Speaking Out for Vayikra - No Bull!

Leviticus has a reputation for being full of obscure details and outdated rituals.  Parashat Vayikra certainly lives up to this reputation; with all manner of sin offerings and burnt offerings, slaughtered bulls and smouldering wheat cakes, pleasing odours and strewn innards.  But rather than rendering the text irrelevant it presents us with a challenge and motivates us to search for the meaning behind these ancient practices.

If it is the whole community of Israel that has erred and the matter escapes the notice of the congregation, so that they do any of the things which by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, and they realize their guilt - when the sin through which they incurred guilt becomes known, the congregation shall offer a bull of the herd as a sin offering, and bring it before the Tent of Meeting.  (Leviticus XX:13-14)

Blogging the UK Task Force Study Trip in the Negev: Day Four

Day Four: 23/02/2012

"When a stranger dwells within your land, do not vex him."  (Leviticus 19:33)

In 1963 Israeli Minister of Defence, Moshe Dayan, told Haaretz: "We should transform the Bedouin into an urban proletariat.  88% of the Israeli population are not farmers, let the Bedouin be like them. Indeed, this will be a radical move which means that the Bedouin would not live on his land with his herds, but would become an urban person who comes home in the afternoon and puts his slippers on. His children will get used to a father who wears pants without a dagger and who does not pick out their nits in public. This will be a revolution, but it can be achieved in two generations. Without coercion but with governmental direction ... this phenomenon of the Bedouins will disappear."

As we have heard more complementing and conflicting narratives about the issues of the Bedouin communities of the Negev this week, the only thing that has become clearer is that the situation is not clear-cut.   "Man who knows something knows that he knows nothing at all." (Erica Badu)  I understand that I do not even close to understand the legal, political, cultural and socio-economic complexities but I have an uneasy feeling that the disrespectful, colonial attitude expressed by Moshe Dayan in 1963 has permeated Israeli opinion and policy for too long.  I am fearful that the Israeli government may be doing exactly that which is prohibited in the Book of Leviticus; vexing the stranger in its land.  I was pleased then that today we had the opportunity to meet with Cabinet Minister Benny Begin who is responsible under the Netanyahu coalition government for implementing the Prawer Plan.  I appreciate that there is much work to be done within the Bedouin community, both in terms of addressing cultural challenges and developing local empowerment, but today is about considering Jewish/Israeli responsibility. 

Blogging the UK Task Force Study Trip in the Negev: Day Three

Day Three: 22/02/2012

 "A woman of valour, who can find her?  Her worth is above rubies."  (Proverbs 31:10)

 Amal's 8-year old Bedouin daughter asked her to tell her about the Nakba ('disaster', Palestinian term for the Israeli War of Independence).  Amal was reluctant but her daughter insisted so she began to tell her the Palestinian narrative of exile and persecution.  Her daughter cried and cried.  Amal then told her daughter the Jewish narrative of creating a safe homeland and explained what had happened to the Jews in the Holocaust.  Her daughter cried and cried.  Then she stopped crying and said: "Me and Yaniv (her Jewish friend), we are going to stop all this pain."

 Yesterday we heard both Israeli and Bedouin thinkers saying that the answers had to come from within the community.  Today we were able to see a variety of ways in which members of the Bedouin community, predominantly women, are taking that challenge into their own hands, overcoming many barriers to get a decent education and becoming innovative, socially conscious and respected leaders of their community.  These are young adults who are tired of dwelling on the problems and arguing about the conflicts with the government over land.  They are not giving up on their struggle for civil rights and full recognition but they want to construct a better reality for themselves and their children in the meantime.

 

Blogging the UK Task Force Study Trip in the Negev: Day Two

Day Two: 20/02/2012

"She named him Joseph, saying, may God add another son for me."  (Exodus 30:24)

Today we met a young woman who is studying at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.  She comes from a Bedouin village and convinced her parents to support her higher education only by promising to cover her head and keep away from boys.  She has overcome culture shock and language barriers in this new environment that has also made her acutely aware of her own disadvantage; but she is intelligent, confident and determined to get good education.  When she graduates she will return to her village and face the challenge of bridging the two worlds.  She will have to decide which traditional norms to confront and which to accept in return for continued freedom to work and study.  Pursuing a love match or a foreign opportunity would entail her being cut off entirely so she will agree to enter into an arranged marriage and try to juggle a local career with the culturally-expected role of mother to a large family.

During this second day of the UK Task Force Study Trip, we explored social issues and social provision within the Bedouin communities of the Negev.  A panel of healthcare specialists highlighted the high instance of genetic disorders caused by a 50% rate of consanguineous marriages and explained the problems with access to healthcare in the unrecognised villages.  Amny Athamne of Health Care for Mothers and Infants described ways that health promotion initiatives are improving attitudes towards healthcare in the Bedouin community.  Some panel members also expressed the view that most problems in the Bedouin community stem from Bedouin culture itself and that change has to come from within.

Blogging the UK Task Force Study Trip in the Negev: Day One

Day One: 19/02/2012

"Let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply"  (Exodus 1:10)

Connection to the land is not unique to Judaism and conflicts over land are not unique to the Middle East.  From 'Land of Hope and Glory' to 'England's Green and Pleasant Land', most countries have land-based national rhetoric.  In Israel and the Palestinian Territories this connection is entrenched in 3000 years of history, layered with religious implications and strained by on-going conflict.

For many years, I have struggled to understand the complexity of the conflict over the land of the West Bank but, even after living in Israel for three years, I had no awareness of the disputes between the Bedouin and the Israeli government.  So I was thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in the 2012 Study Trip of the UK Task Force on Issues Facing Arab Citizens of Israel, a Jewish organisation that has educational and awareness-raising objectives.

Jewish Outreach on Parashat Yitro?

Parashat Yitro 2009

One of the most powerful experiences of the annual Jewish Christian Muslim conference in Wuppertal happens when the members of the three faiths come together over the three last days of the week and share in each other’s prayer services.  For me, this exercise raises both anxiety about the quality and meaningfulness of our Jewish prayer as well as a kind of spiritual envy of certain elements of the prayer of the other faiths.

What surprised me the most though, was to discover that just as I was inspired by the devotion of the Muslim prayer or by the stillness of the Christian prayer, members of those faiths were equally inspired by the joyfulness of the Jewish prayer or the wholeness of the Jewish Shabbat.   Through their eyes I was able to re-appreciate my own tradition and learn to value what is unique and spiritually meaningful within it.