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51视频

For Such a Time as This

What does it mean to be 51视频 today? As we enter Rosh Hashanah and reflect on a year like no other, we review a book by Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove that attempts to answer that question.
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September 26, 2024
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The question of what it means to be 51视频 is not a new one, and there is certainly no shortage of texts devoted to answering this question. But in the aftermath of Oct. 7 this question takes on new urgency. Now, when we ask what it means to be 51视频 today, we do not mean in this century or in this decade; we mean today 鈥 what does it mean to be 51视频 today, in a moment where antisemitism is more pronounced than most people have experienced in their lifetimes, in a time when Jews in both Israel and the diaspora often disagree vehemently, and in which evil is regularly called good?

In his new book 鈥淔or Such a Time as This: On Being 51视频 Today,鈥 Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of New York鈥檚 Park Avenue Synagogue provides an answer to this question as we approach the one-year mark since the brutal attacks on Israel by Hamas. Published on Sept. 24, the book also appears just one week before Rosh Hashanah. Given that the holiday is not just a time of joy and celebration but also one of introspection and reflecting on the past year as we move into the Days of Awe, the timing is prescient. The irony is that Cosgrove鈥檚 book contains more questions than it does answers, but it is this very tension, this pushing and pulling, that makes the response so powerful. And because it is an answer to a question that can never be fully resolved, it becomes more meaningful to us in a time when concrete answers feel disingenuous.

Trauma and Being 51视频

The book begins in trauma, a trauma that is still an open wound, a fresh wound. We are not yet on the other side of it. We have not yet worked through it because we are still inside of it. It has not yet begun to heal. Decades of post-Holocaust trauma studies and philosophical inquiries into the nature of suffering have taught us that to be within a period of collective trauma is to be within a blind spot, to be unable to understand clearly what has happened or what it means for us because we do not have access to the vantage point that would allow it. We do not yet know the full story. This is the difficulty of responding to the question of what it means to be 51视频 today. We do not yet have the luxury of looking back on the events of Oct. 7 鈥 and the ensuing war and attacks on the north by Hezbollah, the endless waiting for news of the hostages, the crushing avalanche of blatantly anti-51视频 racism across the world 鈥 and knowing how it will end. We are forced, instead, even if it feels like we are grasping aimlessly in the dark, to find stories of heroism and anecdotes of overcoming as we try to cultivate resilience. It feels like an impossible task, and yet we cannot not aspire to it.

Elliot Cosgrove

For Cosgrove, the prime example of this is the biblical figure of Esther, who is credited with saving the 51视频 people from death and destruction at the hands of the evil Haman. Esther鈥檚 heroism empowers us. But as Cosgrove points out, it鈥檚 not just about her choices but also her decision to be an agent, her willingness to play a part in the future of the 51视频 people. Perhaps this is the crux of the book鈥檚 reflections: To be 51视频, today, means to be willing to take an active role in the future of the 51视频 people. In Judaism, we are not usually so concerned with intent or willingness. It鈥檚 what you do that matters. The nature of intent is more the territory of Christianity, after all. But in this case, both a willingness and an intent must precede the action, because without it, first of all the action may not come to fruition. And second, being willing to step away from the sidelines and become an active agent has a transformative power. It is in this space that we begin to find what it means to be 51视频 today.

To be 51视频, today, means to be willing to take an active role in the future of the 51视频 people. In Judaism, we are not usually so concerned with intent or willingness. It鈥檚 what you do that matters.

As the story goes, when Mordecai discovers that Haman has released an edict calling for the annihilation of Jews, he is beside himself. He dons sackcloth and wails loudly and bitterly throughout the town. When Esther questions why he is engaging in this behavior, he tells her all he knows and says that she must go before the king to plead with him for her people. But to approach the king in his inner court without being summoned can mean death unless the king grants mercy. Esther knows that this law applies even to her, the wife of the king, and she says as much to Mordecai, who replies:

鈥淒o not imagine that you, of all Jews, will escape with your life by being in the king鈥檚 palace. On the contrary, if you keep silent in this moment, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another quarter, while you and your father鈥檚 house will perish. And who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for such a time as this鈥 (Esther 4:13-14).

