What We’ve Learned Since October 7th

Israel Solidarity Shabbat Sermon, Shabbat Vayishlach 5784, Rabbi Sam Cohon

There is an ancient joke that seems applicable today, in this era of global warming.  Scientists have determined a huge flood will overtake the entire face of planet Earth in just three days.  Everything will be subsumed in a flood far more cataclysmic than that of Noah.  All will perish.

The religious responses come in immediately: The Pope issues a papal bull, saying “Catholics of the world, we have three days to repent and save our souls before Judgment Day.” 

The Chief Imam of Mecca tells all Muslims in the world, “We have three days to pray fervently to be accepted in paradise before our demise.” 

And the Chief Rabbi of Israel announces, “We have three days to learn to breathe under water.”

My friends, we have now been breathing under water for about eight weeks.  We are now in a new reality, ever since October 7th.  We have learned many things over the past two months, ever since that disastrous dark Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah/Shabbat day.  These have been painful, terrible, sad lessons, and some of them are going to be hard for many Jews to accept.  But if we have proven anything over the long course of Jewish history, it is this: we know how to adapt to new realities.  Here a few things we learned—many terribly negative, but some positive. 

We learned that the fabled Israeli intelligence agencies were fallible, and somehow did not accurately read what was happening just across the border in Gaza.  This was a disastrous failure, and the head of IDF military intelligence has already resigned and taken responsibility.

We learned that the long-term leadership of Bibi Netanyahu, based always on his avowed commitment to Bitachon, security, has not made Israel more secure; quite the contrary.  Israelis have quite likely never felt less secure since 1973, or perhaps 1967 or 1948.  Netanyahu’s political raison d’etre, his very reason for viability as a leader has been destroyed.

We learned that the IDF, the most powerful military in the Middle East, famed for the rapidity of its response time, was not so fast to respond to an epic disaster.

We learned that under the very eyes of Israeli, United States and Egyptian spies the evil terrorists of Hamas, believed to be vicious but incompetent, prepared a vastly sophisticated, complicated, coordinated and utterly horrifically evil plan to spread terror to all Israelis, and all Jews in the world, and succeeded in committing the worst atrocities since the Shoah.

We learned again just how little sympathy exists for the victims of brutality in this world if they are Jews. 

We learned the depth of the generation gap in America, Europe and around the world between those who support and respect Israel and those who believe it be evil.  It is older people, primarily, who understand the many outstanding qualities of Israel, its democratic institutions, its freedom of speech, press, religion and sexual orientation, the rule of law, the creativity and dynamic economy of a first-world nation created out of swamps and deserts.  But it is younger people, including many younger adults, who have learned instead to view Israel as an oppressive nation, and who idolize the Palestinian terrorists who seek to destroy Israel.  That generation gap has never been more evident, or more deeply disturbing than now.

We learned that the label of Progressive in American politics often includes not only anti-Israel attitudes, statements, and policies, but profoundly anti-Semitic attitudes, statements, policies and actions.  The rhyming cry of “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” is a call for the destruction of the only Jewish state on earth, and it quickly transitioned into calls for the genocide of the Jews. 

We have learned that when Israel is at war, anti-Semitism will be unleashed all over the world.  That is true both when Israel shows vulnerability, as it did on October 7th, and when it shows great unity and military strength, as it has since then.  In other words: Antisemitism is catalyzed both when Israel loses and when it wins. 

We have learned that college campuses are no longer safe places to express your Judaism freely, and that while every other minority culture or identity is viewed as protected on US and Canadian campuses, Jewish students and their organizations are not.  Somehow, the most persecuted group of people in all human history, us, and one of the smaller ones in the world is now counted on the side of the majority population.

We learned that Israel’s true allies, especially the United States, do indeed stand with her, but even that support can be toyed with by the dysfunction of American governmental institutions today.

We learned yet again that the only time the world cares about any Arab life is when it is taken by a Jew.

We learned, yet again, that the UN never cares about the taking of Jewish lives.

We learned that international feminist organizations are powerfully responsive to every kind of sexual violence and exploitation in the world—except when the victims of that sexual violence are Jews.  Then, these same international and national feminist organizations become mute, or insist that the brutal, documented violence did not happen.  After all, only Jewish women were victimized.

We learned that in war, only Israel is required to live up to a much higher standard to protect civilians than that imposed on any other country—including not only Russia or Ukraine or Iran or Syria, but the United States.  This is apparently especially true of harm experienced by civilians whose own terrorist leaders virulently attack Israel and chose deliberately not to protect their own citizens, in fact hiding their weapons delivery systems and military command and control centers in hospitals, schools and mosques.  

