Rabbi Zvi Kogan a”h
Dear Rabbi
I am mortified by the killing of the Chabad Rabbi in the UAE. I have had much interaction with Chabad during my travels. The work is amazing. But eleven years after the tragic events of Mumbai don’t you think Chabad ought to consider relocating from places that are simply unsafe?
Casandra

Dear Casandra
In our Torah portion we read how our matriarch Rebecca was pregnant and became perplexed. She wasn’t aware at first that she was carrying twins, and, as commentaries observe, when she walked past a place of pagan worship the baby would kick (it was in fact Esau reacting). When walking past a holy place, the baby would kick (it was Jacob reacting). Ultimately she was told about the twins and two nations growing within.
The question for consideration is this: Why was Rebecca walking past a place of pagan worship? What was she doing out in the middle of a spiritual wilderness? Indeed what was Rabbi Kogan doing in the UAE when he could have been seeking comfort and spiritual stability in Crown Heights or Israel?
The answer is that Rebecca was following in the footsteps of her forebear Sarah, whom we are told, made it her life mission to reach out to lost souls wandering in spiritual wastelands (Charan) and bring them into monotheism. Rebecca was near places of pagan worship looking to achieve them same.
Rabbi Zvi Kogan might have been able to live in his own enclave, behind whatever ghetto walls, but like every Chabad Shliach everywhere (more than 5000 gathering for the annual conference this weekend), he was committed to not live for himself, but for the sake of others. And quite devastatingly, he paid the ultimate price. I cannot make sense of it and we cry and we mourn. But by no means does that then deter the rest of the shluchim family from carrying on the vital work wherever they may be found.
Indeed just as Jacob, Rebecca’s son, made it his life mission to spend decades in the very place where his grandmother Sarah began her mission, so too every Chabad shliach will double efforts to perpetuate yet more light in the world and thus dispel with the darkness once and for all. May Rabbi Zvi Kogan’s memory be for a blessing.

Reality Check
Dear Rabbi
The response to Chantelle in your column last week was frankly outrageous. The woman was reaching out for advice about potential spousal abuse and your response was victim blaming. How ironic that this was in the very week that Jewish Women’s Aid was being marked in shuls across the country.
Becky

Dear Becky
I’m glad you added in the word “potential,” and didn’t outright jump to any conclusions (can you sense my irony?) The letter was edited as it was long and there’s a word limit. The relevant line that might have helped you was, “it’s not that he’s offensive. I just find him so annoying. Is the problem with him or with me?” The rest of my answer you already have.

Antisemitism and Zionism
Dear Rabbi Schochet,

While not objecting to your answer to Adnan’s question distinguishing between Antisemitism and anti-Zionism, I was surprised you did not cite the Amidah. Blessings 10, 11, 14, and 18 call for: the ingathering of the exiles, the reinstitution of the judges, the restoration of the monarchy, and the rebuilding of the Temple. If that is not a Zionist programme, what is?

In today’s political atmosphere and assumptions about the equality of rights of people and rights of nations, anybody who took against the independence of Ireland or Algeria with the sort of pike and venom of the anti-Zionists would be taken as offensive – and personally so: as anti-Irish people, or anti-Algerian people. So in these egalitarian times if you would not treat Ireland or Algeria, nor India and Pakistan, with anti-people rude behaviour so it is Anti-Semitic to treat Jews to anti-Israel alias anti-Zionist behaviour at the personal or other levels of conduct.

For corroboration try the argument in a different but not unfamiliar setting. The first sixty years of the nineteenth century were very “hot” on achieving German and Italian unities as states as well as peoples. Metternich and other conservatives dismissed the notion with, “Italy is a geographical expression.” In our lives despite the disgraceful behaviour of World War II, nobody would oppose the unity as people or state or rights to a united government of either Germany or Italy. Opposing the right of Jews to Israel is wrong and bad manners. Before anybody says “Palestine” the Arabs are right on the right of Palestine but have made a sow’s ear of a silk purse.
Frank

Dear Frank
Thank you very much for reaching out and sharing those meaningful thoughts. For clarity purposes, your specific reference to the blessings of the Amidah have nothing to do with Zionism, and everything to do with Judaism. The Jewish claim to the land of Israel is recorded in the very first verse on the Torah, in the commentary there (Rashi). These blessings are asking for the restoration of what once was, as we had been exiled from our land – and effectively remain so, even as we’re living there – what with all the ongoing turmoil. All we want is a restoration to the days of peace and tranquillity like in days of old. It’s our Jewish right and indeed our G-d given right.