SHEMOS 1988

In the Torah portion Shmos we learn how the Jewish people were enslaved after Joseph and the brothers died.  Pharaoh was the first person to call the Jewish people a people.  It says, "And he said to his people, °Behold, the people, the sons of Israel, are mighty and too strong for us.  Let us get wise lest they will increase and a war will occur and they will be added also to our enemies and they will fight against us and go up from the land.'" Pharaoh recognized the fact that the Jewish people were a unified group.  The Jewish people in Galut, in exile, act differently than when they are in their own homeland, when they are an independent people in the land of Israel.  In the Galut they do not feel they have any strength at all.  We do not really feel we are a people, because we know we are completely dependent upon the good will of the reigning power.  Pharaoh could do anything he want to us.  Throughout Jewish history in the Galut we have known that we can only exist based upon the good will of the rulers.  If they turn against us we will be persecuted or killed and will have to leave.  We Jews have developed a sixth sense knowing what to tell the rulers so they will leave us in peace.  This, of course, does not always sit well with an independent power.  The interests of the Jews of Israel will be different than the interests of the Jewish people in Galut, in exile.  Even here in America we have not changed the Constitution except for adding an amendment that a president cannot be elected for more than two terms since the 1930's, but the climate Is altogether different in America since the 13305.  In the 1930's a Jew could not get a job in a corporation, a bank, a insurance company.  Jewish engineers were not hired.  Jewish doctors could not work in hospitals unless they were Jewish hospitals.  Jewish social workers could not get a job unless they would work in Jewish social service agencies.  We know that we exist on the sufferance of the people.  We need their good will, and sometimes we say things in order to gain their good will.  We are goody goodies, in other words.  We want to reinforce a liberal tolerant tradition.  We have to realize that, but sometimes when you are in power you have to do things that are necessary in order to maintain order.  We Jews, though, are always looked on badly if we try to exercise power.  We are suspect, and we have to be careful what we do in somebody's else's land.

We learn in this Torah portion about Moshe, how he grew up, and how he went out to his brethren and saw their burdens and saw an Egyptian man who was hitting a Hebrew man, one of his brothers, and he turned here and there and saw there was not a man and he hit the Egyptian, he slew him, and he buried him in the sand.  The question can be asked, why did Moshe have to look here and there and see that there was no man?  This Egyptian was hurting a fellow human being.  He was hurting a Jew.  In fact, the Medrash says that what happened here was that the only crime of the Jew was that he came home too early.  The Egyptian taskmaster had his eye on this Jewish man's wife, and he wanted her, and he sent this Jew on a mission so he would be away from home, and then he was going to work his way with his wife.  The man came home too early.  He found them in the midst of the act, and, therefore, in his rage he turned on him and was beating him to death.  Moshe intervened and he slew the Egyptian and then hid him in the sand.  But why should he have to look here and there?  Why didn't Moshe just do what he had to do and say he was only saving a person's life?  This Egyptian raped this man's wife and was now beating him to death.  Why should Moshe have to fear anything?  He was standing up for justice.  He was maintaining the moral order, but a Jew in Galut is not supposed to exercise power.  We Jews are always being judged by a double standard.

Look what is happening in Israel today.  Israel has killed 25, 26 Arab rioters.  We grieve for the loss of life, but these people are not free from guilt.  They were throwing Molotov cocktails, rocks, knives, iron bars, stones.  Israeli soldiers were injured, were hurt seriously.  The whole world is upset, though, because of Israel's actions.  What about the 93 people who were killed in Northern Ireland last year?  Why aren't there any Security Council meetings about these 93 people who were killed?  Why aren't there cries that Britain is a police state denying people's rights, etc.?  Why is only Israel singled out?  In fact, an English official had the gall to say when he was visiting Israel that the Jewish people were not dealing with the problem correctly.  It is true Israel probably should have rushed more reinforcements in there sooner and provided more rubber bullets and shields and non-lethal weapons, but England has all these non-lethal weapons in Ireland and, yet, 93 people were killed last year.  What's more, what is all this uproar about deportation?  In February and March of 1986 Jordan closed all the P.L.O.  offices in northern Jordan and expelled hundreds of Palestinians.  Why weren't there Security Council resolutions on this?  Why wasn't the world up in arms?  What's more, in Egypt just recently there were riots.  Egypt staged some demonstrations against Israel and they got out of hand, and they machine-gunned the demonstrators.  What about Syria where 50,000 people were killed when Assad decided to put down a Moslem brotherhood rebellion?  Where were the protests then?  And look what is going on in Lebanon still to this day.  Why isn't the world alarmed at that?  Lies are being told.  Israel is being compared to South Africa, which is ridiculous.  Israel wants to give the Arabs the vote if they would want it.  They claim the Lechud is trying to make apartheid.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Many of the leaders want to give them the vote, let them be part of Israel, but the Arabs do not want it.  There is no difference between the Lichud and Labor parties.  The Labor party is interested in having international conferences.  The Lichud party wants to have direct negotiations like Camp David.  Perhaps the Lichud is right.  If Israel has so much pressure against them now just because they want to expel 9 Palestinians, look at the pressure that would be put on them at in international conference, and they would not be able to withstand that pressure and would have to give up too much and would endanger their security.  Unfortunately, there are many Jews in this country who are filled with moral indignation, too, about what Israel is doing.  We can, too, sympathize with the fact that we Jews in America have to maintain a certain stance, but we should realize we are doing it from self-interest and not from moral indignation.

When Moshe came out the next day and saw two Jewish people fighting.  He said, "Why are you going to hit your friend?" One of the Jewish participants in this quarrel said, "Who made you an officer and judge over us?  Are you going to kill us like you killed the Egyptian?" Moshe was afraid and said, "Surely this thing is known."  Moshe said, "A plague on both your houses.  I thought I was going to help the Jewish people, but this is the way they are going to talk to me?  They deserve the slavery they get, and I am getting out of here."  Unfortunately, we have Jews to this day who talk the same way.  I attended a meeting in which we listened to an Israeli representative of the army talk about the problems.  He is on leave of absence now.  One young lady got up and said, "Before I could support Israel because they were doing the moral thing.  Now I cannot support her because she is doing an immoral thing."  What kind of talk is that?  Any government in the same position would first try to establish order.  You cannot deal with people when they are throwing stones at you, throwing Molotov cocktails at you, when they are coming at you with knives.  Don't forget that tens of Israelis have been killed in Gaza on the West Bank by people wielding knives.  It is not a risk-free situation to be there.  Soldiers sometimes have to use their guns to protect themselves.  We should remember that the world judges us by different standards.  We should be aware of it and not worry too much what the world says, but we should worry about what our own people say.

I am reminded of the story they tell of a man on his deathbed.  With a very weak voice he called to his daughter, Bluma, and said, "Bluma, come here.  I want to talk to you."  His daughter came and said, "Yes, Papa, what can I do?" All of a sudden he smelled the smell of kugel that his wife was making in the kitchen.  He said, "Oh, Bluma, I have a craving for this kugel.  Please go ask your Mama for a piece of the kugel."  Bluma went and came back in a few minutes and said, "Papa, Mama says you can't have any.  It's for after the funeral."  The nations of the world do not want to say anything good about us unless we suffer a Holocaust, unless we are persecuted, unless we are the eternal victim.  Only after the funeral are they willing to say anything good about us.  I tell you all, let them keep their good words.  Let them keep their compliments.  Let Israel always be strong.