The psychological deprivation is astounding. Although the metal sheeting that serves as a roof is patterned red and white, there seems to be a distinct lack of color. No where is this more apparent than in the contrast between the muted tones of the metal walkway and the brightly colored jumpsuits of the boys walking through. Wrinkled men and women, intermingled with the vibrant life of youth, wait patiently for their number to be belted out by the garbled loudspeaker.
This site, the Qaladiya checkpoint, resonates with denigration and active dismissal of humanity. Instead of focusing on the necessity of treating every human as created בצלם אלו-הים, betezelm elohim, in the image of God, this check point focuses on demoralization and how to demonstrate Israeli superiority. As people who only recently experienced being hoarded into cattle cars, how is it that we can imagine a torture chamber of a fenced walkway, roughly the width and height of a human body? Only once a trigger is released does the mechanical turnstile progress to let in the next victims to search and questioning.
When human beings are placed in unfamiliar situations, they look for solutions to bring peace to the tumult this circumstances naturally brings forth. In pars hat Ki Tisa, the Israelites tell Aaron: עשה לנו אלוהים אשר ילכו לפנינו כי-זה משה האיש אשר העלנו מארץ מצרים לא ידענו מה-היה לו, Make for us a God who/that will go before us because this Moses who brought us out of Egypt, we do not know him (Shemot 32:1). This translates into the golden calf, for which Aaron takes all of the gold and jewelry and makes the calf. Instead of destroying the Israelites and just making Moses and his offspring a great nation, God listens to Moses's pleas for salvation on behalf of the Israelites and repents. As it is written in Shemot 32:15 וינחם ה' על הרעה אשר דבר לעשות לעמו, and God repented for the evil which he spoke of doing/wished to do onto his people.
Repentance is the key difference between these two stories. In each, we get a group of people or entity acting as the persecutors, and the victims of the persecution. In both cases, the victims have done something wrong (although arguably not at all on the level of the punishment which they are being served): the Palestinians have raised a number of terrorists and attacks did rock Israel for a number of years while the Israelites created a golden calf after being specifically given the Ten Commandants, which include a prohibition against idol worship. However, the Palestinians are not bad people as a whole, nor do they deserve to be treated as if each individual person is likely going to explode the next Israeli they see. Their address should not be a limiting factor, but it serves to strangle their life capabilities. The Israelites were untrusting of a man who brought them out of Egypt to then leave them standing in the desert as he ascended a giant mountain shrouded in mystery. Who wouldn't be in search of a physical reminder of what meaning their lives hold and which God brought them out of slavery.
The constant struggle between finding the proper balance of truth is tiring. Sometimes humans seek the easy route to simply move on with life. Yet in doing so, the minutia of meaning that exists between the words said and the actions taken are lost and evaporate from accessibility. With the situation of God and Moses, the repentance that God offers of his harsh words, we see that there is a possibility to not lose the beautiful and therefore maintain blessing and truth to life. Unfortunately, the situation and circumstances between the West Bank and the rest of Israel is not one entity against a nation, but rather two nations in direct competition with another. The checkpoints and barriers separating people and worlds, or simply families, are not going to end anytime soon. This week's Torah portion urges compassion and repentance, appreciation for the other in an unthinkable situation. Might we be able to appreciate the other, our brothers and sisters, and see them as human beings deserving of righteousness? Or is that too much to ask of a people who pride themselves on have the third best military capability in the world? Maybe, one day, there will be open borders and interactions between people. But today, God has redeemed the people, and God's self, while the Israeli military still condemns herself to violating human rights and denigrating other lives.
May this Shabbat be one where we explore the meaning of inclusion and understanding, and we recognize our fellow human being as just that, human. May it be God's will.
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