And so we begin again. Welcome to Torah Thoughts from Adas Israel the Jewish Congregation of Northern Iowa and based in Mason City. This has been a tragic week as the Jewish people in Israel experienced the worst slaughter since the Holocaust. We pray that the lives lost will be remembered and that the family be comforted. That the injured will be healed. We pray that our people will be returned that the young men and women who defend our nation will be safe and will return to their homes. And, yes, we do pray for peace.
Bereshit
This week we begin reading the Torah from "the beginning". The first "book" is Bereshit (which means "In the beginning") and we learn that in six days G-d created everything that we now enjoy. Six...days. And then what did G-d do at the end of the six days? He created Shabbat a day of rest.
Here, in this Parsha we read: In the beginning of G-d's creating the heavens and the earth... G-d blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it He abstained from all His work which G-d created to make
These two verses encompass all of Creation. The opening three words end in the letters taf, aleph, mem, which spell emet – truth, and the closing three words end in aleph, mem, taf, which again spell emet. Rabbi Simchah Bunim of P'shis'che cites the Talmudic statement, “The seal of G-d is emet”, and comments, “It is customary for an author to place his name in the opening of his book. G-d placed His Name emet – truth, in the opening chapter of the Torah. Emet thus envelops all of creation, a testimony to G-d as the Creator.”
Truth...not fabrication.
The Truth of Truth
All things can consist of a matter of degree. There can be greater beauty and lesser beauty, greater wisdom and lesser wisdom, greater strength and lesser strength, etc. Only one trait cannot be more or less: truth. There is no such thing as greater truth and lesser truth. Something is either true or it is not true.
G-d is identified with truth. Just as truth can never be altered, because altered truth is no longer truth, there can be no change in G-d.
Truth Matters
This is why falseness is so damning. Today we are bombarded with untruth. Our social media feeds, the talking heads in the media so often refuse to grasp the truth. Rather they deflect or give their "side" of the story. This is why, when we sit for our Midrash (Study Session) we always, always, say that everything must be in context because when we see the whole story we can understand the truth.
So, let us put into context what is happening today in Israel and specifically Gaza. Nearly twenty years ago in 2005 Israel, in a gesture of peace, pulled out of Gaza. In fact the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) actually pulled Jews out of their homes and resettled them across the border into Israel. It was not pretty and it was by force. Entire cities of 45,000 and more were emptied of Jews...by Jews. And then Israel said to the Arabs...take the land and they did. But first the Arabs destroyed the farms, the cities, the desalinization stations and laid the land to waste.
The people who live there do live in poverty and their lives are crushing and they voted to have Hamas rule over them. And who is Hamas? We have seen who they are this past week and so many times over the years. They want the entire land of Israel free of Jews. It is their motto and their goal and it is pure evil.
I am often asked what must happen to allow Arabs and Jews to live in peace. There is a very simple answer. Just as G-d created our World in six days it would take only six words to bring about peace if only the Arab people could utter them. Those six words? "Israel has a right to exist."
The truth is so very hard to understand it would seem.
A reminder that services will be held on Friday the 20th of October at 7:00PM and our Midrash will take place on Shabbat (21 October) at 10:00AM both events at the shul.
Thank you for reading, Shabbat Shalom and Am Yisrael Chai! You see, we truly are one people.
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