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Identity, tolerance, and the virgin
seekers
By Rabbi Moshe Reiss
Identity
The literary basis of
the identity problem begins in Homer's
Odyssey. The hero travels back and forth in
time and space in order to return home. His home,
as for most of us, represents identity. Homer does
not tell us that the people Odysseus visited spoke
different languages (being written after the event
of Babel) and consequently were largely
barbarians, according to the Greeks, with no real
identity. We can surmise from this logic that
language is another ingredient of identity. His
difficulty in returning after his 20-year voyage
has been defined by a Hebrew poet as follows: "The
words he had taken with him as provisions on the
path of his voyage had died meanwhile" (Haim
Gouri, translated by Dan Pagis).
The high
literary point of identity can be seen in the
writer Franz Kafka. From what kind of an identity
does Kafka write? He is Jewish, despite never
using the term "Jew" or "Judaism" in his fictional
writing. (His Jewish name was Amschel.) When he
spoke Yiddish, not even his grandfather, who
understood Yiddish (as opposed to his father, who
did not) could understand him. His father spoke
German but lived in a community that spoke Czech;
Kafka wrote in German. He feared his father and
hand-wrote to him a 70-page letter to explain his
fear. He gave it to his mother, whom he loved
rather than feared; she read it and never gave it
to her husband. Fortunately for us, he was
obsessed and saved everything. He asked his last
girlfriend Dora, the daughter of a Hasid, to
destroy his notes and diaries after his death. She
did; however, he left some with his friend Max
Brod. He asked him to destroy them after his
death; he did not. Some of us will be forever
grateful to Brod.
His lack of identity
fragmented his personality and his soul. How does
one define a fragmented personality or fragmented
soul? Kafka did it for himself and for us.
He wrote in this letter to his father:
The world was for me divided into
three parts: one in which I lived under laws
which had been invented only for me and which I
could, I did not know why, never completely
comply with; then a second world, which was
infinitely remote from mine, in which you lived
... and finally a third world where everybody
else lived happily ... If a man does not know
where he belongs he cannot know to whom he is
bound in duty; his need for a clearly defined
area of obligation must remain unappeased ... is
not [your] power such that nothing could resist
[your] decree. He said of his father
(in his diary), you "down the Czechs, and then the
Germans, and then the Jews ... and nobody was left
except yourself ... I have hardly anything in
common with myself."
Despair was his
inspiration. "What is laid upon us is to
accomplish the negative; the positive is already
given."
Shakira Hussein notes that her
father had four marriages with women of four
different ethnic and religious identities. "Last
year, I attended the weddings of two of my
brothers. In London, my devoutly Muslim brother,
born and raised in Pakistan, finally married his
straight-talking Sikh girlfriend, having agreed to
a Sikh as well as a Muslim ceremony. A few months
later, in Australia, another brother married in a
ceremony that combined readings from his chosen
spiritual teacher, the Indian Parsi Meher Baba,
with the bride's Buddhist faith. Then there is my
youngest brother, who is thus far quite happy with
his own 'God-shaped hole', but who cheerfully
attends Eid at the Islamic Center with me, or
Christmas Mass with our Catholic mother; the
sister who is currently considering converting to
Coptic Christianity; and the fact that thanks to
two years as a live-in housekeeper to an Iranian
Orthodox Jewish family, I know how to keep a
kosher kitchen and prepare a three-course Passover
meal for 10 at short notice."
She asks,
"Does a particular religion look a particular way?
Or is it our beliefs, our names, style of dress,
physical appearance, even our diet? Are these
signifiers as shallow or as significant as any
racial marker? My young pink-and-white daughter is
already highly aware of the anti-Islamic prejudice
that confronts her, prejudice which has nothing to
do with who she is or what she thinks." (Open
Democracy, February 25.)
Shakira does not
have a lack of identity but a surfeit of wonderful
identities. There is nothing fragmented about her
personality or her soul.
