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Opening Speech - Speech of Chief Rabbi Sirat

Published on 2007-12-27 17:35:15

For the first time in history, more than 100 Imams and Rabbis, surrounded by 70 personalities from all over the world, met, from January 3 to 6, 2005, under the high patronage of His Majesty Albert II and His Majesty Mohammed VI in order to de-legitimise all forms of violence committed in the name of God or of any religious principle.
Furthermore the representatives of Jewish and Muslim communities from 34 countries, in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and America affirmed their determination to develop dialogues and co-operation between Islam and Judaism.

Here in its entirety the opening speech of Chief Rabbi René-Samuel Sirat.
Chief Rabbi René-Samuel Sirat, born in 1931, was Chief Rabbi of France between 1981 and 1988. He’s now Director-Founder of the Unesco Chair "Reciprocal Knowledge of the religions of the Book and teaching of Peace" and President-Founder of the Rachi European University Institute of Troyes.

 

Eminences, Excellencies,
Presidents,
My dear colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Allow me to open my talk with the traditional benediction that is recited when we experience a moment that is particularly memorable.

Praise to You Eternal, our God, King of the Universe, who has given us life, who has allowed us to wait for this admirable day together.

Effectively, I realize that a dream is being transformed into reality before my very eyes. In 1968, following political decisions, denying Israel the right to existence and the possibility of negotiations and a peaceful co-existence, I promised myself to work to the limit of my capabilities so that men of religion could take up the challenge to replace the absence of will and political fraternity of all kinds. This dream I have carried over thirty-six years. Our meeting here this evening between imams, rabbis, demonstrates clearly that some of us had reason to have hoped against all odds.

I would therefore like to solemnly thank all those who have contributed to making this event, where we are all present this evening, possible.

First of all I would like to express our gratitude to His Majesty King Albert II, King of the Belgians, who has welcomed us here in this beautiful country where consent reigns. The King is the image of Abraham, to whom is linked all monotheist religions that are inspired by the fundamental virtue that characterizes the patriarch, that of hospitality. Thank you Majesty, respectfully, for welcoming us here this evening.

I would like to say to the Commander of the Faith, to his Majesty King Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, who inspired by the illustrious example of his venerated father, His Majesty Hassan II, President of the Al Quods Committee, all our gratitude for having taken, under his high patronage, our international meeting. We hope that the road that we shall travel together will be blessed by God and bear its fruit.

I would like to say thank you, an immense thank you, to all the men and all the women who by the openness of their hearts and spirits have generously permitted the organization of our congress. I know that we are in their debt. And we pray to God that he rewards them over and beyond their generosity and their will to bring their help and contribution to the search for peace.
Nothing could have taken place here this evening without the team of ‘Hommes de Paroles’, and above all our eminent friend, Alain Michel. It is necessary to see this team working with faith that could transpierce mountains to imagine all that was necessary to make the dream that we hold together come true. And I would like to cite for them the benediction of Boaz to Ruth, that the Lord recompenses you for your accomplishment.

Finally my dear colleagues, we wait with impatience for your multiple intercessions. They will mark the interest that we bear for the sincere and profound search for peace and the love between all of Gods creatures.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the world of Judaism celebrates in 2005 the 900th anniversary of the call to God of the greatest Jewish exegete of the Bible and the Talmud of all time and whose teachings still remain valid today. Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, Rashi. Now, according to the rabbinic traditions, when a grave problem presents itself to a Rabbi he should refer to the masters of Judaism. It is what I would like to do this evening being aware of the honor I have in speaking in this opening session of our international conference.

