L'Chaim Mourns The Loss of Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel Tuesday 7 November, at the Oxford University L'Chaim Society a memorial service was held for Israel's recently assassinated Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin. Rabbi Shmuel Boteach, Director and Rabbi of the Society, addressed the audience of over one hundred students, faculty and community members emphasizing the need for all Jews to use this tragic event to reassess their own attitudes and behaviour toward their fellow Jews. Underscoring the value of diversity and dissent among the Jewish people-a binding glue which has preserved us for thousands of years. ''We can'' he said ''be of many minds, but we must be of one heart.'' Following the service, Mr Seymour Saideman, President of United Synagogue, addressed the society. Mr Saideman spoke of the qualities which create Jewish leadership; Humility, endurance, and courage. He spoke of the need for soul-searching and an end to Jew on Jew violence, from the small petty thefts in a Tel Aviv suburb to the heinous act of murdering the elected leader of Israel. ********************************************************************** People Prior to Principles Moving Forward After the Tragic Assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin Oxford University LChaim Society Weekly Essay, 9 November, 1995; by Rabbi Shmuel Boteach It ironically took a non-Jewish American President to point out at the woeful funeral of Yitzchak Rabin the prescient fact that the Torah reading of the week in which the assassination took place speaks of the celebrated Biblical story of the binding and attempted sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham. Many Biblical commentators have struggled to make sense of this seemingly barbaric story. Why would a good and compassionate G-d have caused the patriarch Abraham to go through the heart-rendering motions of bringing his own beloved son as a human sacrifice to G-d, only to be told in the end that it was a test and his devotion had now been vindicated. In light of the horrific circumstances of Mr Rabin having been murdered by a fellow Jew, the following insight might be the most applicable of all. In the days of Abraham, it was absolutely commonplace for human beings to be sacrificed to the gods. Men, women, and children were all offered upon the altar of ideologies and truths which were deemed more important than human life. The gods were more significant than people, and thus one was prepared to murder ones own children in their favour, thereby dedicating them to a higher purpose and cause. What G-d was showing Abraham and demonstrating to all posterity with the enigmatic story of the Akeida was simply this: people are not a means to an end. Having been created in the image of G-d, they are an end in and of themselves. Possessing a fragment of the Divine, every human being is of infinite value and therefore cannot be subordinated to a higher purpose or cause. Human sacrifice was wrong not only because it involved murder, but rather because it mistakenly portrayed people as being subordinate to some higher truth or goal. It wrongly portrayed humanity as a means to a higher end, which they are not. Like their Father in Heaven in whose likeness they were created, people are ends and not means. To use a contemporary example, there are two kinds of Rabbis who engage in Jewish communal outreach work. One loves G-d and the Torah and will therefore work with people in order to bring them closer to G-d and increase the amount of individuals worshipping the Creator. This kind of Rabbi uses people to serve G-d. While working with and teaching people, his focus is not on the welfare of humanity, but on the needs of the Creator. Then there is another kind of Rabbi. He is a lover of Israel, a lover of the Jewish nation, a lover of humanity. He works teaching and educating people in the Jewish tradition, not (only) because he loves G-d, but because he is concerned for human welfare, and thus attempts to impart a deep and fulfilling dimension to their lives which will enrich their existence. The former Rabbi sees people as means to a higher end. The latter believes that they are an end in themselves and deserve attention, not for their inherent ability or potential become religious Jews, but rather because of his love for his fellow man and his belief that people are of inestimable value. What Abraham was being shown with the test of the Akeida was that he, and his co-religionists who would follow him, should never make the mistake of sacrificing people to G-d, never treat people as being valuable only for their potential to serve their Creator. Even if someone keeps no religion at all, they are still G-ds children. The assassination of Yitzchak Rabin by a Jewish assailant involves myriad dimensions of evil. On one level, it is evil simply because it is murder. Worse still, it was a Jew murdering a Jew, something quite unfathomable to the overwhelming majority of Jewry. Even more sickening is the utter desecration of Judaism and Jewish values every time his photo appears before the eyes of the world in newspapers wearing a Yarmulke. But perhaps the greatest travesty of all was that this misguided fool missed the essential message of the Bibles most famous story. People are more important than ideas and concepts. One cannot take a life because of a particular individuals views. What this assailant did was to reject the quintessential and irreducible essence of the Jewish faith which is an undying emphasis on the transcendence of human life over and above so-called truths and concepts. By murdering Yitzchak Rabin