A message for Jews, in a charred mosque at Yom Kippur
If we are truly to have a new year, it must begin with an act of healing. On Yom Kippur, we are compelled to see, sometimes for the first time, how and where and how badly we have been wounded, and especially, how and where and how badly we have wounded others.
By Bradley Burston Tags: Jewish holidays Israeli ArabsWhy should Yom Kippur come at the beginning of a year? The New Year should be a time of promise and fresh beginnings. Why mar the sweetness and the still-innocent hopes of Rosh Hashanah? Why not leave well enough alone?
This would seem a horrible way to kick things off. No eating, no drinking. No physical pleasures of any sort. Jab your fist square in your own chest, over and over and yet again. Then there are the words, miles and hours and mountains of words. The same words every year. Words of regret and self-rebuke and unworthiness.
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The mosque in the Galilee village of Tuba which was set alight October 2, 2011. |
| Photo by: Yaron Kaminsky |
Why, of all paths, take this one into a new year?
This week, we got an answer to that question.
The answer came from a direction no one was expecting. A Bedouin village in northern Israel. A village known for close and enduring relationships with its Jewish neighbors. Extended family. And on the week of Yom Kippur, a village which pogromchiks, apparently militant Jews, selected as a target for a hate crime.
For the sin which we have sinned against You, we say on Yom Kippur, for the sin of tzadi'at ra, of hostile intention, of wicked scheming, of taking advantage of a neighbor who has less power, or is more trusting, or has no defense.
The answer came on Monday morning. It came in the form of a terrible blow, one that brought shock and tears and anger to Arabs and Jews alike, even to police. The village mosque and the sacred texts and articles within, were put to the torch.
For the sin which we have sinned against You b'sin'at hinam, in hatred for nothing, hatred whose only outcome is more and more and still more hatred.
The desecration of the mosque in Tuba is at least the fifth such disgrace since last Yom Kippur. The other four took place in the West Bank. Far from our view. They were every bit as horrifying, every bit as obscene. But we were largely silent about the others. And that is where the answer begins.
For the sin which we have sinned against you, b'yod'in o'b'lo yod'in, knowingly or unknowingly.
Five Holy Land mosques desecrated since last Yom Kippur, almost certainly at the hands of a small number of militant settlers - militants whom even most settlers condemn. Yet with all of our might and our resources of intelligence, in a tiny place where no one can keep a secret, a year has come and gone, and we have brought not one person to justice.
For the sin which we have sinned against You b'i'mootz lev, in hard-heartedness, in refusal to acknowledge and address our wrongdoing, in lack of compassion for the victims of our wrongdoing.
This, it seems to me, is the answer: If we are truly to have a new year, it must begin with an act of healing. On Yom Kippur, we are compelled to see, sometimes for the first time, how and where and how badly we have been wounded, and especially, how and where and how badly we have wounded others.
We fast on Yom Kippur because that is what one does before surgery. On Yom Kippur we are meant to perform exploratory surgery on ourselves. With nothing but our bare fists, we are meant to crack the chest and open the heart and see what we have deposited there, hidden there, forgotten there.
And if there are too many wounds to heal, and there always are, we need to choose those that have particular urgency.
This Yom Kippur, the desecration of mosques is that wound.
There are those who are taking steps to heal this, and we can help them. Among the first is the Israel Religious Action Center, part of the Reform Movement in Israel. They have begun a campaign to help repair the Tuba mosque, to replace the Koran burned in the fire, to buy new carpets, and restore the structure.
The Ameinu movement will also be providing funds to purchase holy books.
For the sin which we have sinned against You b'hilul Hashem, in desecrating your Name, in performing wrongdoing in the name of God, in harming others in the belief that we are acting for Your name's sake. For the sin of believing that our neighbors are not Your children.
For all of these, O God of forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, atone for us.
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The Israeli justice system needs to identify the culprits, and immediately try them in court and punish them according to Israeli law.
These words are powerful and should reach every corner not only of Israel but of all the corners of the diaspora Jews who all too often also turn their heads away from the sins of some Israelis.
for the destruction of the mosque. Now, tell me, what communal repetence should we expect for the murder of the Fogel family? For the murder of Daniel Viflic? Fortunately, books can be replaced, buildings can be rebuilt. But human lives, especially the murder of children? I'm waiting to see how that one is redressed.
2. Desecrating God's holy name in harming others --NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO TO US? I guess BURSTON never heard of AMALEK and GOD'd demand to HARM them for what they did to US? THIS shows BURSTONS is IGNORANT of what GOD considers SIN --not all HARMS are SINS!!! BY today;s PC standards all harm is WRONGDOING-but theologically NOT ALL HARMS are SINS!
1. ONly JEWS can SIN in "harming" MUSLIMS; it appears the reciprocal is not any demand of Burston's. tHIS is at the very minimum UFAIR ....he sees NO SIN by THEM when THEY harm us.
question: how many jews live in arabia? why should arabs want to live in judea?
Israel has to ask forgiveness to his people too. Israel has missed all the possibilities to get peace its own people. This is the big forgive that the israeli polititians and military class has to ask to their own people. They failed. They did not tell the true when they say we will promise security. They should say we promise you to live in peace, in friendship with our neighboors, we promise you here they will not come another war
Most Israeli's approve of the land theft and ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the settlers in the name of Israel
we had our "cristal nigth" i feel, we didnt learn enough from our own past !
We all need to watch out for each other over the next 36 Hours. Regards! Have a good fast!
It saddens me to read some Jews actually condoning this action and rationalizing it's merits. As a child of Holocaust survivors, my parents would have been apauled at this display, as am I. WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS! And we need to be better still.
there are many crimes all over the world , in New York and many other places where the culprits were not found and go unpunished. This is not unique to Israel .
