JEWISH WORLD

28 JEWISH WORLD • JUNE 14-20, 2024 The trance dance floor from the Supernova desert rave, recreated for the ‘Nova 6.29’ exhibit to remember the 360 people murdered by Hamas. continued from page 25 ,_hibit Its aim is to impart the experience of shock, trauma and terror that thousands of young Israelis endured that day. continued from page 7 +=(9 For your FREE digital issue send an email to: lijewworld@aol.com for all the ten plagues and the split- ting of the Sea of Reeds. These miracles clearly meant to teach Pharaoh – and all would-be totalitarian, enslaving despots of the future – that G-d demands free- dom for each of His children; this lesson was meant to be learned by the entire world, so that the Israel- ites could justifiably sing, “The Nations heard and they became terrified, trembling grabbed hold of the inhabitants of Philistia; the generals of Edom were fright- ened… all inhabitants of Canaan melted… The Lord (and not any Pharaoh) shall reign forever and ever” (Exodus 15:14-18). The next two commandments prohibit idolatry, which is similarly prohibited by the seven Noahide laws of morality. I strongly sub- scribe to Rabbi Menahem Meiri’s definition of idolatry, which has nothing to do with theology and everything to do with the ethically and morally repugnant sexual orgi- astic excesses and child sacrifice – murders associated with idolatry (see Moshe Halbertal’s important book, Idolatry). The third com- mandment prohibiting the taking of the Lord’s name in vain (or to further falsehood or trickery) par- allels the Noahide prohibition of blaspheming G-d; note that no- where is belief in G-d explicitly mentioned as either one of the No- ahide laws or one of the Ten Com- mandments. This is reminiscent of the trenchant Midrashic comment, “Would that you forget Me, says G-d, but remember My laws of mo- rality,” The fifth commandment deals with respecting parents – who give life and usually sustaining nurture – with the final five forbidding mur- der, adultery, theft, false testimony and coveting that which does not belong to you. All of these are cer- tainly universal in import and attri- bution. The only commandment which may be seen as referring only to the Israelites is the fourth, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy… The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your G-d; you shall not do any creative physical activity, neither you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your Gentile manservant nor your Gentile maidservant, nor your animal, nor the stranger who is within your gates (Exodus 20:8-10). Here, too, the work prohibition in- cludes the stranger, the Gentile and even the animal, with the very next verse stressing the most universal of reasons for this Sabbath law: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and everything which is in them, and He rested on the sev- enth day” (20:11). A pparently, the message of the Sabbath is that there is only one Creator, everyone and every- thing else is a creature, and so the Sabbath work prohibition comes to remind us to value every Divine creation and for one human being never to “lord” over any other hu- man being – who is a creature just like he is a creature. All humans must together and separately only serve the single and singular Lord of the Universe. This idea is strengthened in the second version of the Decalogue in the Book of Deuteronomy, which stresses the reason for the Sabbath as being “in order that your male servant and your female servant may rest like you” (Deut. 5:14). Although it is true that our Sab- bath Amidah specifies the fact of the Sabbath as a sign between G-d and Israel forever, a day which G-d “did not give to the Gentiles of the earth but (only) to Israel did He give it with love,” this may ei- ther refer to the fact that the Gen- tiles chose not to take it, or that the details of our Sabbath laws and the all-encompassing Divine Service which defines Jewish Sabbath ob- servance does not apply to the Gentile world. But the ever-arch- ing notion of a general day of rest for all creatures under the one Cre- ator may well be necessary and crucial for Gentile as well as Jew. In any event, the Ten Com- mandments is probably Judaism’s greatest gift to the world, and our best chance at world peace were they ever to be universally adopt- ed. And the fact that we read the Book of the convert Ruth on the festival commemorating the Rev- elation at Sinai is the best proof of the universal import of that revela- tion. Shlomo Riskin is the founding rabbi of Efrat and the rosh yeshiva of Ohr Torah Stone. the creators of the exhibit, told The Art Newspaper. “That’s exactly the connection we want people to make.” There is a bit more light as you reach a large, open and quiet area of the exhibit that includes a re-cre- ation of the Nova festival’s main stage, huge sound system and very large video screens of the festival goers dancing. There are also small- er screens offering testimonies from survivors describing what they saw, how they escaped, and how their lives have changed. On one side of the room are several completely burned-out cars, representing the many hundreds that were destroyed on October 7. A “Lost and Found” area has tables with piles of clothing, games, books, hats, watches and oth- er personal items found at the scene. Stacks of sneakers and sandals con- jure up powerful images of the end- less piles of shoes exhibited at Yad Vashem and at Auschwitz. One of the many remarkable vol- unteers who helped sort through the belongings at the scene said, on a video, “Sometimes you find a tooth or a charred bone,” noting that “way more than 20,000 items were tagged and scanned.” Despite the grimwork, she said, she took comfort in learning that a personal item she found be- longing to a young woman victim was sent to her parents. Finally, entering the last section of the exhibit, one experiences a calm- ing effect. The large expanse is in- viting and you feel your body start- ing to relax. The area is well-lit and includes several sofas, coloring books, and a “healing tent,” all part of an effort to encourage contempla- tion and to reflect the spirit of the Tribe of Nova Foundation, a non-profit musical community cre- ated in Israel by founders and survi- vors of the festival. Its goal is to honor the victims, promote the posi- tive power of music in bringing peo- ple together and to provide financial, mental, occupational and social as- sistance to survivors and their fami- lies, as well as to hostages and their families. \The exhibit is at 35 Wall St., in the Financial District, Satur- day-Thursday 11:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m., Fridays 11a.m. - 4:40 p.m. For tickets, visit https://novafesti- val.seetickets.com/timeslot/no- va-music-festival-exhibition Gary Rosenblatt was editor and publisher of ‘The Jewish Week’ from 1993 to 2019.