Israel: Not on Sacred Ground

Reading from the sacred Torah

The Jewish High Holy Days, which began September 17 this year, are usually a time of reflection and prayer.  This year, apparently, it’s just another opportunity for the worldwide Jewish community to fuss and fight over deeply divisive ideas.  

According to a CNN report, the rancor has gotten so intense that some rabbis aren’t even going to talk about Israel.  Conservative Jews are demanding attacks on Israeli enemies while liberal Jews are counseling talks with the Palestinians and others that threat the country’s existence.  Those in the middle are torn in both directions.  Silence seems like a better option.

The real problem is not the debate, but that everyone has the wrong idea about the “Promised Land.”

I see the reality exposed on a daily basis.  For more than six years, I‘ve had the opportunity to teach English to foreign students attending a university in Florida.  Many of them want to work in aviation, which requires English fluency.   As a result, there are plenty of students.  Many of them come from the Middle East, principally Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates.  They are all Muslim and are often fearful of how they will be received in a country when their religion is typically associated with the word “terrorist.”

I have found all of them, without exception, to be intelligent and thoughtful young men and women.  However, they invariably have a blind spot in regards to Israel.  Most believe that Israelis somehow conquered a land called Palestine and forced the native Muslim residents to leave.  They can cite Jewish atrocities against their Muslim neighbors and insist that the so-called terrorist attacks are nothing more than brave people fighting back against an overwhelming adversary.

One student went so far as to say Jews were brutally attacked by Germans during World War II and are now turning around and doing the same thing to Palestinians.

I invariably suggest they research the topic   Most ignore basic facts and find something in the literature which supports their belief.  I understand that phenomenon.  A neighbor of mind once adored George Wallace and considered the racist Alabama governor to be the epitome of American politics.  I gave him a lengthy research article on Wallace’s diabolic and hate-filled career.  My neighbor found part of one sentence – which stated that Wallace did not raise taxes in his first term as Alabama governor, but did so disastrously in his second – said he was pleased the reporter was so supportive of his hero.  Many of my Muslim students operate on the same wavelength.

Israel has that kind of effect on many other people, too.  It is seen as some kind of special place.  At one time, Jerusalem was considered the center of the earth.   Even today, in our less-religious times, too many people are just as myopic about the so-called Holy Land.

I felt that way once.   As a teenager, I had a chance to visit Israel with my Sunday School principal Dov Pikelny.  We lost touch over the years after he moved to Massachusetts, but I hope he is still doing well.  We had a wonderful adventure.  

An El Al Boeing 767

His brother was a travel agent then and would invite his brother to fly on some tour whenever extra seats existed.  Mr. Pikelny told my family he was going to Israel on its national airline, El Al.  I was already deeply involved in studying religious history and couldn’t wait to see the famed sights in Israel.  So, I piped up that I’d love to go, too.  Mr. Pikelny thought that was a great idea, and my parents went along.

After some minor misadventures, including the temporary lack of an official birth certificate, I was soon on my way to Israel for seven days of wandering around the country.

What I learned completely changed my feelings toward the country.

First, it is a country, nothing more or less.  It is steeped in history, but so are Egypt, France, Russia and China, among others.  It is not special in any way.  No amount of caterwauling about biblical events will change that.  I know it is a Jewish homeland, but many countries developed as homelands – Hungary for the Magyars, for example.   Besides, many Jews oppose Israel as a Jewish state, pointing out that collecting Jews in one place makes them an easier target.  One rabbi told me that creating Israel could turn out to be the worst thing that ever happened to his people.   Comparing the creation of Israel to the Holocaust is saying something.

Second, the “holy” places are no more sacred than any other places.  In some instances, the sites are nothing more than old building.  In other cases, they are simply given a label that, in reality, is completely inaccurate.   Constantine’s aged mother, Helene, selected many of the honored Christian locales based on her own inspiration.  She wandered around Jerusalem some 300 years after Jesus lived and simply pointed out places she was sure were associated with him.  Later research proved she was invariably wrong.

Wailing Wall

Regardless, there’s nothing special about the locations.  In another context, they would have no meaning what so ever.  The Wailing Wall, for example, is simply a pile of stones with some weeds growing on it.   Its association with the Temple gives it historical meaning, but its sacred aspect exists only in the mind of those who think it carries such a meaning.  In truth, it’s just a wall.

