- 5785/2024
- Rabbi Eshel
- Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur 5785/2024
Rabbi David Eshel
Resnick Family Campus
Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Los Angeles
I love my cousin Jacob… Growing up, he was my best friend. In my eyes he could do no wrong…everything he did was the best…he was the fastest, the strongest, the smartest, the funniest…everyone loved Jacob. Jacob was the kid we all wanted to be around the kid we all just wanted to be. But as we grew older, things started to change, our relationship started to change, I started to change, he started to change, at least I thought so…perhaps he was always like this and I just didn’t know, or didn’t see it. Yes he was smart and he worked hard but sometimes people I didn’t know and he didn’t know accused him of lying and cheating. He was fast and strong and he protected me from bullies but often people he was protecting me from then accused him of being a bully. But I loved him because he was my family and he was my friend. And yet, as the years went by we grew apart, I just kept hearing things about him and it confused me. I was hearing it from friends, I was hearing it from people I trusted. I saw him less and less…he didn’t come around much anymore and I didn’t seek him out either. I have to imagine the gossip and accusations were getting to him and instead of talking to him about it, I stayed quiet. Once a year I would send a card on his birthday and he on mine…sometimes not even that much… but I would still hear about him… his accomplishments, his success in business, in science in technology…he was doing things few could even imagine, he was changing the world, changing it for good…and I was proud… yet I still heard the noise that he was mean, and confused, and scared, and angry…and I couldn’t take it anymore…I needed to reach out and reconnect to my family… to love him and to help him… to let him know I am here that I am proud of him and if he was hurting, I would help…and to let him know that I know…he is not superhuman but rather human with flaws and challenges and loves and goodness and I am here for him because I know who he can be…and to sayI’m sorry. I’m sorry I listened to others instead of asking and listening and talking to him…and I know as much as Jacob needs me, I need him. He is a part of me and I him no matter how much I used to deny it or ignore it, it is true. We are forever connected. Sound familiar? It should because Jacob is your family too. But you know him by another name… You know Jacob as Israel.
As we gather here on this day of Yom Kippur we stand together as a community, reflecting on our lives, reflecting on our choices, and envisioning our path forward. Today, both personally and communally, I challenge us to explore, examine, and engage with our relationship with Israel, specifically what Rabbi Dr. Laura Novak winer calls the tension between Ahavat Yisrael (the love of Israel) and Yediat Yisrael (intimately knowing Israel).
This tension is not merely academic; it is something that affects our families, our community, and our future. Many of our young people—our college students, our future leaders—are grappling with their relationship with Israel in ways that are causing us…me… real fear. They are questioning what they were taught, and in their eyes, did not prepare them for the complexity of the Israel they now see and hear about. We are bombarded with images, and half truths, hotwired emotion, twisted stories, and outright lies… and not just by their peers and our peers but leaders who they’ve trusted and we’ve trusted. We are all caught in a web of noise and confusion across a spectrum of antisemitism, often without even realizing it. So, it is essential, we address with the depth it deserves.
Ahavat Yisrael, the love of Israel, is a fundamental value in Judaism. It is the love of our people, our history, our shared destiny. This love has sustained us through centuries of exile, persecution, and yearning. For the vast majority of Jews, Ahavat Yisrael extends naturally to the modern State of Israel, as the fulfillment of 2000 years of prayers and dreams. The existence of Israel is a source of pride, a foundation of Jewish sovereignty, culture, and strength.
However, when we speak of Ahavat Yisrael in the context of the State of Israel, we need to be clear and complete. When we teach our children only about the accomplishments of Israel—the miraculous victories, the technological innovations, the thriving culture, this narrative…while inspiring, is in-complete. It is a love that does not honor the full reality of Israel, a love that does not engage with the complexities and challenges and dangers and threats that the real Israel faces everyday.
Some might argue that focusing on the positive is essential for fostering Ahavat Yisrael, especially among young people. I was one of them. I feared that if we exposed them to Israel’s bumps and bruises and scars, to complicated questions, we… I… might weaken, or God forbid destroy, their connection to the Jewish state. But is a love that cannot withstand the whole picture a love that will last?...a love that will endure? Is it fair to our children to shield them from a full picture, only for them in the future to potentially feel confused or even deceived when they encounter reality on their own?
Yediat Yisrael—truly knowing Israel—requires courage. It requires us to teach not just the inspiring moments, but also the difficult ones… It means engaging with Israel’s history, its politics, its society, in all its vibrant complexity all age appropriately of course! This is not about undermining Israel or diminishing our love for it. On the contrary, Yediat Yisrael is about deepening that love through knowing and understanding.
