Parashas Ki-Savo - 5776 –
I would like to compare
Parashas Ki-Savo, which describes the
blessings which the People of Israel
would receive if they obeyed HaShem’s
commandments as given in the Torah, and
the curses they would receive if they
disobeyed them with the book, “Fear No
Evil,” by Natan Sharansky, which
describes the bitter experience of
Russian Jews, mainly as reflected in the
experiences of the author, in his
struggles with the KGB in the latter
part of the 20th Century.
Parashas Ki-Savo begins
as follows:
“It will be when you
enter the Land that HaShem, your God,
gives you as an inheritance, and you
possess it, and dwell in it…Then you
shall call out and say before HaShem,
your God, ‘An Aramean, tried to destroy
my forefather. He descended to Egypt and
sojourned there, few in number, and
there he became a nation – great, strong
and numerous. The Egyptians mistreated
us and afflicted us, and placed hard
work upon us.’ Then we cried out to our
HaShem, the God of our forefathers, and
HaShem heard our voice, and saw our
affliction, travail, and our oppression.
HaShem took us out of Egypt with a
strong hand and with an outstretched
arm, with great awesomeness and with
signs and wonders. He brought us to this
place, and He gave us this Land, a Land
flowing with milk and honey.” (Devarim
26:1, 5-9)
Now, to pick up with
“Fear No Evil,” Sharansky’s battle
against the KGB:
“For the KGB, a person
was a means of attaining a specific goal
– a goal so important that any number of
bodies (not to mention souls) could be
sacrificed to achieve it. For us,
however, the person was the goal.
What we hoped to achieve was nothing
less than man’s rebirth. By reclaiming
our national and historical roots we
hoped to advance from spiritual slavery
to genuine freedom.”
“Of course my most
precious memories were of Avital, and I
lovingly recalled the first time I met
her. It was a Saturday in the fall of
1973, and I was standing outside the
Moscow synagogue when a tall and lovely
young woman came up and introduced
herself as Natalia Stieglitz. Her
brother, Misha, had recently been
arrested during a demonstration and
sentenced to fifteen days, and a mutual
friend had told her that as one of the
regular demonstrators, I might be able
to explain the usual procedure in these
cases.”
Sharansky is forced to
respond to seven accusations against
him: Part of his response follows:
“First, that our
documents about Soviet Jews were true
and not slanderous. Soviet Jews really
are subject to forced
assimilation and cut off from their own
language, culture and religion. Can you
name a single school where it’s possible
to study Hebrew or even Yiddish? Can you
name a single Hebrew book published in
the Soviet Union? A book on Jewish
history? A Hebrew Bible?”
“Sixth, the word
‘Zionist’ was being used as a legal term
that was equivalent to ‘anti-Soviet’ or
‘treasonous’ But Zionism is simply the
national liberation movement of the Jews
for creating their own state. If Zionism
was illegal, why did the Soviet Union
recognize Israel as soon as it was
founded?”
“Five years ago I applied
for an exit visa to emigrate from the
USSR to Israel. Today I am further than
ever from my goal. This would seem to be
a cause for regret, but that is not the
case. These five years were the best of
my life. I am happy that I have been
able to live them honestly and at peace
with my conscience. I have said only
what I believed, and have not violated
my conscience even when my life was in
danger.”
“For 2,000 years the
Jewish people, my people, have been
dispersed all over the world and
seemingly deprived of any hope of
returning… And today, when I am further
than ever from my dream, from my people,
and from my Avital, and when many
difficult years of prisons and camps lie
ahead of me, I say to my wife and to my
people, ‘Leshanah haba’a B’Yerushalayim!’
”
L’Illuy Nishmas beni,
Aharon Baruch Mordechai ben Pinchas
Menachem
