Pinchas 5770 Tolerance and the Methodists Rabbi Aaron Goldstein 3 July 2010

I am honoured to count among my friends someone who has become somewhat of a spiritual guru for me. He is Eran Shafir. Perhaps you remember him from his years of shlichut to Liberal Judaism. We have remained good friends and I will see him again when I am in Israel next week. As I was asking him to remind me of the tune for the saying from the midrash, Sifra: Rabbi Akiva said, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself,’ is the greatest principle of the Torah, he gave me another piece of spiritual wisdom.

In 1998, France won the World Cup through the harmony found in its football team, a team whose composition mirrored its diverse society: a team of white Parisians together with Frenchmen descended from Algeria and a plethora of former French African colonies. In 2010, the French team of no little talent, crashed out of the World Cup bottom of its group, plagued by disunity in its ranks, unified only by every individual’s dismal performance.

I am not sure about Eran’s football punditry but his words ring true with the theme of our service: tolerance. The message is simple a passionate, skilful team is made whole by their mutual harmony, their respect for each other and for their common purpose.

It is this that is so sorely lacking in the Methodist Church’s policy passed this week, calling for a boycott of goods from “illegal” West Bank settlements and blaming the Israeli occupation of the territory as the “key hindrance” to peace in the Middle East.

I have not read every line of the 54 page policy document, but enough to concur with the Board of Deputies statement that the conference “swallowed hook, line and sinker a report full of basic historical inaccuracies, deliberate misrepresentations and distortions of Jewish theology and Israeli policy.” One team that has the potential to be a passionate and skilful team working for a common purpose, has been hijacked by a element within the Methodist Church who had an agenda, one that potentially damages Jewish-Methodist relationships.

I agree that at a national level, this was as the Board stated it, “a sad day” for Jewish-Methodist relations and drew from a most liberal and mild-mannered Board of Deputies, the only invectives it has emitted. Liberal Judaism’s chief executive Rabbi Danny Rich urged the Methodist Conference to cancel the report. He said: “Whilst there are some aspects of the report which require a reflective response, the balance will not, in our view, meet its objective..(They should).. “explore ways of creating a document which will garner widespread support amongst Jews, Christians and others who seek a just settlement in the Middle East, based upon the right of both Palestinians and Israelis to live in secure national entities.”

We must hope that our national faith leaders find paths of reconciliation, but what about us in the holiest road in Middlesex, Oaklands Gate!? And indeed in our homes and streets with our neighbours who are Methodist believers? This afternoon, I went to wish Sue Male, the Reverend of the Methodist Church in Oaklands Gate, ‘mazal tov,’ on her ordination at the same Methodist Conference. The Conference certainly got one thing right as Sue is a friend of our Community and to my mind understands how one can most affectively work towards a common purpose, just like the French football team of 98, working together.

Our common purpose is peace for everyone in the Middle East, Arab and Israeli, Christian, Jew and Muslim and all those who have found themselves to be living in one of history’s hot-spots. So how do we work together?

What is evident to me is that many of the congregants of the Methodist Church are nervous of speaking to us of the Middle East, for fear of upsetting us or speaking in ways not deemed politically correct. Indeed, many of our own congregants have concerns to talk about Israel and Palestine with those outside the Jewish Community.

We are best served talking together about these issues so that we might understand each other and find common sources of action to compliment our common purpose. I have offered to Sue that I will be delighted to participate in a forum at the Church for congregants to explore their questions and concerns. They need to know that expressing their views will not be met by flames of zealotry and we need fellow citizens who can hear our concerns for ourselves and the State of Israel.

Further, when I was speaking with Sue, I realized how proud I am that we have recently hosted Nadia Ismael and Muhammed Darawshe, Mohammed Fahili and Ron Prosor and Shmuel Ben Tovim from the Israeli Embassy in London. When I considered the work of our Shul, there was so much for me to talk about, so much that would be of interest for our neighbours to know about and perhaps to share in. How we were sponsoring a summer camp for Arab and Jewish children of Israel, how we had provided support for the Jewish Arab Centre in Akko and the fact that next week I was to visit Mohammed Fahili in Akko and Nadia Ismael in her village of Nafr in the Upper Galil.

It became clear to me that there was a method for dialogue with our Methodist neighbours. We know that demonising the government and through them the people of the State of Israel, often has the reverse affect, creating more intransigence. So it would be with our Methodist neighbours. They have thus far only heard form the zealots in their pews. Let them hear voices of reason and feel comfortable to speak their minds, to voice their fears and concerns, many of which we share. Let us be voices of reason together and let us drown out the zealots in the Methodist Church and the sometimes overly-zealous reactions from our Jewish Community, by the weight of our still small voices, shared with our brothers and sisters in the pews of Oaklands Gate and over the fences and hedgerows of our gardens.

Rashi, asked why Moses calls to God in this week’s Torah portion, saying, ‘the God of all flesh,’ when appealing for a successor to lead the Israelites. His answer was: Because Moses wished to say to God: Sovereign of the Universe, You know the mind of every single individual, and how they are all different from one another; therefore appoint over them a leader who will be tolerant of each and every one according to their state of mind.

In this situation, we can all be leaders and I pray that we have the power of tolerance to hear our neighbour’s voice, to listen to their views and to engage with them with a still, small voice. May we imbued with the power of Elijah, a zealot but one who was softened by hearing a still, small voice, not a zealot like Pinchas.

Amen