In the Talmudic treaty, Sanhedrin ¹, figures the following lesson: Rabbi Yohanan (a rabbi of the second half of the 3rd century), said: I hope that the Messiah comes, but I do not want to be present when he comes.” His disciple and colleague Simeon of Laquish, questioned him on his meaning: “For what reasons do you not want to be present? Is it because it is said in the scriptures that when he it will be under dramatic circumstances and that you compare yourself to a man fleeing a lion and finding himself face to face with a bear, and arriving home in one piece leaning on the mantelpiece he is bitten by a poisonous snake ²?”
Rabbi Yohanan remained silent. As for myself, I could say that in our times that have seen unfurled the horrors of the Shoah and of the Gulag and have not had the joy to see the Messiah arrive and experience events of a comparable violence.
But let us look at the text of the Talmud again. The Rabbi added: “Perhaps you are moved by another verse of the scriptures: Ask those around you and be aware of the extraordinary event that is taking place: have you ever seen a man, his hands on his hips like a woman in labor, whilst the faces of his assistants were seized by an extreme pallor ³?
And the Talmud poses the question: what is the meaning of the expression: Have you ever seen a man? Rabbi bar Isaac teaches: “It is of course a euphemism to designate He who has the power”, that is to say God. What is the meaning of this expression: then the faces of his assistants were seized by an extreme pallor? Rabbi Yohanan returned to his lesson: It is, with all respect, the heavenly family and the earthly family. In other terms, the Lord, blessed is his name. Who asks; These men are the work of my hands, and these are also the work of my hands; how can I chase away the others to put others in their place? Rav Pappa in turn teaches: This is expressed in a well known proverb: when the bull runs into the swamp and falls, the master puts the horse in what was until then the bull’s enclosure.
Fortunately, Rashi comes to our help to explain this difficult passage. Here is his explanation: When the bull runs and falls, the master transforms the enclosure into a stable and he puts the horse there. Certainly, he had not the intention of acting in that way before the bull fell: because he had a certain fondness for it. But it had disobeyed him. Then when the bull has recovered from its injury, now or in the near future, it becomes difficult for the master to put out the horse - which designates in Ishmael biblical form - in order to integrate the bull - which designates Israel - and to make a new stable ⁴. Thus the Lord, when he contemplates the destruction of Israel, permits the gentiles to install themselves in their place, but when Israel has made its penance and obtained redemption, it becomes difficult for God, (you have heard) to chase out the gentiles, to give Israel the place that was theirs.

I believe that the words of Rashi are prophetic. They resume in a few phrases the problem that is at the centre of our debate during the three days present. In effect, the Promised Land was assigned to Israel since the time of the patriarchs and without any contestation by other nations. But after the destruction of the two temples and the departure into exile by the children of Israel, it was occupied over long centuries by the gentiles. Certainly, a few Jewish communities continued to live in the land of Israel, but most of the Jewish people were chased out after the destruction of the Kingdom of Judea in 568 BC. The return from captivity took place under Ezra, seventy years later with the reconstitution of an independent Judea. In 70AD the destruction of the Jewish state by the Romans took place and a new exile followed over.
At the end of the 19th century, came the return of the Jews to Zion, approved by the majority of the nations of the world and was confirmed by the famous vote ⁵ when the United Nations took the decision for the partition of Palestine. Here the descendants of martyred Judeans, themselves Jews, most being the survivors of the shoah, returned in great numbers to the country they had dreamt of over 2000 years, endlessly reciting the verses of Psalm CXXXVI ⁶: If I forget Jerusalem, then my right forgets me.
But contrary to certain thinkers of the first half of the 20th century, Palestine was not a land without inhabitants for a people without a land. There was on the land of Palestine, Jews, Muslims, Christians who had lived there for a great time, in any case since the 19th century.

