SHEMOS 2001

In the Torah portion, Shemos, we learn about Moshe Rabbeinu.  We learn how he was chosen to bring the Jewish people out of Egypt.  We learn very little about his early life.  We learn how he was raised by an Egyptian princess, and how it says that when Moshe grew up he went out to his brothers, and he saw their affliction.  Moshe had great empathy for the Jewish people.  "And he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man, and Moshe struck down the Egyptian."  We learn that the next day, he went out and saw two Jews fighting, and he said, "Why are you striking your fellow?"  The aggressor replied, "Who appointed you as a judge and ruler over us?  Do you plan to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Moshe became afraid, and said, "Surely this thing is known."

The rabbis explain Moshe was not afraid for his own life, but he was now afraid that he made the wrong judgment.  When he said, "Surely this thing is known," he refers to the fact that now he understands why the Jewish people deserve slavery.  Here he tried to help them, and they were actually identifying with their Egyptian oppressors.  It was as if the man was saying, "You killed that Egyptian unjustly," even though that Egyptian was trying to kill a Jew.  Moshe then fled to Midian where he married the daughter of a Midian priest, and, what's more, according to the Medrash, he agreed to raise his oldest son as a pagan.  He had enough of trying to interfere with saying the Jewish people.  G-d, though, appears to Moshe at the burning bush and tells him, "Now go.  I am sending you to Pharaoh.  Bring out My people, the sons of Israel, from Egypt.  Moshe said to G-d, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, that I should bring out the sons of Israel from Egypt?"

Rashi explains, "Who am I" as, how am I qualified to speak to this king, and even if I were qualified, what merit does the Jew have that miracles should be done for them, and that I should bring them out of Egypt?  In other words, Moshe was not convinced that the Jewish people were worthy to be redeemed.  They were a contrary people.  They always had more sympathy for their oppressors than for their own people.  This fact is later borne out when, after Moshe came and pleaded with Pharaoh to let the Jewish people go, and Pharaoh became angry and said that the Jewish people were lazy, and he denied the people straw, who did the people blame?  Pharaoh or Moshe?  They blamed Moshe.  They said, "Why did you make us stink in the eyes of Pharaoh?" They identified with their oppressors, not with their own oppression.

Jews have always been an empathetic, sympathetic people.  We want to see the good in other people.  Hitler calls us sentimental and considered our empathy a great weakness.  It is true that we should be empathetic.  We are taught that we are not supposed to rejoice when our enemy is defeated, but, on the other hand, we are not supposed to be so empathetic that we even commit suicide because of them.

Today in Israel, there is a great awakening.  So many Jews, especially from the left, were so empathetic to the Arab position that they thought that all they had to do was give them a more than generous offer, and peace was at hand.  They did not understand that the Arabs do not want to share Israel; they want it all, and they want us out.  There is a great Zionist awakening in Israel today.  The Jewish people understand now that you cannot gain love or peace by appearing to be weak.  You must stand for your own positions or you will be trampled on.

Nachman Shai is now the head of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, and formerly the chief spokesman for the Israeli Army, said that the shock in Israel caused by the El'Aksa Intifada is as great as the shock caused by the Yom Kippur War in 1973.  All Israel's assumptions have to be reworked.  As Gerald Steinberg told us, people are under the assumption that if you become friends with the Arabs, peace would be at hand.  This is sort of a glorified ADL conception.  It was a conception that President Clinton worked at.  He had Arafat as his guest at the White House more than any other leader.  He thought if he could make him a personal friend, Arafat would seek peace.  This is a false conception.  Personal friendship does not override ideological, religious, or nationalistic concerns.  Just look at our Civil War.  It was brother against brother and father against son.  The greatest wars are usually fought between friends.  Israel was also not prepared for the virulent hatred that the Arabs have displayed.  Now they are united more than ever before because they realize that they can lose everything.  They realize that if they do not stand up for themselves, nobody else will.
We were addressed by an Arab named Yussef with a Ph.D. from Hebrew University.  He had attended many Jewish weddings and entertained many Jews in his own home, but he told us point blank, "If you get in the way of my nationalistic ambitions, I will get rid of you."  He defined the conflict as having three parts: land, people, and rights.  He said we had two choices: either divide the land or make a bi-national state.  If we divide the land, his state has the right to have the most modern arms, and the moment he feels that his state is stronger than Israel, he will attack and drive us out.  If Israel opts for a binational state, he will wait until he is a majority, and then he will get rid of us.  He made it pretty clear that it was either us or them.  This was a very chilling presentation because he gave it so rationally, and because we educated him, and he has a Ph.D.