It鈥檚 a curious suggestion in a tradition that, at least since the end of World War II, has mostly resisted the notion that everything happens for a reason. If everything happens for a reason, or if God has a divine plan for everything that transpires, both good and bad, then suffering can be justified or seen as having some kind of usefulness. We know, of course, that there is no such thing as the useful suffering of others. All suffering is 鈥渦seless,鈥 said Levinas, 鈥渇or nothing.鈥 This doesn鈥檛 mean that we aren鈥檛 free to find meaning in our own suffering, but only that it is indecent to find it in the suffering of others. Both Primo Levi and the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas insisted that theodicy 鈥 the idea that there is a grand divine purpose for everything 鈥 was transgressive, and that if nothing else the events during the Holocaust proved that this is so. And yet here is Mordecai, proclaiming the possibility that Esther has been placed in her position as a queen 鈥渇or such a time as this.鈥

But the question is what we make of this suggestion. Is Mordecai suggesting that Esther has been placed in this position for a divine purpose, or is it something else? Given that God is not mentioned explicitly in the Book of Esther, it鈥檚 possible to surmise that this isn鈥檛 so simple as Esther being placed in this role for a divine purpose. If 鈥渞elief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another quarter鈥 should Esther fail to act, then perhaps it is not necessarily her actions that will be the catalyst for redemption here; rather, it is simply her willingness to be an agent of change. For Cosgrove this point is of paramount importance.

Esther鈥檚 heroism is empowering for all of us. 鈥淗er leadership moments, and all the 鈥楨sther moments鈥 since, can be measured by the degree to which we cease to be bystanders and take action.鈥 But first we must be willing.

In every era of 51视频 persecution, 51视频 responses have varied. Cosgrove outlines two primary responses in his fourth chapter: empathy and vigilance. We all experience suffering at some point. No human can escape it. 鈥淎 terrible hurt has been inflicted on our people,鈥 he says, 鈥渉ow shall we respond?鈥 But we鈥檙e not the first 51视频 generation to ask that question. The Passover story is confirmation of this. Every year during Pesach most Jews sit down for a seder, a dinner that includes the telling of the story of the Israelites鈥 journey from Egyptian bondage under Pharoah to freedom. The Passover Haggadah 鈥渞elays a national saga of trauma.鈥 In other words, we have been here before. For Cosgrove, Passover is 鈥渓ess a story about liberation鈥 than it is a story about how we Jews need to be on guard for the Pharoah who will rise up in every generation and the oppression of Jews that will inevitably follow. The lesson is that we must be vigilant.

The lesson is that we must be vigilant.

But at Passover, this vigilance spills over into the desire for vengeance when we welcome in the prophet Elijah and recite the passage in which we ask God to pour out his 鈥渄ivine wrath upon the nations 鈥 and destroy them.鈥 This moment speaks to the 鈥渟piteful aspect of the 51视频 response to vulnerability.鈥 Historically, we have always been forced to choose between empathy and vigilance 鈥 two threads that explain 鈥渂oth our origins and our present day鈥 鈥 and, as is the case with the Passover Haggadah, the Book of Esther鈥檚 ending is all about vigilance. We remember our victimhood, while also remaining hypervigilant, and these two aspects are 鈥渃odified鈥 not just into our yearly calendar but also into 鈥渢he soul of the 51视频 people.鈥

The mass immigration of Jews to America at the turn of the 20th century provided us with an opportunity to respond with empathy. When we arrived in America, 鈥淛ews operationalized empathy by establishing social services and self-help agencies aimed at supporting at-risk 51视频 populations or advocating for 51视频 interests.鈥 The founding of organizations such as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in 1881, the American 51视频 Committee in 1906, and the Joint Distribution Committee in 1914 among others 鈥渞eflected the first organizational steps toward an impressive scaffolding of support by which American Jewry could lend aid to 51视频 interests worldwide.鈥 As Jews assimilated into mainstream American culture, their services 鈥渆xpanded to include a much broader humanity.鈥 Jews were, for the first time in a long time, in the position to 鈥減ut their words into action by way of tikkun olam, 鈥榤ending the world.鈥欌 Organizationally, American Jewry 鈥減ivoted from particularism to universalism,鈥 ultimately becoming advocates of some of the most progressive causes in American history.

