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Many
of us are visual learners. We are obsessed with the power of
images. There is no more powerful way to
learn, than to see something represented visually. And if a still image is powerful, a moving
image is even more powerful. We
consumers tend not to be aware of the range of emotions with which we respond
to images.
One time I had a lesson in this. I had a task to create a four-minute video
for screening at a program with several hundred people present. Taking on the project, I thought it would be
relatively easy. I wrote a script
conveying the message, and gathered more than enough video footage that, I
thought supported the script. And I
gathered all my favourite CD’s with music from which I thought I’d choose a
background score. Relatively easy. And I asked two friends, who worked at the
local TV station, to help me put it together with the equipment at the station.
We did the project, and it came out just
fine, but it wasn’t in any way easy. And
the reason was that, when creating a media presentation, you have to examine
the emotions that you want to evoke in your audience every second of the
running. So I sat there behind the
editing console whilst my two experts went through the script and the video and
the music frame by frame, discussing how the audience might react emotionally
to each new image and each sound and word.
Torah is not about images, still or
moving; it is about narrative and evoking responses through the reading, or
hearing of the text. But sometimes, in
reading a particular portion of text, it helps if we can see a visual representation
of the information conveyed.
You’ve heard me bemoan, a time or two,
about how Israel’s detractors use terrible misrepresentations,
if not outright lies, to paint a picture of a country to be feared and loathed. A country that, uniquely in the world, is oppressive
of people in its own orbit and possessive of other countries’ land. And a good example of the latter is how they
will explain the symbology found on the Israeli national flag. As you know, the flag has a white background,
with a blue Shield of David – a six-pointed star – flanked by two horizontal blue
stripes.
The Shield of David is, of course, a
very popular and powerful symbol of Judaism.
Because it evokes David, it has messianic overtones. It says that we Jews can and will be once
again autonomous under the sovereignty of
God in our land. The evoking of the
Kingship of David, God’s chosen, implies Tikkun
olam bemalchut Shaddai – the perfection of the world under the Kingship of
God. That we Jews, in seeking to
re-establish our homeland, are participating in the effort to bring about an
age that will benefit all of humanity.
That’s why the Shield of David has become the symbol of Judaism.
As to the two blue stripes, those who
seek to delegitimise Israel will tell you that they represent the two great
rivers of the near East: the Euphrates
and the Nile. The implication is that
Israel and her proponents think their state is destined to fill the lands
between the two rivers. And never mind
that Israel, even including any and all disputed territory that she controls,
fills only a tiny portion of that great land expanse. The claim is used to impugn any legitimate
defensive act, by asserting that the country aims to ultimately expend to the
alleged biblical borders. The top half
of the pages I’m passing around right now (and the top of this blog entry) show
the extent that the Jewish state supposedly desires to expand based on this
claim, superimposed over a map of the modern Middle East. The claim is that this is the Biblical Land
of Israel that the modern state seeks to fulfil as its manifest destiny.
But this week’s Torah reading
describes the real Biblical Land of
Israel. The text describes something
quite different from what the assertion and the picture depict. Because I’m a visual learner myself, I sought
and found a visual representative of what we’re about to read this
morning. And there it is, on the bottom half
of the page (and at the bottom of this blog entry). The borders described in the 34th Chapter of
the Book of Numbers have been superimposed over a map of the Near East. And you can see that they’re nothing like the
assertion of Israel’s detractors. They
encompass most, but not all, of the land that comprises the State of Israel
today. And the lands known as the West
Bank, which we Jews tend to refer to as Judaea and Samaria. And most of what today is the State of Lebanon. With a bit of south-western Syria thrown in.
Now let’s dismiss the West Bank for
the moment, if our Palestinian cousins will let us. This is disputed land, never having
legitimately belonged to a state since the early 20th century. It went from being part of the Ottoman
Empire, to being part of British Mandatory Palestine. To being occupied by Jordan without world sanction
from 1948 to 1967. To being occupied by
Israel after the Six Day War. It is now
under a mixture of Israeli security control and a Palestinian civil administration
until such time that Israel and the PA can come to some permanent accommodation. So while it’s true that Israel maintains
partial control over those lands, and there are
Jewish settlements among the Palestinian villages, it’s complicated and is
not the end of the story.
