podcast #63: Parashat Metzora

Shlomo apologizes for badmouthing Pesach and realizes that it's just spring cleaning, not the holiday's fault. They discuss the challenge of maintaining the spirit of rejoicing during the Seder given the current situation of hostages and ongoing war. They talk about the recent missile attack from Iran and the interception of the missiles by Israel's Arrow system. They express gratitude for technology but emphasize that true resilience comes from the human spirit and Jewish values. They discuss the clash of values between Western and non-Western cultures and the need to avoid hate and prejudice while fighting the war. Shalom, Shlomo. Shalom, Elisha. We have a very important guest here. English. Oh, that's right, we're in English. That's right, that's right. So we have a special guest here this morning, Shlomo's grandson, who's sitting here and controlling all the buttons and the knobs and everything. So we're free to discuss Torah. Indeed, and I want to begin with a public apology, Elisha. In the past, I've been known to badmouth Pesach. Pesach, the holiday of slavery, when we men go into slavery to do house cleaning. And I blamed it on Pesach, and it was a big mistake, Elisha. And after 81 years, I realized my error. Elisha, it's spring cleaning, okay? Once a year you clean the house, right? And Pesach is not to blame, really not. So Pesach, sorry, I apologize, I got it wrong. And thanks to Ezra here, who's 12 years old, and a powerful worker, an expert on vacuum cleaners, we've done a great deal of house cleaning already. And as I mentioned in the last podcast, we'll be able to go away for the Shabbat. So from now on you're going to be hating the spring, is that what you hate? Exactly, that's exactly right. And of course, it's Shabbat HaGadol, just before Pesach. But let me begin, I have a lot of hard questions for you, Elisha. Let me start with a really tough one. The Seder is a joyous gathering. We gather the family, the kids, the elderly. We sing, we laugh. This year is different. This year is different. We have hostages. We have enemies. We have a war that hasn't ended yet. And the question is, Elisha, how do we properly relate to the Haggadah and to the Seder to maintain the spirit of rejoicing and to recognize with dignity the situation that our hostages and our people are in? How do we do it? Yeah, I don't know if there's a clear answer. But I think that, first of all, it's a tough one. It's certainly a tough one. And everybody's going to feel whatever they feel. There's a heaviness in the air, although it's important to say we've just emerged out of a very scary moment, a very scary night in which, remember, on Motzei Shabbat at 10 o'clock at night, we were informed by all the news channels saying the missiles had been launched. It was surreal. It was really surreal. We went to bed. Those who could fall asleep went to bed informed that the missiles had been launched from Iran. The missiles and all the other flying things that they sent over. And then we went to sleep knowing that in a few hours we were going to be bombarded. And the following morning we all woke up. For those who slept, we woke up and a huge sense of relief and almost a miracle that together with our allies we were able to ward off all the missiles and all the katabamim. What's katabamim in English? Unmanned aircraft or a drone. A drone, right, a drone. So that was pretty remarkable. So that really changed the atmosphere in Israel. We still have 133 hostages. Many are not alive, but some are. We don't know how many are alive. And yet this shows you how relative everything is. All of a sudden we feel a lot better now that this big disaster was evaded. And yet Israel is now planning to retaliate. How is that going to play itself out? Who knows? By the time Pesach comes in, maybe this podcast is going to be totally irrelevant. But I guess it is relevant because that's what life is like, not only in the Middle East. But life in general is always precarious and things happen. So I'm preparing a class for tonight. A class where our men's club is meeting tonight. And the theme tonight is The Darkest Hour is Just Before Dawn. That's the theme. It's from the song from the Mamas and Papas, but also an Israeli song. It kind of says the same thing. And I think that the feeling I'm going to be taking into Pesach is exactly that. That the darkest hour is just before dawn. And we are just before dawn. And the Hebrew word for dawn is shachal. And shachal comes from the word shacho, black, dark. Really, really dark. So why is it dark? Because it's so dark that even the stars are already unseen. And therefore it's the darkest hour, just before dawn. And what it means is What it means is, if we are at the darkest hour, and hopefully it's not going to get that much darker, but if we are at the darkest hour, then we know what's coming next. Dawn. Dawn is about to shine. And I'm looking forward to that dawn. So if we go into the Pesach seder knowing its darkness, period, then it's a message of no hope. But if we know it's the darkest hour just before dawn, and if we believe in it, if we buy into it, if one doesn't believe in it, then obviously this whole message is useless. But I do believe in it. I really do believe that after the darkness, a new light shines. And it always does. Always, always does. Let me recall something Churchill said about Britain, his wonderful speeches. I'll mention them a little later. He said that the people of Britain are as sound as the sea is salt. And I feel that way about the people of Israel, and the Jewish people in general, and I want to mention one name, Elisha. So the Iranians fired ballistic missiles at Israel. These are fearsome weapons, and they carry half a ton of explosives, and if they land, when they land, they do