Dvar Torah Acharei Mot 5776

Some ideas just can’t get off the ground. Instead they remain some- where over the rainbow. For example, to showcase this year’s Tel Aviv Pride Parade, the Israeli Tourism Ministry had planned to set up an international competition whose winners would be flown to Israel in a plane specially painted in the rainbow gay pride colors. The Tel Aviv Pride Parade is the largestin all of Asia, with nearly 180,000 participants – 30,000 of whom come from overseas. The Israeli LGBT community, however, was not tickled pink by thisidea. They complained that this money could be better directed toward underfunded community & educational organizations rather than toward tourism.

Despite the government’s miscalculation and the continuing struggle of LGBT Israelis for full legal & social equality, Israel is known as the most advanced country in the Middle East (and one on the most advanced in the world) on LGBT rights issues. In many ways gay life is integrated into Israeli society.

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, repealedso-called anti-sodomy laws in 1988, 15 yrs. before the American Supreme Court did the same. Discrimination in employmenthas beenprohibited nationwide since 1992. Similar non-discrimination legislation has failed to pass ourown Con- gress.Same-Sex couples have been allowed to jointly adopt since 2008 and Israelis can adopt their partners’ children, both of which were still prohibited in some U.S. states until March 31st of this year. Gays & Lesbians have been allowed to serve openly in Israel’s military for over 30 years,all of the rights that go along with being married are also granted to LGBT couples.

Same-Sex marriage within Israel is not legal in the sense that it is in the United States but that is because the Orthodox minority is very powerful & the ultra-Orthodox control the State Rabbinate. This disadvantage is not unique to the LGBT community. Non-Orthodox marriages are also not recognized within Israel. However, “common law” marriage is recognized for same-sex couples.

Same-sex marriages that were performed outside of the country (like non-Orthodox ones) are recognized officially. The highest proportion of child- ren with same-sex parents is found in Israel.

Israel, by large, accepts transgender people & 1 of the most famous celebrities is Dana International, a Yemenite descended songstress & transwoman who won the annual Eurovision song contest in 1998 – a contest similar to ‘American Idol.’

Today, gay nightlife in Israel rivals club scenes in other major cities, but in Israel it is basically in Tel Aviv where there are clubs, bars, discos, beaches & of course, a huge Gay Pride parade, financially supported by the national & city government. What is truly amazing is that in terms of LGBT equality, the country acted quickly. What this shows us is that Israel is a progressive & accepting country & she should be an inspirationto other countries that are dealing with the issues of LGBT rights. Here we see Israel as an example of liberalism & modernity in an area of the worldwheremanycountriesarenot.Thissometimessurprisespeople who only think of Israel as a war torn country governed by an ancient religion.

Just as for over 2,000 years. Judaism has not merely been the religion of the Bible, the Jewish State’s view of LGBT citizens has never been onlydefined by our Torah portion’s infamous verse, Lev. 18:22, “And you shall not lie with man like lying with a woman; this is a to’eivah – an offensive thing. This does not meanthat the Hebrew Bible is not a cherished source of inspiration for Israeli law & its ethical stand- ards. Israeli civil society & government, however, has tended to empha- size broad & humanistic principles such as the overriding principle found in the opening chapter of the Torah – that each of us is created B’Tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. The fundamental value, we are repeatedly taught in the Torah,commemorate during a little holiday called Pesach: ‘Do not wrong, mistreat or oppress the foreign- er, the stranger, the outsider living among you, because you know the heart of the stranger, the outsider, for you were a stranger & an outsider in Egypt.’

As it says in next week’s parasha, ‘The law applies to everyone equally, both native-born Israelites & Outsiders. I am the Eternal One, your God.’Some Talmudic Rabbis took this a step further teaching thathuman dignity is such an important legal category & 1 of such great moral consequence that they proclaimed:

גדול כבוד הבריות שדוחה את לא תעשה בתורה

‘The dignity of an individual, is so great that it pushes off a prohibitive commandment of the Torah,’ such as Lev. 18:22. As we know, most Jews don’t cite chapter & verse so speak, when making value judgments or decisions.

