When Israel invaded Lebanon in the 1980s, Arizona Republic editorial cartoonist Steve Benson decided, as he recalled in an article that appears on the Web site www.lds-mormon.com, to satirize then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin for justifying the action with biblical quotations.
So Benson drew a cartoon showing Begin in the cockpit of an Israeli combat jet, holding a Torah scroll over his head and yelling “Torah! Torah! Torah!” punning on the 1970 Hollywood movie about the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, “Tora! Tora! Tora!”
This cartoon was reprinted nationally and a storm of Jewish community protest ensued over the perceived insult to Judaism and its foundational sacred text.
But the upshot of this protest was that the Anti-Defamation League brought Benson and some other journalists and cartoonists to Israel, where they learned about the country and about the Jewish concerns that made such a cartoon offensive.
Rabbi Kenneth Katz, spiritual leader of Beth Israel Center (Conservative) in Madison, wonders why the Muslim world has not seized upon the controversial cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed in Denmark to do something similar, instead of holding the mass protest demonstrations and violent riots of recent weeks.
“This is a teachable moment for Muslims who can grasp it,” a chance to “reach out to non-Muslims” and explain aspects of that religion and culture, Katz said in a telephone interview.
Indeed, the Muslim reactions lead to the question of what is or might be considered an appropriate Jewish response to any action perceived as an insult to Judaism. Is a violent one ever justified?
A look deep into Jewish history uncovers some roughly similar instances, but also may show that historical parallels are never identical.
The First Century C.E. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in his book on the first Jewish revolt against Rome described how a Roman soldier exposed himself to the worshippers at the Temple in Jerusalem, and the response was a Jewish riot.
But “I don’t know if that is a parallel” to the incidents today, said Rabbi David Brusin, spiritual leader of Milwaukee Congregation Shir Hadash (Reconstructionist).
That incident took place when the land of Israel was under the rule of “an oppressor that had been the scourge of the world…. We were oppressed as a people, an occupied nation,” Brusin said.
Josephus in his “The Antiquities of the Jews” and the Talmud recount an even earlier incident in which the Hasmonean Jewish king Alexander Jannai performed in the Temple a Sukkot ritual in a way calculated to insult members of the Pharisee movement. Pharisee worshippers responded by throwing their etrogs at him.
But Rabbi Mendel Senderovic, dean of the Milwaukee Kollel Center for Jewish Studies (Orthodox), said, “I would imagine that was the response of the moment to provocation. I don’t believe it is the expression of any commandment to respond that way.”
Overall, said Senderovic, “The only situations of responding with violence that are taught in the Torah” have to do with “responding violently to immorality” and “eradicating evil.”
Which is not to say there are no Jewish laws about showing respect to God. In his sermon last weekend on this topic, Rabbi Jonathan Biatch, spiritual leader of Temple Beth El in Madison (Reform), referred to an incident in Leviticus 24.
The son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man “pronounced God’s name in blasphemy” and God ordered that this person had to be stoned to death. God further made this a commandment that is applicable to any person, “stranger or citizen” (Leviticus 24:16).
However, Biatch pointed out that Judaism later evolved “more peaceful and rational” approaches to such offenses, like the excommunication that the Dutch Jewish community invoked against the philosopher Baruch Spinoza in the 17th century.
All in all, there appears to be “nothing comparable” in Judaism to the reactions of that segment of the Muslim world that is rioting in reaction to the cartoons, said Brusin.
“Values within Judaism are what we talk about, not the value of Judaism,” Brusin said.
“We are not putting Judaism up there, as they put up the prophet [Mohammed].”
In fact, key figures in Jewish history can be depicted even in trivial fashion without fear of extreme reactions, though context may be an issue. Katz recalled how one of his congregants found and gave him an “action figure” of Moses, complete with “stone tablets” and a removable staff.
Katz said this figure is “ridiculous” and “in bad taste, but it’s okay” coming from a congregant. “But I could imagine that if a neo-Nazi gave this to me, I wouldn’t laugh.”
Loading ...