enormous damage. A few of them landed relatively harmlessly near Navatim, which is an Israeli air base. That was the target of all the ballistic missiles. They wanted to destroy Navatim, because that's where the F-35 planes came from that have done major damage to the Iranians. The interception of the Iranian missiles, miraculously, was done by a system called Arrow, Arrow 2 and Arrow 3. In the year 2000, that's almost 25 years ago, 24 years ago, a Technion graduate woman, Inbal Kreis, became head of the project, the Arrow project for Israel Aerospace, then Israel Aircraft Industries. They worked on this for 25 years, Elisha, to intercept a ballistic missile traveling eight times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere, long before it ever came close to Israel, well over Iraq and Jordan, and to intercept them with such high accuracy is amazing. This young lady directed the project, Inbal Kreis. I wanted to mention her name, and there were many Inbal Kreises, men and women, not just Technion graduates. We are a tiny country. We are a people of nine million. Iran is 85 million people, but they're greatly outnumbered, Elisha. They really are. Yeah, it's beautiful you give her credit. I did not know that. I know about the Hetz 2 and the Hetz 3, but I wasn't aware. First of all, I find it amazing that it's a woman who brought this technology about, something we should be really proud of, and yes, indeed. So here we have something to be grateful for, but I want to add a little caveat. I'm really weary of placing my joy in the hands of technology, because technology is great. Technology is really amazing, and Israel is a giant of technology, and the example of the Hetz is a great example, and I'm thankful to all those engineers who created that. I just want to be sure that we know that our victory will never, our real true victory is not going to be thanks to technology. That's what actually brought us down on October 7th. We trusted technology to stop Hamas, and we gave up on other human abilities. So the resilience is not going to come from technology. The resilience is going to come from us, from within, from the human spirit, from the Israeli-Jewish human spirit, and yet I'm thankful for technology. That's why on Sunday morning when I woke up, because I did sleep at night, I did trust our pilots and all this technology. I certainly did trust that, and I trusted also the help we were getting from other countries. But my joy was not full only because if that was going to make us rejoice, great technology. So I love the fact that the Israeli pilots are incredible pilots. That is a combination of the human ability and technology combined. So I'm still looking for the human spirit, for the divine spirit within the human being. Agreed. And with that we're going to go to Pesach. With that we're going to Pesach, and that will also help us eat the bitter herbs. I agree. And Elisha, technology will help, but in the end it will be our values, our Jewish values that prevail. I've written a column, I write a column every issue of Jerusalem Report, and the latest column is called The New World Disorder, Clash of Values. And it's about the fact that we are not fighting Hamas, we are fighting an alien, terrible set of values, and it's a clash between Western and non-Western values. And it's very painful, Elisha, I want to raise this issue with you. So there's a wonderful rabbi in California, in Los Angeles, in the valley, Rabbi Stuart Vogel. He's head of Hamakom, and it's a great community. It collaborates with Muslims. There are a growing number of Muslims in the area. It became famous because they rented their shul to the Muslims on Friday, and some of the congregants were very unhappy about it. And they still remain friendly. It's been strained because of the Gaza War, obviously. This is what Rabbi Vogel writes in Jerusalem Report, quoted in Jerusalem Report. While the pain stemming from October 7th, that is Israeli pain, is real and valid, it should never justify the expression of hate or prejudice. The transformation of hurt into hate, especially when it manifests as anti-Muslim sentiment, contradicts the core values of empathy, understanding, and respect. So Elisha, the rabbi has captured in a few words the anguish many of our own family in America, who are liberal, empathetic, sympathetic, caring people. The anguish they feel over the harm that has been done to Israel and the harm that we have done to the people of Gaza. How do we deal with this, Elisha, and how do we respond to Rabbi Vogel that we should not justify hate or prejudice? Do we have hate or prejudice? And how do we prosecute this terrible war where nations fire rockets at our people and yet we need to fight them without hate, without prejudice? At a time when the perversion of Islamic values, and I'll explain this in a moment, the word jihad, the word shaheed, these are words that are twisted from the Koran and it's possible to prove it. How do we deal with a battle of values, not just a battle of soldiers, a battle of values between Western values, Jewish values, Western values are Jewish values because the Torah originated them, and values of some twisted people in Islam that are totally alien. We worship life. We foster life. They seem to foster death. How do we deal with this, and what do we say to our Americans, what do we say to Rabbi Vogel? Yeah, I think the issue, if I'm correct, and I have to be very, very careful here because it is also parashate mitzvah, and we know that mitzvah is someone who exerts evil, and I don't want to err in producing more evil, but I think the big issue, the big dispute around Maqom and Rabbi Vogel, and I'm sure he wasn't connected, he's an amazing, amazing man and a great rabbi, is that in order not to hurt the feelings of Islam, at least