The Sidra for the coming Shabbat begins with the commandment to “appoint judges and law enforcement officers at all your gates.” When I follow the news, look around me, and see how our society is threatened by anarchy, I can only say that this ancient Jewish Torah commandment may be old, but it is far from outdated. After years of being raised with the idea that abortion is good, that euthanasia is a blessing, that people can decide for themselves when their life is complete, we are now confronted daily with murder and manslaughter, right around the corner from us. And what is the common denominator in all this: a lack of respect for life.
Of course, not everything is black and white. If the unborn child threatens the mother’s life and a choice must be made between the life of the mother and the unborn child, from a halachic point of view, the mother’s life takes precedence.
And although active euthanasia is prohibited at all times, needlessly prolonging suffering without any chance of recovery is also not simply permissible. The question of whether a life is complete can only be decided above, not by earthly creatures who cannot see beyond this three-dimensional earthly existence.
In one of our Dutch newspapers, I saw a photo of a sniper from the Ukrainian army. He had broken a world record. With a single shot, he had managed to kill two Russian soldiers. They were more than four kilometers away from the shooter and were not engaged in combat at all. The sniper was portrayed as a hero. Sic! Think of the parents, children, and wives of the two soldiers who were killed, who were most likely forced into the army against their will. When a Russian tank explodes, we cheer; when a Ukrainian tank is hit, we are filled with sadness and sympathy. The Russians are the villains, the Ukrainians the righteous. What happens in Sudan every day receives little to no attention, we gloss over the killings and oppression in Iran, it seems as if Syria no longer exists, and we remain silent about the cruel and unprecedented killings and famine in many other hotspots. Most feminist Dutch organizations are blind to the position of women in countries where women are nothing more than second-hand commodities that are traded, exploited, and deprived of any form of legal protection.
Dear diary writers, you expect me to provide a link to Israel and Gaza, but you will not receive one at this time, as I am not in the mood. No, I am looking at ourselves, our mutual relationships, how we interact with each other.
I received a phone call in the middle of the night, which I already wrote about in my previous diary. Hi Rabbi Binyamin – this is Yirmie Elkus, grandson of Benno Elkus. I need your help please. My daughter and her husband’s family are in Holland and unfortunately, they were attacked by Arabs at a Center Parc – there is an ambulance on the way to them.
So it was logical that I, from abroad where I was staying at the time, took immediate action. And what happened next? When everything had calmed down? When the group was back in Israel safe and sound, with the two injured among them, after a disrupted vacation in the Netherlands? Through the grapevine, I was reproached for getting involved in this because others should have solved it.
Consider the following scenario. You are standing next to a small fire, you happen to have a fire extinguisher in your car, the fire department that is there to extinguish fires is unfortunately on vacation that week, and I manage to extinguish the fire and then hear from the fire department, which was nowhere to be seen: why did you extinguish that fire, we should have done that!
This coming Shabbat, the Torah teaches us that we must appoint judges and enforcers at all our gates. Our gates are also our eyes, ears, and mouths. How do we view our fellow human beings? What do we hear and what do we refuse to hear? When do we make ourselves heard and when do we understand that silence is better and wiser?
The key that fits those three gates is: respect!
This is easy to write down, but often proves very difficult in practice, because disrespect so easily prevails. And that is why it is possible that a photo of a sniper who managed to kill two fellow human beings at a distance with a single shot commands admiration from the reader, because respect for life and respect for fellow human beings has unfortunately become a rarity for many years now.
The shofar sounds we hear this month therefore call out piercingly: respect!
But in order not to end this diary exclusively on a spiritual note, but also on a practical one: “make sure you place judges and law enforcement officers at your gates.” Of course, we will continue to hold our synagogue services and other gatherings of a Jewish nature. I refuse to remove the mezuzah from my door and I walk around wearing my kippah in the streets of the Netherlands. We will not allow ourselves to be assimilated and our behavior determined by fear. Nevertheless, the simple meaning remains that we must place judges and law enforcement officers at our gates. Our government is currently not anti-Semitic at all, whatever they may think about Israel and Netanyahu. But be careful. Don’t just let strangers attend synagogue services or gatherings, because although many people are finding their way back to Judaism as a result of October 7, dubious figures are also trying to penetrate the Jewish community. With the number of Rabbinical Declarations that I refused to issue after investigation, I could fill quite a few diaries…
