EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
A Heartfelt Encounter
felt heartened last Shabbat. For the moment, any-
way, I no longer was hardened from the challenges
of the workweek or the dangers confronting our
brethren in Israel.
It was a time to rewind and reaffirm that somehow good-
ness would ultimately prevail against life's hurdles through
prayer, courage and strength.
My motivation was a Shabbat message from the president
of the Bloomfield Township-based Michigan Board of
Rabbis, Paul Yedwab.
In a simple but stirring way, he talked about .how, in deal-
ing domestically with "the threat of mass
destruction, the fear for our kids, the terri-
ble poverty, the pain in dealing with the
bad economy, the potential war with Iraq,
and the issue of civil rights and its impact
on our nation, I feel my heart is hardened."
He said he was finding it harder to feel
empathy toward others in the wake of the
troubled times in which we now live.
ROBERT A.
I related to what he was saying as he told
SKLAR
of personal discovery, upheaval and change
Editor
against the backdrop of post 9-11 America.
He said he felt heartened by more youths
embracing patriotism and becoming more caring, by more
people of all ages tapping into spirituality and by
continued advances in technology, medicine, toxic-
waste control and oil production.
"This is what Shabbat is really about -- to
become heartened rather than hardened," he said.
"The rest of the week is to harden. Shabbat is our
day to hearten."
care. The situation here is not normal. So you may have to
react not normally. Anxiety or depression may be more
`emotional,' but is very one-dimensional. Other emotions
are lost."
Israelis haven't lost the ability to love or reach out, Uzieli
said, "but our hearts have become coarser toward the people
who are seen as enemies. We are also more distanced from
our own losses. It is a defense mechanism, and not a bad
way to cope."
He was saying that Israeli hearts, still capable of love,
have turned coarse — hardened by the ruthlessness of their
neighbors in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Standing With Israel
Notably, Israelis haven't lost their love for Am Yisrael (the
People of Israel) and Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) as
they've struggled to steel themselves from the savagery of
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Israelis not only have faced Palestinian terror, but also
their nation's response to it, including political assassina-
tions and military strikes.
The bottom line, Rabbi Yedwab said, is that Israelis have
been coaxed into a regional war they didn't want.
ainst this backdrop, Shabbat provides a unique chance
to refocus priorities and reinvigorate both mind and body.
It's a time for introspection — and to be warmed
by the light of Torah.
That's why this holiest of days is such an ideal -
time not only to understand what hardens us, but
also take stock of what heartens us.
For example, American Jews can't possibly feel the
anguish of Israelis. We can sense their plight, but
we aren't directly vulnerable to mindless aggressors
Heart And Soul
taught at an early age that Jews are vermin to be
Rabb i Yedwab erased and that martyrdom ensures passage to a
Recounting the story of Creation, Rabbi Yedwab
said God commanded that we rest on the seventh
more fulfilling life.
day — that we cease from labor and become
But as Rabbi Yedwab suggests, we can "commit
"souled." As a result, he said, we "become happy, more sen-
ourselves to a process that allows ourselves to be more open,
sitive to those around us, more open to other people, more
more loving, more gracious and more caring — to be more
caring to the world of the less fortunate and more able to
heartened — in this community, with our families and, one
feel our heart, joy, love, opportunity and hope."
day, with all the world."
The rabbi related how, in biblical times, Pharaoh's heart
Amid such hope, however, we must also keep battling the
had been hardened by each new plague. "I really believe
lack of support we face as the Jewish people.
that Pharoah had an opportunity during each and every
Sadly, Arab Americans who also call metro Detroit home
plague to have his heart heartened instead of hardened,"
don't have the heart to stand with the Jewish community in
said Rabbi Yedwab, a spiritual leader at Temple Israel in
expressing outrage at the Palestinian bombing attacks on
West Bloomfield.
Israeli civilians, or to publicly acknowledge Israel's right to
With each plague, he said, Pharaoh had the wherewithal
assure its borders are safe and secure. In this light, the good-
to change, to "maybe react with a little more generosity, a
will gestures we've made toward the Arab American corn-
little more responsibility, a little more courage and, at the
munity ring hollow. We'd be wiser to spend more time
last minute, reverse himself and have his heart heartened."
advocating for Israel and less of it on courting a community
Keying on that idea of a "coarse" heart, Rabbi Yedwab
that will not condemn Palestinian terror against Jews.
cited a story in the Jan. 3 issue of the Forward, a New York
We as American Jews must coarsen our hearts toward
City-based national Jewish newspaper, about the emotional
people of Arab descent who teach their young to kill Jews
state of Israelis now 27 months into a second wave of
in hopes of reclaiming Israel or who support such horror by
Palestinian terrorism. The wave has claimed at least 720
not denouncing the murderers who have hijacked Islam.
Israeli and foreign lives by way of suicide bombings, sniper
We must recognize, as Israelis do, that peace is a pipe
attacks and other violent acts.
dream as long as Islamic militants are in control of the
In the Forward story, social psychologist Saar Uzieli, clini-
Palestinian people. Destroying the Jewish state is the goal of
cal director of NATAL, the Israel Trauma Center for
Arafat and his followers. To that end, they will try to take
Victims of Terror and War, which treats both Jews and
the Jewish homeland by any means. We shouldn't be fooled
Arabs, disagreed with the premise that Israelis have resorted
by tactics designed to make us think they oppose terrorism.
to indifference to cope.
In the case of Palestinian terror, the more hardened
"Indifference is descriptive, but it is not at the base of
world Jewry's response is, the better, at least in my view.
what we are seeing," he said. "It is not that people don't
We've got to keep up our guard.
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1/17
2003
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