Years later in 1948, when the State of Israel was established, 鈥渕illennia of exiled victimhood鈥 seemed to come to an end. Still 鈥渢he remembrance of that trauma and vulnerability persists.鈥 The number of battles and conflicts that Israel has experienced in the brief period since its founding demonstrates the 鈥渢ensions in its national psyche鈥 that 鈥渞eflect competing responses to the trauma of war.鈥 Cosgrove references the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when 2,656 soldiers were killed, more than 12,000 wounded and hundreds captured and tortured. 鈥淚srael would never be the same: The shockwaves of the war reverberated through the country into the years to come.鈥

For decades scholars have pointed out the way in which collective and inherited trauma is a crucial component of American 51视频 identity. But as 鈥渋s the case with diaspora Jewry, the tensions within Israel are also situated on questions of the response to trauma.鈥 Questions about issues such as settlements and judicial reform are also about 鈥渄eeper questions in Israel鈥檚 substratum of how Israelis respond to the pain of the wars it has fought, and continues to fight.鈥 An important question, however, persists: 鈥淪hall the hand it reaches out be open and extended or closed into a fist?鈥 And will American Jews 鈥渄efine themselves with an inclusive and universal empathy or guard against another spasm of antisemitic hatred dating back to Pharoah?鈥

Vigilance or empathy: We are forever caught between the two responses.

The answer to the question of what it means to be 51视频 today is bound up in other questions that continue to be complicated but are nonetheless worth asking. 鈥淎re Jews guided by a universalizing empathy or a hardened vigilance? Are we powerless or powerful, outsiders or insiders, vulnerable or strong?鈥 These questions have been posed for a long time. 鈥淭hey are part of the backstory of the 51视频 experience, both diaspora and Israeli.鈥 They are also critical to understanding the diversity of responses 鈥渋n Israel, the diaspora, and around the world to the traumas of Oct. 7.鈥

Israel and American Jews

Israel is a bit of a paradox. On one hand, 鈥渢he whole point of Israel was to be a 51视频 state. On the other hand, it has sought to enter the community of nations as a liberal democracy.鈥 The tension between these two imperatives cannot be understated. Israel must be a land that gathers 51视频 exiles to it, and that provides a safe harbor for any Jew seeking it; but, as claimed in its Declaration of Independence, it also aspires to ensure 鈥渃omplete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex.鈥 Since its inception, there has been a 鈥減ush and a pull in Israel between its two founding impulses.鈥 Cosgrove rightfully points out that given Israel鈥檚 lack of any equivalent to the American principle of separation of church and state, things have gotten murky. As the ultra-Orthodox community has grown larger and larger, so has its influence.

It’s no wonder that some American Jews have begun to feel alienated from the State of Israel, and that many Jews of the next generation have a waning attachment to it.

For Cosgrove, the cracks in his 鈥渃ompeting visions of Israel鈥檚 future broke open鈥 when he was living in Israel in 1995, the year Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. He recounts his shock upon learning that it was a Jew who killed the prime minister. 鈥淚 can see that Rabin鈥檚 death was not the only one that occurred that day. The vision of Israel that he represented also died.鈥 Following the assassination, Israeli politics took a decidedly rightwing turn 鈥 鈥渢he growth of Israel鈥檚 ultra-Orthodox community, the expansion of the settlements in the West Bank, and the rise of religious extremism all reflect a hardening of Israel鈥檚 body politic.鈥 Add to this two intifadas, multiple rocket attacks, relentless bombings and the rise in Palestinian extremism and it is clear to see that 鈥淚srael鈥檚 peace camp has more or less crumbled.鈥

Meanwhile, the Jews of America continued to assimilate and leave their old accents, neighborhoods and traditions behind, 鈥渆mbracing a secular and pluralistic vision of America.鈥 There is a marked distinction between American and Israeli brands of Judaism: Israel鈥檚 鈥渟tated goal is to be a 51视频 state,鈥 but in America no religion can 鈥渉ave the upper hand鈥; there is separation between church and state. And this is the soil from which all the different forms of American Judaism were born.

