4th Year Sermon - Parshat VaYakhel: Mending the House
This Sermon is for Commander Yanai Kaminka Z”L, for the Hostages, and for the Peace of Jerusalem and the thriving of all Israel.
After October 7th the shared spaces in my apartment building became very cluttered. First, the air became crowded with voices that spoke into phones in hushed or hysterical tones. Next, the bench under the mailboxes in the lobby hosted a small basket of Zohar books with a loving note: “Take one and carry it with you for protection.” Eventually the hallways filled up with amazon boxes and duffel bags of all sizes, and traffic in the driveway doubled as these packages were loaded in cars bound for the airport. We, as Israel, experienced the formation of a major crack in our walls, and we desperately rushed to fill it.
In August of last year, Dr. Dov Waxman of UCLA gave an interview published in an article entitled “Israel’s Democracy Protests: What’s Next?” In it, he discussed the ways that the protest movement reignited Israel’s political center, and possible ways that the movement may evolve. Waxman noted positive and negative potential developments; he imagined, at best, a mass realization of the untenability of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. At worst, he envisioned a situation in which Israel’s enemies to the North, Hezbollah, decide to test the resolve of the Israeli military. He said, “What Hezbollah sees is an Israeli society that’s fractured and in turmoil, and they may think that Israel might not respond to a provocation on Israel’s northern border. But they could miscalculate, and you have a third Lebanon War, which would likely result in massive casualties and destruction.” Now, 153 days since the October 7th Hamas terror attack, Waxman’s words read as almost prophetic. Before that horrible Simchat Torah, Israel was a fractured state, and her enemies decided to test it.
Before I continue, I want to make my position crystal clear. The ultimate blame for the horrific blow dealt to the people in Southern Israel on October 7th lies with Hamas. I cannot believe that there is, or will ever be, any justification for the type of brutality meted out that day, or for the taking and continued holding of Israeli hostages (may they be brought home now). There should be no denial of the atrocities committed, nor of Israel’s right to defend herself from Hamas. Holding the Israeli government solely responsible for the massive casualties and destruction on that nightmarish day is disingenuous and inaccurate.
Yet, in the months since the attack, many Israelis speak clearly of their condemnation of Netanyahu and his ministers. In a piece for Morning Edition, NPR’s Lauren Frayer interviewed Noam Tibon, a retired IDF Major General, about the attack and its aftermath. Tibon described the harrowing tale of how he rescued his own son and family from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7th. While retelling the story, Tibon stated clearly that Netanyahu and his government must go, and that it was the divisions they sowed that left the country vulnerable. At the end of the interview Frayer summarized Tibon’s viewpoint that, “an immediate change of Israeli leadership is the only way to make sure no other family goes through what he did.” The government failed at its’ most sacred duty to protect its’ citizens. It allowed the state to fracture, it allowed for cracks to form and deepen in the walls of the house.
In the months leading up to October 7th, Netanyahu and his allies actively attempted to erode the independence and power of Israel’s Judiciary, which tore Israel’s citizenry apart at the seams and ignited the democracy protest movement. And while the political center attempted to pull the state back together from the streets, the ruling coalition sat in their offices and sided with extremist settlers. Their actions and racist, violent words pushed the idea of Palestinian self-determination off of the backburner and out of the kitchen entirely. This government prioritized right-wing settlers over Jewish and Arab Israelis living legally and peacefully within the recognized boundaries of The State. Ministers chose to move increasing numbers of battalions into the West Bank in support of their religiously motivated expansionism. In the more immediate lead up to the attacks, military and government leadership ignored warnings from female soldiers, specifically trained to work border intelligence, that the threat from Hamas had escalated. Their actions and inaction made Israel less safe, physically and spiritually, and they pulled the country away from democracy, religious pluralism, and ultimately peace. These are cracks that we cannot wait to repair, lest the house crumble on top of us.
I haven’t slept well since October 7th. Lately, when I lie awake, I feel haunted by this week’s haftarah. We read in II Kings 12 that, during his reign in Jerusalem, King Yehoash directed the priests to pay attention to the state of the Temple and collect certain donations to make repairs should they find damages, which Rashi explains are cracks in the walls.
וַיְהִ֗י בִּשְׁנַ֨ת עֶשְׂרִ֧ים וְשָׁלֹ֛שׁ שָׁנָ֖ה לַמֶּ֣לֶךְ יְהוֹאָ֑שׁ לֹא־חִזְּק֥וּ הַכֹּהֲנִ֖ים אֶת־בֶּ֥דֶק הַבָּֽיִת׃
“But in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, [it was found that] the priests had not made the repairs on the House.” So, the king invited the priests to meet with him and admonished them-
מַדּ֛וּעַ אֵינְכֶ֥ם מְחַזְּקִ֖ים אֶת־בֶּ֣דֶק הַבָּ֑יִת וְעַתָּ֗ה אַל־תִּקְחֽוּ־כֶ֙סֶף֙ מֵאֵ֣ת מַכָּרֵיכֶ֔ם כִּֽי־לְבֶ֥דֶק הַבַּ֖יִת תִּתְּנֻֽהוּ
“Why have you not devoted yourselves to mending the House? Now do not take money from your supporters, rather set it for mending the House.” We might infer from the King’s words that, rather than devote their attention to the maintenance of the Temple, the priests enriched themselves. Woe to how often our world rhymes with this story.
This verse, especially the first half, has become my cursed mantra.
“מַדּ֛וּעַ אֵינְכֶ֥ם מְחַזְּקִ֖ים אֶת־בֶּ֣דֶק הַבָּ֑יִת”
“Why have you not devoted yourselves to mending the house?” Why? To what end? At what cost?
