By Raya Seidman
On the beautiful Saturday spent in Alon Shvut, our cohort had three guest speakers. Due to it being Shabbat, I was unable to take notes (in my deeply cherished Nachshon notebook) during our speakers. Although the best Shabbatot are spent with Nachshon, I felt burdened by the restriction on note taking. “How will I remember the important details presented from our guest speakers if I cannot write them down? And at that rate, I’m probably doomed to remembering my personal thoughts on the matter as well!” It is only right to acknowledge my dependence on taking notes in order to remember the “importance” was ill considered.
I am thankful to have heard from Rabbi Alan Haber on Shabbat, when I was pressed to just listen. Rabbi Haber is originally from Brooklyn, NY, and now lives in Alon Shvut with his wife and five children. Additionally, Rabbi Haber was one of the founders of Michlelet Mevaseret Yerushalayim (MMY), and currently works on the faculty of Midreshet and Yeshivat Torah V’Avodah and of Matan in Jerusalem. He spoke to us about “Indigenous Land Rights” through conveyed knowledge of Jewish history and text, in addition to his pronounced love and commitment to the Jewish people and The Land of Israel. This dialogue of Jewish knowledge and expression is by no means unique to our pool of Nachshon speakers; so what made Rabbi Alan Haber significant enough to voluntarily write a blog post on without even referring to my nonexistent notes? I’m glad you asked.
He was honest. Rabbi Haber spoke honestly regarding his opinions on the Jewish right to The Land of Israel. He shared an example of his view regarding safety; if there were to be an Arab being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance driving through Jewish territory, he feels the ambulance should stopped and searched for any possible threat or danger, and if that meant the Arab in the ambulance did not survive, it would be worth it knowing in the chance there is real threat, more Jewish lives would have been saved. This statement was an expression of raw feeling and concern for the safety of the Jewish people in consideration to any possible threat stemming from the Arab community. I was caught off guard by this, not from what Rabbi Haber expressed in his statement, but because he outwardly said to a room full of potentially hypersensitive, Jewish American college students who could be (and many were) shocked and repelled by his idea regarding Arab life as less important than Jewish life. This takes me to what I was most impressed by: Rabbi Haber professed his feelings unapologetically. There was no personal mission behind his words, he spoke only about “all” of the Jewish people. Even in his introduction (a personal story told through light humor), he never put on a show or was in any demand for popularity points. He was just honestly expressing his opinions.
Although I can never agree with everything a speaker says (Rabbi Haber is no exception), he put into words serious, hard feelings concerning “Land Rights”, the “Arab-Israeli” conflict and the controversial settlements topic, in a way I have never been able to openly communicate on my own without feeling bad or different from my peers. For this, I thank him… for giving me relief in my own head on my own thoughts. I thank him for being one of the “brave” ones who can speak openly with passion and true honesty. I introduced myself to Rabbi Haber after he finished speaking to us, and once the rest of my peers cleared out of the room. As I began to introduce myself, I realized I had nothing to say but “thank you.” A real “thank you”, a “thank you” that stood alone because it was strong enough to. I do not believe he needed me to say anymore, I felt he understood.
