Propaganda Then and Now

And the Egyptians did us (otanu) evil, and afflicted us, and imposed on us hard labor.       Deuteronomy 26:6

                                 

            While this translation seems cumbersome, it is more faithful to the Hebrew than the standard translation: “And the Egyptians treated us cruelly and afflicted us, and they imposed hard labor upon us.”

            Indeed, Netziv comments that, if the standard translation were correct, we would expect the verse to use the word “lanu” as does the verse in Parashat Ḥukkat: “And the Egyptians mistreated us (lanu) and our forefathers.” [Numbers 20:15] Based upon the unusual wording, Netziv understands the verse to mean “The Egyptians made us evil and ungrateful;” that is, the Egyptian propaganda presented the Israelites as an evil nation which plotted against the country which welcomed them in at their time of need.

            Netziv wrote these words more than one-hundred-twenty-five years ago and the verse itself was first stated more than three-thousand years ago. The overlap between Netziv’s understanding of the verse and Nazi propaganda of eighty years ago is astounding!

 

The Mother Bird and Jerusalem

If you come across a bird's nest with fledglings or eggs, on any tree or on the ground along the road, and the mother is sitting on the fledglings or eggs, you must not take the mother along with the young. You shall send away the mother, and (then) you may take the young for yourself, in order that it should be good for you, and you should lengthen your days.                                        Deuteronomy 22:6-7

            Thus the Torah presents the mitzva to send the mother bird away before taking her fledglings or eggs.

            Rosh (Rabbi Asher ben Yeḥiel 1250 – 1327), in his commentary on the verses, offers a fascinating homiletic interpretation:

“You shall send away the mother” – this is Jerusalem, which is the mother of the nation of Israel. “And (then) you may take the young for yourself” refers to Israel, for when they sinned Jerusalem was destroyed and God sent them away from Him, as the verse states “and your mother was sent away because of your transgressions.” [Isaiah 50:1], and so Jeremiah said “The Lord has exhausted His wrath, poured out His burning anger; He has ignited a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations.” [Lamentations 4:11] When Israel sinned, the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to destroy His entire world, as Scripture states “If not for My covenant (understood as God’s covenant with Israel that they observe Torah) with the day and the night, I would not place the statutes of heaven and earth.” [Jeremiah 33:25] Instead, God said “I will destroy My house and assuage my anger on the wood and stones of the Temple.” “That it should be good for you.”

            The mitzva of sending away the mother bird hints at God’s mercy; rather than taking out His anger on His chosen nation He took it out on the wood and stones of the Temple.

            Indeed, our Sages [Midrash Eicha Rabba 4:14] connected the verse in Psalms [79:1] “A song of Asaph: God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance, desecrated Your holy temple, and turned Jerusalem into ruins” to the verse in Lamentations which Rosh quoted:

This is what is stated “The Lord has exhausted His wrath, poured out His burning anger; He has ignited a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations;” it is written “A song of Asaph: God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance” should it not have stated Asaph cried and wept and lamented? Yet the verse says “a song of Asaph.” The parable is of a king who built a wedding canopy for his son, who then fell into bad ways; immediately the king tore the curtains and broke the poles of the canopy. The prince’s tutor took a flute and sang. Everyone said to the tutor “The king has destroyed his son’s wedding canopy and you sing!?” He answered “I sing because the king destroyed the canopy rather than taking out his anger on the prince.” Similarly, they said to Asaph “The Holy One, blessed be He, destroyed the Temple and you sing?” Asaph answered “I sing because God poured out His anger on wood and stone, and not on Israel.” This is what the verse says “He has ignited a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations.”

