I’m going to speak about Israel in part of a larger context. If it makes you uncomfortable, I’m going to ask you to please stay in the room. I am going to devote this coming Shabbat morning after services to an opportunity to listen to those who want to respond to my remarks-though there is on Kiddush lunch on that date.
The High Holy Days are the time more than any other when we think about why we are here and what is the value of our life. The words of our daily liturgy, מה אנחנו מה חיינו, “Who are we? What is our life?” take on greater relevance during this time of the year. It is also a time when we reflect on the power and agency that we do have. What do we have control over and what should we let go of?
How we use the power that we do have is a key lesson, both for us as individuals and for us as a people. Throughout so much of our history, Jews have been powerless. Our people were in exile, at the mercy of every despotic ruler that we encountered. Now, thanks to Israel and to its relationship with the United States, Jews have power to an extent that our ancestors couldn’t dream of. As the psalmist says, – את שיבת ציון היינו כחולמים the redemption of Zion was as if we were dreaming.”[1]
This past spring, we saw the power that Israel has. The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, may his memory be obliterated, tried to evade Israel by going low-tech with pagers. Little did he know that the pagers he bought from the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo were manufactured by the Israeli shell company in Hungary BAC Consulting and were laced with the explosive PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate). As we saw, Israel sent a page causing Hezbollah leadership to hold up their pagers which detonated after a few seconds. A few days later, at the funeral of 4 Hezbollah members, Israel detonated Hezbollah’s walkie-talkies. With Hezbollah’s top leadership indisposed, Israel was able to invade Lebanon and launch more attacks, eventually killing Nasrallah.
Let us also not forget Israel bombing Iranian nuclear sites on June 12 in Operation Rising Lion. Israel quickly rendered inoperable many of Iran’s missile launchers and its missiles. Around the same time, there was Operation Red Wedding, which took out Iranian senior commanders. Without commanders, Iran was impotent and did not fire any missiles at Israel for 18 hours.[2] The icing on the cake was when the United States joined 9 days later, dropping MOP (massive ordinance penetrator) bunker busting bombs in Operation Midnight Hammer. How did this happen? Israeli agents in Iran had visited every workshop and factory that were later attacked, enabling Israel to target every aspect of the industry that supported the manufacturing the missiles.[3] The success of such a plan was far from an accident; rather it was the culmination of years of work by the Mossad to target Iran’s nuclear program.[4]
Could our ancestors in exile imagine a Jewish country with this type of power?! Could they even conceive that a Jewish country would be a regional superpower, stealthily using its incredible intelligence to make a plan over years which did not leak?! I doubt Yehudah Halevi, who lived during the Golden Age of Spain under both Muslim and Christian rule; Don Isaac Abravanel, who was a courtier to Ferdinand and Isabella and eventually exiled from Spain and Portugal; or even a Maimonides, who before becoming physician to the Egyptian sultan most certainly had to flee Spain from the Almohads, could have fathomed this. Yet you do not need me to preach about Israel’s power. What we need to consider is what does Israel do with the power that it has and concurrently what do we do with the power that we have.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol famously referred to Israel as “Shimshon der nebecher,” Samson the weakling. Israel is so strong like Samson, the superpower of the Middle East. Yet Israel also can feel like a nebecher, completely powerless to the task at hand. Israel has endured trauma, especially in the aftermath of October 7th. One merely needs to look at footage from October 7th or the video of a gaunt Evyatar David digging his own grave. While Israel has had much success assassinating Hamas’ top leadership and destroying much of the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, there remain feelings of ineptitude, failure and lack of moral clarity, with hostages not returned and so much destruction. My question, which only Israelis can answer, is what should Israel do with the power it has?
Israel can use its power as it did in March through May to not allow any food into Gaza and to attempt to take control of the food distribution away from Hamas, who steals food from the aid trucks. Many of us believed when Israel refused food into Gaza that this might be worth it if it led to the end of the war and the return of hostages. Looking back, some of us continue to hold those opinions of the Israeli government. Others are re-thinking after seeing hunger among Gazans and hearing of people walking miles to the food distribution sites, some of whom were shot upon approaching. Every hungry child, no matter where he or she lives, is a human tragedy. As Proverbs teaches us, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if she is thirsty, give her water to drink.”[5] This is not to dismiss the PR war going on. We saw the New York Times fell into Hamas’ trap by featuring a starving child who was actually dying from cystic fibrosis. Yet there remain weekly protests in Israel to get a deal to return the hostages and end the war.
