Zechariah ben Avkulos is a rarely recorded Sage who apparently lived in the time of the Second Temple. According to the Palestinian Midrash Eichah Rabba, he happened to be at the party that led to the destruction of the Temple. The party was thrown by some very important individual who had invited all of the Rabbis and others of the upper strata of society. He invited Kamtza, his close friend and purposely did not invite his nemesis Bar Kamtza. There was some mix-up, however, and Bar Kamtza ended up at the party. The man was so enraged that he demanded that Bar Kamtza immediately leave. After much pleading so as to avoid public humiliation (“let me pay for my food…; let me pay for half the party…; let me pay for the whole party…”), the host physically ejected Bar Kamtza. As he was being dragged out, Bar Kamtza saw that all the Rabbis, including Zechariah ben Avkulas, did not lift a finger to help him.

Bar Kamtza was so enraged that he hatched a plot to prove to the Roman Ceasar that the Jews were rebelling. As the culmination of the plot, Bar Kamtza brought a sacrifice from the Ceasar to the Temple. Bar Kamtza knew the animal was blemished, but in a way that the Romans would not notice and thus when the priests refused Ceasar’s sacrifice it would be obvious that the Jews were no longer loyal subjects.

By chance, Zecharyah ben Avkulas was at the Temple that day as Bar Kamtzah brought the Caesar’s blemished sacrificed to be burnt upon the altar—second chances. The Midrash relates that, instead of making up for his earlier performance, he blew it again. He did not have the courage to either bend sacrificial law (put the blemished sacrifice on the altar) or criminal law (kill Bar Kamtza) to save the Temple and thousands of lives. Was it because he did not have the courage to stop Bar Kamtza’s humiliation that he could not summon the courage to thwart Bar Kamtza’s plan? When does one start slipping down the slope? When do you know that it’s a slope?

The influential twentieth century German philosopher Hans Georg Gadamer was a student of Martin Heidegger’s but, unlike Heidegger, he never joined the Nazi Party. Gadamer’s offenses were more subtle, more of the “get along to go along” variety. Coming to the profession in the 30s, posts were rare. In 1934 Gadamer filled a temporary teaching post that was vacant because a friend had been dismissed on “racial grounds.” In 1936, with his teaching career in a stall, Gadamer volunteered for a political rehabilitation camp. Again, he still had not joined the Nazi party, but the “rehabilitation” did lead to teaching positions. In the late 30’s Gadamer wrote an essay on Plato with sympathetic allusions to the Third Reich. Then in 1940, Gadamer gave a lecture in Paris before French prisoners of war at the German Institute in which he “suggested that Germany’s battlefield successes were the expressions of a manifestly superior culture.” (Richard Wolin’s paraphrase of Gadamer’s lecture.)

At what point had Gadamer slipped over to the other side? Did he ever realize that he was on that slippery slope? His later reflections seem to indicate that he was in denial to the end.

And where are we? Five years into a war in which over three thousand American soldiers and over six hundred thousand Iraqi civilians (according to the Johns Hopkins/Lancet numbers) have been killed. Hundreds of thousands are wounded, millions are refugees. The lies, which led us into this war, the secrecy with which the war is advanced, the attacks on our constitution and values which are based on the necessity to prosecute the war—we are well beyond second chances. If we did not speak out against the invasion of Iraq because we were bluffed into believing, what is our excuse now? I fear that we are slipping towards an American Tisha B’Av. Now is the time to stand up and loudly demand an end to this tragic, misguided, unjust war. Now! Before we also have to mourn the Temple of our Democracy.

Dr. Aryeh Cohen is Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature at the American Jewish University (formerly the University of Judaism) and one of the founders of JewsAgainsttheWar.org.

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The money spent on the Iraq War will reach approximately $456 billion by September, according to the National Priorities Project (NPP), an organization that tracks public spending. Some estimates predict the cost of the war will reach $2 trillion or more in the near future.

“Jews Against the War” urges Americans to reflect on our nation’s current priorities of war and conquest, and contrast them with an alternative path – one that embodies a higher calling, one of justice, compassion, respect, and peace. Consider…

The Costs of War:

• $4,100 for every American household.