            We may point out that what is said of the Holy City applies also to the Holy Land in general. Rabbi Moshe Ḥagiz (born in Jerusalem 1672, spent close to fifty years abroad as an emissary, returned to Israel, died in Zfat c. 1750) ) wrote that for the nation of Israel, the Land of Israel is like a mother, being struck and suffering for us, and she gives life to her sons. For this reason, she is called ‘’the Land of the Living.” [Psalms 27:13]

            In light of the approach of Maharal, that the sanctity of the Holy Land is derived from the presence within her of the Holy City, it is not surprising that both the City and the Land protect the nation of God who live within them. Truly, the City and the Land are the “mother of the nation of Israel.”

Justice, the Land and the City

Justice (ẓedek), justice shall you pursue, that you may live and possess the Land the Lord, your God, is giving you. Deuteronomy 16:20

     

While the Torah requires that we pursue justice in all places, as Rabbi Ovadya Sforno comments, our verse teaches that there is a unique connection between practicing justice and possessing the Land, in his words “The pursuit of justice is a greater imperative in the Land, for the failure to do so will prevent possessing the Land.” Indeed, Midrash Tanḥuma [Parashat Shofetim 7] states explicitly that our verse makes it clear that the pursuit of justice is the necessary condition for possessing the Land:

As the verse states: “Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may live and possess the Land” – if you do not pursue justice you will not possess the Land.

            Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch adds that the Torah teaches the connection between justice and Israel’s nationality:

Justice is the highest unique goal, and the sole goal of the national entity of Israel … The concept of justice is forming all private and public matters in accordance with God’s Torah. Israel’s one task is to pursue this goal unceasingly with all devotion, “that you may live and possess the Land;” through this Israel will have done everything to secure its physical (“that you live”) and political (“and possess the Land”) existence. Here the political security of the Land, which is based upon acknowledging and caring for right and justice, is called “possession,” even after possession of the Land has been completed. The significant truth is thereby laid down that the possession of the Land comes into question every minute, and the Land has to be taken into possession afresh every minute by the Jewish state acknowledging tribute to “right and justice” and realizing this in the Land.

We may comment that what is true of the Land in general is equally true of her capital. Isaiah [1:26] prophesies that Jerusalem will be called “The city of justice.” However, Rashi comments that this will not be a new name given to the city, but a return to Jerusalem’s beginning, as Isaiah already referred to the Holy City as “full of justice.” [1:21]

The connection between justice and Jerusalem is so strong that her early kings, well before David turned the city into Israel’s eternal capital, had “ẓedek” as a component of their names. The first king of Jerusalem mentioned in the Bible is Malki- ẓedek [Genesis 14:18], and the city’s king at the time of the conquest of the Land by Joshua was named Adoni-ẓedek. [Joshua 10:3] In fact, Rashbam [Genesis 41:10] comments that just as “Pharaoh” was the name of all Egyptian monarchs and “Avimelech” of Philistine kings, so too “Malki-ẓedek” or “Adoni- ẓedek” was the official name of the kings of Jerusalem. Ibn Ezra [Ecclesiastes 1:1] explains simply that the meaning of the royal names is the king (Malki) or master (Adoni) of the place of justice.

            (The last king of the Davidic dynasty until the arrival of Messiah was named “Ẓidkiyahu.” While the name he was given by his father King Josiah was Matanya, and Ẓidkiyahu is the name the Babylonian king gave him when he installed him as king in place of his nephew Yehoyachin, nonetheless, the Bible consistently uses the name Ẓidkiyahu.)

            It should be noted that in Psalms [110:4] King David is referred to as “Malki-ẓedek,” as ibn Ezra writes: “The simple meaning (p’shat) of the psalm is reference to David.”

            Malbim [Isaiah 1:26] focuses our attention on the fact that “justice” refers to interpersonal relations (bein adam l’ḥavero). This comment explains both our Sages’ statement [Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 9b] that the Second Temple was destroyed because of unfounded hatred and Rabbi Kook’s insight that we will merit the rebuilding of Jerusalem when we reach the level of “unbounded love.” Since justice (bein adam l’ḥavero) is an essential aspect of the definition of the Eternal City, necessarily her existence depends upon bein adam l’ḥavero.