So let’s look at the lands on the map
on the bottom half of the page, which represent what are today other sovereign
countries. It includes almost all of
present-day Lebanon. And let me ask you;
do you believe that Israel wishes to rule over Lebanon? In 1982 Israel fought a war in Lebanon: not against the legitimate government of the
country but against a number of left-wing militias supported by the Soviet
Union and dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state. These militias had carved out a series of
rogue mini-states that were used daily to launch attacks on Israel. For years after the war, the Israeli Army
occupied a swath of Southern Lebanon as a ‘security zone’ but pulled out in the
year 2000. Today, there is a foreign power controlling most of
Lebanon, but it isn’t Israel. It’s
Syria, which has long held that Lebanon is rightfully the 15th province
of the Syrian state. Does Israel have
any interest whatsoever in expanding to include Lebanon? There’s no basis for this irrational fear. Israel has not behaved in any way that could
reasonably be interpreted as confirming the fear of that ambition.
Likewise where Syria is
concerned. Israel has never made any
move overt or covert to occupy or annex any of the heartland of Syria. Yes, Israel occupied and subsequently annexed
the Golan Heights, which used to be part of Syria. But Syria used the Heights repeatedly to
disturb the peace in Israel, using the high ground as a platform for keeping
the Israeli Hula Valley under shellfire.
Israel’s taking over the Golan should be seen as a strategic move to
defend her towns in the north-east. The
inhabitants of the Heights, in any case, were not Syrian Arabs but Druse, an oppressed
minority in Syria…and a protected minority
in Israel.
So there’s no reasonable basis for
believing that Israel desires to expand to cover all the ground between the
Euphrates and the Nile. And in any case,
those are not the borders described in this week’s Torah reading. The far smaller borders shown on the bottom
picture are what is described in today’s Torah reading. And there’s also no basis for believing that
Israel has any intention of trying to rule even the much smaller the lands
shown in that map.
Visual learning is considered one of
the most effective styles of learning.
Because visual representations of information can make that information
more clear. This morning we read a
description of the borders of the Land of Israel in the written Torah. And we saw how these borders would fit in the
modern Middle East. But we also
considered the behaviour of the State of Israel from 1948 until now. I hope you agree with me that there is no logical
case to be made from that history that Israel has any designs on the lands of
Lebanon and Syria. Because there is no logical case to be made. Indeed, there is no case to be made, beyond
the disputed West Bank and the strategic Golan Heights, that Israel has any desire
whatsoever to expand her borders at the expense of neighbouring states. So we can now easily dispute any claim that Israel
is a juggernaut, liable at any moment to swallow up her neighbours. The description, the map, and Israel’s
behaviour to this date prove that it’s just a bunch of rubbish.
And by the way, what is the symbology
of the two horizontal blue stripes on the Israeli flag? They’re meant to represent the stripes of the
tallit, the prayer shawl. Although these garments sport all sorts of
designs today, the traditional design of the tallit is two blue stripes.
These represent that every day in the Morning Service, where the adult
Jew wears a tallit, a prayer is said for
the re-establishment of the Jewish people in the land of Israel. The modern State of Israel was established as
a secular state under a non-ecclesiastical government. But the symbology shows the importance of the
sacred aspect of the quest for a Jewish homeland.
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Why does Israel have so many detractors,
and why would they use such misinformation to spread their false message about
Israel? That’s another drash, for
another day. But the important thing
relative to today’s Torah reading is the falsehood that is perpetrated by the
lies about the symbols on the Israeli flag.
Those who wish to demonise the Jewish state, completely misrepresent the
meaning of the symbols. And they make an
assertion regarding what the Torah says regarding the extent of the Land of
Israel, that is totally false. This week’s
reading gives the real extent of the ‘biblical’
Land of Israel. But any reasonable look
at Israeli history, and the geopolitical situation in the modern Middle East,
shows that Israel has no designs to expand to even those borders. Shabbat
shalom.
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