“The Temple Mount is in our hands! The Temple Mount is in our hands!” “Har habayit b’yadeynu” “Har habayit b’yadeynu”. With these words, uttered precisely 50 years ago, the Jewish world experienced a transformative upheaval the equal of any in our long history.
Many of us were not even born yet, and those of us who can remember those days probably only remember our sense of elation and relief. Our memories are almost entirely personal, rather than historical. I remember, for example, that June of 1967 was when non-Jewish bullies stopped shaking down Jewish kids in my school for lunch money. One tried it, and the Jewish kid, emboldened by the lightning Israeli victory, kicked the snot out of him. Suddenly, Jews could fight back. And that changed everything.
To fully grasp the extent of the upheaval, though, we must remember what came before, the reality of Jewish life in exile, epitomized by the loss in ancient days of our most sacred space. When you lose your sacred space, you enter a world of exile. In every way. Cut off from G-d; intensely, heart wrenchingly, terrifyingly, vulnerable; unable to prevent murder, rape, theft, slavery, violation of all you love. And adding insult to injury, subject to endless humiliation, denigration, and even dehumanization. The loss of the Temple was seen by our enemies, and to some extent by ourselves, as synonymous with our rejection by G-d. We were doomed to wander, a living embodiment of degradation, a walking curse.
As Americans, living in a free country, and as Jews who have grown up with a State of Israel in existence, we can be forgiven for not understanding this. But consider just one statistic: Between 1900 and 1950, something like 3/4 of the world’s Jews were victims of persecution or refugees from it.
In the glow of the 1967 victory, it is easy to forget the fear that gripped the Israeli population before the war. Complete vulnerability, total abandonment by the world. Egypt demanded the UN pull its peace keeping troops out of the Sinai (thereby breaking the armistice of 1956, and returning Egypt and Israel to a full state of war). The UN complied, without so much as a consultation with Israel. Europe imposed an arms embargo. Even the United States was guilty of betrayal. Abba Eban came to President Lyndon Johnson and begged him to break the Egyptian naval blockade strangling the Jewish state (as the U.S. had promised to do). Johnson, fully stuck in the morass of Vietnam, refused. In Tel Aviv, mass graves were prepared. The recent memory of the Holocaust became increasingly prevalent, and haunting. Once again: without allies, betrayed, in danger of eradication.
And then the miracle. Not just survival, but sweeping victory. Not just victory, but ultimate triumph, the reunification of Jerusalem, the jubilant proclamation “Har Habayit b’yadeynu.”
So deep the despair, so high the elation. Or perhaps even higher. With our sacred place restored to us, history reversed itself. Instead of denigration, Israelis were now praised, as much for their humanity in victory as their military prowess. Instead of vulnerability, Israel was suddenly a major military force. And as far as our relationship with the divine is concerned, many saw this moment as positively messianic. Surely it was no coincidence that Yehudah v’Shomron, Judea and Samaria, the center of ancient Jewish civilization, had come back to Jewish hands with the Temple Mount.
If Jews before 1967 were Jews of vulnerability, Jews after 1967 were Jews of power. Suddenly, millions of Palestinian Arabs were under Israeli, that is to say, Jewish, control. The bitter dregs of exile that we had been forced to drink were, in a matter of days, forced upon them. They were the ones who now felt humiliated and betrayed, by G-d and man. They were the ones who feared violation at the hands of rapacious Israelis. And they were the ones who were now forced to come up with some theological justification for, as they called it, the nakba, the catastrophe.
Ever since 1967, we have been divided into two groups: pre-67 and post-67. Pre-67 Jews continue to live in a world of vulnerability. They trust no one, and are quick to ascribe anti-Semitism to almost anything that is not full-throated support for every Israeli policy. Most troubling, they are willing to turn a blind eye when Israel abuses its power, because, it is argued, since Israel is surrounded by life-threatening enemies, any critique of Israeli power, however justified, gives aid and comfort to the enemy. And if you think that all Israelis understand the limits of power, and never abuse it, look at videos of radical Jewish settlers abusing Palestinians, destroying property, desecrating churches and mosques. Surely, you will feel the same wave of revulsion as I do. Our disgust may be mitigated by the fact that extremist settlers are a radical minority. But that is small comfort in light of the degree to which Israeli authorities refrain from restraining the settlers. The same can be said for the intolerance and discrimination against the liberal streams of Judaism, and, again, the refusal of Israeli authorities to protect our freedom of religious expression. These abusers of power, using the excuse of vulnerability, endanger our morality. They dim the glow of Israel’s accomplishments, which would otherwise bathe Jerusalem in golden light. They desecrate the Temple Mount, about which it is written that “none will hurt or destroy on my holy mountain.”
Post-1967 Jews, who are acutely aware of Jewish power, are no less problematic. For all their awareness of Jewish power, they have forgotten the need for it.
If the pre-67 endanger our morality, the post-67 endanger our lives. Repulsed by the potential for excess, they suggest weakening Israel, making endless concessions, sometimes to the point where it will no longer have the ability to exert power at all—a truly bizarre, indeed, contemptible notion. Calling, for example, for a military boycott of Israel precisely when the barbarians of ISIS are literally at the gates is only possible if you are an anti-Semite, or suffering from moral confusion verging on the terminal.
What shall it be then, pre-67 or post-67? Keeping it simple: If you think we are not vulnerable, you’re crazy. If you think we are not powerful, you’re dangerous.
What will it be? Our prayers this evening suggest an answer. There is no melody more recognizable, or impactful, than Kol Nidrei. Four simple notes, and we are transported into a world of memory, tradition, sanctity, introspection, and yearning.
One would hardly expect a prayer of such power to be in any way ambiguous, but oddly enough, Kol Nidrei is.
Kol Nidrei is a prayer asking G-d to forgive us for vows that are not upheld. But which vows? Those we made in the year past; or those we will make, and break, in the year to come?
In the text, the difference between past and future is just one word, but this is not simply about a grammatical detail, or even a philosophical difference. It is a message. In its wisdom, our tradition instructs us to consider the past while embracing the future. After all, that is where we always find ourselves, between past and future. When it comes to understanding our place in the world, in light of the extraordinary and miraculous events of 50 years ago, we have to keep this balance firmly in mind. To think only of our vulnerability is an open invitation to abuse. To think only of our power is an open invitation to disaster. As Conservative Jews. we need to understand that we, passionate centrists, are uniquely poised to maintain the balance—and it is a balance on which the whole Jewish world depends. Never again may we allow ourselves to be without power. But never, looking to the future, may we ignore the awesome demand to control the exercise of that power. We must uphold a vow as regards the past, and a vow as regards the future. Being human, we cannot expect perfection. Being Jewish, we believe that G-d will forgive us our failures. But G-d has once again entrusted us with the Temple Mount, and G-d will not forgive us, if we do not embody the wisdom of our faith, that Zion shall be redeemed through justice, her penitent ones through righteousness. (Isaiah 1:27). Tonight, 50 years after the great miracle, we must vow to protect the sanctity our Temple Mount with clear-sighted, courageous resolve to defend ourselves, while at the same time exercising audacious moral control to prevent the spiritual pollution of oppression from tainting all that we hold sacred.
May G-d, in this 50th year of liberation, give us the wisdom and the strength. Amen.