Take Hold the Tzitzit

On Tuesday, April 5, 2011, Nisanboym spoke to students at Lincoln High School in Tacoma. He opened the lecture with a question: "What do you think of when you hear the word Israel?" He later explained to the press that he almost always gets the same responses." Hands shot up and called on three. A girl answered, "missiles." An 18-year old boy on the far side of the class said, "desert" and an Afro American boy suggested, "Jesus."

Nisanboym replied, "Good!" He told them that everywhere he goes, people list these categories when summing up what Israel represents to the world: "conflict, religion, and desert."

After we wrote Hebrew script on long sheets of paper, read several prayers in Hebrew, wrote vocabulary words in our prayer dictionaries, began the first chapter in a new book and rehearsed for an upcoming class-led temple mincha service for the day scholars, I noticed that we still had 10 minutes before the class would end. Since everyone had participated in everything I had prepared for that day, I told them that they could choose whether we play a game together, get out early, or discuss a topic that I would choose. They chose discussion.

"So what do you think about America and the Middle East?" I asked.

Motive is often not called into question on good or bad deeds. Sometimes the motive behind a single good or bad deed is not apparent; it takes the course of a lifetime to identify trends and the motives that establish them.

In the Bible we read stories of David and King Saul. They are at times portrayed doing very similar things but with distinct motives. They were in conflict almost from the moment they first met. In spite of the conflict, David respected and honored Saul even when Saul sought to kill him. Saul saw David as a threat to his position.

For Saul, his position as ruler was paramount. Saul demonstrated time and again that he felt the position belonged to him as some kind of trophy. For David, his position was useful to accomplish a greater good. It was never an end in itself. This was shown when he refused to kill Saul even when he was given the opportunity and was urged by his soldiers to do it. He revealed this later after ruling as king over Israel and Judah for many years, when he left the palace fleeing from Absalom's rebellion. His attitude was not that he "deserved" the position because of who he was or what he had done, but that he was called to that position by the Eternal and was willing to give it up, it that was for the best. There is a big difference.

When David fled from Saul, he mustered soldiers from among the desperate, the dissatisfied and the defrauded. It was only by wisdom and cunning on his part and the grave circumstances of his followers that turned them from desperation to a rekindled hope. Almost in Robin Hood fashion, David put together an army from these unlikely wretches.

View of the Western Wall