Fighting Fear with a Story of Hope: Harnessing the Power of Words in an Age of Terror
We learned on Monday of the horrific terror attack in Jerusalem, with 6 people killed. Unfortunately, the news cycle has moved on to other things and maybe we too have done the same. We’ve been dealing with terror attacks for many years, more acutely since October 7. In a way we’ve become desensitized to what this is really about. Yesterday, the assassination of Charlie Kirk awakened in American discourse an idea that we should always be thinking about whenever we’re dealing with terror.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks points out (Covenant & Conversation: A Nation of Storytellers) that much of Deuteronomy is Moses retelling the Jewish story to the next generation, reminding them of G-d’s miracles and their parents’ mistakes. Moses wasn’t only a leader and liberator; he was also the great storyteller of the Jewish people.
In the beginning of this Parsha, Moses takes the storyteller concept a step further, incorporating it into the mitzvah to bring one’s first fruits to Jerusalem. The obligation is not merely for each household to bring their first fruits, there’s also a mitzva to declare out loud the story of our people. (Deut. 26:5-9).
You shall then speak and say before Hashem, your God. ‘An Aramean sought to destroy my father. He went down to Egypt and lived there, few in number, and there he became a great, mighty, and numerous nation. The Egyptians treated us badly, afflicted us, and placed upon us hard labor. We cried out to Hashem, the God of our fathers, and Hashem heard our voice; He saw our suffering, our toil, and our oppression. Hashem took us out of Egypt with a strong hand, an outstretched arm, great awe, with signs and wonders. He brought us to this place, and He gave us this land—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
Rabbi Sacks explains, Here for the first time, the retelling of the nation’s history becomes an obligation for every citizen of the nation. In this act…Jews were commanded, as it were, to become a nation of storytellers.
Rabbi Sacks also reflected on America, which he saw as a covenantal society. America has a national story because it is a society based on the idea of covenant. Narrative is at the heart of covenantal politics because it locates national identity in a set of historic events. The memory of those events evokes the values for which those who came before us fought and of which we are the guardians.” A covenantal story, he taught, must include everyone — newcomers and citizens alike — uniting people of every background with a shared identity.
By making every Jew tell the story, Moses bound us into a people of shared responsibility — responsible to one another, to our past, to our future, and to G-d by framing a narrative that successive generations would make their own and teach to their children, Moses turned Jews into a nation of leaders.
Rabbi Sacks wrote an entire book, Not in God’s Name, on confronting religious violence. In the introduction to his Judaism’s Life-Changing Ideas series he writes that the choice humankind faces in every age is between the idea of power and the power of ideas. Judaism has always believed in the power of ideas, and it remains the only non-violent way to change the world.”
Terrorism isn’t just about fear, it’s about using violence instead of words to bring forth an agenda and to silence its opponents. This is what Osama bin Laden did on 9/11 and this is how Hamas operates. Our whole conflict with Hamas is that we have a story to tell and they don’t like our story but instead of responding to it with their own arguments they respond with terror. When this silencing happens in a place that’s supposed to be safe—like a college campus rally—it forces people to think about the value of free expression, and about the difference between words that carry power as a positive force for expression vs. words used to foster hatred and as a tool of domination.
Speaking truth is essential, and no one should ever feel silenced or threatened by the shadow of violence. This week contains a number of unfortunate memories for American Jews. As we remember 9/11, the 6 innocent souls murdered in Israel this week, the 4 IDF soldiers, and Charlie Kirk, let us choose — as Moses taught us — to be a people of storytellers, carrying forward a story of faith, courage, and hope. And may we do so without fear, with strength, and with the conviction that our words have changed and can continue to change the world.
Good Shabbos