Father Aleksandr
is a Greek Orthodox priest with a parish in
Jerusalem made up partly of Arabs (most Christians
in Israel are Arabs) but largely Slavs. His
original name was Abraham ben Baruch. His mother,
a German Jew, survived the Majdanek extermination
camp in Poland; his younger brother and his
maternal grandmother were killed in the camp. His
father, also a Jew, survived while serving in the
underground resistance in France. He was born
after the war. His mother rejected ever speaking
German or setting foot on its soil, but also
insisted that he speak German perfectly without an
accent. He did. As a child he studied the Hebrew
Bible and Talmud, and spoke Hebrew and Yiddish.
Later in university he studied comparative
linguistics, rabbinic studies and the Jewish
French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. At age 25 he
converted to Greek Orthodox Christianity. Since
his parents were Zionists, he chose to live in
Israel. Given his background, his fluency in
Hebrew and the Slavic languages and his Jewish
knowledge, he was accepted by the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate in Jerusalem. (Most of the Christian
Slavs in Israel have partly Jewish blood and
knowledge. Consequently his Judaic knowledge was
an advantage in understanding that community.)
He considers himself part of the Jewish
nation. He has never sought Israeli citizenship
nor acceptance under the Law of Return. He reads
the liturgy 80% in Hebrew and the remainder in
Russian or Ukrainian. The Greek Orthodox Bible is
the ancient Septuagint, translated by the Jews for
their Greek co-religionists in Alexandria. Father
Aleksandr preaches using the section of the Hebrew
Bible Jews recite for that week. When appropriate
to his particular congregants who have more Jewish
knowledge than usual, he uses certain Jewish
Hasidic masters. Despite his Jewish family
rejecting his conversion, when his mother was
about to die she allowed him to assist her in her
final hours. After his mother's death he placed
his father in a Jewish home for the elderly. He
helped arrange for both of them to be buried in a
Jewish cemetery under Orthodox Jewish law.
He never tried to convert his parents. For
Christians he is considered to have a Jewish
identity. The author, who knows Father Aleksandr,
can attest that his personality, if not his soul,
is holistic.
Since Jews, Christians and
Muslims claim the same father - Abraham - can one
identify oneself as a Jew, a Christian and a
Muslim? Since Islam is based on patrilineal
descent, perhaps; since Judaism is based on
matrilineal descent, apparently not.
Tolerance
Tolerance is related
to freedom of speech. To accept those who agree
with you or whom you respect or whom you love is
appropriate but not related to tolerance. To
accept those with whom you disagree or whom you
disrespect or whom you even hate is tolerance.
Tolerance does not require respect. To be accused
of blasphemy is the opposite of tolerance.
If I proclaim myself on a street corner in
Hyde Park or at the Wall in Jerusalem to be the
new Messiah, you are within your rights to
ridicule me, but not to beat me and certainly not
to execute me. The right to offend is in fact free
speech. I am under no obligation to respect your
beliefs. Respect is earned. Who decides? Each of
us. Respect is not an entitlement. I am, however,
obligated to tolerate your beliefs.
A
recent British Broadcasting Corp television
broadcast of an opera written by Jerry Springer
produced enormous controversy; almost 50,000
respondents, some complaining about foul language;
some of the complainers threatened BBC executives.
There were either 300 or 8,000 "foul" words or
somewhere in between, according to the complaints.
The distinction depends on whether one considers
"nipple" or "poop" to be foul. A second
discrepancy is whether the same word sung by the
27 members of the chorus counts as one word or 27
words. A total of 1.8 million saw and listened to
the broadcast; the complaint ratio is thus less
than 3%. Perhaps more people were offended but did
not complain in writing, by phone or by e-mail. Oh
yes, 40% of the phone calls were complimentary,
according to The Guardian newspaper. Was anyone
forced to watch or listen? I do not live in
Britain and was thus not able to see the
broadcast. But if it had been available to me I
might or might not have seen the broadcast -
probably not; I do not like opera. Is my view
relevant; are the 50,000 people who complained
relevant? Yes to marketing people, not to censors.
