Beginnings
I write these words during the days that fall between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the days of awe. This morning's New York Times informs us that Jewish leaders—presidents of 30 major national...
...O God of forgiveness," we intone, "forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement—for the sin which we have committed before Thee by hardening our hearts...
...for the sin which we have committed before Thee by breach of trust...
...Somebody failed, and he should not be allowed another chance to repeat his failure...
...I don't often use this page for these kinds of words, but the rest of this issue was frozen two weeks ago, and it would, I think, be wrong to allow the vagaries of our production schedule to impose silence upon us...
...And so forth...
...And that is what is on my heart today...
...for the sin which we have committed before Thee by denying and lying...
...Ma'ariv...
...We know to our sorrow what it is like to be the victim of the brute while others stand idly by...
...This morning's New York Times informs us that Jewish leaders—presidents of 30 major national Jewish organizations in this country—"stressed that their strong support for Israel and the administration of Prime Minister Menachem Begin had not decreased because of the massacre" in the camps near Beirut...
...Let those who are guilty of permitting the massacre be removed from power...
...It is the shame of every individual citizen...
...And to stand with Israel this day, this week, is to be implicated, to be responsible...
...for the sin which we have committed before Thee in presumption or in error...
...It is the shame of the state, of the Government, of the army...
...And let the rest of us, who share through our love in the responsibility, seek to restore through our works the good name of our people...
...We are passing through a wrenching time, a time of confusion and of shame...
...I have never seen the sense in standing with Israel only when it is easy there to stand, or of making it easy to stand there by denying Israel's errors...
...This whole affair, which outrages and disgusts, cannot be ended simply by a statement of sorrow...
...This morning's Boston Globe headlines its report on American Jewish reaction with the words, "Jews in U.S...
...The Jerusalem Post: "Rosh Hashanah 5743 has become the Rosh Hashanah of shame...
...For we have all been made accomplices to the horrible Rosh Hashanah massacre in West Beirut...
...it is not...
...Someone is responsible here and has to take the consequences...
...I don't know which newspaper is the more accurate...
...Decry Massacre" and the sub-head, "Leaders pray for slain Palestinians, criticize Israeli Prime Minister...
...We do not love the State of Israel because it is infallible...
...No, to stand with Israel today is to stand with shame...
...for the sin which we have committed before Thee by violence...
...And I know as well what our liturgy says, what we will all be saying come this Day of Atonement...
...I stand, as I have all my life, with Israel...
...And we do not support the State of Israel by claiming that it is that which it is not...
...I know, however, what Israeli newspapers are saying today...
...for the sin which we have committed before Thee by wronging our neighbor...
...Amen...
...Whatever the official inquiries eventually prove, it is clear that there were Jews who turned their backs while the slaughter was going on...
...It was Abraham Joshua Heschel who once said, "Some of us are guilty—but all of us are responsible...
Vol. 7 • October 1982 • No. 9
