We have barely begun the Ten Days of Tshuvah - which means repentance - and already as a people we must face our responsibility for the death of this young man and of other Palestinians. And for the deaths of Israelis as well, who are still sent to die - to occupy the territory that must be the grounding of a Palestinian state if there is ever to be peace.
We also must be responsible to say to the Palestinians that precisely because we understand their rage we believe they must express it in nonviolent ways, if their rage and Israeli fear are ever to be resolved in a decent peace.
We must speak to our own deepest selves. For all Jews who have any serious spiritual commitments, is it not idolatry to make physical possession of the rock on which Isaac (according to the story) was almost sacrificed, such a central element of Judaism that we are prepared to die and to kill for it?
We must speak to the official American Jewish leadership, many of whom have criticized even the limited compromises Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has offered for sharing sovereignty over the Temple Mount. And to the Israeli government, which did not prevent and did not condemn Sharon's arrogant visit; which did not restrict soldiers to tear gas but allowed the use of lethal weapons in addressing protests by outraged Palestinians; and which has for months been fueling a growing rage among Palestinians. For even while the peace negotiations continued, the Israeli Army was still demolishing Palestinian houses, driving roads through Palestinian lands in ways that isolated different sections of the emerging Palestine from each other, and allowing more settlers to arrive on the West Bank. And to the American government, saying that Jews do not support the smashing of Palestinian homes and the cementing of Palestinian farmland.
Perhaps this Yom Kippur is when Jews need to make ourselves the angels, messengers of the Most High, to face the Israeli and Palestinian leadership. At noon this Sunday, on the day before we gather in our synagogues, let us gather at Israeli and Palestinian offices, embassies and consulates - wearing Yom Kippur white clothing, sounding the shofar of alarm and tshuvah, to say:
Do not stretch out your hands against our children!
Rabbi Arthur Waskow is director of The Shalom Center, a national network (www.shalomctr.org) with offices in Philadelphia, and is the author of "Godwrestling - Round 2."
