Not Alone

A short film about Rabbi Arik Ascherman's work with Torah of Justice: https://youtu.be/b8qELiPYBQE?si=DPVAEdYLM4YeAEj5

Dear friends,

The night I was ordained I asked Rabbi Arik Ascherman, who was one of the rabbis on the ordaining rabbinical court, whether he is fearless, or it just looks that way. A few years earlier I had seen a video of him being attacked by an extremist Jewish settler because he was trying to help Palestinian villagers. I've since heard Rav Arik describe this moment, when the settler raised the knife to kill him, but stopped short.  Since then I've seen many other videos of him in harm's way, reports from Israeli jails, pictures of his car's windshield smashed and a host of other scary footage. Despite these many scary moments, he's still going out into the field every day.

"Only a fool is not scared," he answered me then.

Then what keeps driving an American-born Jew to spend days and nights in Palestinian villages under threat, to return over and over again to the courts to seek protection for them from judges who proved long ago they won't provide it, to stand with Bedouins in the Negev whose villages the state won't recognize, to fight for the right of poor Israeli Jews in housing developments to stay in their homes - all causes of varying degrees of hopelessness. If he's scared, knows the reality of these situations too well to have false hopes, and has seen each of them deteriorate tremendously - how does he keep doing it?

I've gotten some answers from him to this question over the years in car rides to the Jordan Valley, or walking some barren field with him as we accompany a shepherd and his goats to grazing, or sitting with him in his stone house in Jerusalem. But none were as clear as what he said last week at the Ha'aretz conference, holding back his tears:

"For so many generations we were alone when they broke our doors open to terrorize us in our homes - what would we not have done in order to not be alone? There is only one thing I can promise these people: you will not be alone."

In this week's parasha we find Jacob filled with fear and dread as he is about to cross over to the West Bank of the Jordan river, right into those grazing fields I walked with Rav Arik. Late at night, when everyone else is asleep, we are told "וַיִּוָּתֵ֥ר יַעֲקֹ֖ב לְבַדּ֑וֹ", "And Jacob was left alone." Too often, Rav Arik is left alone to do what he can to make sure the Palestinian villagers he's trying to protect are not entirely alone. He is working on creating what he calls a non-violent Lincoln Brigade, of people who can spend significant time in Palestinian villages in Area C to stop the violent attacks against them.

"And a figure wrestled with him until the break of dawn," the Torah continues, "וַיֵּאָבֵ֥ק אִישׁ֙ עִמּ֔וֹ עַ֖ד עֲל֥וֹת הַשָּֽׁחַר"

Rav Arik has been wrestling in our name with soldiers and extremist settlers and judges and rabbis and other Jews who live by an abhorrent version of our faith tradition. He did it for twenty years as the head of Rabbis for Human Rights, and now he does it as the director of Torah of Justice.

Tonight, we are incredibly fortunate to welcome Rav Arik as he joins us for Shabbat, where he will share his stories and his hopes with us. It's a rare opportunity to hear from a legendary activist from the tradition of the prophets of Israel. 

I hope you can join Rav Arik and me at 6:45pm at the 14th Street Y for music, prayer, stories and conversation. Let's wrestle together this Shabbat. 

Shabbat shalom, 
Rabbi Misha