• $1,500 for every American.

• $3,400 for every taxpayer.

• $11 million per hour and $275 million per day.

With $456 billion America could:

• Feed and educate the world’s poor for five and a half years.

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News Release
For Immediate Release: May 21, 2007

Contacts (available May 22-23): Zack Kaldveer, Publicist, 510-938-2664, Dr. Aryeh Cohen, 310-440-1262, Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater, 626-798-1161

(CA) The day before Shavuot, a Jewish holiday marking the day the Torah was delivered at Mount Sinai, “Jews Against the War” (www.jewsagainstthewar.org) released a petition signed by over 1000 Jews, including members of every major religious denomination - from Orthodox to Conservative to Reform to Reconstructionist to Renewal - urging an end to the war in Iraq. The signatures were gathered during the weeks between Passover and Shavuot, and include the support of over 250 rabbis, educators and Jewish professionals.

JAW is a grassroots organization dedicated to ending the Iraq War and preventing one with Iran. The group will deliver the petition to every member of Congress and run it as an ad in a major Jewish publication. JAW was launched on March 19th 2007 - the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq - to give voice to the majority of American Jews who oppose the war. A recent Gallup poll indicated that fully 77% of American Jews think the Iraq War was a mistake, compared with just 52% of the general American public. This disparity between the poll results versus the relative lack of an active and vocal Jewish effort to oppose the war was integral to the organization’s initial creation.

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The Jewish community is in the midst of the most extended liturgical period on the calendar. We just finished celebrating the eight days of Passover. We celebrated the moment when God Godself came down—not by way of an angel or an agent, but in Gods own glory—God, as the rabbis tell us, came down and saved the Israelites from the hold of slavery and oppression in Ancient Egypt.

One week later we celebrated the moment when God split the Red Sea and allowed the Israelites to cross through on dry ground while Pharoah watched as his armies were drowned in the waters of righteous rage.

These two moments were moments of God’s acting and the people’s salvation. Our tradition tells us that even lowliest person saw more of God’s revelation at the sea than the Prophet Ezekiel ever merited seeing.

These moments were, however, moments when God acted and revealed Godself to the nation of Israel. Israel did not have to act.

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New Gallup Poll Shows 77% of American Jews Oppose War

(CA - Los Angeles) On the fourth anniversary of the war on Iraq, a coalition of Jewish leaders announced the launch of “Jews Against the War” (JAW), an organization dedicated to ending the Iraq war and preventing one with Iran. The group will also focus on mobilizing the overwhelming majority of Jewish Americans opposed to the war - demonstrated by a new Gallup poll showing 77% of Jews believe the Iraq War was a mistake, compared with 52% of the general American public.

This strong anti-war sentiment indicated in the poll is reflective of the Jewish community’s long history of standing up for social justice and human rights. Prominent Jewish leaders played an active role in protesting against the Vietnam War and supporting the struggle for civil rights in the South. The problem JAW sees is the disparity between these poll numbers versus the lack of an active and united Jewish effort to end the war. JAW will seek to give voice to this emerging consensus among Jews that America’s occupation of Iraq must end, something that hasn’t been done by leading pro-Israel lobby groups.

“We couldn’t continue to remain silent on one of the most catastrophic, immoral and tragic foreign policy decisions in the history of our country,” said Aryeh Cohen, Asst. Prof. of Rabbinic Literature at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. “The Talmud teaches that silence is akin to assent. Jews that oppose this administration’s illegal war must come together, speak in one voice, and say loudly and clearly: Bring the troops home and stop the endless cycle of violence.”

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One who is able to protest against a wrong that is being done in his family, his city, his nation or the world and doesn’t do so is held accountable for that wrong being done.” (Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat 54b)

At least several hundred thousand Iraqi civilians have died as a direct result of the war (according the most respected medical journal in Great Britain, The Lancet, the figure is more than 600,000), more than 2 million refugees have fled the country and there are 1.5 million displaced people within the country.
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