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| NSA Headquarters, Ft G G Meade Maryland |
An agency of the US Government, for which I used to work, has been
in the news a lot lately. It is called
the NSA. The initials stand for
‘National Security Agency.’ The NSA is
an agency so secretive that, until recently, most Americans did not even know
of its existence. Everybody knew the
name and the identity of the CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency, which is
much maligned in books, media and film.
The evil, or at least bumbling, CIA field officer is almost a trope in
espionage and military story-telling. The
CIA is a ‘villain’ that we love to hate.
But until recently, the NSA had managed to stay largely out of the
public eye. Its mission is signals
intelligence: electronic snooping. Nothing particularly exciting or glamorous about
that.
In 1982 James
Bamford published a book exposing the NSA, called The Puzzle Palace. Bamford had been a military cryptologist
briefly, during the Vietnam War, before going on to earn a law degree and then
working as an investigative reporter. The
book’s title is an affectionate nickname by which NSA employees used to call
their agency. Nowadays, they just call
it ‘The Fort.’
The book was a
mild success. It was a popular joke at
the time that more copies were sold to employees of the NSA, and military
personnel stationed there, than to the general public. That’s because the NSA was so secretive, and
so compartmented, that most of us who worked there lacked much of a ‘big
picture’ of what the agency did.
The agency is now
far more familiar worldwide thanks to the recent disclosures by Edward Snowdon
who continues to hide from prosecution in Russia. I think that the US government shouldn’t
pressure the Russians to give him up. Spending
the rest of one’s lifetime as a ‘guest’ of the Russian government seems like a
far more onerous prospect than a period as a ‘guest’ of the US Department of
Justice. I haven’t spent time in Russia,
but I did work for the DOJ as a prison chaplain. Trust me on this one!
So now many of
the NSA’s once-shadowy operations are laid bare for the world to see, and the
world is not happy about it. A
revelation that has caused particular consternation among US allies is that the
NSA routinely monitors the mobile phones of world leaders. The Germans were recently in a tizzy about
the prospect that Premier Angela Merkel’s mobile might have been one of them.
Reaction in
Israel was much more sanguine. Meh! Who cares!
Countries monitor one another!
I laughed when I read that, because I used to monitor Israeli
communications for the NSA. People who
knew, would ask me if I was conflicted on my job, but I wasn’t. As we used to blithely say: In God we trust…all others, we monitor. And yes, even Israel!
In this week’s
Torah portion, we see Jacob behaving in a similar spirit. Returning to Canaan after a 14-year absence,
he has sent spies ahead. As we remember,
when he went to Haran he was fleeing his brother’s wrath. And Esau had every reason to be of a
fratricidal mindset, given that Jacob had twice connived to get what belonged
to Esau by birthright. The spies
reported back that Esau was coming out to meet Jacob, with 400 men accompanying
him. Tradition understands that this
represented specifically a military formation:
Esau was coming to meet his brother with malevolent intent. And Jacob clearly understood this as well,
immediately taking as he did a defensive posture.
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| Jacob greets Esau |
Jacob has grown
and matured during his exile in Haran, his servitude to his father-in-law, and
his ‘acquisition’ of two wives and starting a large family. He still has his flaws, but he has learned to
trust in God.
He has also
learned that he must make peace with his brother. As difficult as it will be, he must march up
to his brother and take the initiative that might make it possible for them to
live in the same land. He knows that he
is supposed to live and raise his family in the Promised Land. He understands that it is God’s will that his
progeny will inherit this land. And he
knows that the only way to make this happen, is to make peace with Esau. Whom he fears.
So he sends
spies to scope out Esau’s intent.
Because he trusts God. But all
others, he monitors.
Told
unequivocally of Esau’s murderous intent, Jacob realises that he must
nevertheless complete the assignation and face his brother. But he cannot trust him. So he assumes a defensive posture. And then he makes exaggerated gestures of obeisance
to Esau. Because again, the fulfilment
of his destiny requires it. But he’s not
trusting Esau. For all his faults, Jacob
is not an utter fool.
So he meets
Esau and greets him deferentially. And
then he deflects Esau’s suggestions that the two proceed together. He manages to diplomatically demur from the
escort, fearing that it will ultimately lead to an ambush. Because he trusts in God. But all others, and especially his brother
with whom his relationship has been problematic, he holds at arm’s length.
It’s an
important lesson for us to learn. We
should make peace with our enemies. We
should keep the peace with our friends.
But we should never be embarrassed to hold people at arm’s length, at
least until we have strong evidence that their intent is only positive and
beneficial. And this is a difficult
lesson to learn.
Just the other
day, I opened up to someone and then later regretted it. It doesn’t matter who, or what the subject
was. I simply let my guard down, and the
result was not positive. Most of us do
this all the time. We fundamentally want
to be able to trust people completely.
And we believe that not trusting people indicates some kind of character
flaw on our part. So we open ourselves
to undesired result by trusting people more than we should. Even when, in the back of our mind, we sense
that the person is not a complete ally.
But we treat them so, in the hope that they will be so.
Jacob has
clearly learnt this lesson. He has learnt
it, in part from his own behaviour.
He, himself has not acted in a trustworthy manner, and as a result he
hurt his brother. And he has also been
on the receiving end of trickery, from his father-in-law. So he has learnt this important lesson. He must make peace with Esau. But that doesn’t mean he must trust Esau. All reason argues against that idea.
Let us also
learn this lesson. Love your
neighbour. Assume good intent on his
part when there’s no evidence to the contrary.
But don’t be embarrassed to hold him at arm’s length until you’re really
sure. It does not help to
unnecessarily open yourself to being somehow hurt. The next time, you’ll hold the person
at far more than arm’s length. Trust in
God. All others, view with just a drop
of healthy cynicism. Shabbat shalom.
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