Perhaps an even more significant reason this civil rights victory was so quick & decisive, was because, as we all know, thru out our history, Jews have been the target of persecution. Thus, when the LGBT community of Israel did not share equal rights with others & started challenging this reality, many felt that the time had come to change things. Their kishkes told them that discrimination against those with a different sexual orientation is wrong. Thus, Jewish history, law, moral values, along withEnlightenment democratic principles helped Israel understand that in a democracy, everyone must be treated with respect.

You would think thatprogressive-minded groups would applaud Israel for its LGBT record, especially in a region where many of Israel’s neighbors jail, tortureor execute people for being gay. You would think even Pro-Palestinian groups, especially LGBT ones, would be thankful that at least some LGBT West Bank & GazanPalestinians have been able to escape from the nightmare of harassment, torture, & open violence not only by fleeing to Europe or N. America, but to Israel, usually to Tel Aviv the gay capital of the Middle East. (Though, to be fair, receiving asylum in Israel is hard for any Palestinian.) Still, you would think a light bulb would go off that Aswat, the leading Palestinian lesbian organizationdoes not have their headquarters in the Palestinian capital of Ramallah but in the relatively liberal, mixed Arab-Jewish port city of Haifa.

Instead, of celebrating or at least giving credit to Israel, it is accused of “Pink-washing.” What is Pink-washing you may be wondering?

Pink-washing, transmogrifiesIsrael’s history of generally respectinggay rights into the leading edge of a sinister new campaign to justify the oppression of Palestinians. Specifically, say critics, Pink-washing is a, ‘deliberate strategy to conceal the continuing violations of Palestinians’ human rights behind an image of liberty, equality, & modernity signified by Israeli gay life.’ It may be an indisputable fact, as even critics are forced to admit, that sexual, racial, & religious minorities are better off in Israel than they are anywhere else in the region. Yet, say anti-Israel activists,this on-going effort to create a more open &inclusive Israeli society is merely part of a broader PR campaign meant to fool political progressives, Western Governments & human rights organizations.

Mark Joseph Stern, a journalist, & Gay & Jewish activist wrote a biting response to this line of attack against Israel:

“The concept of pink-washing is extraordinarily insulting. It presumes that t the Israeli government [& society] has no interest in promoting equality under the law to LGBT people except to help mask its oppression of other groups. This presumption is totally unique to Israel. Nobody thought that France was attempting to distract from its terrible mistreatment of Roma or Gypsy immigrants, when it legalized same-sex marriage. Nobody thought that South Africa was diverting attention from the painful, enduring remnants of apartheid when it gained marriage equality.Yet many left-leaningactivists, including LGBT activists,freely impute to Israel a malign motive in expanding rights to sexual minorities.”

In other words, those who are consumed by hatred for Israel cannot accept that the country doesanythinggood for the right reasons. And those things that are good about Israel are irrelevant so long as Israel has not conceded to Palestinian demands.

The “pink-washing” argument really amounts to this: It doesn’t matter how inclusive or supportive it is, because Israel is not willing to abandon the security of its citizens, it should be persecuted & boycotted.

The reality of the situation is that itvery much should matter, argues rabbi & peace activist David Kaufman.But opponents of Israel, including Jewish critics, feel a need to create a narrative wherein what is an inclusive, liberal democracy, which provides far more freedoms to its citizenry than the vast majority of nations in the world, isportrayedas an oppressive, exclusivist nation. This skewed perspective allows for con- stant criticism &even hatred of Israel.

