NOTES TO PAGES 567–74- Zohar,Life, Freedom, and Equality in the Jewish Tradition; quoted from an unpublished
English translation. - Ibid., 9.
- The dynamic relationship between infinity and being, whereby the latter is expression,
crystallization, contraction, and betrayal of the former (as well as its realization), is discussed in
many of Levinas’s texts, sometimes with rather different theoretical and ethical implications. Here
I am mostly referring to Emmanuel Levinas,Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence(Pittsburgh:
Duquesne University Press, 1998). - Zohar,Life, Freedom, and Equality,5.
- Hannah Arendt,The Human Condition(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).
- Haim H. Cohn,Human Rights in the Bible and Talmud(Tel Aviv: MOD Books, 1989).
- Ibid.
- Levinas,Otherwise than Being.
- David Forman, ‘‘Rabbis for Human Rights,’’The Jerusalem Post, January 10, 2002.
- Marc Ellis,Israel and Palestine out of the Ashes(London: Pluto Press, 2002).
- When I wrote the first draft of this essay in spring 2004, Ascherman and a colleague were
on trial for obstructing police work in 2003 during the demolition of Palestinian homes in Beit
Hanina and Issawiyyah, both Palestinian neighborhoods regarded by Israel as part of East Jerusalem.
During those months, the RHR Executive Director was also arrested and later released after taking
part in demonstrations against the the separation wall, alongside Palestinian villagers from Biddu,
just north of Jerusalem in the West Bank. After giving court testimony on September 21, 2004, and
in late December 2004 that challenged the justice of Israeli laws in light of both international law
and the Torah, Ascherman was finally convicted for obstructing policy in the course of duty in
March 2005. Although the prosecution immediately asked to revoke the conviction (apparently in
order not to set a negative precedent that would draw media attention at a time of public debate
on ‘‘disengagement’’ from Gaza), the trial marked RHR’s failure to obtain legal recognition of the
injustice of the practice of demolition of homes, since it is virtually impossible for Palestinians to
obtain building permits in areas claimed by Israel, particularly within greater Jerusalem. - These are Orthodox (in its different variants), Conservative (Masorti), and Progressive
(Reform) Judaism. The first represents the majority among religious Jews (less than one-third of
the population) in Israel, and it is also the strand of Judaism that has historically enjoyed exclusive
recognition by the state. This has entailed privileged access to state funds and control over institu-
tions regulating marriage, conversion, identification of who is a Jew (and thus right of citizenship),
and kashrut. In recent years, there have been openings on the part of the state to non-Orthodox
Jewish institutions, but the balance of power is still very much in favor of the Orthodox. - In an article inThe Jerusalem Poston January 10, 2002, David Forman wrote: ‘‘RHR offsets
a portrayal of Judaism in Israel that is often characterized by a chauvinistic theology, in which a
national ego is projected onto God, and any act is justified as a Divine right.... In this world-view,
anyone who opposes an extreme ‘particular’ version of a ‘heavenly course’ for the Jewish people in
the Jewish state is a traitor.... Indeed, one would think that rabbis who oppose some of RHR’s
positions would do so in a way that would cling to the principle of pluralism: that is, disagreement
‘for the sake of heaven.’ But this is not the case with a small but vocal group within the Israeli
Conservative movement. They have defied any pluralistic debate by labelling RHR members ‘trai-
tors’ and ‘enemies of the Jewish people.’ ’’ - An interesting analysis of Levinas’s writings about Israel and Israeli Palestinian affairs is
contained in Howard Caygill,Levinas and the Political(London: Routledge, 2002). - Leibowitz,Judaism, Human Values, and the Jewish State,198.
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