When Chamberlain met Hitler

Friday, July 10, 2020

By Rav Binny Freedman

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The image of his smiling, victorious face, aglow with the sense of vindication that seemed to be one step away from ‘I told you so’ has become the paradigm of the image of impending disaster. And the signed agreement he waved victoriously as he stepped from the plane, fresh from his seemingly successful whirlwind negotiations, has become synonymous with the adage of any agreement literally ‘not worth the paper it is written on’.

The year was 1938, the man was British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and the agreement was the peace agreement he had signed with no less than Adolph Hitler, relinquishing allied promises of protection to the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia. This flawed decision, which essentially set the stage for World War Two, was briefly celebrated as heralding the wisdom to ‘make peace not war’, thus avoiding the arrogant thinking which had led to World War One a scant twenty five years earlier. It was not long, however, before it became clear that this weak-willed abrogation of an established alliance and treaty, would pave the way for Hitler’s invasion of Poland, and the eventual loss of tens of millions of lives.

Chamberlain’s famous meeting with Germany’s Chancellor Adolph Hitler in 1938, was one of those ‘what if’ moments, which might have changed the course of history. Beginning with Germany’s Anschluss invasion of Austria, and culminating with Germany’s march into Czechoslovakia, the Allies had ample opportunity to declare war on Germany and stop Nazism in its tracks before its military machine became unstoppable. But Chamberlain, along with the rest of the Western world, missed opportunity after opportunity, until it was too late. And one wonders why; why was it so difficult to see what Hitler really wanted? Why did so many world leaders lack the will to say ‘enough’?

Obviously, the echoes of this very question chillingly resonate today, as some in the West believe we should still be negotiating with Iran in attempting to prevent it becoming a nuclear power. And for that matter, one might suggest this same question is at play in Europe and across the world, as governments struggle to find a solution to Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism, and attempt to find the line between negotiating peace and threatening with military, aggressive or confrontational options.

Interestingly, this week’s portion, Pinchas offers a fascinating insight on this topic.

The beginning of Pinchas is actually a post-script to the end of last week’s portion, Balak.

Balak, the King of Moab, having just witnessed Israel’s victory over the mighty Amorite army, realizes the Jews cannot be conquered on the battlefield (sound familiar?). So he entices Balaam, the great sorcerer of the ancient pagan world, to come and curse the Jews instead. Balaam clearly wants to go, but G"d denies his request. Yet, when the Moabite emissaries return a second time to entice Balaam to acquiesce, Balaam asks G"d a second time, and this time G"d agrees though clearly angered with Balaam for asking again. Ultimately, G"d foils the plan and causes Balaam to utter blessings instead of curses.

But Balaam is not done; he foments a plan to entice the Jewish men with Midianite women who seduce them to idolatry culminating with no less than Zimri, a Prince of Israel, cohabitating with a Midianite princess at the entrance the Holy Tent of Meeting!

So what does one do in the face of such wickedness? Incredibly, Moses and Aaron fall to the ground, seemingly at a loss for what to do!

Enter Pinchas, Aaron’s grandson; grabbing a spear, he ends this obvious affront to both the word of G"d, as well as Moshe’s leadership, by literally spearing the offenders on the spot, thus halting the plague which decimated the Jewish people as a direct result of the licentious and pagan behavior. And that was the conclusion of last week’s portion, Balak.

This week’s portion, Pinchas, then begins with G"d’s reaction to Pinchas’ action:

“Pinchas the son of Elazar, the son of Aaron the (high) priest turned back my anger (says G"d) from the children of Israel… thus do I give him my covenant of peace. “

The Rabbis question why the Torah finds it necessary to share Pinchas’ lineage here, a fact we of which we are already aware, and suggest (Rashi) that the Jewish people are rather shocked by such an obviously violent and zealous act, so G"d reminds us that he is the descendant of Aaron, known as the Ohev shalom and the Rodef shalom, the lover and pursuer of peace.

The phrase Ohev shalom, a lover of peace, makes a lot of sense here. First of all, that seems indeed to have been Aaron’s great merit, as he seems to have gone out of his way to make peace between conflicted parties. And the commentaries suggest the Torah is telling us that Pinchas, despite his zealous action, was actually a lover of peace as well, and was willing to take such a violent action to stem the plague decimating the Jewish people, not because he hated Zimri but because of his love for peace.

The term Rodef however, a pursuer of peace, is a curious choice of terminology. The rodef, or ‘pursuer’ in Jewish tradition is actually anything but peaceful. It refers to a person who is actually pursuing the (most famously, but not limited to, accidental) killer of a blood relative, determined to kill him as an act of vengeance or justice.

