Rabbi Isaac Jeret - April Bulletin Column

Dear Friends:

I write to you just prior to our sacred and joyous festival of Pesach (Passover). Pesach constitutes for the Jewish People our opportunity to reflect upon the meaning and blessing of freedom. To fulfill the Jewish imperative to remember our exodus from Egypt, we engage in a process of interactive storytelling; we explore, in spoken word and through ritual, our collective Jewish experience as slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and our miraculous deliverance to freedom and toward God’s service.

The story of Passover is one of redemption. Our God heeded our cry, came to our aid, and rescued us from a nation which sought not only to enslave us but to destroy us. Had God not intervened on our behalf, we would not be here today and the many contributions to humanity offered by Jews and Judaism throughout the ages would never have been realized.

The story of Passover leads ultimately to our selection as a People that is mission-bound to our God. Generally speaking, the ritual and ethical imperatives of Judaism can be best understood collectively as an attempt to motivate and instruct us toward lives that emulate the concerns and deeds of our Creator. To wit, just as God created the world over the course of six days and rested on the seventh, so do we work our world and evolve it for six days every week only to rest, reflect, and enjoy one another on Shabbat. Just as God granted us a natural world with which we can sustain ourselves, so too must we feed the hungry. And, just as God freed us from bondage, saving us from destruction, so must we champion the cause of freedom and security for those who are oppressed and endangered in any era by the Pharaohs of the moment.

Only several weeks ago, the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called publicly for the annihilation of the State of Israel. We would ignore his remarks at our own peril; when Mr. Ahmadinejad vows to "wipe Israel off the map" he refers to an intention to destroy our Homeland and to murder all who live within its borders. He threatens, in effect, a nuclear holocaust of the Jewish State just as his country aims to secure and develop nuclear technology for 'peaceful intentions.' Lest we imagine ourselves to enjoy an amnesty from the Iranian dictatorship's genocidal plot, either as Jews who live far away from the Middle East or as Americans, we should note that the rhetoric of Iran's state-run media does not limit itself by any means to expressions of contempt and defamation of Jews in Israel alone. Mr. Ahmadinejad recently asked a large group of Iranian students and intellectuals, gathered at a conference in Teheran, to "imagine a world without the United States of America, because this could be achieved!"

Only several weeks prior to the onset of this current crisis, the Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip and in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria elected their new leadership. The new majority-party of the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, is in actuality one of the world's most brutal and murderous terrorist organizations. Hamas' hatred for Jews anywhere and everywhere and its intentions to harm any and every Jew are spelled out very clearly in its charter (log onto www.mideastweb.org/hamas to read their charter). Iran's and Hamas' aggressive intentions toward Israel, their despicable anti-Semitism, and their hatred for America, and every aspect of Western Society have long been known to us. However, the brazenness of the Iranian dictator's recent comments, the real possibility that the Iranians may soon gain the nuclear capability to act upon their intentions, and the free and democratic election of Hamas as the Palestinian's majority-representation should concern every Jew and every freedom-loving human being. All of the above demands of each of us and all of us to consider how we might respond with constructive action.

It was with this sense of concern and purpose that 5,000 people, both Jewish and non-Jewish, gathered in Washington D.C. last month for AIPAC's Annual Policy Conference (AIPAC is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and is the most significant arm of the Pro-Israel Movement in the United States). Arianna and I were privileged to have led a group of ten individuals who represented CNT at this most important and significant gathering (the first AIPAC Policy Conference that was attended by any group representing our community). As AIPAC's central focus is upon lobbying Congress to pass legislation that supports and protects the mutual interests of our country and the State of Israel, much of our time was spent learning about the issues at hand in plenary sessions and special briefings, all in preparation for our lobbying trip to Capitol Hill on the last afternoon of the conference. The conference was successful in displaying for our elected representatives in Washington, to our entire country, and for the world the broad base of support that exists for the strong bond that Israel and the United States -- two great democracies that champion alike the greatest virtues of freedom and tolerance -- share together. Our spirit and resolve was evident in the passion with which we spoke and in the very significant number of delegates who participated in this important gathering.

Ours is a tradition which demands of us to attempt to see the world as our God would do so and to respond to the world that we see as we believe our God would respond to it. The great Jewish theologian, Martin Buber, wrote that “the world is in need of redemption, but the redemption must not be expected to happen as an act of sheer grace.” We are not blessed with divine powers. We can neither turn sticks into snakes nor split seas into pathways to freedom. However, we can join together in large numbers, make our feelings known to our representatives and to the world, and help to influence for the better the decisions that our representatives make. We can do nothing less than this if we are to respond as God might do so to the legitimate fears that we share with our brothers and sisters in Israel this Passover eve.

While we celebrate our freedom this Passover, let us lift our Kiddush cups in commitment to our making a greater difference in the months ahead. As a Jewish community, let us become evermore a community committed to supporting and fulfilling our most sacred and far-reaching causes. This commitment is essential to the spiritual heritage of our People and it is today our most sacred calling. Our brothers and sisters in Israel are counting upon us to do our part, as they do theirs, on behalf of our own People and in service of the of all who celebrate or yearn for freedom and security this Passover. We can make a difference!

Chag Sameach V'Kasher -- May we all be blessed with a joyous and kosher Festival of Freedom,

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader