Champion of Orphans

This blog is in response to the closings in Hebron of two orphanages, a bakery, a factory run by grown young women from the orphanages, offices of an Islamic charity organization, and several schools.  The whole affair is an embarrassment to any civilized person and one that we as Christians ought to worry over at best.   The use of children to make a political point is unacceptable.  The picture near the end was taken at a gathering to support the children.

We are a people of the covenant, or we are not a part of the people of God.  That’s what my Reformed theology teaches: We are a people of the covenant – the covenant God made with Abraham and Sarah, renewed over and over again with their seed, and then revisited anew in the flesh and blood person of Jesus.  We are a people of the covenant!

And what does that mean?  Well, it means a lot of things, and one of them is this: We are to provide for children.  Not just for our children, however you or I might designate them as ours, but for all children, especially the ones who are orphan or outcast.  We are to put a roof over children’s heads, clothes on children’s backs, food in children’s stomachs, medicine for their hurts.  This is a part of the covenant agreement God made with us.

The Jewish people took the care of the orphan seriously, because God took care of the orphan seriously. The rabbis teach: “Wherever you find the strength of the Holy One, blessed be He, you find His humility.” Wherever you find the power of God, you find that God is using that power and might to care for creation.  God is supreme in power and might, riding the clouds, yet also humble—down to earth and caring for those human beings who need a champion for their cause.

It is written in Deuteronomy, “For the LORD your God is God of gods and LORD of Lords, the great God, mighty and awesome” (10:17), and it says right after “who executes justice for the orphan and the widow” (10:18).  It is repeated in the prophets: “For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy” (Isaiah 57:15) and it says right after “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit” (57:15).  It is reiterated in the Writings, as it says: “… lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds” (Psalm 68:4) and it says right after “the father of orphans and protector of widows” (v. 5).

As is always the case, an admonition to do the same is not far behind.  “Every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of your produce for that year, and store it within your towns; the Levites, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you, as well as the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, may come and eat their fill so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work that you undertake” (Deuteronomy 14:29).

The orphans of Hebron need a Champion.  I believe that they have one in God Almighty, and that God is not standing alone.  Many are coming to the aid of the orphans of Hebron, who are being punished because of the accusation that they are under the care of people with ties to Hamas, the evidence of which, according the the Israeli Army, is secret.  And where have we heard this before?  And because of this, Israel will shut the orphanages down.  The Israel Defense Force has already closed down a bakery that served the needs of the children of the orphanage, as well as hundreds of children served by the schools in Hebron.  They have raided the orphanage building and schools and taken or thrashed anything that was not tied down.  Some of these raids have been at night, thereby scaring the children half to death.  These soldiers literally put 3 and 4-year-old terrified children out on the street!  What kind of army does that kind of thing?  They closed down a small factory run by young women who were at one time orphans from the orphanages now stripped of everything.  These young women make embroidered items for sale in the public marketplace.

Speaking to an audience made up mostly with Christian activists and Muslim school personel, with a handful of press - none from any major news organization - Rabbi Arik Aschermann, head of  Rabbis for Human Rights association, stated that closure and confiscation of the orphanages and boarding schools and affiliated institutions were  “incompatible with the Jewish concept of justice.”  

“If the army had any evidence, let them present it  before a court of law; the army can’t  act as plaintiff, prosecutor, and judge and policeman at the same time.”

Aschermann said that Jewish people who follow the Torah can’t accept  what the Israeli army was doing in Hebron.  His statements are consistent with centuries of rabbinic teaching.  Where are the rest of his rabbinic brothers and sisters?  Why are the scholars and leaders of Judaism silent?

I am no fan of Hamas, but neither am I a fan of those who would use children to make a political point.  Make your point some other way!  Know this for a certainty: The Father of orphans and the Protector of widows does not approve!