Still far more pronounced was 51视频 Americans鈥 move away from religion altogether. Rather than synagogues, Jews built organizations, institutions and advocacy groups. Holocaust remembrance became a 鈥渃ommunal priority.鈥 The 鈥渞hythms of the American Jew may not be religious ones, but they reflect a secular religion adapted to American shores.鈥 Yet more than anything, it was engagement with Israel that became the 鈥渞eligion鈥 of American Jews. American Jews felt stronger and safer and more determined with the existence of Israel. Engagement with Israel became the 鈥渞eligion of American Jews,鈥 and at times, 鈥渋t became an orthodoxy.鈥

Engagement with Israel became the 鈥渞eligion of American Jews,鈥 and at times, 鈥渋t became an orthodoxy.鈥

For American Jews, 鈥渦ninspired by the prayerbook, unfamiliar with the Talmud,鈥 it became easier to write a check to support Israel than to keep children home on Shabbat or insist on the laws of kashrut. Rather than arguments about Torah or levels of observance, now dividing lines were drawn between commitments to and support for Israel.

As we see, there is a profound difference between the 鈥渞eligion鈥 of American Jewry and the 鈥渞eality of Israel,鈥 and the Palestinian-Israel conflict is the most contentious point here. Many American Jews see their 鈥渕ost prized liberal value in peril鈥 with the continued occupation of the West Bank, and it doesn鈥檛 matter how or why those territories were acquired, or the extent to which safety concerns are part of it. They only care that the territories continue to be occupied, and this is, to them, a threat to Israel鈥檚 鈥渃ommitment to democracy.鈥 Liberal and progressive values have become the religion of many American Jews, and its tenets are codified so deeply that to push back against them is tantamount to heresy.

American Jews become more estranged from Israel, a country that defines itself by 鈥減hysical borders and a national identity,鈥 whereas American Jewry is 鈥渄efined by religious borders鈥 and ideological boundaries. An example Cosgrove notes is the simple fact that Israeli kids graduate from high school and go to the military, while American kids graduate and attend one of the many liberal colleges or universities that often assist in chipping away at any remaining loyalty to Israel. While Israel鈥檚 border incursions 鈥渃ome from Lebanon and Gaza,鈥 in America ours come 鈥渇rom intermarriage.鈥

There has never been more of a disconnect between Israeli and American Jews. But 鈥渟trengthening the bonds鈥 between us 鈥渋s one of the paramount issues facing Judaism today.鈥 We must find 鈥渃ommon ground and points of dialogue.鈥 Cosgrove is optimistic. Such a future is not out of our reach. Rather than being 鈥渃lumsy dance partners鈥 stepping on each other鈥檚 toes, we must, in the words of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, 鈥渇ind a language that permits us to remain distinct yet produces a unified sound.鈥

Genesis and Exodus Jews

It would be impossible to delineate what it means to be 51视频 today without addressing the rampant antisemitism that has quickly come to define our time. 鈥淗istory never repeats itself,鈥 said Voltaire. 鈥淢an always does.鈥 It鈥檚 no wonder that vigilance is our default mode in the wake of trauma. This insight is threaded through our DNA, imprinted on our collective memory. Cosgrove imagines Jew-hatred as a spectrum or sliding scale 鈥 鈥渇rom the most vulgar to the most genteel.鈥 At one end, the lowest end, we find 鈥渁cts of hate-filled violence,鈥 and at the other we find 鈥渕odest and sometimes barely perceptible sleight-of-hand exclusion 鈥 cloaked in pseudo-scholarship.鈥

