Future of Prophetic: Israel's Ancient Wisdom Re-presented

Introduction

Introduction During the 1950s and early 1960s, America was opening to Jews. We also created our own openings. Even so, the idea of a Jewish political force was still in the future. Religiously, we remained in the ancient rabbinic framework of interpretation. We mined ancient precepts to cope with modern realities. The Holocaust hovered in the background, as yet unnamed. We knew, of course, of the slaughter of European Jews in World War II. It followed us like a shadow that moves as the day unfolds. Like our political opportunities, the Holocaust had yet to become the dominating force—the Holocaust—as it is known today. In 1948, the state of Israel was created. Unlike the Holocaust, Israel had a name but the content of the state was yet to be determined. At least in America, Jews thought of Israel as a small, pioneering community far from our shores. International travel was still in its infancy. Over the years, the Holocaust and Israel grew together. Although they were separate historical events, over the next decades they became twinned in the Jewish historical imagination. Twinned, they grew to be almost mythic in their reach and power. The turning point was the 1967 Arab-Israeli war when Israel, feeling threatened, routed the Arab world in a lightning-fast, six-day campaign. Shortly after the war, the Holocaust and Israel became as central to Jewishness as the rabbis had been for centuries. After the 1967 war, the Holocaust was named as the epitome of Jewish suffering. Israel was named as the response to that suffering. Ancient texts and the ancient Jewish God were thrust into the background, and our immediate Jewish history took precedence. The remnants of the past that survived did so only in the wake of the drama of contemporary Jewish life. Time passed. The Holocaust and Israel took on more and more significance in Jewish life until there was little else to speak or think about. It was a heady time for Jews. We were becoming prime movers and shakers in America on all fronts. The Holocaust was one of our tickets of admission in America; the state of Israel, with its military prowess, emboldened us. As Jews, we stood tall. The state of Israel itself was complicated. It lived on a razor’s edge, strong but vulnerable, defiant yet anxious. For American Jews, Israel served as a symbol 1 of our arrival as a proud and powerful people. Israel is hardly a symbol to itself, however. Israel is real to Israelis. They talk the talk and walk the walk. They live the Jewish drama in peace, on the threshold of war, and in war. For decades, Israel seemed perpetually on the verge of peace. As I write, and despite the peace initiative headed by U S Secretary of State John Kerry in 2013-2014, its arrival date remains uncertain. Here one must add justice to peace, for the various frameworks of peace offered over the decades, including Secretary Kerry’s proposals, have lacked the justice needed for a real resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel was founded as a small state in a larger and complicated Middle East. After the 1967 war, Israel expanded its borders, annexing the eastern part of Jerusalem she had conquered in the war and began building Jewish settlements in the Golan Heights, West Bank, and Gaza territories, also won in the war. Many thought that the settlements and Israel’s occupation forces in the territories would be temporary. They weren’t. Some thought that after the 1967 war, the region, including Israel, would forsake war. Peace would be right around the corner. It wasn’t. Years continue to pass. American Jews are more deeply entrenched in the Holocaust and Israel than ever before. Israel is more deeply entrenched in wars, settlements, and occupation. Meanwhile, Palestinian voices have been gaining an audience especially in the growing movement equating the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem and the West Bank with South African apartheid. The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) that helped end apartheid in South Africa is now being applied to Israel’s occupation. The support for the Palestinian cause around the world has increased exponentially. For American Jews who came of age before the 1967 war, their story was largely unknown. When it became known, many Jews thought that Palestinians only opposed Israel because they opposed Jews. The Holocaust was the epitome of antisemitism. In opposing Israel, it seemed that Palestinians were continuing that...