Yes, you are right about this. It is sinful no matter who attacks holy places. I'm sad to hear about it.
One, introspective,humane and rational. Second (the loudist) preaches that jews are superior, the goyim is a beast in human form. Different set of laws for jews and non-jews. Read what the leading Rabbi have to say for example Oviada Yosef, “Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel,”
When you turn a blind eye to the burning of a mosque soon you will turn a blind eye to murder.
you don't distinguish between guilty and not guilty
if only poeple from both sides follow the example from israel religious action center a lot of hatered will be defused
Wise men would recall that mosques are not "sanctuaries" for refuge like "churches" are in the western world. Mosques are assembly points for those adhereing to a totalitarian ideology posturing as a religion, which has declared, in its holy book the koran, it is committed to annihilating all the jews, globally. Further, the G-d of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob NEVER instructed His children, whether jewish or gentile, to "negotiate, make peace with, apologize to, compromise, dialogue" with the force of EVIL. He commanded us to flee from EVIL, and to clean EVIL out of the land. So, Burston is admonishing the first-born family of the G-d of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, to do what? Repentance, for what? Repent for the thoughts of our minds which lead to hate-filled words and violent actions -- but don't repent for having "torched a mosque". It isn't holy -- it does NOT represent the G-d of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob.
"My religion is better than yours, so I'll burn down your mosques!"
Amen and amen.
To paraphrase Golda, “I can forgive the Arab for killing me, I can’t forgive the Arab for making me kill him.” Sanctimonious….yes? Bullshit…yes? Why not stop your horrible behavior so you don’t have to beat your breast, whining your mea culpas?
How many Arabs have shown the same retrospection over the desecration of Jewish cemeteries or the innocent children murdered in bomb blasts and machine gunnings, or the murders of Jewish civilians in pre-1948 rioting?
You should want to have a higher standard of behavior for yourself than for others. You should expect more. It is necessary to say "not in my name" when extremists, as few as they may be, do something like this.
Read the article again Rose, and tell us where it states what you say it says about "all".
Although I deeply disagree with many of its policies and the way many of its citizens think, I love Israel fondly. This article, and the school of thought it represents, makes me love it more.
You're not sinful guys... This is an individual act. The sin is your presence on this land since you left your homes in wherever you came from. Pack ur stuff and leave.. The land is crying because of your crimes.. Do you have a heart??
Really? Population explosion (including Palestinians). Exporter of agriculture, science, technology, culture, and humanitarian aid. More vegetation, a thriving economy, Nobel laureates and medical innovations too many to name. It seems like the land is blooming under the Jews' rule. You want to see crying land? Look at the rest of the Middle East....
What do you do when you are immersed from childhood in pre-medieval law which distinguishes between killing a Jew and killing a Gentile? While killing anybody is forbidden by Halakha, the murderer is punished by execution if he killed a Jew, but is only "punished by Heaven" if he killed a Noahide (e.g., a Muslim). Today you have rabbinic opinions that allow killing of Arabs, even innocents, that endanger Jewish control of the Land. They simply compare the importance of the various commandments and come to such conclusions. Rabin's assassination was also sanctioned by some according to Jewish law of "mosser". The settlers see no problem in burning down Arab Mosques and crops, or uprooting their olive trees, just to get back at the Israeli government (their "price tag" policy), and not for any wrong the Arabs themselves had committed. The Halakha was not updated much, certainly did not have a chance to evolve naturally under conditions of Jewish control over Gentiles. Since changes in it are extremely slow, it is best to override it wholesale, as was done in laws concerning financial issues, according to the ruling of "Dina d'malchuta dina", "the law of the land is valid." But I wonder how long it will take to also change the moral/ethical influence that goes with the outdated Halakha.
Nice words and I am sure well intended. But where were Netanyahu and or Peres? Could either of them not spares the time to visit the mosque as a sign of regret? Oh forgot! Israel does not do regret. Pity as their visit might have gone somewhere to heal.
The lack of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians brings about this volatile action and disrespect of a people who are really very much like us, our brethren, and we're responsible for this bigotry as well - ensuing for decades, unfortunately.
While the relations between Muslim nations and their Jewish subjects were reasonable most of the time, there was the occasional pogrom too, especially following the birth of the State of Israel. This, therefore, cannot be used as an argument against an occasional pogrom of Arabs by Jews. In any case, today's pogromists are mostly Ashkenazim (as messianic settlers generally are) and they may be unaware of Jewish history in Islamic lands. The problem is MUCH BIGGER. Ashkenazic Jewish communities were subjected for centuries to pitiless persecution by their Christian hosts, most recently during the Holocaust, including the burning of synagogues (as during Kristal Nacht). To act similarly against Arabs under their control simply defies the lessons of Jewish history that these settlers are well aware of. The Chief Rabbis simply couldn't believe that Jews would do such a thing. I don't blame the rabbis; they are innocents living in a crazy world were such acts are unfortunately possible. When the pogromists' identities are revealed, I hope the rabbis excommunicate them.
Israelis justify each crime ( or at least pretend not see ) if it is profitable for Israel.
you should stop fighting freedom
We will make you recognize you are equal , not superior
All of us as one. As we are all responsible for the actions of our community, in relation to others, in relation to out own integrity, and in relation to God's decrees and principles. Acts of zealotry are not exactly of religious origin or practice. They are of the worst sins, the intentional confusion of selfish objectives (whether property or ideology) for divine. Modern zealots believe that these are the times of Joshua, with the command to "conquer", rather than the times of the remorseful elder David or Solomon.