Dear friends
It has been two long weeks since the horrific acts of Hamas that have shaken us to our core. It’s been only a few days since the tragedy of Gaza hospital which has highlighted a few very sad truths.
First, the terrorists do indeed use hospital environs to carry out attacks, as Israel has been saying all along. Which reveals two things at least. That they know it is a deterrent for Israel to retaliate because Israel cares about civilian deaths. And that Hamas and Islamic Jihad care about as much about Palestinian life as they do about Israeli, not at all. They are all pawns in their sick fundamentalist nihilistic vision.
Second, that the lies and deception of Hamas has a very (recklessly) gullible audience in world media and world leaders. I mean the idea that anyone gives any credibility to Hamas version of anything is truly astounding. And yet almost all mainstream media took the version of Hamas as gospel without any critical analysis or factual basis. Despite the obvious advantage for them of their narrative and the greatest disadvantage for Israel. Even if they think Israel could target a hospital, does not enter the thinking to question why they would do it when so clearly it is entirely detrimental to their cause?! And instead believe a version of Hamas, a group of people who have clearly shown that they have no qualms about butchering civilians, babies, mothers, elderly, and whole families. Causing as much pain to the very end. Do they not see the irony that Hamas is crying foul play over innocent civilian death?!
Third, the lack of moral clarity afflicting so many is extremely painful for Jews worldwide. The narrative of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians as the justification for Hamas actions with an implicit assertion of moral equivalency, is so depressing to witness. I entirely agree with the slogans free, free, Palestine. From Hamas, that is.
This week’s Parshat Noach has an uncanny relevance to our predicament. Everyone knows the story of Noah’s ark, more or less. I bet though very few people are aware that the reason given why god decides to destroy the world is because it had become so corrupt ‘and the world was filled with Chamas’. True, the word has no etymological relationship to Hamas. But the fact that the Hebrew word for Hamas – Chamas – is actually the word used to describe the state of the world which leads god to destroy it, has resonance. It sure feels like there is a universal corruption when one needs to argue for the different moral universes Israel and Hamas inhabit.
On a deeper level, the story of Noah has a significant, highly relevant, lesson for us today. And totally surprising, unless you’re steeped in ancient Near Eastern literature of 4000 years ago.
Traditionally, the discussion of Noah and the Ark is an argument between fundamentalists and atheists. Fundamentalists believe in its literal interpretation and religious archaeologists from the inception of the discipline have been looking to ‘prove’ its veracity. In fact, 21 years ago if made it to Mount Ararat on the Turkish-Iranian border where locals believe the shape on top of the mountain is quite clearly remnants of Noah’s Ark which kind of beached on top of the mountain when the floodwaters subsided.
Enter the non-believers who are quick to point out that the story of the flood predates the Torah and therefore the story is obviously myth; what’s worse, plagiarised myth!
As usual wisdom lies in neither of these extremes. Of course, it is true and documented that the Torah did not originate the story of the flood. But the Torah is not interested in writing original literature. Rather, the Torah’s ‘agenda’ is teaching. Sometimes this is done by telling us a new story with a positive moral. Sometimes it is taking an old story, very well known by all people of the time, and framing in an entirely new light.
In this instance the entirely new perspective can be understood when it comes to the reason as to why god decides to destroy the world. In the most well-known flood myth pre-Torah, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the reason as to why god decides to destroy the world is because humans have become too noisy! Whilst I sympathise with that and think we should definitely have restrictions on motorbike and other noise pollution, to destroy the world for that reason is quite disproportionate to the crime!
But that’s precisely the point. In the ancient culture predating the Torah the view of humanity is one of a pesky nuisance, a plaything of the gods. The Torah introduces a whole new element into the equation. Morality. Yes, god decides to destroy the world but not for trivial reasons but for the most important one, it has become entirely evil.
The implication is that humans matter a lot. They are not the lowest creations of the whims of amoral or immoral gods. Rather they are unique sublime creatures who inhabit a moral universe and who are to be judged entirely by their moral worth.
God eventually comes down from his extreme idealism and makes peace with human nature that it is part animal, and that human perfection is unattainable. That sometimes elements of humanity will become so depraved that he will again have the urge to destroy it all. But realising it is not the solution any more than the solution for complications in a romantic relationship is to destroy and start again. Those same complications will always come back. Rather, the solution is to identify the issues and weed out the problem.
The issue of Israelis and Palestinians is a complicated one. The issue of Hamas is not. We should all universally be on the same page. Unless one is a nihilist in which good and evil does not exist, Hamas ideology is pure evil and must be eradicated. True, it won’t resolve the issue of the terrible plight of Palestinians which does need to be addressed. But if we can’t agree on the scourge which is Hamas, the world won’t be destroyed by god but rather by humans.
The Parsha at least ends in a positive note. Out of the destruction comes Avraham, the paradigm of virtue.
May we be lucky enough to see the destruction behind us very soon.
Shabbat Shalom