ELANA ROZENMAN
International Conference on Peace
June 26, 2005 Donggkuk University
Seoul, South Korea
Distinguished speakers, teachers and dignitaries of Dongguk University, beloved URI brothers and sisters, honored members of the audience:
I know that in these days the great Korean nation longs for peace and reconciliation. I come from the country of Israel – where the peoples of the Holy Land are locked in violence and vengeance – but are also longing for peace and reconciliation.
So at this time of the 55th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, when you are commemorating and contemplating your own profound realities of war and peace – I am honored that I have been given the opportunity to share my reflections with you about practicing peace from a Jewish Perspective.
I am not a cleric or a theologian. I am not even a learned exponent of my religion. I can speak only as one simple woman -- an Orthodox Jewish Israeli who was born and raised in the United States and now practices a Jewish lifestyle in Jerusalem, Israel -- the spiritual center of three great religions -- Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
As a religious Jew, my behavior is defined by my religion -- with all of its rules, instructions, commandments and laws for every realm of human behavior. I will attempt to share with you the way my individual understanding of a few of these instructions regarding pursuing peace, governs my life and my work.
First, in all of our Holy Books -- which are called our Torah, "shalom" - peace - is continually mentioned. Three times daily we pray with continual references to peace. We use the word “shalom” or Peace for Hello, Good-by, Good wishes, Well-being.
Our sages instructed us almost two thousand years ago that we should be like Moses' brother Aaron: "Be as the students of Aaron, loving peace, pursuing peace, loving people and bringing them closer to Torah (or holiness) " In my personal life, this pursuit of peace begins with “Shalom Bayit” or Peace in the Home – a much loved Jewish principle.
We believe that Peace in the Home is the foundation for all ethical behavior -- and it is the mother's role to teach her children the ways of peace. For many years I understood that I must strive to keep peace among my family, then my circle of friends, my community, the Jewish people and the nation of Israel.
Then my life was irrevocably changed by religious violence and I arrived at a much deeper understanding of pursuing peace. My 16 year old son was walking down the street in the middle of the day in the middle of Jerusalem when he was caught between two Palestinian suicide bombers -- young men like himself -- who blew themselves up and killed seven children and adults and wounded 200 others.
I had a lot of time to think, as I spent months sleeping on a mattress on the floor next to his hospital bed while he was treated for burns, broken bones, shrapnel wounds, perforated eardrums, shock and post traumatic stress. This personal crisis and trauma was for me a turning point -- painfully illuminating for me the necessity to not only be working to make peace within my own community and the Jewish people -- but also to build peace with my Palestinian brothers and sisters -- so that no other mother would have to watch her child go through such suffering.
I take inspiration from Rabbi Avraham Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of modern Israel at the beginning of the twentieth century, who taught us that “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is an active commandment, requiring us to love “every single person, regardless of differences in opinion, religions, and beliefs …For the noblest love for one's own nation, in it's broadest practical and spiritual reaches, appears only in a person who is rich in love for humanity and for every individual man (and woman)."
Our concept of "Tikkun Olam" or Repairing the World -- teaches that God created the world with imperfections -- and it is our work to perfect the world. So fixing or repairing the world is part of each Jew's task. In my small corner of the world, in our tiny Holy Land, we live in the midst of such violence and madness, of man's inhumanity to man -- that we have much to fix.
The Holy Land and it's peoples are filled with hatred, mistrust, animosity -- and worst of all, vengeance -- everyone focusing on the wrongs that have been done to them, on their own suffering and pain, and blaming the Other for causing it – and pursuing revenge. So in my own personal life, I have dedicated my time and energy to do whatever I can to make some repairs to the world within my own neighborhood.
I do this not out of some lofty theological intention or some religious injunction -- I do this because it is a practical necessity for me in order to feel sane in the midst of a collective insanity, in order for me to have integrity as a believing and practicing Jew, and not to collude with the prevalent and pervasive attitude of violence around me. I also do it because my family has suffered from vicious religious hatred and I have chosen love rather than hate. I know that people of faith must strengthen the truth and practice of their religions in order to lessen the power of the religious distortions that fuel violence among peoples.
I work especially with women because I know that all women want their children to grow up healthy and secure -- no mother wants her child to die! So I gather with Muslim, Christian, and Jewish women -- Israelis and Palestinians -- to build an oasis of peace together. We open our hearts and minds to each other and learn about and share our customs, traditions, and differing religions -- respecting our differences and creating a sisterhood of tolerance, acceptance, and love.
We celebrate our holidays together, visit each other's homes, dance at each other's weddings, and demonstrate that for us peace is not a concept or a goal -- but a shared, lived reality that already exists. Recently at my daughter’s wedding it filled me with great joy to see my Muslim and Christian friends eating at tables with rabbis and orthodox Jews – demonstrating the harmony that is our true nature.
History records that our Second Holy Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed on the physical level by the Romans two thousand years ago, and our Sages teach that it was destroyed on the spiritual level because of "Sinat Hinam" or Groundless Hatred between the Jews of that time. And Rav Kook teaches that it will only be rebuilt and bring the spiritual redemption of the entire world -- when we live in Groundless Love.
Groundless Love is Unconditional Love for all of God's creatures. We learn from the book of “Bereshit” or Genesis that we were all created in God's Image. Our task is to find and love the Godliness in everyone. This does not mean that we don't continue to hate Evil and to work to transform Evil into Good, but we can separate the Evil from the Evil - doer and find compassion in our heart to understand and respect every human being and his or her experience.
We are also instructed by our Sages "that it is not up to us to finish the task, but we cannot desist from starting it". In this way we learn that repairing the world, building peace, healing conflicts -- these are all tasks that may not be fully accomplished in our lifetime -- yet we are obligated to work everyday towards these transcendental goals which give meaning to our existence and purpose to our lives.
I close with a blessing for all of us taken from the last of the Priestly blessings we have recited daily for over 3000 years – “Yisa Adonai panav elaycha v’yasim le’cha shalom” "May the Lord turn His countenance towards you and grant you peace. Amen."
