(for the week of July 17^th, 2010/6 Av, 5770)

Parashat “Devarim”
Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22

Deuteronomy (in Hebrew, “Devarim”) is the record of Moses’ final lessons to the Israelites as they prepare to cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land without him. The book and its lessons begin with the following verse: “These are the words that Moses addressed to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan… (Deuteronomy 1:1).” As so often happens when one is in a “long-term relationship” with Torah, words that can seem fairly unremarkable one year can shine with special meaning the next time around. Such is the case this year as we read the opening verse of the Torah’s final book in the context of dramatic and disturbing events currently unfolding in Israel.

As Moses begins to summarize the core lessons learned during the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, the Torah emphasizes that he speaks to kol Yisrael (lit., “all of Israel”). Rabbi Plaut points out that while this is not always literally true (i.e., in Deuteronomy, Moses sometimes speaks only to the men or the priests or the leaders of the community), when Moses addresses these subgroups, he is “…like a conductor who gestures to a section of the orchestra without neglecting the rest of the ensemble.”* This interpretation subtly reminds us of the tension in addressing the distinctive roles and perspectives of Jewish subgroups while still nurturing the value of k’lal Yisrael, the desire to maintain an inclusive and cohesive Jewish community that sees itself sharing a common vision and destiny.

Two events that unfolded in Israel this week threatened to seriously weaken K’lal Yisrael. On Monday, July 12^th (Rosh Hodesh Av), Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center and one of the leaders of the “Women of the Wall,” was arrested for carrying a Torah scroll in the women’s section of the kotel while she and other women were singing Hebrew prayers. If the kotel is a symbol that belongs to all Jews, if the wall is meant to be a sacred place for kol Yisrael, then it must be possible for the government of Israel to honor the religious sensibilities of all the Jewish communities who want to worship there, not just fundamentalist Orthodox Jews. For now, the political stranglehold that right-wing, Orthodox authorities have over the kotel and most other aspects of religious life in Israel continues to make the rest of us second class citizens of the Jewish world. You can find out more about the Women of the Wall and read news accounts of the arrest here http://womenofthewall.org.il/ and learn about the work of our movement’s Israel Religious Action Center here http://irac.org.

Even more worrisome for us and for the cause of K’lal Yisrael is a bill that is being considered in the Knesset this week. The bill, introduced by Minister of the Knesset (MK) David Rotem would reopen the incredibly divisive questions of who is considered a Jew by the State of Israel, which rabbis can officiate at conversions and who has the authority to determine if a conversion is legitimate. A passage in the proposed law also states that if a non-Jewish person visits Israel and later converts, he or is she will not automatically be eligible for citizenship under Israel’s “Law of Return.” Simply put, passage of this law by the Knesset would be a disaster for the cause of religious pluralism in Israel, for the unity of the Jewish people and for the sometimes fragile relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry.

You’ll find more information, an opportunity to send an email to Prime Minister Netanyahu and a link to the Union for Reform Judaism’s web resources back on the Beth El homepage. Time is of the essence in this matter, so if you’d like to help, don’t delay in making your voice heard. The struggle Moses faced—to find a way to speak both to the needs of particular groups of Jews and to the Jewish people as a whole—is a long and continuing struggle. But the stakes are very high and, to borrow Rabbi Plaut’s metaphor, if this worldwide, Jewish orchestra is ever going to play a worthy, strong and beautiful song before God, we will need leaders who can strike that difficult balance with integrity, wisdom, patience, strength and vision. May God grant us the blessing of such leaders soon and in our time.

*In The Torah: A Modern Commentary (Revised Edition), ed., Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut (New York: Union for Reform Judaism, 2005), commentary on verse 1, pg. 1161.