Hello everyone and welcome once again to the
Temple Institute Parsha class. My name is Gedalia Meyer and I am podcasting
from Maale Adumim in Israel. The war has entered its second month with
no firm end in sight. Israel s goal is clear - to eliminate Hamas
as a real threat in the near future. How that plays out in the ultimate reshaping
of the Gaza Strip is anybody s guess. Meanwhile, things are unfolding both in Gaza
and around the world like the moves of two chessmasters whose endgame positions were
determined early in the match. There is only so much flexibility once things
are set in motion. One thing has become clear to all who choose
to recognize it. This is not a dispute over land rights. That idea has been floating around western
liberal society for decades. It is almost mandatory in intellectual circles
such as university settings. The reason for this is obvious- it presents
a possible solution. Find the right division of the land and the
problem is solved. The so-called two-state solution is the royal
road to peace in this region, and anybody who contests it is deemed not only ignorant
but evil. The only problem with it is that the Palestians
and their backers have never accepted it in any shape or form. From day one they rejected it out of hand. This has always puzzled western political
and academic types to the point that they have been left with no choice but to ignore
it altogether. It simply does not fit into their paradigm
so it must be discarded. But there it is right in front of us. The Hamas spokespeople and many of their backers
in the west say it straight out with no attempt at concealing things. They are not interested in a Palestinian state,
either in Gaza or anywhere else. They have one goal only - the destruction
of Israel as a Jewish state. Everything else is secondary. This has always been their single goal, regardless
of any well-meaning outside ideas to gloss things over and make them into just one more
dispute over land. If one were to ask why this is the case, the
answers might vary. Some might say its a matter of ethnic pride. Others might put certain historical factors
in going back to the 19th century, such as immigration movements and colonization. Still others might call it a clash of civilizations
, with this inevitable and irreconcilable conflict the result. But all this ignores the elephant in the room
- religion. Religion has always determined the fate of
this region since its history was first recorded. It saw the origins of monotheism in the form
of the ancient Israelite religion and its battle with polytheistic paganism. It witnessed the development of Judaism from
that ancient religion. It then fostered the birth of Christianity
as a direct byproduct of messianic Judaism. It saw both religions evolve until they reached
forms resembling what they are today. It also was one of the earliest arenas for
the spread of Islam out of the Arabian peninsula. In 638 they arrived here and conquered the
land, thus establishing it forever as part of the Dar al-Islam - the Islamic world. The centuries wore on, watching Crusaders
come and go in a fruitless attempt to bring the Holy Land back into the Christian world. The Muslims outlasted the Crusaders but the
land returned once again to the dormant and backwater state it had gradually assumed since
the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem 1200 years earlier. As the decades and centuries went on, the
Holy Land was forgotten, until the Jews started to make their way back in the late 19th century. It was under the Turks then, but that ended
with the first world war. Then the British took over for 30 years, overseeing
a seething cauldron of ethnic tensions as Jews and Arabs struggled to gain a firmer
foothold in what was increasingly seen as a land of religious destiny. It all culminated in an gallant attempt by
the newly formed United Nations to divide the land between the two groups, which was
followed by the war of 1948, the birth of modern Israel, and the Arab nakba, or exile. Periodic wars throughout the second half of
the 20th century achieved nothing but further cementing Israel s military and political
position and Palestinian resentment at having lost what belonged to Islam. The first two decades of the 21st saw more
of this and further solidified the idea that there was no resolution to this conflict. Which brings us to where we are today. This week s Parsha is called Hayei Sarah,
meaning the Life of Sarah . Ironically, it begins by speaking of her death, at the grand
old age of 127. Her burial in the cave in Hebron purchased
by Avraham from a local Hittite named Ephron takes up the first section of the Parsha. This became known as the Cave of the Patriarchs
, and remains to this day one of the most sacred sights in Israel to both Jews and Muslims. Following this is the sequence of events that
takes up the bulk of the Parsha - the mission and journey of Elierzer, the servant of Avraham,
back to Mesopotamia to find a wife for Avraham s son, Isaac. Avraham tells his servant that he must find
a wife for Isaac from his family who still live there. The girl must be brought back to where Isaac
lives, and not the other way around. If no suitable candidate can be found there,
Isaac would not be allowed to marry into any of the families of the local Canaanites. There were a lot of deal breakers in this
