A very important notion in the bible is the notion of sacrifice. The main object of the temple in Jerusalem was the sacrifice of animals.
Indeed life is impossible without sacrifice. Life nourishes life! But instead of the sacrifice of an animal just for the material purpose of food, sacrifice will take place in a sacralised shrine to let people take the time to realise that nothing on earth can happen without sacrifice.
Not only animal life is sacrificed. A part of the harvest is sacrificed (truma, or the interdiction to cut the edges of a field or to pick up wheatears. They are kept for the poor), and a part of the land is sacrificed (jubilee, or the return of the earth to its owner after 50 years), and a part of the harvest time is sacrificed (the omer, or sabbatical year when land is supposed to remain untouched), and a part of the personal fortune is sacrificed (tsedaka, or charity).
But the loss of the temple abolished animal sacrifice and the loss of the land abolished harvest sacrifice.
And the 3 yearly festivals for the sacrifices in the temple were replaced by a growing number of prayers at the end transforming the diaspora Jew in a prayer mill handling his daily quota of prayers on a mechanical way without trying to think at the content and without acting in consequence.
The only way today to keep in honour the spirit of the temple in Jerusalem is not by praying from dawn to sunset, but by practicing the spirit of sacrifice.
This spirit of sacrifice is called tsedaka, charity. But the charity of money is not enough to keep his conscience clear. The spirit of the temple means sacrifice of time and pleasure in order to help people in need.
It is not by chance that so many Jews choose for humanitarian professions. This is a part of the message delivered by the spirit of Judaism. But the highest sacrifice is the one given by somebody who gives his life to protect life of others. All those sacrifices can only be accomplished in a homogene society where Jews can act at any level of society. This means in an independent Jewish state.
The return of the Jews to the land of Israel can be compared with the migration of Salmons. Nothing can stop the return to the source. It’s the consequence of a need for love, a need for recognition, a need for solidarity, a need for dignity and a need for the sweetness of family. In this context Jews are ready to make heavy sacrifices, because those sacrifices are not in vain. The building of a country even if it requires sacrifices leaves a solid heritage to the children, whereas heritage in diaspora resumes itself to the memory of sorrow and regrets.
A former hero of the Russian army (Trumpeldor) dying in Tel-Hai (border of Israel and Lebanon) during the First World War said those words: “It’s sweet to die for his own country”
To me the solution to the conflict opposing Jews and Muslims around the Holy sites in Jerusalem can only be resolved if applying the principle of sacrifice to the temple mount. Just as the Rabis in their wisdom said that it is forbidden to step on the holy temple, this interdiction should be applied to any person in Jerusalem. This would mean that this sacred place for all believers in monotheist fates would at least stop to be the theatre of fighting and bloodshed, desacralising and dehumanising this place.
The sacrifice of a few square meters could take away all object of religious greed and settle a conflict that separates populations with only one aspiration: Shalom, Salaam, Peace…
It seems interesting to me that even the Koran agrees on the come back of Jews to Israel: Sura 17:104 says that “when the promise of the Hereafter comes to pass, We [Allah] shall bring you as a crowd gathered out of various nations”.
ISRAEL
Quand un Juif est grand savant When a Jew is great and smart
De tout peuple il est l’enfant For all people he’s the star
Mais s’il vient à échouer But if it comes out to fail
Juif il sera condamné Jew he will hang on a nail
Car Israël tel est ta raison For Israel this will be your fate
Tu es le souffre-douleur A scape-goat you have to be
De toutes les nations For the world to be
Quand la peste a déferlé When the plague kept moving in
Rien était plus grand danger Nothing more was bigger threat
Que d’être Juif en bonne santé To be Jew and in good health
Le coupable était trouvé Guilty sure he had to be
Car… For…
Un rabin de Nazareth A nice rabbi in Nazareth
Il n’était pas des plus bêtes Very clever yes indeed
Se prétendait fils de Dieu Said he was the son of god
Rien après n’allait bien mieux Nothing’s better after that
Car… For…
Enfin tu as un pays And then you got your homeland
Des déserts le plus petit The tiniest desert you can find
Tu en fais un paradis Turning it in paradise
Les Arabes une maladie For the Arabs a disease
Car… For…
Le jour du jugement dermier And then comes judgement day
N’est pas loin vous y serez It won’t be long you will attend
Les morts se soulèveront Deads will rising all around
Et se souviendront And their memory is still good
Car Israël tel est ta raison For Israel this is your appeal
Tu fais vivre la conscience You give conscience to the world
De toutes les nations To live and let live
W.Lip
1973 2004
