24 • INTERMOUNTAIN JEWISH NEWS • May 13, 2016

EditorialTwisted Jewish ethics

The five lives of Rabbi Yehuda Copperman

Try on this logic. Think hard.It’s dense.

An Israeli Knesset member saysthat Israeli revenge would precludeArab terrorism. If Israelis burn anArab baby to death in Duma, andif it stems from racism, it is wrong.But if it stems from revenge, it isjustified “on the basis of the hostil-ity and war of annihilation the Arabsare conducting against us.”

“The Arabs.” All Arabs? Includ-ing babies?

The Knesset Member, BezalelSmotrich of the Jewish Home par-ty, is quoted as saying:

“It is possible to assume that ifthe State of Israel had not erased,under the influence of twisted Chris-tian morality, the word revenge fromits lexicon . . . we would not havebeen faced with these harsh inci-dents of private individuals takingthe laws and revenge into their ownhands.”

In other words: If we practicerevenge first, you won’t practicerevenge later. The logic, as we say,is dense. To boot, this logic is saidto be Jewish, not “twisted Christ-ian morality.”

We cannot speak for Christianmorality. We doubt that MKSmotrich can either.We can say thatthe morality invoked here is defi-nitely a twisted version of Jewishmorality.We do know, lo and behold,that the Torah says, “Do not takerevenge”— right in this week’s Torahportion! (Lev. 19:18). Hmmm.Sounds like a Jewish source to us:the Torah. Don’t take revenge.Not tomention,an act of revenge presumesa prior act; in Smotrich’s context,an act of Arab terrorism. So how isrevenge, which follows a terroristact, supposed to prevent it in thefirst place?

Even to get into the “logic” ofSmotrich’s twisted comments is toenter a cesspool, for how is the burn-ing of a baby justified on any

grounds? He says that if a baby isburned to death because of “thehatred of the other only because theyare different,” it is wrong. But ifthe same murderous act stems from“anger” and “a desire for revenge”on the basis of the “hostility and warof annihilation the Arabs are con-ducting against us,” it is right.

The same murderous act: withone intention — it is wrong; withanother intention — it is right. Evenso, writes Smotrich, the murder inDuma was “serious and forbid-den.” Go figure.

G-d save us from ethicists likeSmotrich — who are members ofKnesset, no less.

Smotrich is a classic case of a pre-determined answer looking for a ret-rospective justification. His answeris anti-Arab violence. His justifica-tion is Jewish revenge, which, how-ever, is not Jewish at all. Again,check the Torah as it is read thisvery week. Then toss in gratuitous

anti-Christian rhetoric and the viewthat Arabs are responsible for Jew-ish violence against them, and wereach this conclusion of Smotrich:“If the Arabs had not fought againstus, not a single Arab would havebeen killed here.”

As if the preponderant intoler-ance and violence of Israel’s ene-mies justifies killing the peacefulamong them under the banner of“anger and a desire for revenge, jus-tified in their own right.”

Justified by what? Not by theTorah. Anger is also roundly con-demned in the Jewish treatises onethics.And stereotyping “the Arabs”?Murder of Arabs by Jews on the basisof anger and revenge . . . it is a sadday when such dangerous drivelderives from a Jewish lawmakerin the State of Israel.

What do Bezalel Smotrich’s Jew-ish Home party leaders, such asNaftali Bennett, have to say aboutthis?

“Gap year.”

Or: “Seminary.”

Or:“Work-study program in Israelafter high school.”

They all took their inspiration fromRabbi Yehuda Copperman — he ofthe five lives,any one of which anoth-er person would consider more thansufficient justification of his life —who died last January. His multi-faceted legacy will continue to unfoldfor generations to come.

Back in 1956 — 60 years ago —he began to teach students in hisliving room in Jerusalem.This grewinto a few rented classrooms inthe Bayit Vegan neighborhood ofJerusalem, which he called, seem-ingly grandiosely, “The JerusalemCollege for Women” (Michlala), in1964.

At the time, virtuallyno American Jewish stu-dents went to Israel afterhigh school. Yes, therewere a couple of small pro-grams; some eventuallyfolded, some continued;but none grew in size,vision and dimension likeRabbi Copperman’s col-lege. Only 15 years later,it was ensconced on amajor campus; it hadraised by leaps andbounds the requirementsfor becoming a teacher;it had branched out intomany fields, from the sci-ences to the history of theHolocaust; it had achiev-ed academic status.

It had educated thou-sands of students andinspired hundreds ofteachers to go out into thewide and barren land ofJewish education, to make

a contribution.

It had set a tone: There is a qual-ity education and an indispensableexperience in the Holy Land for Amer-ican Jewish post-high schools stu-dents.Come! You’ll be forever gratefulyou did.

If imitation is the sincerest formof flattery, Rabbi Yehuda Copper-man was flattered beyond measure,as school upon school, seminary uponseminary, program upon program,followed in his footsteps.

Thus, his first life: institutionalpioneer and able administrator —a person who knew instinctively justwhen to be unbending, as schoolprincipals must sometimes be, andjust when to be flexible, as schoolprincipals must sometimes be.

Which brings us to his second life:

modest role model, the very oppo-site of someone full of himself.Rabbi Copperman’s eye was neveron his achievements, only on thenext step up, the next goal, the pathto wider service to his students, tothe Jewish people, to the society ofIsrael. His countless students andcolleagues remember him not justfor what he did,but for what he was:wise, kind, perceptive, congenial,with a gentle and ever present senseof humor. He never wasted words,yet never made one feel rushed.

His third life: teacher. Even as hisinstitution grew, Rabbi Copper-man never forgot its origin: thoseclasses in his living room.He attract-ed the great teachers that madehis college a go-to destination forthousands of young women becausehe himself was a master teacher. Hewas overflowing with insights intothe texts of the Hebrew Bible. Cre-

ative. Engaging. Fully focused onthe text, yet also able to throw ina point of humor and a poignant sto-ry. He succeeded in demanding highstandards because he made the Biblecome alive.

His fourth life: scholar. It reallywas like a separate life, as if he werea full-time lecturer in a universityor a yeshiva. He hit upon the fivevolumes of commentary on the Torahby the acknowledged polymath,Rab-bi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (1843-1926), one of those rabbiniccommentaries so full of quotes andreferences, stated and implied,that it rises to the level of a great-ly admired — but closed — book.Rabbi Copperman opened it up.Night after night, verse upon verse,page after page, volume after vol-ume, he dedicated years to writingand publishing what is now a clas-sic.As we say,many a full-time schol-

ar would be envious. Notto mention,Rabbi Copper-man went on to pen manymore volumes after that.

His fifth life: Familyman, progenitor of schol-ars, teachers and admin-istrators like himself,one-half of a couple wholoved to do music togeth-er, full of joie de vivre.

Rabbi Copperman hasgone to his eternal reward,leaving behind not onlythe thousands of studentsand colleagues wholearned from him but thecountless students of thefuture who will benefitfrom his institution, hisphenomenal books and hisexample.

Born in Ireland, edu-cated in England, Chica-go and Israel, he becamea legend of Jerusalem.

Dry Bones