Third, whether or not some person walked there doesn’t matter.  Every inch of the Earth has felt the footprints of someone important.  So what?  We cannot live in the past.  Besides, few of these people were important in their lifetime – Jesus included.  Their footprints were quickly wiped out without a second thought until much later.  

My Arab students instinctively understand that.  Although Jerusalem is the third-most important city in their religion, they view Israel for what it is -- a country with no special distinction.  

More of us need to do that.  We should support Israel as a democracy in the midst of nations dominated by religion, as we should support any nation that shares our political philosophy.  We should respect and honor historical sites, as we do Valley Forge in this country or Shakespeare’s home in England.  

However, as many rabbis this year are doing, we need to focus our attention on reducing partisan rhetoric about a small country that has only known war and bloodshed through the millennia.  Maybe, in time, it will become again the “Land of Milk and Honey.”

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.  He is the author of the famed Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative Religion.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

You can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

Sin Defies Definition

Something’ Smith and the Redheads once sang a song with the following words: 

Be sure it's true when you say “I love you”
It's a sin to tell a lie …

Maybe yes, maybe no.

Everyone thinks he know what sin is, but a quick investigation shows that sin is a confusing mass of illogical and implausible ideas that vary across multiple faiths.  The topic arose because, in the eyes of our religious zealot friends, seemingly everything from expanded health care to unrestricted voting recently has been labeled a “sin.”

Not according to Mordred, King Author’s wayward son, who lists several sins in a song from the Broadway show Camelot: honesty, charity, fidelity and humility that “free and happy little me has not been cursed.”

Other people have different ideas. 

Jews define sin as doing something in defiance of God’s laws, not something against man. There are three types: intentional, uncontrolled and unintentional.  During Jewish High Holy Days later this month, for example, dutiful believers will sit together in synagogues worldwide and ask for forgiveness of sins.

Congregants ask God for atonement for 48 general and specific misdeeds, such as:

For the sin which we have committed before You under compulsion or of our own will,
And for the sin which we have committed before You by hardening our hearts;
For the sin which we have committed before You unknowingly,
And for the sin which we have committed before You with utterance of the lips;
For the sin which we have committed before You by unchastity,
And for the sin which we have committed before You openly or secretly;
For the sin which we have committed before You knowingly and deceitfully,
And for the sin which we have committed before You in speech …

That’s marginally better than relying on the Bible.  Some sins are listed in the 10 Commandments: have no other gods, remember the Sabbath and don’t take God’s name in vain.  Other Commandments, such as not committing murder or coveting something a neighbor owns, are interpersonal and have nothing to do with God.

The Bible contains other commandments, such as sacrificing animals, not wearing clothes with different kinds of threads but with fringes as well as keeping a written prayer in front of your eyes at all times.  No one does any of that.  Have we all sinned?

In the Roman Catholic faith, however, such ideas have no place.  For them, everyone is born with a sin that began when the first humans, Adam, and Eve, were tossed out of the Garden of Eden for defying God’s law.  In that theology, Jesus died to atone for that terrible sin. Moreover, sin requires knowledge and consent of the person sinning, in the Catholic view.

Of course, with hundreds of sects, not all Christians agree.  For example, Evangelical Christians argue that all behaviors not perceived as good are, by definition, sinful. Accidental sins, then, don’t exist.

To help clarify what exactly is a sin, an early Catholic theologian came up with the “seven deadly sins:" pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.  A quick glance shows that almost everyone has violated one or several of those terrible behaviors.

Paul, the prominent advocate for Jesus in the first century, came up with a whole bunch more, ranging from uncleanliness and hatred to drunkenness and thievery.  In fact, his list is so extensive that no one could have avoided violating something on it.

Besides, to Christians, not believing in Jesus is a sin.  That means more than 70 percent of all humans are currently sinning.

In Islam, sinners are simply people who wandered away from Allah’s path, which has been laid out in the sacred book.  That list is pretty extensive, too, ranging from atheism and immorality, depravity and adultery to a general “misdeeds.”

Of course, that depends on who is defining a sin.  A Muslim who converts to Catholicism has committed a misdeed in one faith and made a blessed decision in the other. 

