RABBI MILLER’S BLOG JANUARY, 2010

I hear it said that the forty or so students who attend my Shabbat morning Torah Class represent a strong showing, that we should be proud to see so many adults who are eager and regular attendees for learning.

As I surveyed the room on a recent Shabbat, I did not share that assessment—and I said so. From a congregation that boasts many hundreds of adults, two-score students is a pitiful percentage. The multitude of absentees mocks at least the first part of our Temple’s creedal couplet: “Strength of Tradition, Warmth of Community.”

Think of what it would mean for you to say to your children: “I/We are going out this morning to the Rabbi’s Torah class. It is Shabbat and this is what Jewish people have done for thousands of years. I/We think it is important to study the Torah with our Rabbi and we will be back home in a couple of hours. Shabbat Shalom.”

Could anything be a greater, more positive statement to your children? Could anything make a greater impression? They will remember for a lifetime that you associated being a Jewish adult with learning the great messages of our heritage, that Judaism is not just preparation for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, but is a lifelong pursuit of wisdom, truth, and knowledge!

Being with our children on Saturday morning is important to their development. But being away from our children on Shabbat morning can be even more important to their growth.

We can say to our children that Judaism is important, but if we do not affirm it in our decisions they will know that we do not back up our words with deeds. Yes, the key word is “decisions.” You decide week in and week out to attend or to not attend Torah study. It is your choice. It is your example that you are setting.

I read this BLOG to the Torah class and invited their responses. Several people said that too many attendees would threaten the intimacy of the class. I countered that I did not foresee members flocking to Saturday morning Torah Study, despite my request. I concluded by saying that we will evaluate at the end of January whether our membership has responded to this BLOG and its invitation.

It should be interesting!

Faithfully,

Rabbi Miller

The U.N. General Assembly has approved a Human Rights Council (whose full-time job it is to draft anti-Israel resolutions) motion endorsing the biased Goldstone Report that accuses Israel of “War Crimes.” The General Assembly recommended that the resolution be considered by the U.N. Security Council. The Goldstone Commission, which was established by Cuba, Egypt, and Pakistan, systematically favored witnesses and evidence put forward by anti-Israel advocates, and dismissed evidence and testimony that would undermine its case.  It accused Israel of cavalierly targeting civilians, hospitals, and schools during the recent defensive war it waged in Gaza.  This is but one more addition to the U.N.’s woeful record of habitual censure of Israel.

If there is a more worthless institution than the U.N., I do not know of it.  Not only is its incompetence legendary, its corruption endemic, and its commitment to human rights laughable, it seems to exist for the purpose of condemning Israel and denying its right to self-defense.  This is the organization that, for eight years, could not define the word “terrorism,” that blithely ignores Sudan, the Congo, and Sri Lanka, and for which Israel is always guilty until inevitably “proven” guilty.

As Max Boot wrote for Commentary Magazine:

“After reading the Goldstone Report on human-rights abuses committed during the Gaza War (December 27, 2008–January 19, 2009), all I can say is that it is a good thing that the U.N. wasn’t around during World War II. I can just imagine it producing a supposedly evenhanded report that condemned the Nazis for ‘grave’ abuses such as incinerating Jews, while also condemning the Allies for their equally ‘grave’ abuses such as fire-bombing German and Japanese cities. The recommendation, no doubt, would have been that both sides be tried for war crimes, with Adolf Hitler in the dock alongside Franklin Roosevelt. Actually, that may be giving the UN more credit than it deserves. To judge by the evidence before us, the likelihood is that the UN in those days would have devoted far more space to Allied ‘abuses’ than to those of the Axis and would have recommended that FDR stand alone before the world court.”

The U.N. cannot distinguish between aggressor and defender because it is populated largely by aggressors.  No recognition of Israel’s withdrawal from every inch of Gaza, of years of rocket attacks raining down on Jewish civilians, of huge weapons caches smuggled into tunnels, of support to Hamas by Syria and Iran, of Israel’s efforts to warn Gazans of impending assault and to keep them out of harm’s way, of Hamas committing the war crime of placing its troops and firepower within civilian populations and using children as human shields.  Israel, the most threatened nation in the world, is not accorded the first right of every other government on earth: the right to defend its people against attack and death.   If Mexico fired rockets into California, the U.S. would, no doubt, respond appropriately and forcefully to end the aggression.  America would, no doubt, be condemned by the U.N. for using first-world weaponry against a second-world country.

