Being a little more Universal in our actions

Last year on Yom Kippur I posted my essay on Jonah called ‘Lessons from a Fish’(read it here). This year on Rosh Hashanah I have been struggling with what to write about. There’s so much one can pick from that I was finding it hard to focus. It seems, however, I can not stray far from the same message I wrote about last year – caring for people who are different, primarily our Muslim neighbors.

The Torah portion for Rosh Hashanah includes the story of Abraham making a truce with Abimelech, the King of the Philistines. For those who do not know the background, the Philistines are the ancestors of the Palestinians; Palestine and Palestinian are what the Roman’s called the Philistines. The story of Abraham and Abimelech comes after the story of Hagar and Ishmael being kicked out (this is also part of the Torah portion for Rosh Hashanah) where G-d tells Abraham basically not to worry that Ishmael’s children will also become a nation because Ishmael, like Isaac, is a son of Abraham. Ishmael’s descendants are the Semitic peoples of the Middle East commonly referred to as ‘Arabs’ - I try to refrain from this label as it implies a connection to Saudi Arabia and MOST Middle Easterners are NOT from Saudi Arabia.

So where am I going with this? Well lets start with the 1st story – that of Ishmael and Hagar. Ishmael is the father of Islam. What pains me the most about Jewish anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rants is that we (and I use we because whether I like it or not we are all counted among the numbers and responsible for how as a group are viewed) are raging against our FAMILY. One of the most pervasive ideologies of Judaism is the importance of the Family. I find it very hard to be represented by people who are so blind when it comes to our reality. This is our reality – all people of Semitic background are related – G-d says so! We are all family and we need to look TO one another and look AT one another in this way. Until we are able to truly embrace what our G-d has said to us in his own words we will never know what it is to have Peace. We are a warring household, perhaps the perspective we need is to see ourselves as such. So far just being democratic and trying to recognize each others right to ‘exist’ and right to ‘be’ isn’t working – on BOTH sides.

The 2nd story proves to both the Jewish people and the Philistines/Palestinians that we have had peace once before, we can have it again. I won’t even begin to pretend that I know the solution to the problems in Israel. We read this Torah portion EVERY YEAR on Rosh Hashanah how is it that we have yet to try and renew this peace? How is it that we can casually let this slide by in our minds and not actually sit and think about what is being relayed to us by G-d in this Torah portion? Could it possibly be that this isn’t just a filler story but it is G-d trying to send us a message?
I understand that in Judaism the most important part of this Torah portion is the ‘Binding of Isaac’ and from this many things begin in Judaism and that’s fine I won’t deny it’s a pretty important part of the story of the Jews but maybe for once we can pay more attention to the story of the peace, between the Philistines and the Jews, and if we can grow from it and learn from it, from here on the Torah portion can have 2 important events for the Jews instead of the one.
In years to come we can recount how it was that like our Ancestors Abraham and Abimelech the Jews and the Philistines were able to live peaceably with one another and on Rosh Hashanah we celebrate this with a New Year of life and a New Year of Peace for all of G-d’s children.

I sometimes worry that as Jews we’re too busy only looking inward and not really looking around. It really isn’t all about us. In Judaism we call this Particularism – where we only focus on the Jewish community verses Universalism where we focus on the entire world as a community that we are a part of.
I would like for us as Jews to really pay attention this year to what is really being told to us in the Torah. Consider every story – there’s a lot of not so fun stuff in there. My future in-law mentioned to me the anger he feels about how Islam is a religion of war and preaches such, I kept my mouth shut but what I wanted to say to this was, Judaism isn’t no Saint of a religion its self! We took what we wanted because G-d said it belonged to us, and we killed a lot of people on the way. We are STILL doing this to this day. People who are for all tense and purpose our FAMILY.
And this is what I mean when I say read the stories and really digest each and every one, BIG and small. They are all important because they are ALL the word of G-d. You’ll learn more then you thought would be in there. Maybe if we all did this, something THIS YEAR, this Shana Tova, this New Year of Life, things might actually change for us and the world we share.

As a side note: I find it very interesting that Both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur mention instances where G-d points out that it is important for us to care for our Muslim friends and discusses peace with them as well as showing that we are family. There are many directions one can go with this and why/how it relates to these holidays in particular but I’ll let your mind do that walking…