Aspiration and imagination

RABBI ROSS SINGER

Unlike the majority of my community on the West Bank, I didn’t get excited about Naftali Bennett’s HaBayit HaYehudi. It’s not that I am a Shalom Achshavnik. My read of the political situation is that there is little to no chance for reaching an accord any time soon with our Palestinian neighbors. Yet, the following words of Rabbi Yehuda Amital from his 2008 book, Commitment and Complexity: Jewish Wisdom in an Age of Upheaval, resonate deeply with me.

“[We] must declare that we seek peace…. Unfortunately, I do not see any chance of such a peace in the visible future but, at the same time, we must emphasize this over and over. We must speak about peace as a Jewish value according to the Torah. This is important from an educational and moral perspective, from a Jewish and national perspective, and from a pragmatic perspective within Am Yisrael and within the international community.” (p. 91)

When I first heard HaBayit HaYehudi’s platform for addressing the Palestinians, I was impressed that there was a pragmatic admission that we cannot annex all of Yehuda and Shomron. However, I was still bothered by their approach and it took me awhile to formulate exactly what bothered me so much.

There are two main issues for me. The first is the absence of any discomfort for the Palestinians in areas A and B who will have some autonomy, according to their plan, but no say in determining their destiny at the highest levels. Again, in the short run, I agree that our security situation precludes any quick path to Palestinian statehood. However, I am missing from HaBayit HaYehudi an admission that, long term, this is very problematic ethically. Millennia ago, the sage Hillel taught that the whole of the Torah is to avoid doing unto others that which you would not want done to you. We, as Jews, know what it’s like to be denied political rights. It should bother us that we deny those rights to others, even as we assert that currently our self-defence takes precedence.

The second issue (related to the first) is the absence of any aspiration for peace even as a distant dream. I can appreciate HaBayit HaYehudi’s pragmatism, but I need it tempered by some aspiration and imagination. I searched HaBayit HaYehudi’s page of fundamentals online and I didn’t find the word shalom even once. As one who draws on Rabbi Yehuda Amital’s humanistic Zionist vision, I expect that even when we don’t see pragmatic opportunities for peace, we will emphasize its importance as our dream nonetheless.

Everything I said above could apply to any party but it is especially relevant to a party that is raising the banner of Jewish values. So much of HaBayit HaYehudi’s campaign focused on a general sense of giving a Jewish character to the state – and I am all for that. However, that character should include a vision for peace with our neighbors. As Isaiah dreamed: “In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth; for that the Lord of hosts has blessed him, saying: ‘Blessed be Egypt My people and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance.’” (19:24-25)

Rabbi Ross Singer is the former rabbi of Vancouver’s Shaarey Tefilah Synagogue. He currently lives in Israel with his wife Emily and their four children.

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