Bereshit 5786

The traditional translation of our reading this week, Bereshit, opens with "In the beginning." Yet, as we return to the opening of the Torah each year, our reading is less a simple beginning and more a profound renewal. That renewal is anchored by twin commitments: God’s unwavering commitment to us, and our reciprocal commitment to God’s world and to humanity itself.

This past week, we witnessed a profound moment of partial restoration with the return of all of the remaining living hostages, and some of the deceased, from Gaza. We still wait and pray for all the remaining victims to be brought home. This fragile moment forces us to confront the nature of responsibility.

The moral clarity of our world’s commitment is challenged daily. We look at the very public forums, from those of American university campuses to international bodies, and ask why so many, often driven by a genuine passion for social justice, have been slow to condemn Hamas’s continuing inhumanity, terrorism, and murder.  

We ask, why is it that those who sat in the quads of our American universities are now not demonstrating against Hamas and its continuing inhumanity, this time with terrorist aggression and murder of its own people? Why are they not defending the same people of Gaza whom they rallied and protested against when Israel entered Gaza to protect itself and bring its hostages home? As educated social activists, can they now not recognize the truth, which they were blinded from originally!?

Our Torah reading immediately gives us a powerful, tragic mirror for this struggle: Cain. After the first heinous crime of murder, Cain offered a defiant, universal question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Cain’s evolution, however, is the key to renewal. Confronted by God, he moves from denial to acceptance, expressing his remorse, guilt, and shame. He worried that he now carried a target on his forehead, forever marked by his action. The question for us today, for organizations, for governments, and for individuals, is whether they can accept responsibility like Cain, not just for actions, but for the blindness and indifference that allowed the destruction to occur. Can they now understand why Israel had only one choice – to defend its borders, its citizenry, and to bring home the hostages?

Needless to say, the question of responsibility is also directed at the Netanyahu government. While its resolve brought about the return of the hostages, was it achieved with sufficient concern for all victims? Without those actions, would the potential for the current negotiations have ever taken place? These are the difficult, unavoidable questions forcing us to ask if the pursuit of one commitment has neglected others. As we wonder if an election will keep Netanyahu in power, the question of responsibility and renewal found in our Torah reading for this Shabbat must be the moral foundation that Israelis, and the international community, governments, and educational institutions turn to.

We are grateful that the living hostages have returned home, and many of the murdered victims as well. We hope that in a short while, Israeli life can return to some modicum of normalcy. The word “modicum” is the essential word, since within Israel itself the power of healing and renewal is not a simple click of a thumb and a finger together. It will take time. Yet, for families in Israel this Shabbat, the return of some reservists to their families and homes is a welcome sight of what can be.

There is no return to Gan Eden in the Middle East, just as there was no return for Adam and Eve to the Garden. However, the hope for a peaceful resolution, a future where “nation shall not lift up sword against nation,” and where people can dwell next to each other in the promise of a new beginning in God’s world, remains a profound commitment, one that is not just ours, but God’s as well.

Am Yisrael Chai!!!!

Shabbat shalom!!!

Rabbi K