Tolerance to be real must be embedded in
one's soul. Tarek Heggy, an Egyptian, stated that
unless one accepts that all human beings are
members of humanity, this discussion is a dialogue
of the deaf. (He was referring to Christian Copts
in Egypt.)
Intolerance is offering
justification to the killer of Theo van Gogh,
whose sin was to have made a short movie about the
mistreatment of women in Islamic societies.
Intolerance is offering justification for the
slaughtering of 350 children in Beslan, or of 200
commuters in Madrid. And for the execution of
Margaret Hassan, the Irish-born Iraqi citizen who
devoted her life to humanitarian relief and
opposed the prewar sanctions on Iraq as well as
the invasion itself. Intolerant jihadis, it turns
out, issue no exemptions for humanists when
drawing up their lists of those deserving
execution. They have an insane obsession with
honor and vengeance and wrath that has infected
their minds as well as their souls. And yes, I
have read their supposed God-given justification.
Their God does not resemble my God. And my Old
Testament God, who specified in that same book
more than 40 times about the kindness and equality
owed to the stranger, is supposed to be
intolerant.
A key belief in the
Judeo-Christian tradition is "love your neighbor
as yourself" and "love the stranger as yourself".
Love is more than tolerance - it requires respect
and acceptance of the "other". If your neighbor or
the stranger sees God's face differently, then do
you still have to love him? If her model of the
good life differs from yours, do you still have to
love her? Clearly so! If you cannot love your
neighbor, Rabbi Hillel suggested another version,
which he claimed was the essence of Judaism: "Do
not do unto others what you would not have them do
unto you." If you cannot love, at least do not
harm.
Intolerant personalities come in all
religions, all colors, all races and, as Shakira
stated, in different styles of dress and diet.
These personalities cannot envisage that other
ways of life (whether other religions or forms of
secularism) can be models of the good life. They
are illegitimate. Since, in their view, there is
only one truth and it is absolute, all other views
are sinful and those following them devil
worshippers, legitimately subject to death.
The virgin seekers
Neither
Kafka, Shakira Hussein nor Father Aleksandr is
intolerant, despite two having holistic
personalities and one a fragmented personality.
The "virgin seekers" are those who choose to bring
in the ghastly Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Can we
understand something about their personalities? We
have already written about suicide bombers (Suicide bombing, the theology of
death, October 22, 2004). We noted that the
major reason used by suicide bombers was the
zealous defense of honor and vengeance. To honor
one's parents is a positive commandment in the
Judeo-Christian tradition. But to murder for honor
is not part of that commandment. To take vengeance
is a sin: "Vengeance is mine, I shall repay," said
the Lord (Deuteronomy 32:35 and Romans 12:19)
again in the Judeo-Christian tradition. A zealot
personality is an intolerant personality.
The identity and personality of those
intolerant jihadis can be surmised by their
supposed reward: going directly to heaven and
meeting 72 doe-eyed, dark-haired virgins. (One or
two virgins might be interesting for some men; a
harem of 72 makes the whole reward system a
fantasy and theologically incoherent.) They are
macho sex fiends as well as cowards. Living is
courageous; killing oneself and murdering others
is the coward's way out.
Two examples of
macho sex fiends and cowardice should suffice.
According to Kanan Makiya, an Iraqi dissident, he
saw a copy of the index card of a security officer
that described his activities in Arabic as
"violation of women's honor" - an official
government-sanctioned rapist (Cruelty and
Silence).
The second example is that
of Mukhtaran Bibi, a young Pakistani woman. She
was accused of having a brother - 14 years of age
- who was supposedly seen in public with a girl
from another tribal family; this rumor was never
confirmed and Bibi denied it. She was judged by a
Tribal Elders Council of six men to be punished
for her brother's sin. She was sentenced to be
gang-raped. The sentence was carried out by five
men, her neighbors. Hundreds waited outside as she
was gang-raped. She was then sent home naked in
the streets. Amazingly and with great courage
Mukhtaran Bibi went to the courts seeking justice.
