|
|
||
HOME
|
|
Marcel Mooring's
Our Sefer Book Group recently discussed Marcel Mooring's fascinating novel, In Babylon, the story of a Dutch Jewish family and its journey through history. The protagonist of the narrative is a fairy-tale writer, and in the course of the book he retells some classic Jewish stories in fresh and different ways. The finest of these reworked fables is credited to Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotsk, the Kotsker Rebbe, renowned both for his learning and his profound insight into the human condition. It seems that the Kotsker chose at one point in his life to withdraw from the community he led, and to become a hermit in his own house. The demands of his congregation had become too much for him, and he spent his time in one room, studying and writing, never emerging to deal with his people. One day, after ten years of his self-imposed isolation, two baa'lei batim, two members of his community came to him with a dispute that absolutely needed to be judged. Shloime was a tanner of hides, which meant that he continually stank from the vile work from which he made his living. The other man, Yankel, had insulted him for the way he smelled, and a vicious feud had developed. Yankel had his own problems: he was a poor cattle trader who could barely put food on the table at home. In the normal course of events the two men could have simply gone on hating each other, but their children had the misfortune to fall in love, and they needed their rabbi's help. And so they came to the Kotsker Rebbe, banged loudly and repeatedly on his door and forced him out of his isolation to resolve their dispute. "Do you know the tale of the holy goat?" Menachem Mendel asked Shloime and Yankel. "It is a goat whose horns give off the most wonderful scent of all, the smell of the Land of Israel, a perfume that makes everything, no matter how foul, smell wholesome and sweet and irresistible. When it becomes known that the goat's horn has this quality, people begin to seek it out, ask to cut a bit of its horn to use. And the goat agrees--after all, what's a little bit of horn? "Soon, everyone wants a bit of this magical horn. Finally, the goat gives away the last of its horn, and has none left. And the world, sadly, returns unfulfilled and smelling as it always has. "I am that holy goat," their rabbi continued. "You have cut off the last of my horn. I have nothing left to give you. But the truth is that it was never the horn that had that quality of scent. It was something else. "What do you smell when you are near Shloime, Yankel? You smell the stench of hides tanning, the worst smell in the world. But that is not his true essence. The real smell of Shloime is the smell of his soul, which is pure and wholesome and touched with cinnamon and cloves. To smell that, you must close your eyes and ears and nose and mind, let your heart open. And when you do that, you will know the true essence of the man--and you will learn to love him." And with that, the Kotsker closed the door in their faces. Startled, chastened, the two men went to their separate homes. But the feud was over, their children married and were extravagantly happy together. Is there a dispute you have not resolved in your own life? A conflict, a disagreement, a grudge you bear? Perhaps in this bright season of spring you can take time to seek the true scent of that person's soul. A Word About Israel and America There is an ancient Chinese curse--or is it a Yiddish aphorism?--that states "May you live in interesting times." After all, when things are going well, times are usually pretty uneventful, with life going along smoothly. But in interesting times it's a different story... Alas, as Jews and Americans, we live in interesting times. While America is engaged in a very public war on terrorism, Israel has been dragged into a terrible war that may, ultimately, prove to be about survival. There is a great effort being made in the Jewish world to establish the connectedness of the two fights, to convince the world that the very publicly declared United States "War on Terror" and the undeclared Israeli-Palestinian war are one and the same. Is it warranted? Are these two theaters of the same war? Yes and no. It is true that Palestinian Arabs use the same terror tactics that Al-Quaida used on the World Trade Center last September, and that attacking innocent civilians in horrific and deadly ways has long been a signature of Palestinian "activists" and "militants", including many closely tied to Yasir Arafat. It is true that Palestinian and Al-Quaida terrorists both use suicidal means to kill citizens, men, women, and children. It is also true that a virulent hatred of western ways of life, including such "alien" concepts as democracy and the equality of women, is shared by Osama bin Laden and Hamas. But it wouldn't be entirely correct to say that both wars are wars of western civilization against those who wish to destroy it. That is what bin Laden and his allies wish to do. But most Palestinians wish simply to destroy Israel, and to kill Jews--and they also want to establish a full state of their own, preferably on as much of the land of Israel as they can lay claim to. Further, after the horrors of September 11th, the fighting in the War on Terror has taken place half a world away, and the main disruption for Americans has been the indignity of airport searches and the minor inconvenience of delays for security purposes. In Israel the disturbance of daily life is much more profound, and the attacks have occurred in many people's own neighborhoods. Finally, there is a difference in what is at stake for America and Israel in these fights. For the U.S. there is a very real sense that if we fail we will be subject to the threat of continued terror attacks. This is a frightening prospect. But for Israel there is the reality of an ongoing war with a large, close, and profoundly--if wrongly--motivated enemy. For political reasons it may be wise to make public pronouncements about the similarity and relatedness of the two wars. But amongst ourselves we ought to agree that there are significant differences, and that the specific and bellicose language that has helped unify America in its own struggle probably is inappropriate to a more complex, and much more difficult, set of conditions in Israel. Perhaps the United States, working internationally with allies, can truly "root out" terrorists everywhere in the world, and make this morally abominable and universally criminal behavior an item of past history. But it is not likely that Israel can do the same to the more than 2 million Palestinians living alongside, and within, its borders. We pray, in this very interesting time, to come again to an era of understanding in our troubled world. It will take some of God' s intervention to bring success to American efforts--and it will certainly take a good deal more to bring peace to Israel. But as Golda Meir once said, "We are Jews. We count on miracles." May we be the beneficiaries of some, speedily and soon. L'shalom v'rei'ut, in peace and friendship, |
