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ADLAUDATOSI’ WEBINAR ON 7 DECEMBER 2021: RELIGION AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Rabbi François GARAÏ —President, Geneva Spiritual Appeal

Religions against human trafficking: When we consider what is happening in our world, we realize that very often religions are invoked to enslave, to reject the other. Therefore, in the Association of the Spiritual Appeal of Geneva, we said that we could not and that we should not invoke a religion or philosophy to enslave the other. And yet, this is sometimes the case. And yet, our religious traditions, whatever they may be, can be invoked to refuse this human trafficking, and refuse it from their fundamental principles. The religions of the East and the Far East advocate detachment. One must detach oneself from the world, one must detach oneself from envy, one must detach oneself from desires. So, how can we to advocate detachment and at the same time use the others, whoever they are, for anything? There is a deep contradiction between this refusal of greed, this invitation to detachment and human trafficking. In our monotheistic traditions, there is also a profound opposition with human trafficking. Islam says so in the Koran, Judaism and Christianity say it in the Bible. Where it is written in the first chapter of Genesis that God created the human male and female. He created them. God created ‘ha-Adam’, the human, not Adam, as a male being. Male and female, he created THEM. And our tradition says: Well! In the beginning, God had somehow bonded the man and the woman together. Some say back to back, others say side by side. Therefore, in the second chapter, says the same commentator, God separated the male part, Adam, and the female part, Eve. And when Adam looks at Eve, as he suddenly finds himself he finds himself face to face and no longer back to back or side by side, he says: ‘But she, she is “etseme atsamai’’, which is usually translated by ‘bone of my bones’, but in fact ‘substance of my substance’.  What does this mean? This means that there is a perfect identity between the man and the woman. And that therefore there can’t be one that is superior to the other, that takes possession of the other. As there can be no at the human level one that takes possession of the other, whoever he is. God created the Adam, ‘ha-Adam’, and not Adam alone. We are all says our rabbinic tradition, we are all descendants of the same human unit, of the same human stock. It is the text that says so. We know that, in the evolution of humanity, in the evolution of creation, it has not been totally so. But it’s the idea that counts. The idea is that humanity is one and only. So, certainly, some of them have a little yellow skin, others a little red, others a little black, some a little white. But, beyond this appearance, we are all identical to each other. Our body works exactly the same way. Our mind illuminates our brain in the same way. We are different because we are born in a different geographical, social, cultural, religious context. But beyond this particularity, we are all substance of the same substance. So it is unthinkable, religiously speaking, if you look at our texts, it is unthinkable to be able to be in favor of human trafficking. It is impossible to invoke our religions, as we say in the Geneva Spiritual Appeal, it is impossible to invoke them to take possession of the other and make it what we want it to be, that is, to degrade him from his humanity to make him an object. We are all human beings with a divine reflection, with a light in us. And it is this divine reflection and light that is in us that we must recognize in the other. And when it is so, our world will certainly be brighter than it is now. Religions must be invoked to oppose all human trafficking. This is their message. Or rather, this must be their message. Thank you.