Approaching Rock Bottom (in our Torah portion, entering Av, and in Gaza)

This Shabbat's Torah portion -- the double parasha of Matot-Masei -- raises questions and topics that feel both contemporary and extraordinarily troubling.

One famous issue emerges in Numbers 32, when the heads of the tribes of Reuben and Gad propose settling permanently on the east side of the Jordan River rather than crossing over into the land on the west side of the Jordan with the other ten Israelite tribes. Moses asks: “Are your brothers to go to war while you stay here? Why will you turn the minds of the Israelites from crossing into the land that Adonai has given them?" (Num. 32:6-7). Ultimately, a deal is reached and the Gadites and Reubenites agree to settle their "children, wives, flocks and livestock" east of the river and then send their military-aged men across to fight alongside the rest of the Israelites in their conquest of the land. Thus, unity is preserved in the end... but along the way, the text still manages to raise a serious set of questions about what happens when different factions of the people have divergent interests, different geographies, and disparate perspectives. 

These are clearly questions that we continue to grapple with in the 21st century: how do we balance between creating unity and a sense of shared identity while still valuing and honoring our diversity? I am ever-interested in probing these questions -- for us as an American Jewish community, as they manifest in Israeli society, and in thinking about what it means to be part of the Jewish people world-wide -- and I hope that many of us will have the opportunity to delve deeper in exploring them together when we travel to Israel/Palestine together in 2026 (stay tuned for details - I'm very much hoping we can make another Kavana-Mishkan "Multiple Narratives" tour happen early next year!).

Next, an even more profound and disturbing question comes up in the previous chapter, when God speaks to Moses and commands him, saying, “Avenge the Israelite people on the Midianites; then you shall be gathered to your kin” (Num. 31:2). In other words, before Moses dies, he is assigned one final task: to completely obliterate the Midianite people. (*It's not lost on me that Moses's wife Tziporah is a Midianite... and I'm still mulling over the complex psychodynamics at play here.) The battle that ensues sounds brutal. The Israelites take to the field and, according to the text, slay every Midianite male, including the kings of Midian and even the prophet Bilaam. They destroy Midianite towns by fire, seize herds and flocks as booty, and take women and non-combatants captive. Even after this, Moses becomes angry with his commanders that they have spared the females, and demands that they kill all of the remaining adult women. Finally, the booty and spoils of war are divided up -- including animals, gold, and even human beings. It's a truly horrific text!

In a piece entitled "Should the Genocide of the Midianites be Kept in Torah?," Rabbi Arthur Waskow does not mince words. He calls Numbers 31 "the most horrifying and disgusting chapter of Torah," and writes, "If you can read it without puking, wash out your mouth and your brain." Then, however, he goes on to argue that this awful chapter plays a critical role in the Torah, making it clear that no people is immune from having the capacity to commit genocide. Connecting the dots to the present, Waskow writes: "So this means, if someone accuses you of genocide, instead of dismissing the charge out of hand, investigate. Listen to the evidence. If you are even on the edge, not in the hellish stew, step back. Take steps to make sure you are not even close."

Waskow - a rabbi, activist, and Jewish Renewal leader - is a voice on the left end of the American Jewish community who has a decades-long history of speaking critically about the actions of the Israeli government. But/and, this year, he is far from alone in his interpretation of this parasha; I am starting to feel the ground shift across the entire American Jewish spectrum. This past Sunday, the Halachic Left Forum held a conference in New York; this group says it is working "to change the conversation on Israel/Palestine in traditionally observant Jewish communities" (which tend to skew right). A pair of opinion pieces in today's Forward illustrate this as well: Rabbi Jill Jacobs (who attended JTS with me and is the CEO of T'ruah, a rabbinic human rights organization) asks "Gaza is Starving. Where are the American Jewish Leaders?", while Orthodox rabbinical student Shuly Fruchter asserts "Starvation is a Moral Test for Zionists. We're Failing." I'm well aware that the term "genocide" is loaded, and that's not a fight I particularly wish to engage; regardless of what we call it, I think most of us can agree that the reality on the ground in Gaza is horrendous, and should be morally unacceptable for those of us who prioritize Jewish values such as compassion and human dignity for all. Hard as it is to see, we cannot look away.

Yesterday, in the wake of widespread reports from humanitarian aid organizations about mass starvation in Gaza, three rabbis circulated "A Letter from Rabbis Worldwide," aiming to collect signatories from across all denominations and from around the world. I was pleased to sign the letter last night, as an individual/ representing only myself. Although I don't often do this, I am pasting its full text below, as I know that many of you are wrestling with the same set of moral issues I am and I think that some of this language may feel helpful to many of you. (Personally, if anything, I think this letter errs on the side of being too generous to Israel. No group letter is ever a 100% fit for every individual who signs; the power lies in coming together, and this is one I feel overall very good about adding my signature to.) 

