'But We' - Here in the Diaspora

 

The piece I am preparing to read in Shul this Shabbat articulates my understanding of an acceptable relationship with Israel – as someone who doesn’t live in the country.

 

On the far banks of the Jordan, the tribes of Reuven and Gad are struck by the suitability of diasporic land for their many sheep. They approach Moses and ask, “If we have found favour in your eyes,” to remain, beyond the boundaries of the promised land of Israel, pasturing in the Diaspora rather than entering the land of the giant-sized men the spies have reported on. Moses, forgive the glibness, loses it. In anger, he recounts the failings of the entire generation who left Egypt and suggests the leadership of Reuven and Gad have “risen up in your fathers' stead, a brood of sinful men, to add yet further to the fierce anger of God toward Israel… You will destroy all this people.”

 

Reuven and Gad hastily reword their petition. They will build pens for their flocks, drop off their children and be ready to serve as a vanguard for the Children of Israel, fighting on the front line, and they won’t return to their Diasporic lands until every one of the tribes has their land. Moses relents and this indeed happens.

 

Preparing to read this section from the scroll I’m aware of a moment embedded in the trop  - the musicality – with which the verses should be read. “We will drop off our sheep and children,” ends one verse and the next begins with the word “ואנחנו But as for us, [we will bear arms in the vanguard.]” The word ואנחנו is sung with an Azla, perhaps the most emphatic, soaring of all the notations and rarely seen without its companion note, the Kadma. The masters responsible for the arrangement of trop seem to be emphasising the willingness of these, first, Diasporic Jews to assume an obligation for those who are to settle the land.

 

Part of why I live in the Diaspora is that it’s comfortable for me here. It suits my version of having many sheep. I know Israel is beautiful and beguiling, but it would be tough, for me. So, I dwell here in London. I also believe in the necessity of a State for our people – when diasporic Jews had no State to turn towards in times of trouble, it didn’t go so well. The challenge, at this time, isn’t the conquering of the land, fortunately for the IDF, there is no need for me to bear arms in the vanguard. But there are definitely challenges, challenges that perhaps strike differently to me, a diaspora-dweller than some of those living in the heat of a young country in a crucible of geo-political threat and demographic complexity.

 

Despite my dislike of this policy or that, despite my fear that the greatest threat to the current State of Israel is that it is tearing apart under its own internal pressures, I am not at liberty to walk away. We welcome, this Shabbat, Dr Yizhar Hess, Vice Chair of the World Zionist Organisation. Dr Hess has spent years fighting for a progressive, inclusive Zionism, and has served as Executive Director of Masorti in Israel. His visit is an essential opportunity for us to understand exactly what it means for us, in our comfort, today, to stand up like the tribes of Reuven and Gad in Biblical times. He will be speaking at the end of the service. I do hope you can join us,

 

Shabbat Shalom