Sources from essay by Rabbi Ariel Naveh in The Social Justice Torah Commentary
As the aphorism goes, "history is written by the victors"; and in this instance, the need for communal cohesion under one means of worship, practice, and belief necessitates destruction of even the memory of a culture long past.
As such, the question is raised of what is reflected by a society erecting or demolishing a monument, memorial, or altar. When God promises the Israelites "an everlasting name that will endure forever" (Isaiah 56:5), what will that name mean? What will be the impact of removing someone else's name, in order for an Israelite's "everlasting name" to be given full glory? In recent years, these questions have gained prominence in our societal discourse, as we grapple with the elevation of voices once ignored and the lowering of other voices once given full weight of influence. Consider, for example, the voice of Isabella Gibbons. Gibbons was brought to the University of Virginia around 1850 as a slave by Professor William Barton Rogers. She remained enslaved and in service at UVA until emancipation in 1865. Following her emancipation, Isabella received a diploma from the New England Freedmen's Aid Society's Charlottesville Normal School, where she remained to serve as a teacher. In a powerful letter she wrote to the Freedmen's Record in 1867, Gibbons posed the question:
Can we forget the crack of the whip, the cowhide, the whipping post, the auction block, the handcuffs, the spaniels, the ironcollar, the negro-trader tearing the young child from its mother's breast as a whelp from the lioness? Have we forgotten those horrible cruelties, hundreds of our race killed? No, we have not, nor ever will.
-Rabbi Ariel Naveh
As with the call for desecration and total annihilation of previous societies' idols or altars that we read about in this parashah, the context for why is imperative. In that case, it was an attempt to build a new society and with it a new standard of worship and practice. In our modern era, the intent is quite similar: we seek to replace the voices a previous generation once lauded with voices that reflect a society renewed. This society will seek to uplift more and different voices; it will not ignore the ills and sins with which it struggled in generations past, but rather demonstrate our growth and our learning from them. As Rabban Gamliel noted in Avodah Zarah, the intention of the statue matters in how we as a society are meant to respond to it. The purpose of these statues was made very clear by Julian Carr: maintaining an everlasting symbol of ongoing white control and superiority. Therefore, merely erecting new slavery memorials is insufficient. We must destroy and annihilate not just the statues of old, but also the despicable mindset they represent. Only then will we as a society hopefully warrant the everlasting name promised to us in generations past.
-Rabbi Ariel Naveh
Discussion Questions by Ariel Tovlev
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What does the Torah say we are to do about idolatrous statues? What constitutes an idolatrous statue and what does not?
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What is the difference between remembering and honoring? How does this difference affect how we treat statues and other memorial sites? When are memo- rial sites necessary and appropriate? When are they offensive and idolatrous?
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How are Confederate statues similar to idolatrous statues? Do you believe they should be removed and/or destroyed? What other actions can we take to fight against what we believe to be idolatry in our society?