“מַדּ֛וּעַ אֵינְכֶ֥ם מְחַזְּקִ֖ים אֶת־בֶּ֣דֶק הַבָּ֑יִת”
These are the words I am haunted by when I can’t sleep because I’m thinking about the hostages. “Why have you not devoted yourselves to mending the house?” These are the words I choke on when I think about the horrible loss of innocent Palestinian life in this war.
I sometimes wonder if it’s even fair to think of the modern State of Israel and its leaders as a new version of “the house,” and as inheritors of the priestly tradition. Perhaps we stretch the metaphor too far, especially in the face of concrete tragedy. As of now, I stand by it. If the Holy Temple is where the high priest would commune with God to expiate the people, then how can we not imagine the State of Israel, which we call reishit tzmichat geulateinu– the first fruits of our redemption– as anything less than the new Beit HaMikdash? Today, however, there is no separation between the would-be king and his priests, the incredulous admonishment comes from the subjects, and it often feels like God could not possibly dwell among them. “Why have you not devoted yourselves to mending the house?”
In our haftarah, as today, the priests do not respond to the plea. When King Yehoash called them out for their negligence towards maintaining the structure of the Temple, they simply agreed that they would no longer accept money for the repairs, nor make any repairs themselves. The solution found is so simple as to be quite elegant. It is written that the priest Yehoyada took a chest and made a hole in the lid for the collection of the half-shekel donation required from males over the age of twenty, and other funds that people gave of their own free will. The priestly guards watched over the chest until the sum inside reached a critical mass, at which point the priests distributed the money to the construction superintendent, who then paid for the labor and supplies needed to make repairs.
So what do we do with the ruling coalition? If we are to be intellectually honest, we must not avoid the question: does the dereliction of maintenance necessarily imply a dereliction of duty? I don’t think I could give the Israeli government a pass on their neglect. In the last 2,000 or so years, humanity has developed complex political systems and social contracts that make it clear that maintaining the walls is very much within the realm of a government’s responsibility. I can, however, both meet the early Israelites with leniency and learn from their situation. If neither building nor maintenance were within the responsibilities of the priests, then why would one ask them to do it? Perhaps it was King Yehoash who made the mistake by appointing the priests to the task in the first place. That would mean that Yehoyada’s solution was not some priestly passing of the buck, but rather a wise recognition of restructuring that needed to happen. The people of Israel built the house, so let them fix it!
We all must apply this solution vigorously to our spiritual home. We, as diasporic Jews, must invest wisely in the people who will repair the walls and make the house that is Israel a house for all peoples. It is no longer enough to give our dollars and trust to general funds. Like in the days of King Yehoash, this is a moment to collect money specifically allocated for mending the house. When you give your tzedakah for Israel, give it to Achim LaNeshek, or the Israeli Religious Action Center, Rabbis for Human Rights, or The Israeli Movement for Progressive Judaism. These organizations already actively engage in the work of mending Israel’s walls. They are the ones who will rebuild The State into a more secure and equal home for all of her inhabitants, and they need our support now more than ever.
When Moetzet HaAm, The People’s Council, convened to declare independence on May 14th, 1948, recognition of the builders of the nascent State of Israel was implicit. The third clause of Megillat Haatzmaut (the Israeli Declaration of Independence) reads, “Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to return and be established in their ancient homeland. In recent generations they returned in their masses. Pioneers, immigrants in defiance of British Mandatory Legislation, and defenders, made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community in control of its own economy and culture, that advocates for peace but knows how to defend itself, and brings the blessings of progress to all inhabitants of the land, and aspires towards independent nationhood.” Towards the end of the scroll, the authors explicitly call out to us, the Jews in the diaspora, to support the state physically and materially. To me, the combined message is explicit: Each Jew is responsible for the flourishing of The State. Perhaps the members of the current coalition forgot that, but we must not. Especially now, when the word Zionist has become a slur, we need to reassert our commitment to the thriving of our shared homeland. We need to speak loudly and clearly to remind our diasporic communities of what our vision for Israel looks like. We have to take ownership of the value of kol yisrael arevim zeh ba zeh, that all Jews are responsible for one another, without regard to their politics. We have to be devoted to mending the house.
In January I traveled as part of the One HUC Delegation to Israel. On our last morning, we met with Ronen Keller, an HUC Jerusalem Advisory Board member, and one of the primary activists of Achim LaNeshek, (brothers and sisters in arms). Ronen explained to us how, In the months since October 7th, this group has led the Israeli civil response to the attack and continuing war. Their leaders are some of the same people leading the Democracy Protests that Waxman wrote about last August, and many of its influential members are retired military brass in the same social milieu as Noam Tibon, who rescued his own family from Hamas. These groups continue to coordinate the collection and distribution of necessary food, medicine, and supplies to internally displaced Israelis from the South and the North. They coordinate space for schools, shifts for volunteer farmworkers, and mental health support networks. They train and support civilian emergency responders for southern communities. They have provided for the continuation of Israeli society during the war. They, not the government, are the ones mending the cracks in the house.
They, and the millions of Jews around the world and in my building, who pitched in to help are the reason I am starting to sleep a little better. They, and many of you, are why I have hope. I know that I do not hold the solutions to all of Israel’s problems, and I wish I could share a concrete action that I know will begin to permanently mend the walls today. But I am prepared, as all of us who will be leaders in our own temples should be, to remember my responsibility to all that is Israel. There are deep cracks in so many walls, but I truly believe it is not too late to mend them. SheNechazek et-bedek Beiteinu, may we devote ourselves to mending our houses. May this be God’s will, may this be our will, and may we always remember our Herzl: If you will it, it is no dream.
