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THE MIDWIVES CONTRASTED WITH THE RABBIS OF NETUREI
KARTA
by Rabbi Joel Schwartzman, delivered January 12, 2007 (22 Tevet 5767)
In contrast
with our sedra and the heroic acts of the Hebrew midwives, Pua and Shifra,
we in the Jewish world have recently been treated to the antics and, now,
the justifications of Neturei Karta, an ultra-Orthodox, anti-Zionist
element whose rabbis went to Mahmoud Achmadenijad’s Holocaust denial
conference in Iran and figuratively kissed the Iranian presidents ring in
his attempts to rally the movement to wipe Israel off the face of the
globe.
Obviously I need to explain this comparison. In the opening chapter, Shemot in the book of Exodus which
carries that very same name, Shemot, the text tells us that a new Pharaoh
has arisen over Egypt, one who does not have the historical understanding
of what Joseph had done for his country.
Not only does he lack appreciation for this Israelite vizier, he is
now frightened by the ever growing number of Israelites in his land and the
threat they represent to him and his countrymen were they to join themselves
to an advancing, attacking enemy.
Because of his fears, this Pharaoh issues a cruel
edict to the Israelite midwives.
Although, henceforth, they are to allow every female Israelite
newborn to live, they are to kill every male child. Midrash comes to explain that Pharaoh has
been warned by his seers that a male child was to be born who would
challenge his rule. Not knowing
whether the baby would be Hebrew or Egyptian, Midrash has Pharaoh
commanding that all male children be drowned in the Nile.
The fact that such an edict makes no sense in
terms of wanting a working population of enslaved men and that it would
probably have made as much sense to kill off all female babies in lieu of
their eventually producing Pharaoh’s future antagonist simply doesn’t
register on the despot.
In any case, the heroes…or, in this instance,
heroines…of the story are the Hebrew midwives who refuse Pharaoh’s vicious
order and continue about their business of delivering Hebrew babies. When Pharaoh confronts them with the fact
that Hebrew male babies continue to appear, they devise a canard: that
Israelite women are heartier than Egyptian women and are birthing their
babies before the midwives’ services are required, thereby precluding the
midwives’ intervention.
One
could imagine these courageous women obeying Pharaoh’s decree, saying that
it was the will of God that the vile edict should stand and that there was
nothing more that they could do about it.
Hold on to this thought because, in a moment, you will understand
its relevancy.
Let
us, then, turn our attention to the rabbis of Neturei Karta who recently
attended Achmadenijad’s hate-Israel, deny the Holocaust fest. Rabbi Aharon Cohen does not deny the
Holocaust. However, on the way to
condemning the state of Israel in particular and Zionism in general, he
gives the following explanation for the deaths of whatever number of Jews
died at the hands of the Nazis (I
quote):
However, the Orthodox Jewish teaching and attitude
is that the perpetrators of a crime, although fully guilty and responsible
for their actions, would never have succeeded in their evil unless the
Almighty wished it. So, to that extent the victim or victims have of course
to attempt to avoid the evil, but if this proves impossible, then they have
to accept the will of the A-lmighty. Our teaching is that part of the
decree of exile divinely imposed upon us, is that it is not the task of the
Jewish People to bring our persecutors to justice. That is the task of the
A-lmighty. Our task is to accept the will of the A-lmighty and to strive to
improve ourselves, removing from our behaviour the deeds that may have been
the cause of our suffering. That has been the Jewish attitude during all
the long history of Jewish suffering.
In no way can we have the audacity to, as it were,
try to prevent the will of the A-lmighty and assume that we are capable of
preventing such a thing from happening again. That would be heresy.
In other words, the Holocaust was the will of God
and a punishment for the sins that the Jewish victims committed that led to
their mass destruction. The Rabbi’s
game is obviously to blame the victim for his victimization. The Jewish people must have done
something to deserve God’s wrath which got expressed as Nazi hatred and
persecution.
Neturei Karta abhors Zionism and condemns it for
breaking the covenant of God with Israel.
It is not our responsibility to take matters into our own hands and
to establish a secular state. If
there is to be an Israel, it must be the creation of the Almighty. In the meantime, these rabbis would have
the present state dissolved…albeit, they say, peacefully…if we can imagine
how that might happen...so that Jew and Arab can live together peacefully
as they have always done. The Jews
who have emigrated to Israel should be returned to their native lands
where, supposedly, they would be accepted back (with open arms by their
countrymen) and God’s world would continue on as it should.
In fairness to
my Orthodox colleagues and friends, there are many, many more of them who
are fervently pro-Zionist and who do send their sons and daughters to fight
for the modern state of Israel than this fringe group of crazies, including
the six Neturei Karta rabbis who went to Iran. The fact that these rabbis went and, by
their presence, legitimized the Iranian attempt to demonize Israel and the
call for the state’s destruction is a chillul
Hashem, a profanation of God’s name.
Therefore,
you can well understand why opposing members of the Orthodox Jewish world,
in horror and shame, have risen up to throw these kooky Jews out of their
neighborhoods. They want to create a
clear separation from their theological interpretations of history and
their treacherous contempt for Israel.
Members of the Satmar Chasidim some of whose rebels are themselves
members of Neturei Karta have been the most vocal in their call for a
condemnation of Neturei Karta’s antics, jumping as their rabbis did into
the arms of a man who is increasingly sounding like another Adolph Hitler.
I
contrast the courage of the midwives with the perfidy of Neturei Karta
because we all understand that kooks will always exist in our midst. They will come with the weirdest of ideas
which, on the surface, may have some internal, logical consistencies. If you Google Rabbi Cohen, or Rabbi
Yisroel Feldman, you can read the speeches that they gave in Iran.
In
and of themselves, their ideas are not very compelling or important. Believe me, there are greater threats to
the intellectual enterprise that is modern Judaism. But the problem is that their
representation gives fuel and succor to the anti-Semite. We shall see their historical-hysterical
perspective reiterated in the Arab press, using their specious
condemnations of the pre-state Zionists of Youth Aliyah and the Joint Distribution
Committee which tried to move Jews from Europe before the doors closed and
the Nazis’ plan closed in around European Jewry, placing the blame as much
on the Zionists for the deaths of Europe’s Jews as the Nazis. We shall see Palestinian “victims”
espouse Neturei Karta’s accusations of Israel’s brutality as justification for their continuing
acts of terror and atrocity…all, as the rabbis would explain, as the acting
out of the hostile will of God on an
errant people.
Throughout
Jewish history we have had our heroes and our cowards, our role models and
our traitors. They may have
represented God or denied God’s existence…we have examples of both
aplenty. But the acts of these
midwives, apart from the Bible’s voicing a rare and open approval for the
role of women in the march of our history, are to be emulated. For, when Jewish life was threatened,
they used their hearts and their heads to save it. Rather than throwing up their hands in
the face of their own day’s 9-11, they got busy doing something about
it. Instead of claiming that it was
God’s will that they should be forced to murder their own, they used their
God given talents to do everything within their power to protect and
preserve life…and I’ll bet they bent not a few commandments in doing so
along the way.
The
bottom line is for us, at all times, to beware the demagogue and to prize
the life-saving heroines in our tradition.
If we cannot directly defeat the spurious, let us avoid being sucked
into their sphere; and let us concentrate on those who inspire us in our
attempts to live as a free people in lands which facilitate Jewish life and
vibrancy…even as we affirm that doing so is clearly a sign of God’s
blessing and will for us.
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