Moshe did not want to go to redeem the Jewish people.  He felt they were people who would not stand up for their own interests.  G-d, though, gave him three signs, which he was to show to the Jewish people.  After they would see these three signs, they would want to follow him, even though they may backslide.
The first sign was he was to throw his staff onto the ground, and it would turn into a writhing snake.  Nachash in Hebrew means not just snake but assumptions.  He was to cast his staff, that which he relied upon, on the ground and see that his assumptions were false.  They were writhing snakes.  Today, Israel is examining all its assumptions, just as we had to do in ancient Egypt.

Second, he put his hand in his bosom, and it turned leprous.  The rabbis say that in a certain sense, this was a punishment for Moshe for speaking ill of the Jewish people, but in a greater sense, this was a punishment for the Jewish people as a whole.  They were not to speak badly about themselves, like many Jews do today.  It is the Stockholm Syndrome gone mad.  They justify everything the Arabs do, and find nothing right about what the Jews do.  The lunching of the two soldiers in Ramallah was just fine.  They should not have been in that territory and got lost.  There is a case of a Haifa professor who just wrote a new book about the Alexander Brigade of the Israeli Defense Forces, who were supposed to have massacred an Arab village near Haifa.  The surviving members of this brigade sued him, and proved that no such massacre occurred.  He based the whole book on the word of a few Arabs who wanted to besmirch Israel.  He is not alone, though.  There are many revisionist historians in Israel who are trying to make black white and white black, and blame Israel for everything.  Moshe was to put his hand in his bosom, and pull it out and show out it was leprous, the punishment for speaking Loshan Hora against especially your own people.  He was then to put his hand in his bosom, and bring it out again.  This time, it was restored to health, just like the Jewish people could be restored to health and get rid of this terrible Stockholm Syndrome.

Finally, Moshe was to take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry land.  This water would turn to blood.  So many Jews said you cannot do anything.  War will result.  We will be killed.  Blood will be spilled, just as in Israel they are saying today.  If we do not give in to the Arabs, there will be war, but we all know if we do not stand up, for sure there will war.  Chamberlain taught us that at Munich, and every time Israel has been strong, there has been no war, but if the Arabs sense weakness, there is a war.  Moshe told them, do not be afraid of blood.  If you are afraid, there will be much blood, but if you are not afraid, there will be little blood.

In Israel today, we know that their assumptions are being reexamined, they are realizing that they accomplish nothing by defending their enemy's interests and not our own, and that the fear of war will bring war.  The prognosis for the future is actually good.  Israel is getting stronger and stronger.  Its economy is growing, and the people are thriving.  Peace will come, but only when the Arabs perceive that it is in their best interests.  We cannot follow false assumptions.  Too many Israel's have already been killed after being lured by friends or perspective love mates into Arab territory.  We have to stand strong.

I am reminded of the story they tell about a man who was going to fly to Israel, not only El Al but another airline.  He had four suitcases.  He said, "I want this one to go to Israel, I want this one to go to Moscow, I want this one to go to London, and I want this one to go to Paris."  The clerk said, "I don't think we can do that."  He replied, "But last week you did it."  You cannot rely on the fact that when you luggage gets lost it will get lost in the same place, and we cannot rely on the fact that because the Arabs display personal friendship that they have given up their national and religious goals.  Let us all hope and pray that Israel will remain strongly united so that she will endure so the Mashiach will come quickly in our day.  Amen.