“How is the faithful city become a harlot,” declares Isaiah in his opening words, which will be read this upcoming Sabbath, in the Haftorah of Parshat Devarim, a grim prelude to the upcoming fast of the Ninth of Av, which is centered on the reading of the book of Eicha (Lamentations.) The same Hebrew word —“Eicha,” or “How,” is used by Isaiah to condemn the sins of Jerusalem in this Shabbat’s prophetic reading. “She that was full of justice and righteousness is now full of murderers,” continues the Prophet – bemoaning the sad descent of the Jewish people from the heights of holiness to the depths of debauchery, and treachery.
Isaiah, along with the other Prophets, is full of warnings about the negative influences on the Jewish people from the outside world, including from other faiths. The festival of Hanukkah, for example, centers around a civil war and struggle that broke out when the Greek Syrian invaders of Judea and their Hellenist supporters tried to compromise the service in the temple of Jerusalem with elements of idol worship and foreign culture.
Since the Jewish people went into exile as a minority religious group surrounded by a majority professing another religion and another culture, the danger has always existed that the Jewish religion might be compromised by outside influence. Of course, there is always a certain amount of influence from the majority religion and culture on the minority.
For example, when Jews moved from Babylon to Muslim-controlled Spain in the early Middle Ages, Jewish scholars started to pay a great deal of attention to grammar, and developed new prayers based on the poetic style of the period. Despite those cultural influences, the Jews’ commitment to their core beliefs and Halakha didn’t change. Another example centers on the period of emancipation in Europe, when Jews left the ghetto and tried to find their way into high German society. Jews wanted their synagogues to resemble Protestant churches and imported many Christian practices, from clerical vestments to organ music into the synagogue.
However, in our time, Jews, especially in Israel, seem to be importing practices from another major religion – this time Islam, and in its most radical form. And even though many of those engaging in these “Islamized” practices are themselves Orthodox, the practices are as foreign to Judaism as those Christian-influenced practices adopted by some in the 19th century.
One example of adopting practices from fundamental Islam is the “shawl” phenomenon that can be seen in the streets of Jerusalem and some other Israeli cities. While women in Judaism are bidden to dress modestly, the small group of “women of the shawl” take this commandment to its far extreme, dressing from head to toe in black garb, a custom associated with the most fundamental Muslims, with barely a slit in the head covering to enable the wearer to see where she is going. This mode of dress is most pronounced among a certain hassidic group – but the fact that the wearers, and their husbands, pray from a Siddur and observe Shabbat doesn’t make it a Jewish practice. Quite the opposite.
Another recent practice – one that affects many Israelis, not only religious ones – is the tendency to celebrate the deaths of our enemies in exactly the same manner as the most rabid antisemites in Gaza. This jis mean tto be a lampoon of such behavior, but was very pronounced last week, as Israelis offered sweets and treats to passersby in celebration of the elimination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh – the same thing some Israel-haters do when terrorists manage to murder innocent Jews. Many of us look aghast at those celebrations – and we should similarly reject that practice when it is our turn to “celebrate.”
Jewish history, of course, is replete with examples of the destruction of our enemies, from the Syrian Greeks to Haman to various and assorted antisemites throughout the ages. When those who want to destroy us are being sent to a meeting with their maker, we have our own tradition on how to thank G-d and celebrate our deliverance from the wicked of the earth. But giving out sweets in the streets seems a direct copy of a practice of radical Islam – and it's a custom that we as a holy nation should reject.
After thousands of years, we as a people should know better; we should know that we need to live our own lives, as authentic Jews, and reject foreign ideologies and practices, which do not make us better people. It’s as true for Orthodox Jews as it is for secular Jews. Judaism, Jewish culture, and Jewish tradition has its own ways to deal with celebration, tragedy, modesty, and everything else. Those are ways we should adopt – and we should reject those “imported ways” that might turn the “faithful city into a harlot.”