Beth Hillel Synagogue E-Shul .. Shabbat Shelach... sent on June 3, 2010 / 21 Sivan 5770

   It happens on a regular basis. Israel takes some action to defend its security. And the world rises up in protest against Israel. This week it was an attempt by a flotilla of boats to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. Remember that Gaza is ruled by Hamas, an organization calling for the destruction of Israel. (Thousands of rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza until Israel went to war last year, and was roundly condemned.)    The Israeli navy stopped the boats and boarded them, and then Israeli forces opened fire when attacked. Nine people were killed. And the worldwide protests and condemnations have begun.
       What is clear in the language of many of the protestors is that they not simply attacking this particular military action. Rather they are attacking the very legitimacy of Israel. Other nations are condemned in the court of world opinion for particular actions. Only Israel is attacked for the very crime of existing. If Israel disappeared tomorrow, all the moral qualms would also disappear. When Jews were powerless for two thousand years, nobody questioned Jewish morality. When Jews became a sovereign nation in 1948, suddenly the world began to question the ethics of the Jewish state. Will Israel ever be good enough for the world?
       This week's portion deals with twelve spies sent into the land that would one day become Israel. Ten bring back an evil report about the land. God punishes the people by not allowing an entire generation to go into the land. For forty years the people must wander through the wilderness, until that entire generation dies off. Only when a new generation comes of age will God know whether they are worthy to enter the land.
       The message of this portion is clear. In order to live in the land, the Jewish people must be worthy. They are held to a high ethical standard. Later the Jewish prayer book says in the festival Musaf service, "Because of our sins we were exiled from our land." The right to the land is conditional. Israel must be worthy. But how do you prove worthy when Israel is surrounded by nations out to destroy her? How do you stay in power and stay ethical at the same time? It is a conundrum.
       Perhaps the best answer I have ever heard to the question of power and ethics came from Rabbi Yitz Greenberg. He is quoted as saying, if Israel is five percent more moral than the rest of the world, it could be a light unto the nations. If Israel is ten percent more moral than the rest of the world, it will be dead. Yes when you have power, you must be ethical. But you also must take action to protect yourself and the security of your nation. And that means occasionally acting harshly. Certainly the leaders of this humanitarian flotilla were looking to pick a fight with Israel. And they got what they were looking for.
       What is true for Israel is true for each of us in our lives. Some of us are in positions of power. Being in power, we have the ability to hurt other people. But if we do not use that power others may walk over us. We must have the wisdom to use the power wisely, trying not to hurt others but doing what is necessary to protect ourselves. It is true for sovereign nations. It is true for supervisors and managers in businesses. It is true for heads of family. It is true for each of us. How to enjoy power and behave ethically is a difficult balancing act. Perhaps that is the message that this week's portion is trying to tell us.