Israel, Gaza, Hostages and Democratic Threat - A Speech Given at Downing Street with Defend Israeli Democracy

 

A week ago, in Synagogues across the world, we read about something, to the Biblical mind, deeply awful. I know it’s invidious to compare building a golden calf to the tragic loss suffered by so many on October 7th, Magen, Sharon – I’m so sorry for your loss. But to the Biblical mind, the building of a Golden Calf was deeply awful. And in the aftermath of that Ason, God is furious and God feels betrayed and God wants to strike out, and the Torah records God saying this to Moses.

וְעַתָּה֙ הַנִּ֣יחָה לִּ֔י וְיִֽחַר־אַפִּ֥י בָהֶ֖ם וַאֲכַלֵּ֑ם

And now, leave me alone to be truly angry with them, and I [God] will destroy them.

God is so hurt, that God wants to strike out and wipe out the entire people and start again – building up a future Children of Israel from Moses.

 

God says to Moses, God’s closest friend on all the earth, הַנִּ֣יחָה לִּ֔י, leave me alone to demonstrate my anger and my power and hatred of this act that has been done against me.

And Moses refuses to back down.

It’s important to understand why Moses refuses to acknowledge down. Moses doesn’t attempt any kind of justification for the awful act that has been perpetrated. And certainly, Moses doesn’t care about the personal gain that would come to him if he is prepared to watch on while God’s indignant anger wipes out a people.

Moses refuses to back down because Moses sees something that not even God seems able to see – that the response of wiping out an entire people, even if they have done an awful wrong, wiping out an entire people isn’t going help.

And Moses says this

שׁ֚וּב מֵחֲר֣וֹן אַפֶּ֔ךָ

Return from your anger

It’s as if Moses is accusing God of a sin – of allowing anger to guide an instinctive divine reaction. Shuv – don’t do this in anger, find a different way to respond.

It’s a story with, I think, a powerful analogy for our time.

The powerful analogy is not that we should think the Prime Minister of Israel is God – though I suspect he would like that. By the way, the reason – you know the Prime Minster of Israel is acting nothing like God is that, when Moses does stand up to God, God doesn’t try and sack the leader of Shin Bet or pass a no-confidence motion against the attorney general or suggest Moses is part of some “deep state treachery.” 

God is grateful for Moses’ faithful opposition, God backs down and Moses is the hero.

The powerful message, in this story is that we are Moses.

In the Talmud, the Rabbis explain what’s going on in Moses’ mind at this point. Moses, too, is hurting in the aftermath of this Ason – this awful act. Moses also is confused and when Moses looks towards God – who is supposed to be the protector of the Children of Israel - there is a piece of Moses’ soul that is ready to back down and let God just get on with being destructive.

But when God tells Moses to leave God alone, Moses says this and it might be single most important pharse in the entire Talmud - Devar Zeh Talui Bi – this thing depends on me, and the Rabbis imagine Moses grabbing hold of God’s Tallit and refusing to let go until God backs down.

We are Moses. Hurting, staggered by the awful thing done to us, and staggered yet further by being told by the political leadership that should have protected us then, that should be protecting us now, that we should just leave them alone. We are staggered to be told we are part of a “deep state traitors.” And, perhaps somewhere in our souls, is a sense of Yeiush – despair.

And yet, but yet, the things that are being in our name are destructive and if there is to be safety for the People of Israel, if there is to be a secure future for the State of Israel, if there is to be Democratic civil future for the People of Israel – Devar Zeh Talui Banu – this thing depends on us.

And we need to hold tight onto the tallit and refuse to let go.

A terrible wrong has been committed – there is no justification for the awful attacks of 7^th October. For Magen, for Sharon, for the thousands and thousands who have been left mourning, there is no justification. For the hostages … well this is the language we call, we pray and we demand their immediate release. As the Rambam taught, there is no higher Mitzvah than the redemption of captives.

 

But, for those of us who love Israel, this thing hangs on us; to oppose the systematic eroding of the democratic, the judicial and the civil functioning of what we used to claim, proudly, was the only democracy in the Middle East – this thing depends on us.

 

And for my government here, and I’m a proud British Citizen, I call on our government also not to back down when told by an Israeli Prime Minister – Hanicha Li – leave me alone and I will destroy them. This government too must stand up and fight for a response to the atrocity of October 7^th that is in line with an acceptable vision of the future for Israel and the Middle East. I was in Israel a couple of weeks ago, Mikhael Manikin put it really well, “I’m working for a future which is not predicated on the erasure of one side by the other. That includes,” Manekin said, “the erasure of me.”

One other thing that has stuck with me since my visit to Israel, two weeks ago, in a group of 15 British Rabbis on a trip organized by Yachad. We met with Chaver Knesset, Gilad Kariv. And, when we asked Rabbi Kariv, what we could do to support the work to build the safe future for Israel we dream of, even in this horrendous time – he said this – vote in the World Zionist Congress elections. It was the first thing he called on us to do. It is an incredible part of the vision of Israel, that we, even in this country, even as non-citizens of Israel, get a vote in the shaping of policy and particularly in the funding of those policies. Democratic power exists, but only if we claim it. If you see an opportunity to register to vote in these elections. Register. If you don’t know who to vote for, I recommend “Our Israel.” Just know that what is at stake is the future of a safe democratic Israel. And the matter - Devar Zeh - depends on us.

Thank you