in the name of opposition to the peace-process, this depraved youth simultaneously degraded all of humanity. He subordinated human life to abstractions, issues, and concepts. Those of us who disassociate ourselves from his actions forget that there is a little bit of him in each and every one of us. In my years at Oxford, I have witnessed on numerous occasions how even good friends have fallen out over sharp political or ideological disagreements. I have seen money become more important than friendships, and even filial or marital commitments. I have seen husbands and wives forsake the marital covenant for the physical charms of a stranger. In short, we are all guilty, to some degree or other, or subordinating human beings to ideologies, making ideas, or even inanimate objects, more important than people. But Judaism came into the world to correct this gross misconception. Jewish Unity Means Sharing One Heart; Not One Mind The secret of Jewish unity is not that all Jews are of one mind. Rather, it is that all Jews are of one heart. To be of one mind, for everyone to be in complete political and ideological agreements, even if it were possible, would not be desirable. Imagine if the State of Israel, for example, were comprised only of people on the left. How long would the country last? It would certainly have been overrun by hostile Arab aggressors long ago. Now imagine if the country were comprised only of people on the right. Most certainly it would have descended into the despotism and tyranny that characterizes so many of the totalitarian Arab dictatorships which surround it. That there are people of different views is the cornerstone of any flourishing society. People with different views create a balanced equilibrium, thus ensuring the humanity, but also the security of any decent society. It is not enough to be good and compassionate. One must also be strong and guard oneself from attack. Ones own life is no less important than a strangers. But in order for any society to be healthy, it must first respect this most basic of all principles. There is nothing wrong with people being different, and there is nothing wrong with disagreeing with each other. But the above is governed by one essential caveat:: love, courtesy, and respect must always be shown. By my own confession, I am not a supporter of territorial concessions for peace. For me it seems to jeopardize the basic security of a tiny state comprised of a people that has always been the worlds target. I simply feel that Jews are much too vulnerable to take risks for peace, especially when those risks are dangerous and significant. But this does not stop me from (a) according the highest possible motives to those who would trade land for peace, and believing that what they truly seek is the welfare of the Jewish nation, and (b) being prepared to admit that I have much to learn from those with a dissenting view, and I thank G-d that they exist. I disagreed with the policies of Yitzchak Rabin, but I salute him and his memory as a trusted and devoted servant of the Jewish nation and a true patriot of the State of Israel. BEING ONE PEOPLE DOES NOT MEAN AGREEING WITH ONE ANOTHER, BUT RATHER LOVING EACH OTHER. IT DOES NOT MEAN BEING OF ONE MIND, BUT OF ONE HEART. The analogy of a family is particularly appropriate. Two brothers may indeed disagree, and sometimes strongly so. But what makes them brothers is that irrespective of any differences that separate them, they will never forsake one another in their true hour of need. Brothers feel that the congenital love which they harbour for each other transcends by far any disagreements which they may have. Thus, the test of Jewish unity following the horrendous murder of the Israeli Prime Minister is not just the percentage of world Jewry who are prepared to condemn the attack. It does not take much moral courage to condemn something as evil as murder. Rather, the real test is whether each and every one of us is prepared to renounce from our hearts now and for all time any semblance of hatred for any members of the Jewish people. Will we really be there for each other in our greatest hour of need, which surely is now! If a religious Jew were to show the same degree of hostility toward his son marrying a secular Jewish woman as he would to his son marrying a non-Jewish woman, we could safely conclude that this parent does not consider that woman to be part of his people. To him, she is the other, a stranger. He has now made religion - ideology - more important than peoplehood. Jews are not one because they have one G-d, nor because they share a common history of suffering. They are united by virtue of the fact that they are one people, with the same patriarchs and matriarchs, the same brothers and sisters. Every Jewish man and woman is a son and daughter of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. A father loves his son not because the child adopts his way of life, but rather because it is his flesh and blood. The Jewish nation must begin again to feel this filial quality that once united us in the past. A Jew who could lift a gun to a fellow Jew can only do so because he believes that his target, by virtue of his dissenting views, has seized to be his brother. Let us all rid ourselves of any semblance of this assassin within us. Let us never judge our fellow Jew by their opinions or dispositions, but rather reach out to one another with unconditional and boundless love. May the abomination of Jew harming Jew, on any level, be forever purged from our midst, and may the comforting and benevolent Creator comfort the family of Yitzchak Rabin and the entire House of Israel. .