that's what came out in the press, in the media, and we know that the press and the media are not always correct. Very often they create a hype. The pictures of the hostages were covered when the synagogue was rented out to the Muslims in order not to hurt the feelings of the Muslims who came to pray there, and that is, in my humble opinion, that is outrageous. If that is true, and I still want to hope that it's not true. It is true. It is true. And I think it was a terrible mistake, and I think those who were responsible for it were fired, if I'm not mistaken. But that's horrific, but now I understand from what you're saying here, the quote, that it's not a coincidence this mistake happened. When we are so concerned about the feelings of the other, of our foe, of our enemy, and his or her, their well-being, then we basically, we need to know that there's a time where we have to be able to defend ourselves. And going out to war, going out to war is a horrible act. War is a terrible thing. For a soldier to have to kill another soldier, I'm not talking about civilians, take a life of another person, is a tragedy. It's terrible. And yet, there are times when you need to do that. Now, unfortunately, you cannot go out to war from a place of deep love. When you go out to war, the energy that backs you into battle is different. It's other than love, or at least, if you could go in with the love of your own people, the people that you love, you want to protect, and it's so easy to be distant from here, far away, in Los Angeles, and have these beautiful, beautiful values, which we all love. We love these values. But those values, in Hebrew, values are called midot. Midot means that there is an, there is, midah is like an extent, or a measurement. A midah could be very accurate, a value could be very accurate, in a certain context, and totally misguided, and inaccurate, inappropriate, and even dangerous, in a different context. To come with an embrace to someone who wants to stab you, is totally inappropriate, is wrong, and I think is morally also wrong. There are times to stretch, to reach out lovingly towards a foe. There are times to do that, for sure. And that could sometimes really melt away, a lot of animosity, for sure. But that's not the case here. It's not, it's certainly not the case. I think that the West, is really failing to understand, the situation here. The clash of values that you're talking about, and it's a very unfortunate failure. I'm hearing it in our Keilah as well. There's a real deep misunderstanding, of what we're facing. I agree, and Alicia, it's not the first time. So I've been reading some history, 1938, and Churchill, Chamberlain comes back from his travels, and declares peace in our time, and Britain and France, decide to pacify the Nazis. The Nazis clobber Czechoslovakia, destroy it, and the historians say that, had the British and the French, mobilized the European nations, and then brought the Soviets in, they could have stopped the Nazis, before this terrible war. This war killed millions, and millions of people, and the West woke up very late. America woke up only after December 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. It took Americans a long time, and even then they were very slow. So the West is asleep, Alicia, we in Israel, happen to be right at the front line, us. And I'm sad, that even in Israel, there are many people, but mostly abroad, and Jews as well, who don't understand this clash of values, and that if we continue to appease values, that worship death, it's going to be much harder in the future, to overcome it. We Jews have been given the job, the primary job, of standing in the front line, against these murderous people. And it's not pretty. It's not pretty. It's not Mother Teresa's territory. Right, and it's very hard for us Jews. We're based, our core values are values of peace, are values of coexistence. We've been a minority among the nations, for 2,000 years, and so we know, what it's like to be a minority, etc. And Jews have a really difficult time, being the villain, and being strong, and being, and they're not quite used to it. So, to be able to go out to war, with the values that Rabbi Vogel, is mentioning here, you unfortunately don't win the battle this way. Now, it doesn't mean that the alternative is hate. It's not about hate. It's about anger. And it's okay to be angry. And it's okay to be very, very angry, because it's anger sometimes, that fends off an intruder. And if you're never angry, and if you turn the other cheek, then we know how that might end. So, Elisha, on a lighter note, reading your wonderful drashah, it's from your book, a Hebrew collection of your drashot, called Ayeka. And there's an amazing passage in Boldface, it's in Hebrew, I'm going to roughly translate it, that it's incumbent upon us, or it occurs, that we are torn between two forces, the force of distancing, and the force of longing, coming closer. The force of distancing is the force of existence. And the force of longing, of coming closer, is the force of infinity. The opposite of finite, infinity. And these two forces are almost balanced, but not exactly. In general, according to scientific theory, the force of coming close, and getting farther, the force of distancing, is stronger, somewhat. And this is an amazing passage, Elisha, because it's based on Torah, not on the drashah. But it also is based on the latest theory in cosmology, that we had the Big Bang, and the Big Bang scattered our universe, and according to the Big Bang, and according to physics, according to all of what we know, the force of hitakansut, coming closer, should be more powerful, because as things go apart, and get farther and farther apart, the force of gravity declines. So the universe should be slowing down. And then an