Yom Kippur: Should Jews Pray for a Nuclear-Free Iran?

Today is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, and the last of the Days of Awe. Besides being set aside as a day of fasting and prayer, it is also devoted to deep reflection on one’s relationship to others and to God, a kind of contemplative self-assessment. For this reason, there have been tempestuous debates about the appropriateness of introducing political concerns into a singularly personal and spiritual observance. Some fear that this would open the door to an opportunistic politicization of what is irreducibly theological in character, diminishing a day singularly reserved for the care of one’s soul.

This year the dispute has hit a fevered pitch as the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America has specifically encouraged Jews to pray for an end to the existential threat a nuclear Iran poses to Israel. Some within the Jewish community have bristled at the suggestion that partisan concerns should sully the theological purity of Yom Kippur. If the ultimate focus of Yom Kippur should be issues that transcend our worldliness, or the purview that draws us out of our mere creatureliness, then raising political questions seems to be incongruent with this wholly other-worldly aim. Yom Kippur is about the pensive, personal rumination on our souls, the argument goes, and not the ephemeral interests of any state. In this vein, Peter Beinart avers that the Orthodox Union “wants to disturb my Yom Kippur”.

Beinart goes on to argue that this is a characteristic move of more liberal denominations, torturously disfiguring sacred text and doctrine to underwrite their cause of the moment. What ultimately results is neither politically nor theologically satisfying, an “excruciating” attempt to use the sacred to render intelligible the profane. The byzantine complexities of our contemporary political debates are no less entangled and the counterbalance religious teaching provides to our transitory daily lives is undermined.

However, as Jonathan S. Tobin asks, is the protection of Israel from the nuclear annihilation really all that partisan an issue? Surely there are legitimate points of contention regarding what geopolitical strategy best assures Israel’s safety, what international mechanisms most effectively neutralize Iran’s persistent bellicosity, how best to engage the assistance of the United States, etc. But the central issue of Israel’s safety, for those who count themselves as its friends, could not reasonably be considered politically polarizing. In other words, is not Israel’s protection from the dark forces that gather and conspire to destroy it one that transcends political dispute?

It is also important to remember that it was on Yom Kippur, the morning of October 6, 1973 to be precise, that Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on an unsuspecting Israel. They breached Israeli borders by way of the Suez Canal and the Golan heights with every intention of making the Middle East Judenrein. And they were not alone, assisted by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, which provided some troops and financial backing, as well as Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, and Lebanon all participating in one way or another. How could any historically conscious Jew not reflect upon the collapsing of the ground around Israel’s feet that fateful day, what must have seemed like the coordinated attack of the entire world that surrounded it?

And now, on Yom Kippur, Iranian President Ahmadinejad delivered a venomous address to the United Nations, the mere fact that he was allowed to speak on this day, on any day, an inexcusable desecration. He questioned the historical claim of Israel’s roots in the Middle East, its ancient claims upon holy Jerusalem, and even its right to exist, predicting it would soon be “eliminated”.

There is a longstanding tradition in the United States of attempting to compartmentalize the religious and the political, the juridical expression of this being the separation of church and state. This separation was not merely intended to protect political belief from the prejudicial impositions of religious doctrine but also to shield religious belief, and its orientation towards eternity, from the ever vacillating concerns of earthly preoccupations. As the great French philosopher Alexis De Tocqueville observed, the world of political interest may be subject to perpetual flux, but “having reached the limits of the political world, the human spirit stops of itself; in fear it relinquishes the need of exploration; it even abstains from lifting the veil of the sanctuary; it bows with respect before truths which it accepts without discussion”. We preserve the ballast that religious belief provides us against the contingency of political life by keeping it distinct, a category of its own.

However, it also the case that our religious beliefs, the ones that ultimately inform our general worldview, necessarily have political implications. We cannot, as human beings, adequately comprehend spiritual transcendence without a concomitant reflection on what it is that we, in fact, transcend. We cannot fully plumb the depths of our souls without considering the political context within which we exercise ourselves as moral beings, in relation to others. For a whole human person, the diremption between our political and spiritual selves is a legal postulate rather than an accurate metaphysical account of man.

All of this is further complicated by the fact that Jewish identity is necessarily bound up with Israel, the spiritual home of the world’s Jews. If a Jew is to say petitionary prayers at all, how could he not solicit God’s protection in times of such grave danger? God ultimately solidified his new covenant with the people of Israel and so Yom Kippur is a day Jews necessarily pine for Israel’s security. It is not merely the Holocaust, or the modern threat to Jewishness itself, that justifies such a prayer, but the ancient sanctuary all Jews find in Israel, their antidote to historical intimidation.

There is no special spiritual succor to be earned by stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the precarious political circumstances of Israel. Today, observant Jews fast and pray but they also gather together in communities, and it seems more than acceptably spiritual that they pray for the conditions that permit the existence of their communities. In this spirit, we offer the prayer to those who wish to say it:

On Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Jews worldwide spend the day in fasting, prayer and repentance. Yom Kippur is not a day for politics.

But Yom Kippur 5773 is different.

On this Yom Kippur – the world faces an evil regime whose leaders have publicly committed themselves to destroying the State of Israel and to harming Jews worldwide; in addition, the Iranians are a threat to the global community.

On this Yom Kippur – the leader of that evil regime will address the United Nations General Assembly and again preach his hatred;

On this Yom Kippur – the words found in the High Holiday prayer book, “God determines which nations shall face war and which shall enjoy peace,” prompt us to contemplate with anxiety the fate of the State of Israel and her people, of Jews throughout the world and, indeed, of civilization as a whole.

The threat is dire and demands our attention on our holiest day. Therefore, we call upon all congregations to dedicate a specific moment during their services on the upcoming holy day of Yom Kippur to pray for an end to the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.

On Yom Kippur, may Israel and its people be sealed in the Book of Life for a year of life and peace.

Category: Philosophical Asides