  • For example, at this time last year, Israel sent one of the largest aid teams to Nepal after the devastating Earthquake. Israel’s ability to respond with such a massive & effective force is not only due to decades of experience on the battlefield, but it also expresses a centuries-old tradition of Jewish devotion to the medical arts. The great Jewish Physicians of the medieval period are more widely known for their written works in poetry & philosophy. Their ranks included Yehuda Halevi & Maimonides, among many others.

And the tradition continues today where Israel is a leader in medical innovation the world over & is currently providing emergency care on the Syrian front, where the non-stop stream of victims from Syria’s civil war overwhelms its field hospitals. Israeli medical teamshelping to save lives around the world in the aftermath of crises are seen by critics, not as examples of tzedakahcompassion, but simply as PR stunts –Red-washing. These critics also fail to mentionthe treatment of numerous ill & injured Palestinians, who still are not at peace with Israel, in Israeli hospitals every year. Instead, the failure of a handful to cross-checkpoints vital to securing Israeli lives is promoted as the norm.

  • Israeli green technology, including organic farming, solar energy & water conservation – all desperately needed in the world today – are dismissed as “Green-washing”.
  • The contributions of Israelis to science, the arts, industry intellectual thought & the disproportionate number of Noble Prize winners in Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, & Medicine)is apparently – “Brain-washing”.
  • RecentlyImam Abdullah Antepli a Muslim Chaplain andProfessor at Duke Divinity School was literally accused of “faith-washing” because he helped start a program that brings Muslims & Jews together to learn & dialogue at the pluralistic Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
  • This is all in addition to “pink-washing” because as we know not only do Israelis behave like Nazis, they have the gall to behave like gay ones.

The truth is, at least IMHO, that Israel is a multi-racial,multi-national, multi-ethnicdemocracy withavibrant political debate, in which the major-ity recognizes the need for a 2-State solution even if it appears unrealistic at the moment. Yet, Israelis condemned as if it were fascist or practicing apartheid because it has no choice but to secure its population against those among the Palestinians who would do it harm – as we have wit- nessed over the last several months during the stabbing terror campaign.

It is true as the Jewish novelist Michael Chabonsuggested recently, that Israeli Jews are as capable of making blunders as any other people & they have done so at various times concerning the Palestinians’ & the Arab World. At times, Israeli politics &, indeed, the politics of most Jewish communities do resemble the legendary village of Chelm — the place where Jewish folklore tells us that an errant angel dropped a boat- load of foolish souls — more than they do Plato’s Republic. While, keeping this reality in mind, as we celebrate Yom Ha-Atzma’utthis Thursday, I still think a more accurate picture, ‘washed’ of all these distortions is found in the words of R. Dr. Israel Zoberman, which was presented by his Congressman Rep. Scott Rigel in the House Chambers.

“As we celebrate the 68thAnniversary of the State of Israel, heir to the Jewish people's long & proud legacy of the spirit uplifting humanity, it remains an enlightened Western island of progressive values, retaining its democratic essence in a wide sea of barbarism & backwardness begrudging the survival of the world's only Jewish state.

In fact, no other democratic nation-state's very existence is questioned except Israel's. This is in spite of its enduring roots in its historic land, and world-renowned accomplishments in the arts, sciences, & high-tech industries. It proved an unrivaled ability to rise from 2 millennia of exile, oppression, & an unparalleled Holocaust consuming a third of the Jewish people. Israel's renewed emergence against great odds is an affirmation of the transforming power of hope, & the rightful restoration of the Jewish people's human dignity among the community of nations. It is the divine fulfillment of prophetic promise, with the challenging mandate expectation to create a model society. Today's troubled Middle East, home of humanity's inspiring Biblical Exodus, is in dire need of replacing degradation with dignity, & unremitting terrorism with humane teachings.”

To these beautiful words, I add the words of President John F. Kennedy.

“Israel was not created to disappear—Israel will endure flourish. It is the child of hope & the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.''

Yom Huledet Sameach Israel – May you be Washed over with peace, prosperity, freedom & equality for all.

Shabbat Shalom

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