[As I wade into this topic -- hands down the single thorniest issue for our community at the moment -- I want to remind everyone that Kavana is committed to pluralism as a value; I believe it is a great strength of our community that we can hold a wide range of religious beliefs and political viewpoints, engage in real and respectful dialogue across difference, and still be in community together. So, whether you feel totally aligned with my thinking and the text of this letter, or you have substantively different views -- whether to my left or my right -- please know that you are welcome here, and I am always happy to be in further conversation on these topics.]

Finally, this Shabbat also marks Rosh Chodesh Av, the beginning of the month in which we mark the destruction of the Temple in ancient times. As my colleague Rabbi Josh Feigelson of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality wrote last week, "There's a case to be made that the High Holiday season started--at least, perhaps, in exhibition games--last week, with the 17th of Tammuz... At this point in the journey we are, perhaps, going down in order to ascend ("yeridah l'tzorech aliyah," as the Hasidim put it)--en route to the depths of the 9th of Av, and then slowly ascending through Elul to Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot."

I think he states it nicely: as our calendar approaches Tisha B'Av, we find ourselves descending spiritually. This image certainly resonates for me this week as I confront the moral morass and bleak landscape of Gaza. As we continue to move through the weeks and months to come, it is my sincere hope that this moment will represent rock bottom in our arc, and that from here, our outcry, our will, and our desire to change the awful reality using every tool at our disposal will indeed put us on a trajectory of ascent, renewal and uplift. I continue to believe that someday, we human beings have the capacity to ensure that no one is living in ruins and starvation, to shape a world in which there is peace, justice, dignity, and safety for every human being. Inspired by the negative example of the war Moses is commanded to wage upon the Midianites in this week's parasha, let us commit to working to bring that world into fruition.

Shabbat Shalom, 

Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum

A Letter from Rabbis Worldwide

The Jewish People face a grave moral crisis, threatening the very basis of Judaism as the ethical voice that it has been since the age of Israel’s prophets. We cannot remain silent in confronting it.

As rabbis and Jewish leaders from across the world, including the State of Israel, we are deeply committed to the wellbeing of Israel and the Jewish People.

We admire Israel’s many and remarkable achievements. We recognise, and many of us endure, the huge challenges the State of Israel relentlessly confronts, surrounded for so long by enemies and facing existential threats from many quarters. We abhor the violence of such nihilistic terrorist organizations as Hezbollah and Hamas. We call on them immediately to release all the hostages, held for so long captive in tunnels in horrendous conditions with no access to medical aid. We unequivocally support the legitimacy of Israel’s battle against these evil forces of destruction. We understand the Israeli army’s prioritization of protecting the lives of its soldiers in this ongoing battle, and we mourn the loss of every soldier’s life.

But we cannot condone the mass killings of civilians, including a great many women, children and elderly, or the use of starvation as a weapon of war. Repeated statements of intention and actions by ministers in the Israeli government, by some officers in the Israeli army, and the behaviour of criminally violent settler groups in the West Bank, often with police and military support, have been major factors in bringing us to this crisis. The killing of huge numbers of Palestinians in Gaza, including those desperately seeking food, has been widely reported across respectable media and cannot reasonably be denied. The severe limitation placed on humanitarian relief in Gaza, and the policy of withholding of food, water, and medical supplies from a needy civilian population contradict essential values of Judaism as we understand it. Ongoing unprovoked attacks, including murder and theft, against Arab populations in the West Bank, have been documented over and over again.

We cannot keep silent.

In the name of the sanctity of life, of the core Torah values that every person is created in God’s image, that we are commanded to treat every human being justly, and that, wherever possible, we are required to exercise mercy and compassion;

In the name of what the Jewish People has learnt bitterly from history as the victim, time and again, of marginalisation, persecution and attempted annihilation;

In the name of the moral reputation not just of Israel, but of Judaism itself, the Judaism to which our lives are devoted,

We call upon the Prime Minister and the Government of Israel

To respect all innocent life;

To stop at once the use and threat of starvation as a weapon of war;

To allow extensive humanitarian aid, under international supervision, while guarding against control or theft by Hamas;

To work urgently by all routes possible to bring home all the hostages and end the fighting; To use the forces of law and order to end settler violence on the West Bank and vigorously investigate and prosecute settlers who harass and assault Palestinians;

To open channels of dialogue together with international partners to lead toward a just settlement, ensuring security for Israel, dignity and hope for Palestinians, and a viable peaceful future for all the region.

‘I am a Jew because our ancestors were the first to see that the world is driven by a moral purpose, that reality is not a ceaseless war of the elements, to be worshipped as gods, nor history in a battle in which might is right and power is to be appeased. The Judaic tradition shaped the moral civilisation of the West, teaching for the first time that human life is sacred, that the individual may not be sacrificed for the mass, and that rich and poor, great and small, are all equal before God.’ Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Radical Then, Radical Now (London 2000).

Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg (London), Rabbi Arthur Green (Boston), and Rabbi Ariel Pollak (Tel Aviv)

[signed by 700+ additional rabbis and counting...]