Drashele for Yitro

Rabbi Dale Polakoff, Great Neck Synagogue

As many of us sat in shul last Shabbat, a real-life drama was unfolding some 1400 miles away in Colleyville, Texas. A reform synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel, was conducting Shabbat services. Sometime in the middle of those services, Malik Faisal Akram gained entry into the synagogue and held Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and four other congregants hostage at gunpoint for some 11 hours. Through training, preparation, cool heads and the hand of Hashem, the hostages were finally able to escape, and the gunman was neutralized.

Last week, the eyes and ears of the Jewish world were focused on Colleyville. We know from our history that every Jewish Diaspora is ultimately going to end, and the positions of prominence and power will be taken away. Despite the comfort that Jews achieved in their diaspora communities they were ultimately destined to forfeit all of it. From Babylonia to Persia to Spain to France to Germany to Poland to Russia, and, in our day, to the United States. It is that nagging thought in the back of our minds that makes an appearance every time we are confronted with the growing scourge of anti-Semitism. Colleyville is not the first community to be attacked, nor, do I feel, it will be the last.

There are several lessons that we can learn from what happened last week.

First is the importance of training and preparedness. Smaller shuls in smaller Jewish communities are more often perceived as softer targets whereas larger shuls in larger Jewish communities often have the resources to present themselves as harder targets. Many shuls struggle to balance a desire to be open and welcoming while at the same time maintaining security and safety. According to Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker training and preparedness quite possibly made the difference in saving their lives.

Our local shuls and community organizations have engaged in training in the past and view what happened last week as a reminder that sadly, in the world in which we live, training needs to be an ongoing process. Human nature is to settle back into routine, but complacency can have tragic consequences.

A corollary of this first lesson is to be appreciative of those hired to protect us and to express that appreciation to them. Our hope is that they will never be called on to use their training to keep us safe, but they are all well aware of that possibility. They are on our front lines and a warm word of thanks from us makes a big difference.

The second lesson from last week connects to our parsha, and it is the power of Jews coming together. An attack against a synagogue in Texas reverberates across every Jewish community. It doesn’t matter whether that synagogue is orthodox, conservative, reform or something else. It doesn’t matter what the political views are of the leadership of that synagogue or the political views of its members. What matters is that they identify as Jews and are identified as Jews. Malik Faisal Akram knew that he had chosen a synagogue and he knew that there were Jews inside. He didn’t care what kind of synagogue it was, nor did he care about the observance level of the Jews he would find inside.

During the song of Dayeinu sung at the Pesach Seder, we say that if we had reached Har Sinai but not received the Torah, Dayeinu – it would have been sufficient. Rav Mordechai Ilan (1915-1982), author of the Mikdash Mordechai, explains that when Bnei Yisrael reached Har Sinai they were united – k’ish echad b’lev echad – as one person with one heart. Suggests Rav Ilan that even if Bnei Yisrael had not received the Torah, they would still have had to be grateful for the unity achieved at that moment. The Midrash in Bereishit Rabbah tells us that even if the Jewish people were to worship idols, if there was peace among them, the attribute of Hashem’s judgement would not touch them (38:6). Jewish unity is a powerful force.

The expression of k’ish echad b’lev echad, used by Rashi to describe the unity of Bnei Yisrael at Har Sinai, is also used by Rashi to describe the unity of the Egyptians as they pursued the Jews trapped by the sea, but with a small change. In describing the unity of the Egyptians Rashi writes b’lev echad k’ish echad, changing the order of the words. Why the change?

Rav Yaakov Orloff, in his sefer Abir Yaakov, suggests that there is a qualitative difference between the unity of the Jewish people and the unity of the other nations of the world. When it comes to the other nations of the world, their unity depends on everyone being committed to the same goal. When there is agreement on the goal – b’lev echad – then there is unity –k’ish echad. The Egyptians all had the same goal, namely to destroy the Jewish people. It was that common goal that brought about a transient unity. When it comes to the Jewish people on the other hand, unity stems not from a singular goal, but rather from a connection to each other – k’ish echad – with the result of that unity being a singular goal – b’lev echad. It was the unity of Bnei Yisrael at Har Sinai that paved the way for the giving of the Torah.

We don’t always realize the power of that unity, nor do we always act towards each other with that unity in mind. Sometimes we need a wake-up call to remember that we are all part of one people, a very small people in a very big, and often unfriendly, world. We are grateful that such a wake-up call came without the spilling of any Jewish blood.

Shabbat shalom.