Genocide and the Jewish prophetic tradition
JVL Introduction
How does one go on being Jewish in a world in which Judaism is equated with genocide, embraced and pursued openly by a self-declared Jewish state?
This is a question which many have grappled with long before the existence of the current genocide.
Bertell Ollman’s conclusion is tempting, as expounded in his 2004 Letter of Resignation from the Jewish People (see here).
Others prefer a more theological approach, saving Judaism from itself from within, as it were, drawing on the rich Jewish prophetic tradition.
No-one in our times has been more important in exploring that route than Marc Ellis, particularly in his Toward a Theology of Jewish Liberation.
His views are discussed here by Rabbi Brant Rosen, the rabbi of Tzedek Chicago.
This eulogy in honour of Marc Ellis, delivered in April 2018, seems peculiarly relevant in the circumstances we face today.
H/t Brian Robinson.
RK
This article was originally published by Shalom Rav on Tue 17 Apr 2018. Read the original here.
On Marc Ellis, Exile and the Prophetic (or Welcome to the New Diaspora Rabbi Rosen!)
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Marc Ellis wrote somewhere, “Thou shalt not murder those who resist your oppression”. And he also wrote this:
“As Jews, darkness surrounds us. We have entered an abyss.” Goodness knows what he would have said today had he lived to witness it.
Here’s the original of the first quotation
https://mondoweiss.net/2019/04/nopassover-reflections-liberation/
A Jewish Theology of Liberation might begin with an addition to Emil Fackenheim’s 614th commandment or, more to the point, the positing of another commandment. While the 614th commandment represents the resolve for Jewish continuity after the Holocaust, crystallized in an empowered Israel – “Thou Shalt Not Hand Hitler Posthumous Victories” – the 615th Commandment places the desire for Jewish continuity and need for Jewish empowerment in a second after: after the Holocaust and after Israel – and what Israel has done and is doing to the Palestinian people. The 615th Commandment? “Thou Shalt Not Murder Those Who Resist Your Oppression.”