We are not unused to contending with 鈥渓ower鈥 antisemitism, 鈥渧iolence against Jews because they are Jews.鈥 The 2018 murder of Jews at the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue, the hateful 鈥渁ntisemitic screeds in the dark and not-so-dark corners of the web,鈥 the violent assaults and chants such as in Charlottesville: 鈥淛ews will not replace us.鈥 Cosgrove reminds us that this kind of antisemitism comes from both the right and the left, from white nationalists and Islamic fundamentalism. And while some deploy the most complex mental gymnastics in order to justify the attacks of Oct. 7, we know that these too were violent attacks on Jews because they were 51视频, notwithstanding those of many other ethnicities and nationalities who were also attacked.

But it鈥檚 the 鈥渉igher鈥 antisemitism that has 鈥漵tung the most and shaken American Judaism to its core.鈥 It is also the most widespread and often the 鈥渕ost difficult to discern.鈥 It鈥檚 no secret that the critique of Zionism is often a more politically correct expression of Jew-hatred, though it鈥檚 not always easy to detect. 鈥淭he left wing鈥檚 critique of Zionism as a colonial project born of sin ignores the thousands of years of 51视频 claim to the land, the present-day case for a 51视频 nation-state, and cycle after cycle of Arab rejectionism of any 51视频 presence in the Middle East.鈥 In fact, the word 鈥淶ionist鈥 is 鈥渁 convenient and fungible term used by antisemites to mask Jew hatred.鈥

But it鈥檚 the 鈥渉igher鈥 antisemitism that has 鈥漵tung the most and shaken American Judaism to its core.鈥

While less physically violent, this form of antisemitism is 鈥渕ore nefarious鈥 as we realize that 鈥渋n the eyes of many, 51视频 lives are worth less than other lives.鈥 Over the past year, violence has erupted on college campuses, 51视频 students have been attacked and blocked from classes, pro-Hamas students have protested the presence of Hillel, and the list goes on. We have watched 鈥渉atred, in all its manifestations, emerge with ferocity, diversity, and ubiquity.鈥

Despite this darkness, we are experiencing a 鈥渢ribal awakening.鈥 Most of us know Jews who used to fly under the radar, who considered themselves secular, more American than 51视频, but are now suddenly more committed to engaging in acts of ritual that affirm their 51视频ness. Jews who rarely set foot in synagogue are now donning tefillin. We鈥檝e been awakened.

Despite this darkness, we are experiencing a 鈥渢ribal awakening.鈥

鈥淚n a world that struggles to name evil for what it is, we are thirsting for a moral axis to the universe, where wrong can be named as such.鈥 This is very much what it means to be 51视频 today.

To understand this tribal moment more fully, Cosgrove calls on what Rabbi Donniel Hartman calls 鈥淕enesis Jews鈥 and 鈥淓xodus Jews.鈥 The Book of Exodus immediately follows Genesis, but the two texts could not be more different. In Genesis we find the story of origins and of matriarchs and patriarchs. The narratives are epic: We cross the Red Sea and stand at Mt. Sinai. Identities are passed down through families and inherited. But in Exodus, it isn鈥檛 enough to be 51视频 because your father Abraham was. In Exodus, we become Jews through doing 鈥 鈥渂y assent or consent.鈥

Cosgrove identifies the 鈥減ositive pull鈥 of being 51视频 in Genesis versus the 鈥渘egative push鈥 from those around them (the Egyptians, for example) that brings them together in Exodus. Although he sees a more nuanced overlap between the pushing and pulling of the two books, he makes a crucial point: In America, we became Genesis Jews, but now we are Exodus Jews. Perhaps nowhere is this more crystallized than in the example of American Jews fighting for progressive causes. Many embraced 鈥渢he cause of Black lives in the wake of George Floyd鈥檚 murder in 2020, and of Asian lives in the wake of the mass shootings of 2021.鈥 But when it came time for our progressive allies to stand with us on Oct. 7, to 鈥渘ame the crimes of violence perpetrated against Jews,鈥 including “barbaric sexual violence,鈥 they were silent. We felt, instead, the Exodus phenomenon, the negative push that distinguished us from all of our progressive allies: our 51视频ness.