The only thing that unites the United Nations is its reflexive demonization of Israel.

Click to View Anti-Israel Resolutions at Current U.N.

“No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.”  So said Churchill in 1899.  His subject?  Islam.

More than a century later, Sir Winston’s observation still applies.  We are today at war with an insidious ideology that was born with the design that it should rule the world.  Terrorists have not “hijacked a peaceful religion.” Islam is not, in its fundamental tenets, a “peaceful” religion. It is a manifesto for the conquest and destruction of all Western civilization and the establishment of a global theocracy in line with a seventh-century ethos.

The Koran poses a threat of the highest order to the West.

The Koran sees the world as divided into two: the part which is incorporated under Islamic rule and the part which will, of necessity, be incorporated under Islamic rule in time to come. The world is clearly divided into Dar al-Islam (the house of Islam), the place where Islam rules, and Dar al-Harb, the house of war. Not the “house of non-Muslims,” but the “house of war.” It is this house of war which will be conquered.
This is Allah’s message enshrined in the Koran: God has sent Mohammed with the true faith so that the truth will triumph over all other religions.

We are not discussing war and peace in Western terms. We are talking about war and peace in Islamic terms. When people ask, “Will this war ever end,” my answer is, “No, not in our lifetime.” There may be periods of quiet, but there will not be peace.

Eternal war has been sworn against the West, and especially against Israel.  The creation of a Jewish State overturned Islamic history. It is an upending of all that is right and good for Jews to rule over Moslems.  This can never be accepted by Islam. It is not the settlements in the territories that are barriers to peace—it is the settlement of Israel that renders peace impossible!  It is not only Modi’in Illit, Maale Adumim, or Gush Etzion that are said to block peace, but also Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Kiryat Shemonah.  A Jewish independent state is anathema to the Islamic worldview.

Islam constructs a vision of inevitability.  Annihilationist jihad will be waged whenever and wherever possible.  To accept the legitimacy of Israel means to negate every possible Islamic principle, among them that Jews are ordained by Allah to remain second-class citizens.  The Jewish State is a catastrophe of cosmic magnitude.  Jews are defined as enemies of Allah, and what Moslem would legitimize the success of such an enemy?  The war against Israel may feature a combination of military and terrorist activities as well as diplomatic actions, but the aim is always to weaken the Jewish State and render it vulnerable.

Israel will be the first stop on a world tour of conquest.

This is my first BLOG.  Thank you to devoted member Jeff Stone for encouraging me to take up this means of communication with you and for providing the means by which to do so.

As part of a FAQ column in its newsletter, a suburban New York congregation asks: “What are the synagogue’s expectations of its members?”  It answers:

Every synagogue has the responsibility of providing a well-rounded, diverse program of activities for its members which touches every area of Jewish life. We often take this fact for granted, but we sometimes forget that synagogue membership is a two-way street. Joining a congregation is like entering into a covenant: both parties have responsibilities. The congregation hopes that its members will become partners in creating an institution that will truly be a storehouse of the Jewish spirit.

The consumer mentality has infiltrated the Synagogue.  Asking what the Synagogue can do for you is only part of the proper question.  Where is the language of “obligation,” “should,” “must”?  How many see their membership as described above: a two-way street, of entering into a covenant when they join a Temple, of taking on responsibilities to congregational life, of becoming a true partner in reciprocity?

We are a Beit Tefillah, a house of worship.

We are a Beit Midrash, a house of study.

We are a Beit Tikkun, a center for social commitment.

We are a Beit Kenesset, a house of assembly.

We are part of K’lal Yisrael, the larger community of Israel.

Each member of TBY must look at his or her response to our Synagogue and ask: “Am I assuming responsibility as a worshipper, as a student, as a seeker of social justice, as a friend and support, and as a part of a greater community, both here and in Israel?

Where is the vocabulary of commitment based on obligation?

With Shalom,

Your Rabbi