"Justice" as Oppressed
and as Oppressor

Note: This article was written last September, when Yom Kippur was observed. It seems appropriate to print it now, since it’s theme is in keeping with that of this issue.

Today, as the Jewish community across the globe enters the season of Yom Kipper (Day of Atonement), I am reflecting on its meaning to me. It allows me to focus totally upon what forgiveness means. It is a gift not only for 24 hours a year, but truly a gift from God for each day and each minute, which empowers me to be in constant authentic relationship with God and my fellow humans. When I make mistakes, a part of my humanity, I can clear the board and keep myself out of relational debt. I have been granted the path in which I can admit my mistakes and say I'm sorry. When this comes from my heart, and not a sense of "ought to" or "should," I am truly set free from that error, and the potential for healing is present should the offended party participate in the process. And if not, at least I have done what I could, as far as it is within my power, to be at peace with all.

What does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?"

I have been meditating upon a passage from the prophet Micha. The passage begins: "With what shall I come to the LORD and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves?" (6:6). And: "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (6:8). I am redefining what "do justice" means since attending the Summer Peacebuilding Institute. I have needed to accept that I am, as a person of white skin and as an Israeli, in a privileged position in life. I didn't like acknowledging this. It was much more comfortable to simply say "we are all alike, we are all equal." It is true enough that we are all equal, but we are not all alike. I want to discover how I can use this position of privilege to "do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with my God."

I didn't choose this position. I lived many years of my life as "underprivileged," as a Jewish child raised in the South in the United States during the 1960s. This entailed not only race riots, but also the Ku Klux Klan's overt persecution of Jews in my city and ultimately a bomb going off in my synagogue one Shabbot morning. I also live as a woman in a male-dominated world. I have spent years learning how not to be a victim. I do not allow another person to define for me my worth. I know no human controls my heart or my reactions to the challenges of life. It has been quite liberating.

Now I face a new challenge -- to accept the fact that my people are oppressed, and are also oppressors. I have accepted without thinking that, historically and spiritually, Israel belongs to the Jews. I am not interested in debating that fact here. No one seems to be able to even define to everyone's liking "who is a Jew," let alone "to whom does this land belong?"

For the sake of illustration, and not particularly from a place of belief, let's say that this nation was given by God and affirmed by men's decisions to the Jews. It was never, then, the intention or purpose to use that grant in anyway but to open our hearts, minds and lives to our neighbors. Torah tells us in so many ways what this one passage in Exodus 23:9 says so poignantly: "And you shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you {also} were strangers in the land of Egypt."

What does justice mean to me? How can I define justice based upon today's reality? There is always a feeling and reality for justification by both "sides" in the conflict. Both Jews and Palestinians are here to stay. How will I live justly with both of my countrymen and women. Will that reality actually work outwards in my practical, daily life? If not, then I need to go back to the drawing board and do more work.

I have been taught from infancy to fear "them." We as a nation make decisions based upon fear: fear of the Arab and what s/he would do if given equality, fear because of what happened historically to the Jew, fear of what the nations will say, etc. I do not want to base my life, standing or attitude of people upon fear, especially someone else's fear, and will be increasingly aware, by God's grace, of what it means to DO justice, and to love kindness and walk humbly WITH the Lord." This means decisions I make will need to exclude fear, otherwise that again puts me in the position of victim. And if it is so that I was put in this world in a position of privilege, then I will use that position to serve others, to be kind and do justice, especially those to whom justice is due as an equal citizen of humanity. How can I fear doing good since there is a God in heaven participating in that with me?

Jean Handley attended the Summer Peacebuilding Institute in 1998.