The difficulty of identifying sin expands when the definition changes.  For example, for centuries, Catholics who deliberately ate meat on Friday were condemned for committing a mortal sin.  The bishops of the church abandoned that concept in 1968, making a steak for Friday dinner a minor transgression. 

Hell must have a revolving door.

In reality, sin is simply a human way of restricting actions and binding believers to a single behavioral code.  It has no meaning beyond that.

Go and sin no more, Jesus is quoted as saying (John 8:11).

If it were only that easy in the political realm or everyday life.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.  He is the author of the famed Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative Religion.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

You can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

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American Muslims Fear 9/11 Anniversary

Tomorrow’s 11^th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks naturally will trigger sad memories and heart-felt commemorations.  That’s only natural.  Americans still mark the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese despite the intervening decades.  D-Day, the successful Allied invasion of Europe June 6, 1944, is not forgotten either, even though it happened 68 years ago.

The end of World War I, November 11, 1918, is remembered annually via Veterans Day.

Sometimes, the public forces a memorial.  In the first years after the Kent State shootings, so many people annually gathered on the campus despite opposition from university officials that they conceded and set up an official event every May 4.

These important days are recalled in a variety of ways, including speeches, lying of wreaths on graves, flag waving and the like.  The 9/11 events get an added touch.

Some Americans will use the day to continue their abuse of Muslims living in this country.

More than 2,400 people died at Pearl Harbor

That didn’t happen with Pearl Harbor.  Animosity faded quickly.  Within a couple of years after the war ended, Japan was our ally and has remained a staunch friend.  

That was true with Germany, too, although that country had initiated two massive wars that killed more than 100 million people from 1914 through 1945.  It quickly joined the West as a bulwark against Communist Russia.  Just three years after defeating the Nazis, we were hastily flying in food and supplies to counter the blockade of Berlin.  Starting in 1947, the Marshall Plan pumped billions into devastated Western European countries – former friends and foes -- to help them recover.

Muslims, however, remain victims of repeated verbal and physical attacks.  In addition, mosques have been burned and vandalized.

American Muslims are paying for the deadly efforts of their fellow believers, which raises a serious question: Should we condemn all Christians because James Holmes a 24-year-old former Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado, who recently killed 12 people and wounded 58 during a shooting spree in an Aurora movie theater, is Christian?  In fact, almost all serial killers in the U.S. have been Christian.  Does the sinister activities of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer taint all members of the Church of Christ, where he was re-baptized shortly before being killed in prison?

Buchalter

Are all Jews to blame because Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, who led the murderous portion of the Mafia before his 1944 execution, was Jewish?

No one would accept such nonsense.  The Bible condemns that kind of thinking:  “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.” (Deut: 24:16) “The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.” (Ez: 18:20)

The actions of a handful of terrorists on 9/11 were despicable, no less than those guilty of planning the bombing Pearl Harbor.  

However, there were several difference between the two events.  First, the Muslim attackers all died.  Osama Bin Laden, the head of the terrorist organization behind the attacks, was shot to death by American Special Forces earlier this year.  We had few to prosecute.  Trials of the reported chief organizer, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and several co-defendants aren’t expected to start until next year. The long delay has allowed the anger to fester.

Within three years after World War II ended, six Japanese leaders identified as war criminals were executed.  The same thing happened to German Nazi bigwigs at the 1945-1946 Nuremberg trials.  The relatively quick response helped soothe anger.

Second, the Japanese planned to deliver a crippling blow to this country and prevent us from waging a successful war against them.  As a result, Pearl Harbor constituted an attack on military installations.

The Muslims who hijacked planes had an entirely different agenda.  They resented the intrusion of our freewheeling culture into their society. They felt their core beliefs were being attacked and wanted to strike back.  They flew planes into civilian targets.  To those involved, though, this was a cultural war.

Hiroshima explosion

To many in their society, they were heroes, hitting back against the giant.  The scenes of celebration irked us enormously.  But, those same scenes took place in Japan after Pearl Harbor.  We don’t have any events related to the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki.  The dates of the bombings, however, are still marked with sadness in Japan, but no one there lashes out at Americans at the same time.

Maybe, someday, we’ll realize that the days we commemorate may have a different meaning somewhere else, but that doesn’t require us to attack innocent people who share our memories.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion, religious history and, occasionally, American history. A university instructor, he also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.  He is the author of the famed Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative Religion.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

You can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1