Israel at War 5785: Breishit and Noach – Two Floods

When I started blogging about the war a little over a year ago,* the only other player besides Israel was Gaza. Hence my blog title, “Israel-Gaza War.” But the war has expanded to include Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, radical groups in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank) and Iraq, and Iran. My old title has not made sense for a while, although until recently the main front was in Gaza. So I have changed it for the coming year.

Last week, I focused on readings for Shemini Atzeret and the last Torah portion, V’Zot Habracha, which is read on Simchat Torah. This week, I will look at both Breishit, last Shabbat’s Torah portion, and the coming week’s portion, Noach.

In Breishit we read:

And Hashem G-d said, “Man has become like one of us, to know good and evil…” (Genesis 3:22)

Rabbi Dennis Prager says in the Genesis volume of his Rational Bible that not only the evil impulse needs to be reined in. So does the good impulse. But why would we need to rein in good?

When people focus all their energy on an ideal of perfect good, they may create perfect evil. This happened under Communism in countries such as the Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia, when idealists, unable to accept less than perfection, ended up murdering millions. It is happening today as people insist that resistance is justified, even when “resistance” includes rape and immolation. They are so wrapped up in their ideal of ending injustice and oppression, they cannot condemn atrocities. And to a lesser degree, it happens when well-meaning people think that the perpetrators of endless terror attacks over decades, culminating in October 7th, will change with enough understanding, sympathy, and financial aid. Spoiler alert: it hasn’t worked yet. In reality, it has only encouraged greater terror and aggression on the part of the Palestinians. As our Sages say, “Whoever is kind to the cruel will end up being cruel to the kind.”

But what about the other extreme, unrestrained evil? Isn’t that worse? After all, Hashem wiped out most of humanity in the flood because of too much evil, not too much good.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z”l pointed out something interesting. These two Torah portions, Breishit and Noach, contrast two opposing systems: the chaos and immorality before the flood, and oppressive tyranny after it. In Breishit we read, “And Hashem saw that great was the evil of man on the earth, and every product of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the day long.” (Genesis 6:8). Humanity, left to its own devices, degenerated into such immorality that Hashem decided to wipe out mankind in a flood, sparing only the righteous Noah and his family. Rabbi Sacks identifies modern Western society, with its emphasis on individualism above duty to neighbor and society, with this extreme.

But after the flood, in Noach we read, “And it was, all the earth was of one language and a single purpose.” (Genesis 11:1). When humanity unites to build the Tower of Babel, G-d destroys the tower, scatters the people, and gives them different languages. Rabbi Sacks relates the Babel culture to those, such as Communism, that enforce conformity and group-think. He asserts that Judaism charts a golden mean between these two extremes, allowing for a balance between the needs of the individual and of society, between anarchy and tyranny.

Israel today finds itself caught between these two extremes. Its radical Islamist enemies represent totalitarianism. There is no room in Gaza or Iran for diversity or dissent from the party line. Those who deviate are imprisoned or killed. We see a similar intolerance on among the extreme progressives in the West, who close down opposing viewpoints and mindlessly mouth slogans such as, “Resistance is justified” and “From the River to the Sea.”

The West, on the other hand, prizes individualism so much that, save for its progressive sectors, it is willing to tolerate every point of view and respect every “narrative.” Vice President Kamala Harris told a student who accused Israel of genocide, “I respect your right to speak…What he’s talking about, it’s real…and I respect his voice.” While she did not agree with him, she could not bring herself to say that he was wrong, that he was slandering a people fighting an existential war, and that those calling self-defense “genocide” perverts morality.

In fact, very few Western leaders have been able to do this. We’ve seen university presidents walk on eggs and bend over backwards to accommodate the “rights” of students who destroy property, harass Jews, and advocate murder and hatred. In the name of free speech and individual rights they have allowed anarchy on their campuses.

And both American and European leaders, along with the UN,  have criticized Israel for “too many” civilian deaths. In doing so, they have strengthened Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s will to fight on. But these world leaders, along with university administrators and other enablers, cannot conceive that they are encouraging evil. They sincerely believe that they are doing good.

This can work the other way, too. Recently there was a kerfuffle in the town next door to mine when the town allowed a Blue Line flag at its yearly rodeo. A resident objected on the grounds that this flag has been flown alongside the Confederate flag by groups objecting to the Black Lives Matter movement. The city manager said the rodeo would not censor what flags could be flown at the event, prompting the question: could a Nazi flag be flown? The city manager responded that whether a Pride or a Nazi flag, flying it was a First Amendment right. He believes the rodeo should err on the side of acceptance and allowance.

This illustrates the saying, “If you’re too open-minded, your brains fall out.” And it illustrates how the West’s emphasis on individualism to the exclusion of social responsibility has given a foothold to intolerant groups such as uber-progressives and radical Islamists. If we all have unlimited rights, then nobody has any rights. The strong will dominate the weak, as in Noah’s time.

While the West focuses on how many civilians have died in Israel’s war, they have missed the larger picture: these civilians died only because Hamas, Iran, and their ilk cannot tolerate a non-Muslim, democratic state in their midst and will sacrifice even their own people to destroy Israel.

And Israel? Israelis until recently had managed to create a unified society comprising secular and religious; socialists and capitalists; and Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrachi. But cracks appeared. Those whose children served in the military resented the haredim who did not; the haredim resisted any secular encroachment on their lifestyle. The division over judicial reform almost split the country.

G-d’s flood was intended to wipe out evil and start over. Hamas’ so-called Al-Aqsa “Flood,” on the other hand, perpetrated great evil. And it aimed to destroy Israel, a country that exemplifies the golden mean between the two extremes of individualism and conformity. But it succeeded only in uniting this diverse people.

Israel has tried very hard during this war to balance individual and societal rights. While it is finally implementing a draft of haredim, it will continue going to great lengths to accommodate their needs in special military units. And despite an enemy that embeds itself among civilians, Israel is doing its best to balance protecting the rights of Gazan and Lebanese civilians to life against its social duty to guarantee peace and security for its own citizens. And it has been wildly successful at this difficult balancing act.

May Israel prevail against both the tyrannical death cult of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the IRGC and the mindless individualism that tolerates every ideology of some in the West.

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*Note: My blog posts only started appearing in the Times of Israel in Adar I of 5784, opening with Parshat Terumah. You can read my previous 5784 blog posts, starting with parshat Breishit, at Kosher Kitty.