Sermon: Bechukkotai – A Covenantal Solution for Israel

Written by Writings & Sermons by others — 31 May 2016

On Monday night this week I was in Israel in Tel Aviv having just finished the Annual meeting of an Israeli/British charity of which I am a trustee. The sun was going down over the beach and the Mediterranean and I popped on my running gear. I ran for a few kilometres along the beachside promenade from Tel Aviv to Jaffa and beyond.  It felt blissful – Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs out for evening walks. Strolling peacefully. The beauty of the sunset, the arty entrepreneurship of Jaffa, the warm wind and feeling of peace and safety.

Then back here at Alyth on Thursday we heard Aryeh Green speaking about Israel as the start-up nation. His presentation was impressive – record breaking levels of investment in Israel, more Israeli companies listed on the American stock exchanges than any country but China and Canada, incredible achievements in High tech research and development and entrepreneurship meaning that so many Israeli companies have become international success. He provided example after example of Israeli success in computing hardware and software, telephony, consumer electronics, medical innovation, green tech and agri tech.

He explained why it is thought by business academics that Israel is so disproportionately successful in today’s business climate: its informality, the tendency to take risks, a tolerance for failure so if it goes wrong you try again, the pioneering ethos, the openness to immigration and the skills and energy that brings, the international networks of Israelis giving access to capital, the global perspective of even the smallest companies and even the smallness of Israel meaning that people can easily travel to meet each other.

It was all of the blessings of our Torah portion today turned into today’s technology – for threshing lasting into the vintage read your IPO will succeed on the stock market, for trees of the field shall yield their fruit read your start-up will be bought by Google.

This is the good news about Israel but the blessing of peace from our portion remains as elusive as ever. Rabbi Marc Rosenstein, recently retired Director of the Israel Rabbinic Programme at our Reform Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, is adamant that peace is simply not coming until the Jewish people sorts out how it wants Israel to be a democratic Jewish state.  He says that the roots of this are in the covenantal relationship of Israel with God and with its neighbours as we hear in the Torah today. (CCAR Journal Spring 2016 – Towards a Vision of a Democratic Jewish State).

First he says that we have to recognise that Jews are a nation, more than a religion, defined like this: We have a shared culture that encompasses many important aspects of life, a sense of historical continuity and a commitment to transmitting the culture to succeeding generation, a consciousness of identity – members know that are members and they recognise other members, we belong unconditionally and the Jewish people is of sufficient size that identity is determined by these characteristics and not just by personal ties. All of these apply to Palestinians too. It means that suppression of one nation by the other whichever way round is always going to be unjust and inevitably fought back against.

Since we are so obviously aiming to establish and sustain our nationhoods in the same area of land we are going to have to find a way to do so which does not significantly infringe on the individual freedoms of either Israelis or Palestinians, does not stop Jews or Arabs to have the rights to self-determination and does not imply an absolute right to a particular geographic area or a specific set of boundaries.

Rabbi Rosenstein says that there are only two possible solutions to this need: One single sovereign state for Jews and Palestinians with a degree of autonomy and institutions for both – which is a state comprising a federation of two autonomous entities. Can’t be done? It has been in Canada, Belgium, Spain and Switzerland. It doesn’t stop terrorism for ever but basically it works

The other solution is to divide the area claimed by Jews and Palestinians into two states, one for each nation. “In each state one nation and its culture is dominant, however the treaty between the two states specifies in detail the special relationship of each sate to its national “kin” living across the border in terms of immigration rights, cultural ties and economic ties.” Can’t be done? It has been in the states of former Yugoslavia and what was once Czechoslovakia and is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It does not stop disputes for ever but is in the interest of both states to keep the new status quo working.

I look forward to two states being the way this happens, because I cannot see a single federated state working for two peoples with such different cultural norms, ways of working and aspirations. I agree with Rabbi Rosenstein that for it to be successful the two states of Israel and Palestine will need quite a list of achievements that seem a long way into the future: agreement on territory, full citizenship for the minority in other’s state (that is Palestinians who live in Israel (as is already the case) and Jews who live in Palestine), each State its cultural institutions and norms, mutual constitution provisions for the cultural needs and democratic representation of the opposite minority (Jews living in Hebron and Palestinians living in Jaffa), open borders, peaceful conflict resolution, access to holy places, laws of return for each other.

Rabbi Rosenstein also writes about how religion might function in a renewed Israel living alongside a state of Palestine. He suggests that Judaism should be the established religion of the state much like it is in the UK. Thus there would be some taxpayer funding for Judaism in Israel, it would be symbolically dominant in the public sphere, like Christianity plays the central role in UK national ceremony, but there would also be guaranteed freedom of and from religion in the state. The state would make living according the Jewish Halachah possible for those who choose it but there would also be a constitution strong enough to guarantee that the majority cannot dominate and that there will always be open and free discourse about religion and national culture.

It would be fair to ask what on earth is a Rabbi speaking about this for? The reason in in our Torah portion for today. The sustainability of Israel is covenantal. Like it says here in Leviticus there is no promise of eternity for the Jewish people whatever we do. There is no moral discount for us which makes survival possible at the cost of our humanity and partnership with God in being a people of justice and compassion. The long term future of the Jewish state if it is actually Jewish is based on the moral values of its institutions and what they do. Otherwise Israel will become disconnected from the Jewish people and all the high tech and economic success and natural beauty will have been for nothing because there will be a state but it won’t be Jewish anymore.

Our covenant with God as the Jewish people is set out in the Book of Leviticus which we complete today. It requires care for the poor, hospitality for the stranger, justice for all without fear or favour, care for the natural environment, education for all and an aim to make peace, high moral standards which do not vary with who you are dealing with. It requires as the golden rule in Leviticus said eight chapters ago “Loving your neighbour as you love yourself”. It means that what we justly and rightly demand for the Jewish people has to be possible for the Palestinian people too.  Speedily in our Days.