mission, and Eliezer was highly limited in what he could do. In the end he finds the suitable girl, Rivka,
at the classic Biblical location of a well. In the course of a monologue between Eliezer
and God, a dialogue between Eliezer and Rivka, and a trialogue between Eliezer, Rivka s father,
Betuel, and her brother Lavan, the matter becomes settled. Rivka is determined to be the appropriate
bride for Isaac and she insists on setting out immediately to marry him. The long journey back is described just as
briefly as the long journey there. What mattered was the interplay between all
of the protagonists. In the end. Rivka becomes the next matriarch in the family
of Avraham, a worthy replacement for Sarah, the mother-in-law she never met. The Parsha closes with the final years of
Avraham and his ultimate death. He marries another woman in his old age, one
name Keturah. He even has several sons through her, but
he gives everything he has to Isaac. He sends his other sons off to some distant
area to the east with certain gifts , which are left mysteriously vague. The final verses of the Parsha deal with the
genealogy of Yishmael, the oldest son of Avraham through his maid and then wife, Hagar. Yishmael, we are told, lived to the age of
137 and sired 12 sons, each of whom became a tribal leader. The final verse of the Pasha states, They
dwelt from Havilah until Shur which faces Egypt, all the way towards Syria. In the presence of all of his brothers he
fell . This final verse is a bit of a puzzle. What is the meaning of the phrase in the presence
of all of his brothers he fell ? Is this a way of saying he dwelt among them, or is it
saying that he was in conflict with them. The text is tantalyzingly vague on this point. This was the Biblical origins of the Ishmaelites,
who became associated with the entire Arab nation, and then, to some degree, with the
Muslims. In other words, this was a foundational event
in human history, and certainly a watershed moment in the history of the middle east. Whether the Arabs, who emerged out of the
Arabian peninsula, are truly descended from Yishamel, whose descendants settled between
Egypt and Syria, is anybody s guess. But that is certainly the way the religious
traditions of both the Jews and the Muslims have taken things. There is a fascinating section of the foundation
work of Jewish mysticism, the Zohar, which deals with the intertwining of the fate of
the Holy Land with that of the descendants of Yishmael. This passage states that some sort of guardian
angel of Yishmael came before God with the complaint that Yishamel had never been adequately
compensated for his acceptance of the Abrahamic practice of circumcision, which was performed
on Yishmael at the age of 13. The response is that Yishmael s descendants
delay their circumcision long beyond the mandated period of 8 days. But the complaint is still there, Yishmael
was never rewarded for his participation in this practice, delayed or not. The decree is that Yishmael would receive
his reward in the form of control over the Holy Land for a long period. However, the state of the land under his dominion
would be empty of everything, just as his acceptance of the commandment of circumcision
was devoid of any sense of spiritual perfection. They would, nevertheless, prevent the Israelites
from returning to their place in the land, until the fulfillment of the reward of Yishamal
s descendants for their acceptance of circumcision. It is left unclear how in the Zohar how long
this was to be. Certain Jewish interpretations of this text
claim that the period was to be 1300 years, with a century corresponding to each year
of Yishamel s life prior to circumcision. Whether this interpretation is truly justified
is up in the air, but it does result in a rather remarkable historical coincidence. The period of Islamic dominance in the Holy
Land, with small gaps, was from about 638 to 1948, a period of about 1300 years. This uncanny number seems to emerge right
out of those cryptic words in the Zohar, if one is willing to read it there. How this could be in a book recorded in the
13th century is a bit of a mystery. But, then again, everything about the Zohar
is a bit of a mystery. One thing that comes from all this is that
the Zohar saw the Muslim domination of this land strictly as a matter of religious practice
and belief. This was all due to Yishmael s acceptance
of circumcision, the foundational ritual of Judaism. Yishamel s complaint was that they had never
received their adequate reward for this, and the result of that complaint was their control
over this land. It was to be, however, empty of everything. It is one of the great ironies of history
that the long period of Islamic control of Israel saw almost no social or agricultural
development. The land was a desert for most of that time. With the return of the Jews after about 1300
years of Islamic control, everything changed. Almost instantly the land returned to its
fruitful and productive state. This is not a dispute of borders and land. This is a matter of ancient claims of religious
priority. It is difficult for the western mind to see
this and even more difficult to accept it. But it is there for all to see. Hamas agrees with this in principle, but disagrees
with who should have control. Perhaps it is best if a religious matter be
settled by religious means. Perhaps this is what is going on as we speak. Shabbat Shalom!