The Torah actually permits and even obligates us to stop this rodef at all costs, even if necessary, by taking his life. And the rabbis have even expanded this term to include anyone whose actions are threatening a life, as for example an unborn baby whose birth is endangering the life of the mother; until the birth, the baby is considered a ‘rodef’ (in that it is threatening the life of the mother) and the mother’s life (in the event of a necessary choice) takes precedence.

So why is this same term of rodef, or ‘pursuer’ used here to refer to a pursuer of peace? Is there some connection?

The Chatam Sofer (Rav Moshe Sofer of Pressburg, the mid nineteenth century German sage) suggests that in this instance Pinchas was actually doing the opposite of ‘making peace’; he was chasing it away! Sometimes, he suggests, making peace with something will actually lead to anything but peace, and the real lover of peace in such an instance has to be willing to chase it away by doing the opposite, even if it goes against the grain of his personality.

Pinchas understood, that to stand by and ‘make peace’ with Zimri’s actions, and do nothing (in order not to ‘make waves ‘) while a Jewish leader was causing such an affront to everything Judaism held dear, would actually allow G"d’s wrath and the resulting plague to continue to decimate thousands of Jewish lives.

Just as in 1938, Chamberlain’s desire to ‘make peace’ with Adolph Hitler and overlook his horrendous and terrifying human rights abuses and anti-Semitism, actually encouraged a tyrant and led to the greatest loss of human life in world history.

Indeed, it may well be that this is why Aaron himself does not step up in this instance; in the sin of the Golden calf, it was Aaron who let the Jews throw gold in the fire resulting in the Golden calf; perhaps the Torah is suggesting here that the previous generation of leadership did indeed ‘make peace’ with evil, with disastrous results; perhaps this was Pinchas’ greatness: knowing when to make peace, and when one cannot make peace with a reality antithetical to one’s ideals.

Sometimes we have to know when to simply say ‘no’. Indeed, Balaam’s great flaw in last week’s portion was not hearing that G"d was saying ‘no’; you cannot go. Sometimes we have a hard time just saying ‘no’, and sometimes we have an even harder time hearing the word ‘no’. But sometimes that is exactly what we have to say. Sometimes we tell our children ‘no’ and they discover that we really care about what they do. Parents who never say no are not doing their children any favors.

We live in a world which is so desperate to make peace: with terrorism, with Islamic fundamentalism, with an Iranian desire for nuclear power as a steppingstone to regional and perhaps even world domination. But there are some things with which we cannot make peace. As long as Iran refuses to recognize the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish State, and declares its desire to annihilate us, we cannot make peace with it. And make no mistake about it: it is irrelevant whether they actually agree to dismantle their nuclear capability; it is much deeper than that. As long as they are supporting terror around the world, and funding attacks on Jewish and Western institutions such as the bombings in Argentina that killed so many in the 1990’s, we cannot make peace with them.

As long as the Palestinian Authority continues to emulate suicide bombers and teach their children to hate, we cannot make peace with them, and in fact such ‘peace’ agreements will inevitably lead to war.

And as long as Hamas declares as its aim the destruction of the State of Israel and every Jew, everywhere in the world, we cannot make peace, nor should we be seeking truces, with them either; as painful as this may sound, and as zealous as it may seem. The refusal to ‘make peace‘ with evil, is actually the pursuit of real peace.

And lastly, there are so many things we should not ‘make peace’ with on a personal level. We should not ‘make peace’ with leaders whose behavior is less than exemplary (though we must be careful about pillorying them publicly without being sure of the facts), and we should not ‘make peace’ with unethical behavior, even if it may be unpopular to publicly take that stand.

Perhaps, this week of Pinchas, it would be a worthwhile discussion at the Shabbat table to consider what things we should not ‘make peace’ with, and what we might do to ensure that we pursue such a reality.

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.

As Rosh Yeshiva, founder, and Dean of Yeshivat Orayta, Rav Binny has been unusually successful in creating and empowering a new generation of young leadership equipped to lead their communities at prestigious college campuses throughout North America, the UK, Australia and South Africa.
    Rav Binny is a highly engaging and inspiring educator who has the gift for synthesizing difficult, sophisticated material in a way that inspires both the novice and the scholar.
    His proficiency in applying Jewish concepts to contemporary life in a personal and meaningful manner has made him a sought-after speaker and educator around the world.
    Rav Binny is an IDF Company Commander who came to Israel as a lone soldier in 1982.

Source: The Jewish Leadership Blog

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