Rashi, commenting in the Talmudic text, underlined the extreme difficulty for God to decide. The analysis that is imposed on us, here, together this evening, is that it is our duty, yes to us, men of religion, to help God to find a solution, based precisely on the imitation of divine misericord ⁷. In other words, it is necessary to accept and to put into effect what the world already wanted in 1947: the partition of the Promised Land into a Jewish state and an Arab state. This implies for each and everyone a mutual recognition. Yasser Arafat had explicitally recognized the right of existence of Israel, in declaring caduque the OLP charter that preached until then the destruction of the state of Israel, as a Jewish state. Unfortunately, his engagement was not respected. The events which followed were dramatic for each and everyone.
On their side the Israelis had solemnly affirmed the right of the Palestinians to a state. The Israeli parliament has voted in this direction on the proposition of the Prime Minister, deciding to retreat in the next months from Gaza and certain places in the north of Samaria, affirming, following the late Prime Minster Itzak Rabbin, that the Jewish people could not durably accept a situation that made them on the same territory the dominator of another people.
Of course, the inhabitants Arabs and Jews of the West Bank live in difficult moments. Men believed in the fallacious promises made by their leaders in 1948, in making them believe that once the “Zionists”, were thrown into the sea, they would occupy their houses and own their goods. The others, after the three no’s at Khartoum Conference of 1968, rejected the possibility of recognition of Israel and peace in the Near East, installed themselves progressively in territory loaded with history and holiness, where they built their houses and their future. They should today quit what they consider as the land of promises and leave for elsewhere to start a new life again, even if this elsewhere is Israel. Our role, for us, men of religion, is to help each and everyone to overcome their suffering and their anxieties, and not pour oil on the fire.
My dear colleague, Ladies and Gentlemen, One of the fundamental lessons of the Book of Genesis is the need to establish brotherly love between the sons of Adam. All history from the murder of Abel by his older brother Cain, to the departure of the son of Jacob to Egypt where they were soon reduced to slavery, is a long series of failures in the indispensable love between brothers. Sem and Japhet against Kham – Ismael and Isaac – Jacob and Esau – Joseph and his brothers…. It was necessary to wait until Moses and Aaron at the beginning of the Book of Exodus to see brotherly love in peace in the service of God and the eternal values of the Torah, as is expressed admirably in the verse of Exodus: Here your brother Aaron the Levite comes to meet you, he will see you and rejoice in his heart ⁸. Only God, who probes the heart and soul ⁹, could affirm that Abraham felt an infinite joy at the idea his brother Moses had been chosen by God as redeemer of the people of Israel, and as the envoy ordered by the Lord to put the Torah into practice.

We rabbis and imams, solemnly joined together here tonight, should take up the problem of the permanent confrontation between the sons of Abraham in order to help bring about the redemption of humanity in its entirety. In effect, as taught by the rabbis, violence is contagious but peace is equally contagious and it is from the peace of Jerusalem peace will come to the world ¹⁰. Thus the prophecy of Zachariah ¹¹: Exult, rejoice the daughter of Zion, here, I come towards you to dwell in your heart, oracle of the Lord; many nations will rally to the Lord that day, and when they will become my people. I will dwell amongst you, and you will know that the Lord has sent me to you. The Lord will dwell amongst his people in the Holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. That each creature be silent in the presence of the Lord when He surges forth from His holy home!

Prepare ourselves for this wonderful day - and if we wish for it, the day is very near when Jerusalem will again become the capital of Peace ¹², of truth ¹³, of justice ¹⁴, of love ¹⁵, of brotherhood ¹⁶ and of holiness ¹⁷.

Ladies and gentlemen, our conference has taken place eight days after the immense disaster that has struck South East Asia. The number of victims is in the hundreds of thousands and the international authorities fear the development of serious contagious disease.
We all, here this evening, members of all monotheist faiths pray to God for his misericord to have pity on these innocent victims, that he helps humanity to face up to its fundamental duties of compassion and charity. This is the notion of charity that we call in Hebrew tsedaqa, that is to say the respect of justice.

_____________________________

Notes :

1. Talmud of Babylon 98 B
2. Amos V, 19
3. Jeremiah XXX, 6
4. Ezekiel XXIII, 20; Deuteronomy XXXIII, 17
5. 29 November 1947
6. Verses 6 and 7
7. As God is forgiving, be so too; in the manner he is generous, be so too … Talmudic commentary on Deuteronomy X, 12: Now, Israel, what does the Lord ask if it is not to adhere to him? How can we adhere to him? By imitating him…
8. Exodus IV, 14
9. Jeremiah XI, 20
10. Psalm CXXII, 6
11. II, 14-15
12. Isaïah LXVI, 12
13. Zakariah VIII, 3
14. Isaïah I, 26
15. Psalms XXII, 8
16. Psalms CXXII, 3
17. Isaïah LII, 1

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