May 22nd: Bemidbar
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Though the Book of Numbers deals with lots of subjects, it is called “Numbers” because its first story is of an ancient census. God instructs, and the Israelites do a count of Israelite men who are suitable for military service.
We usually think of a census as counting everyone, but the census in Numbers was only for men—a fact that rankles those of us who believe in egalitarianism. In fact, since women were not counted—and their stories generally not told in our ancient texts, Rabbi Dr. Carole B. Balin has worked up a series of alternative stories in Numbers—the women’s view—that she will be presenting for the next several weeks on the Union for Reform Judaism’s weekly Torah commentary. If you would like to read Professor Balin’s commentary, go to URJ.org and scroll down until you see “This Week’s Torah Portion.” Her goal is to represent those who were not counted.
For every set of statistics or opinion polls, there are multiple interpretations. It is one thing to have the numbers, but another thing to figure out what they mean. In the case of the Biblical census, the assumption was that 600,000 fighting men would be sufficient to take the Promised Land. However, as we shall read in a few weeks (Parshat Shelach Lecha), Israeli’s 600,000 fighting men did not have the heart to do God’s work, and we were thus forced to wander in the desert for forty years. They had the numbers, but the meaning of the numbers was not so clear.
In the Jewish world today, we have similar questions about what numbers mean. In Israel’s last three elections—conducted over the last year and without a clear majority or even a working coalition, the struggle has not been between the Labor Party—Israel’s founding party and the stalwart of the Left—and Likkud, Menachem Begin’s, Yitzchak Shamir’s, Ariel Sharon’s and now Benjamin Netanyahu’s Right-Wing party. No. The Labor Party has receded into obscurity, and the entire political debate is taking place Right-of-Center. The main rival to Likud has been another Right-Wing party, Kachol Lavan (Blue and White), led by former General Benny Gantz.
Many of us think of Israel in terms of its great Labor Party tradition—with heroes like David ben Gurion, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Yitzchak Rabin, and Shimon Peres, but that party has receded to a point of insignificance in real political deliberation and power. Why? The prevailing opinion is because of the failure of the Left’s peace efforts over the last forty years. After the Second Intifada and the continuing terrorist attacks from Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, most Israelis have despaired of peace with the Arabs in the near future and are hunkering down with the political Right as the best hope for national survival.
With this ascendancy of the Right, there are lots of issues and values at stake. Among them is religious freedom and civil liberties for non-Orthodox Jews. The Chief Rabbinate has a complete monopoly over religious life, and the Orthodox minority (only some 20%) has fueled opposition to a variety of civil liberties such as gender equality and LGBT rights. These are the numbers. What do they mean for our idealistic vision of the Jewish State?
I recently heard a talk about these issues from Rabbi Uri Regev, head of Hiddush, an organization dedicated to religious freedom in Israel. I’ve known Rabbi Regev for many decades—since we were co-counselors at summer camp back in the 1972. He is a lawyer and a Reform Rabbi and has been at the forefront of civil liberties efforts in Israel for many years—leading the Israel Religious Action Center and the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
When he looks at the numbers—at the shift from a balanced electorate to a decidedly Right Wing polity, he sees a surprise in the details. While the vast majority of Israelis are voting Right, they are doing so strictly for security reasons and not to endorse the Right’s traditional social policies. This is the significance of Benny Gantz and his Kachol Lavan Party. His supporters—the same number as Netanyahu’s—want the former General to shepherd Israel through its security challenges, but they are overwhelmingly supportive of religious freedom for Reform and Conservative Jews, gender equality and feminism, and LGBT rights. They want a safe society, but they want a tolerant and kind society, too. That’s why they did not vote for Netanyahu who has based his power on pandering to the ultra-Orthodox. They voted for a Right-Wing alternative, and the latest National Unity Government has Gantz and his Kachol Lavan party as partners with Likud—with Gantz as Vice-Prime Minister now and slated to become Prime Minister in the Fall of 2021.
Though the Ultra Orthodox (Haredim) and Religious Zionists get a lot of attention, the fact is that they constitute only some 20% of Israel’s Jewish population. The other 80% of Israelis are secular, traditional non-Orthodox, or Progressive, and these Israelis overwhelmingly support tolerance and religious freedom.
Rabbi Regev believes that the current power sharing agreement has the ability to protect and extend religious freedom and other civil liberties IF Gantz can successfully exert power within the coalition. The coalition agreement affirms principles of civil liberties and religious tolerance and gives him and his party veto power over efforts to pander to the Ultra-Orthodox. However, Netanyahu sees the ultra-Orthodox parties as important political supporters, and there have already been some opening salvos in this burgeoning intra-government battle.
Rabbi Regev and his Hiddush organization (www.hiddush.org) and a large number of Israelis believe that pressure from American Jews can help bolster the Israelis who believe in civil liberties and help the Blue and White party to do what its own charter promises. We are being invited to participate; we are being invited to be part of the count.