astronomer, named Halle, discovered, whoops, it's not happening. The universe is expanding at a faster and faster rate. It can't be. Physics must be wrong. The only explanation is, there's stuff out there, Elisha, dark matter and dark energy, that we don't know about. We can't see it. It doesn't interact with light. We can't see it, or test whether it's there or not. So the forces of expansion are stronger at the moment. We don't know what's going to happen. There's new theories about dark matter. But what's fascinating to me is, that our human society is exactly the same way. Forces that are driving us apart, as we see now, the clash of values, Western values and Islamic values, and forces that are bringing us together, human values, human love, human friendship, human brotherhood. And these two forces, as you say, are pretty much in balance. And from time to time, they become imbalanced, as now. And we see that values are driving the world apart. The world is dividing up into two teams. Western values, that's America and Europe, and non-Western values, China, Iran, and Russia. So, yes, this is something to consider. This particular time is a time when the clash of values seems to be much stronger to drive people apart than bring us together. But we need to remember, and this is from the Torah, and we have a quote from this as well, we are all brothers. We are all human beings. We share the desire to live and raise our children. And these are forces that should bring us together, hopefully, one day when this terrible conflict ends. Right, and meanwhile, until that happens, is not to fear the forces of distancing. That there are times, like Ecclesiastes says, King Solomon says, there are times to draw further away, and there are times to draw nearer. And that's the yin and yang of human existence. And if we're constantly seeking just to draw close, then we are actually endangering existence. And that's what I was trying to say in the Dersha. I want to comment for a moment about forces driving us apart. And as Rabbi Vogel says, the need not to dislike Islam. Elisha, you studied Islam. You studied the Qur'an. You have a Hebrew Qur'an here. And I studied it actually in Arabic, which is a beautiful language. So, in the Qur'an, the word Jihad appears. It appears as Jihad Fi Sabil, which means struggle or striving for the sake of God. Jihad means to struggle for the sake of God. It's mentioned 41 times in the Qur'an. It's mentioned in three contexts. Jihad means to live your faith. Living your faith is a struggle. Who knows that better than we Jews? The second is building a good Muslim society. Struggle for God. The third way it's mentioned, very briefly and very, very few times out of the 41, is to defend Islam. When people attack Islam, Jihad means to defend it vigorously as we Jews defend our country and our values. These Jihadi groups, Elisha, have distorted their holy book entirely. And I think that the vivid illustration of this is an amazing photograph won a prize. It's a picture of Iranian ballistic missiles exploding way up in the atmosphere above Al-Aqsa, above Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. These ballistic missiles, they could have fallen anywhere, including on the most holy place, the second most holy place, for Islam. The fanatical interpretation of Islam, especially Shia Islam. Shia Islam is 10% of the 2 billion Muslims. There are 200 million Shia Islams. They follow the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. He's been the leader of Iran since 1989, 35 years. He's 85 years old. He's the guy who ordered the attack. He decides everything. He leads the Revolutionary Guards. They're his baby. It's beyond belief that we are facing an aging cleric in the name of his religion as a religious leader who sends missiles on Israel. Good heavens. Right. Your grandson is giving us a sign that we have two minutes left. You raise a lot of issues here. It's certainly a dark hour and a dark time. All that's left I'm trying to think how do we bring this all together? How do we tie it all together? First of all, I think really recognizing that there's evil in the world that we're facing. We're facing evil and not to be in denial about it. Even though we love to be loving, there are times that it's okay to be angry. There are times to say, no, this is unacceptable. We're not willing to accept this. We disagree with these values. For us at least here in Israel to know that even while our Jewish brothers and sisters elsewhere may not understand truly what's going on here and the essence of the conflict of these values that we still need to hold steadfast and recognize that there are times in life where you're called upon to stand up and fight for your cause. While no one else, no one will accept it or recognize it. It's not exactly a very positive message to end our podcast with but I think that if we remember the darkest hour is just before dawn then Pesach may be a start of a whole new dawn, a whole new era. And as we mark Shabbat HaGadol, Elisha, the reason it's called Shabbat HaGadol not Shabbat HaGdola is because it is the Shabbat that signals Geula, the Shabbat that began the Exodus from Egypt and in general a Shabbat that promises us redemption and we face, I believe, Geula at this moment at a very dark point in our history and in the world's history it's uphill. We are moving toward Geula and Geula is really painful but it will come. It's going to be all about the pain of Geula, the pain of redemption. It's like with birth, when a baby is born there is a lot of pain and there's blood and there's water and everything is torn but then new life comes into the world. Amen. So Shabbat Shalom and it looks like we're not going to be having a podcast before Pesach so Chag Sameach at the darkest hour, just before dawn. Amen.