We learned—again—that the mainstream media and its online and app-based replacements are incredibly irresponsible when it comes to reporting events in Israel and the Palestinian territories.  The coverage of October 7th shifted dramatically when the lie that Israel had bombed a hospital was blasted over all mainstream media and on the web just a few days after the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.  Suddenly, Israel was vividly portrayed as the irresponsible aggressor against innocents—when in fact it was an Islamic Jihad rocket that killed their own people.  As usual, the follow-up stories never caught up with the real narrative.  In current coverage, there is often not even an effort to be “balanced”—it is simply pro-Palestinian propaganda being passed off as news.

We learned that abducted, kidnapped Jewish hostages, women and children, can be kept in cages in tunnels under Gaza and only the Jewish world is outraged by it.  In fact, we learned that people would literally tear down the posters of hostages as some kind of sick solidarity gesture with the Palestinian terrorists who committed these crimes against humanity. 

We learned, in America and all over the world, that antisemites of all stripes were emboldened by Israel being at war.  The oldest form of racist hatred, Antisemitism, is alive and well and apparently can be publicly expressed, especially in America and on college campuses, at a level not seen in this nation in many decades.

We learned that Iran has proxy terrorist groups aiming at Israel not only from Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria but from Yemen… and that attacking US targets was part of the package, as long as the attacks weren’t actually effective.

And we learned that not having a plan for what happens after you destroy Hamas, or its military capacity in any case, is not a long-term solution that provides peace or r’guah or shalvah, peace or contentment for Israelis. 

OK.  That wasn’t much fun.  So, have we learned anything positive, rabbi?

Indeed we have.  We learned that an Israel apparently torn apart by massive protests against the government’s judicial coup could come together with lightning speed, unify, and fight the evil of Hamas’ Palestinian terrorism. 

We learned that Jewish communities all around the world would leap forward with support and solidarity for the only Jewish nation on earth.

We learned that the IDF, once set in motion, using all of its newest technology, was able to smash most of the Hamas forces and eliminate many of the Palestinian terrorists and their center of terror production.

We learned that we have many friends who do support Israel profoundly, and they come from all across the political and religious spectrum.  I have received wonderful support from Christian friends of various denominations, including especially our hosts here at Church of the Apostles.  It is heartwarming, and it helps.  I get stopped because I wear a kippah about twice a day; so far, everyone who has done so wants to tell me how much they support Israel and how much they care about it.

We learned that Jews all over the world, and all over America, care tremendously about Israel and are unified in our support for the Jewish State.  300,000 people came out for a rally in Washington, DC, even if the media kept artificially lowering it to “tens of thousands.”  Jews have been coming to services, wearing blue ribbons, writing op-eds, speaking on the news, making substantial donations to Israeli charities, attending rallies in cities that are more Jewishly active, like Los Angeles and New York and DC.   

We learned that the Arab states that have been working towards closer relations with Israel are continuing to do so, that October 7th failed if its goal was to torpedo the Saudi-Israeli relationship that has developed over the last several years, or that it would undermine Egyptian-Israeli relations or even Jordanian-Israeli relations, let alone the fledgling diplomatic normalcy with the Gulf States and Morocco. 

We learned that there can be consequences for supporting brutal terrorism and its advocacy on campus if you want to work for fancy law firms or hotshot business consulting groups when you graduate.  We learned that sometimes even academics can pay a price for their blind support of Palestinian murder, rape and torture of Jews.

We learned that Israel needs our help in getting its story out, and that it’s time for US Jews to use our media-savvy effectiveness to explain why Israel matters so much and just how much we all have at stake in this. 

We learned that some wise people—not everyone to be sure—understand that this was not just an attack on one Jewish nation, but an attack on all civilization, and that defeating it is essential for the future of the civilized world.

My friends, this is a special Shabbat.  It is the Shabbat when Jacob, the conniving heel of a brother, struggles his way into becoming Israel, the one who wrestles with God.  Vayishlach is here to remind us that we each personally have the opportunity to rise from our baser motives and more manipulative impulses to become something finer, higher, better.  But it is also a reminder of what we as a collective people, Am Yisrael, must seek to be.  It is what Israel means, and what being part of the nation of Israel means.

It is why the nation of Israel matters so much, too. 

If we are to be an Or LaGoyim, a light to the nations, we must survive as a nation.  If we are to be an Am Segulah, a special people, we must first be a people safe from the depredations of those motivated by profound and ancient evil who seek our destruction. 

But we must also strive, always, to find a way to shine a new light from Zion, an Or Chadah miTziyon, that can only then illuminate even this dark time. 

Hanukkah is coming up Thursday night for eight glorious nights.  We will add light to this time, and we will do so not only with candles but with the spirit with which we embrace our Jewish nation, and with the energy we put into our Jewish identities. 

We have learned many harsh lessons the last two months.  It is now up to us to use those lessons to motivate ourselves to greater energy, commitment and dedication to our people, our land, and our God.

Ken Yehi Ratson; may this be God’s will; but mostly, may it be ours.