Outside the Borders - Chronicle Online/The WORD 07/24/2025

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah

July 24, 2025

1 Av 5785

Parashat Matot-Masei

Rosh Chodesh

I am not Israeli. I was born right here in the USA. I never served in the IDF. I never sent my kids to serve in the IDF. I am American through and through. And yet, I feel a connection to Israel that is almost inexplicable.

This week’s Torah portion describes the first diaspora Jews, and perhaps it helps to explain my feelings for Israel.

As the Israelites were preparing to return to the Land of Canaan after generations of slavery in Egypt, the tribes of Reuven and Gad, together with half of the tribe of Menasheh, approached Moshe about settling east of the Jordan. They were very quick to add they were still committed to fighting with the other tribes in the conquest of the land. In other words, even though these 2½ tribes chose to live outside the borders of the Promised Land, they still felt involved. They still felt a part of what was going on inside the borders of Israel.

American Jews may not live in the land of Israel, but as individuals and as a community, we are heavily invested in the goings-on of that country nearly 6,000 miles away. We may not always agree with decisions of the Israeli government. We may not agree amongst ourselves about what the Israeli government is doing. However, in poll after poll, American Jews express a strong connection to the State of Israel

I don’t have to tell anyone that Israel—no matter how successful it has been militarily—is losing the battle of public relations. Israel has surely made mistakes during the course of its war with Hamas. It will likely make more mistakes before this war is over because all countries do. Nonetheless, Israel is not the evil, diabolical, genocidal country that is portrayed in some media sources. The attention that it gets is completely disproportionate to its place in the world.

Matti Friedman (no relation) was a reporter for the Associated Press in Israel. He has pointed out that when he worked for the AP, there were more journalists assigned to Israel/Palestine than to China, to Russia, or to all of Africa. Israel constitutes 0.01% of the earth’s land mass, but you’d never know it based on its prominence in media coverage. Over 600,000 people have been killed in Syria during its ongoing civil war. Over 300,000 have been killed in Yemen and over 150,000 have been killed in Sudan. According to some estimates, over 70,000 Ukrainians have been killed as a result of Russian aggression. And yet, Israel gets more media attention than all those countries combined. It makes no sense. It’s exhausting.

While it is easy to second-guess Israel and her decision-makers from the comfort of our American homes, I prefer to follow the examples of the 2½ tribes in this week’s portion. They didn’t second-guess Moshe or the other 9½ tribes that wanted to settle in the Land of Canaan. They simply offered to help in any way they could.

We need not pick up weapons and fight as the 2½ tribes did, but we do have a number of options at our disposal. First of all, we can educate ourselves about what’s really going on. I’ve put together some resources about both Israel and antisemitism here. We can stay informed about what is going on there so that we are ready to refute inaccurate statements whenever we see them or hear them. We can advocate publicly for Israel in the media. We can reach out to our elected representatives to ask for their continued support of Israel.  

In so doing, we continue the long tradition of supporting Israel from outside her borders.

Shalom,

RAF.