Knowing Israel means exploring its creation, understanding the wars fought in its defense, and acknowledging an ongoing conflict with the Palestinians, and many of Israel’s neighbors. Our people are fighting and defending themselves on 7 fronts….It means recognizing the rich diversity within Israeli society—the Ashkenazi and Sephardi, the secular and religious, the Jewish and Arab and non-Arab citizens of Israel—and the tensions that exist between these groups and sub-groups..
Some might worry that by teaching this fuller picture, we are giving ammunition to those who seek to delegitimize Israel, to those who are anti-Zionist, antisemitic. And let’s not fool ourselves… Jews among them…But the opposite is true. When we do not teach Yediat Yisrael, when we do not equip ourselves and our children with the full story, we leave ourselves vulnerable. We leave ourselves unprepared to engage in the debates that are happening on college campuses, in the media, all around us and all over the world. If we feel we were not given a complete picture, this can lead to the rejection of Israel entirely, or worse, indifference to its fate. I refuse to allow that to happen. Yediat Yisrael does not weaken Ahavat Yisrael; it makes it stronger. It allows us to love Israel not as an abstract ideal, but as a real, complex, and perfectly imperfect nation. It allows us to be proud of Israel’s accomplishments while also helping to work through its challenges. And most importantly, it allows us to be part of the ongoing conversation about Israel’s future.
Today we are caught between two forms of antisemitism, which Rabbi Jonathan Sacks refers to as Chanukah antisemitism and Purim antisemitism. Chanukah antisemitism, like the Hellenists vs. the Maccabees, seeks to erase our Jewish identity, to assimilate us into a broader culture that denies our uniqueness. Purim antisemitism, like the plot of Haman, seeks our actual physical death and destruction, just because of who we are.
Today, Chanukah antisemitism, especially for our college students, manifests in the pressure to conform to a certain ideological perspective, to distance themselves from Israel in order to fit into the broader progressive movement. They are pressured to deny the unique bond between Jews and Israel, to see Israel not as the fulfillment of Jewish aspirations, but as some colonialist enterprise. Sure you can be one of us, but it also means you can no longer be one of them… or in other words…you can no longer be you.
Purim antisemitism, on the other hand, is the overt hatred and violence against Jews, now justified under the guise of anti-Zionism. It is the demonization of Israel and, by extension, of all Jews, leading to violent antisemitism around the world…and on the streets of Los Angeles.... And our history has proven time and time and time again… Chanukah antisemitism always leads to Purim antisemitism.
So we are pressured to conform to one while being targeted by the other. And … if we feel we do not have the tools to know Israel, when we feel we only know part of the story, we are left vulnerable to all of these pressures.
So,what do we do? What is the path forward? How do we balance Ahavat Yisrael, our love of Israel, and Yediat Yisrael, truly and intimately knowing Israel in a way that prepares us and maybe more importantly our young people, to engage with the world, to stand up for Israel, and to do so with a foundational integrity?
We teach the full story of Israel. This means teaching the 3000 year old history of Zionism, the wars of 1948, 1967,1973, 82, 06 the peace process, and the ongoing conflict. It means teaching about the diversity of Israeli society, the challenges Israel faces, and the efforts towards peace. It means teaching the beauty and the accomplishments and the challenges and shortcomings…the bumps and bruises. We foster a love of Israel that is rooted in reality. This is a love that withstands criticism, that can acknowledge flaws, and engage in complicated conversations. It is a love that is deepened by knowledge, not threatened by it. And thus prepares us to engage with the world, to stand up to antisemitism in all its forms, and to do so with confidence and pride in our Jewish identity. ….And, clearly, of course… we visit Israel. We meet the people, we make new friends, we connect with old friends and family, we ask questions, we listen, we laugh, we argue, we eat, we love. As we move through Israel, Israel will move through us. I believe Ahavat Yisrael and Yediat Yisrael are not mutually exclusive. Loving Israel means knowing Israel, and knowing Israel means loving it in all its colorful nuance and complexity. This is the foundation of a relationship with Israel that is strong, enduring, and real.
As we stand here on Yom Kippur, reflecting on our lives, our community, and our future, let us remember that true unconditional love—whether for a person, a people, or a nation—is not blind. True unconditional love is a love that sees, that knows, that engages, that endures. May we all be blessed with such a love for Israel, and may it guide us in the year to come. Am Yisrael Chai.
G’mar Chatimah Tovah.