org/palestine-israel_primer/un-partition-plan-pal-isr.html‎