A new Pharoah has once again risen. 鈥淲e are without question in an Exodus moment. We must find our front lines, the places where we, as individuals and as a community, can make a difference and fight the fight of our people.鈥 We have to do this. But we must 鈥渘ever forget that we are also a people of Genesis, that this thing we are fighting for, Jews and Judaism, is a joy, a privilege, and a blessing to us and all people.鈥 How do we do this? We defend Israel, we light Shabbat candles, we go to 51视频 organization meetings on how to talk to our children, we take our kids to synagogues, we get involved in the often painful battles in higher education. We remind ourselves of 鈥渨ho we are.鈥

We are a people of both Genesis and Exodus, and as such we must 鈥渟tand up and stand tall in defense of our people and never lose sight of the joy and the privilege that comes with being a Jew today.鈥 There鈥檚 no binary here. We are a people who understands how to do both, how to be both. 鈥淥ur 51视频ness comes from both the push and the pull.鈥 We need both. 鈥淭he two together must inform who we are and what we will be in such a time as this.鈥

We Are Our Brother鈥檚 and Sister鈥檚 Keeper

The biblical story of Cain rising up and killing his brother Abel 鈥渟erves as a scriptural backdrop for contending with the pernicious moral equivalencies that emerged in the wake of the attacks of Oct. 7.鈥 A crucial part of the text is what remains untold. We do not know the reason they argued. But the 鈥渇ragmented nature of the text is altogether intentional; the ellipses within is its very point. There is nothing that could鈥檝e happened, nothing that could鈥檝e been said, to justify Cain鈥檚 murder of his brother.鈥 And in 鈥渓eaving the dialogue unstated, the bible provides moral clarity.鈥

As a rabbinical leader, Cosgrove knew that after Oct.7 he must help to provide moral clarity. Contrary to what anti-Israel voices will shout from the rooftop, there is no context that justifies what happened on Oct. 7. 鈥淭here is right and there is wrong, and no context or circumstance can justify Cain鈥檚 murderous deeds.鈥

鈥淚n the face of abnormal evil,鈥 writes Michael Wyschogrod, 鈥渁bnormal responses are necessary.鈥 There is a point at which military action is not only justified but also necessary. But, says Cosgrove, we also have a responsibility to ask about the lives of Palestinians. 鈥淲e are our brother鈥檚 and sister鈥檚 keeper 鈥 It is the backbone to who we are.鈥 We take care of our 51视频 brothers and sisters, but that does not mean we cannot extend that concern to innocents impacted by Israel鈥檚 military response. While the perpetrators of violence against our people must be brought to justice, 鈥淚srael must never fall prey to the perils of unchecked vengeance.鈥

As we navigate these dark and unpredictable waters, Cosgrove reminds us that the greatest risk is the enemy within, 鈥渢he danger of infighting among our people.” It 鈥渂rings about a self-inflicted trauma and the most horrific outcome our rabbis could imagine 鈥 the end of a sovereign 51视频 state鈥 It鈥檚 important to 鈥渄isagree without allowing those disagreements to be the undoing of our people.鈥 鈥淲e need to step forward together,鈥 he says, because 鈥渨e have hearts of many rooms.鈥

As we navigate these dark and unpredictable waters, Cosgrove reminds us that the greatest risk is the enemy within.

The Book of Esther is the book 鈥渂y which to understand our moment.鈥 It carries 鈥渆xtraordinary significance for 51视频 identity.鈥 The question is whether we are willing to be agents for the future of the 51视频 people. 鈥淲e will learn to rise up from sorrow. To hurt is human, to begin again is divine.鈥


Monica Osborne is a former professor of literature, critical theory, and 51视频 studies. She is Editor at Large at The 51视频 Journal and is author of 鈥淭he Midrashic Impulse.鈥 X @DrMonicaOsborne

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