I want to take this lesson and apply it not only to Israel but to our lives here in the United States. Many of us are traumatized, having seen pictures and videos of dead Israelis and gaunt hostages or having relatives going up for the 5th time to serve in the IDF, some of whom are not sure why they’re going. Many of us are scared by the rise of antisemitism on college campuses, as the film October 8 demonstrated, which I will speak about on Shemini Atzeret. There is much to be afraid of. What we need to remember is that we are vulnerable, we are human but we are not powerless. We have agency over our actions. As Victor Frankl z”l taught, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies the freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.”[6]
In terms of how Judaism teaches us how to use our power, we don’t need to look far in our tradition. The Ethics of the Fathers, in Hebrew Pirkei Avot, teaches איזהו גבור הכובש את יצרו “Who is mighty? One who conquers his or her inclination.”[7] In his commentary on Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Dr. Joshua Kulp writes, “This one statement may sum up 2000 years of Jewish experience. The Jewish ideal of strength and might is not the same as the Greek ideal, which is that of the mighty warrior and champion athlete. A person of great physical strength who performs amazing deeds is not necessarily mighty. The most difficult thing to conquer is not others or even great armies, but our own inclination to do wrong things. One who has control over this inclination is truly mighty. This is why for thousands of years Jews did not look to soldiers as their heroes, but to rabbis and other thinkers. Strength in Judaism is one of character and not one of might. After all the strongest person in the world is no stronger than a weak gorilla or bear. It is only through our ability to curb our appetites and control our instincts that human beings can differ themselves from animals.”[8]
A story: when Adam was encountering and naming the animals on the first day of creation he was trying to figure out which was the strongest. The lion said, “I’m the strongest. I’m the king of the jungle!” The tiger said, “I’m the strongest. I’m the king of the forest!” The whale said, “I’m the strongest. I’m the king of the ocean!” The chimpanzee said, “I’m the strongest.” All of the other animals paused and looked at the chimp. Then they started laughing. The chimp said again, “I’m the strongest.” Finally a worm asked the chimp, “What makes you so strong?” The chimp replied, “All of you act on your instincts. I think before I act.” Suddenly all the animals agreed that the chimpanzee was the strongest. So it is with us all the more so.
As we enter the week of repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I’d like each of us to think about what we have power over in our lives and how we intend to use that power. How are we going to channel and control it? Similarly, how are we going to let go of those things over which we have no power? As stated eloquently in a video by Rabbi Judith Plaskow:
Rosh Hashanah asks us to negotiate an enormous and productive tension between our smallness and our power, surrender and agency; between what we can control and what we can’t. During the whole High Holiday period, we’re called on to examine our lives and think about who we have been and who we want to be, to do teshuvah, to turn toward our best selves. And, at the same time, the images of God the King and Judge are telling us that ultimately, we’re not in charge. We can’t decide who shall live and who shall die. All we can do—and it’s not nothing—is to alter the evilness of the decree…
Rosh Hashanah asks us to accept what we can’t change and have the courage to change what we can.[9] The Great Aleinu (in Musaf) is for me the supreme moment of one side of this tension. It is the moment when I try to give up my white upper middle-class illusion of control and align myself with, and surrender to, what is….[10]
In 5786, may each of us utilize our power to the best of our ability to effect meaningful changes yet may we recognize the limits of our power and not try to do too much. The same thing is true with Israel. Many things are in Israel’s control, others are not. The power to continue to attack Hamas remains; the power to rescue the hostages without a deal appears to remain beyond Israel’s reach. May Israel, like us, succeed in using its power wisely, and may the hostages be speedily returned home.
[1] Psalms 126:1
[2] https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-was-facing-destruction-at-the-hands-of-iran-this-is-how-close-it-came-and-how-it-saved-itself.
[3] https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hjckad6eeg
[4] How extensive are Israel’s intelligence operations inside Iran?
[5] Proverbs 25:21
[6] Attributed to Victor Frankl
[7] Pirkei Avot 5:1
[8] Joshua Kulp Pirkei Avot 4:1 with English Explanation of Mishnah
[9] The Serenity Prayer
[10] Judith Plaskow, “Submitting to The Great Aleinu,” https://youtu.be/6jw228chClE?si=1TkAgkrvDYvDlREO
Meet Rabbi Herman 