The men were originally convicted of the rape.
Recently a court overturned the conviction as
illegal. The requirement for conviction of rape in
Pakistan's family law is that four men (all
Muslims) have to testify they witnessed the event.
The rapist witnesses were unlikely to testify
against themselves. Would men who forcibly rape a
young woman still expect virgins in heaven? She
was not a virgin, having been divorced. The
highest Islamic court overturned the acquittal of
the rapists.
Americanism and
anti-Americanism are identities. Semites (really
Jews) and anti-Semites are also identities. Is it
Americanism or anti-Americanism that breeds
terrorism? Is it Jews or anti-Semites who breed
terrorism? I have not noticed that the murderers
of Theo van Gogh, the children in Beslan, or the
commuters in Madrid, or the executor of Margaret
Hassan, were Americans or Jewish. As the Arab
Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, manager of TV news of
al-Arabiya and former editor of the daily
London-based Arabic Asharq Al Awsat, noted, "It is
a certain fact that not all Muslims are
terrorists, but it is equally certain, and
exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists
are Muslims. Does all this tell us something about
ourselves, our societies and our culture?"
What are the Americans to do? What are the
Jews to do? Neither Americans nor Jews have
committed suicide missions. Presumably neither
Americans nor Jews are enticed by the 72 virgins
(doe-eyed and probably blond-haired for Americans)
in heaven. They prefer their own wives and
children here on Earth.
Arik Sharon is
not, in my opinion, a nice man, I never have nor
ever would consider voting for him. But can he be
compared to Yasser Arafat, an evil, corrupt, venal
man who allowed his own people to suffer endlessly
for his narcissistic and "noble-minded"
victimhood? Who has committed "crimes against
humanity" - Sharon or Arafat? I may be a suspect
witness since I dislike both men, but loving
either is more suspect. The not-nice man Sharon
was trying to protect his people's lives; and yes,
he should have been more concerned with innocent
civilian Palestinian lives and especially
children. He did many things I as a Jew and as an
Israeli citizen am not proud of. But can he be
compared to Arafat, who did not care for any
people's lives, his people's or mine? He favored
the macho virgin seekers.
Continuing with
Sharon (I will continue with Arafat in another
article), none of us is perfect, neither Sharon
nor his public. His vices have recently become
more obvious to the Israeli public. Apparently
when Israeli civilians and soldiers were being
killed by suicide bombers and Palestinian soldiers
and when the Israeli economy was in the dregs,
Sharon's popularity was quite high, in fact he was
a hero. Since the deaths have significantly been
reduced and the economy has improved, his
popularity has declined significantly. A strange
public!
Even before, when he was an
opposition politician, he was held by the public
as a hero. He could and did always blame the
sitting prime minister, the ultimate authority.
Since becoming prime minister himself four years
ago, he has had no one to blame for events. He is
the ultimate authority. He has now lost half his
party and had to add the opposition into his
coalition. He and his entire family, including not
only his two sons but his dead wife Lily, are
being cursed. The curse toward Lily is that her
bones be overturned. One of the choices approved
by his opposition in his own party and among other
parties is for him to go back to his ranch. In
this way he can be compared to his friend George W
Bush, who many Americans also wish would go back
to his ranch (the weather is even comparable).
I will attempt next time to elaborate on
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I accept the
moral equivalence of the rights of the
Palestinians for their land as compared with the
rights of the Israelis for their land. I do not
accept the moral equivalence of the deaths
perpetrated. My major question will be, given that
the Israelis have a democratic and mixed
government, will the Palestinians be allowed to
choose their own system of government - Islamic,
secular or mixed - by the Palestinians themselves?
Rabbi Moshe Reiss is a graduate
of Oxford University and was assistant rabbi at
Yale University. He was the first rabbi invited to
teach in the Department of Theology at the
Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (founded
1425), and has lectured in various countries. He
has posted three books on his website on Judaism,
Christianity and Islam. His book on Judaism is
being published by sections in the Jewish Bible
Quarterly. He now lives in Israel.
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