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A Jew Looks at Israel's Values Today (C&P)
HAIRY
Member Posts: 23,606
Identity crisis
By Aluf Hareven
Israel will undoubtedly continue to exist as the state of the Jews. However, is a state in which Jews constitute a majority also by the same token a Jewish state? Is it a state in which the humane values of Judaism in the course of 3,000 years are also leading values for the majority of its citizens?
We can distinguish at least four spheres in which the basic values of Judaism cohered:
The value of universal human dignity. In the words of Hillel: Do not do unto others what you find hateful. That is the whole Torah, and all the rest is commentary. In the words of Akiva: Love your neighbor as yourself, that is a great principle of Torah. But Ben Azai said: This is the book of the generations of man; in the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God - that is an even greater principle. Former Sephardi chief rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron said human dignity is more important than other religious precepts, because to violate it is tantamount to violating the foundation of faith and the Creator who thought so highly of man that he made him in his image. Finally, in the words of the president of the Supreme Court, Justice Aharon Barak: The Basic Law of Human Dignity and Freedom is a meta-law, which integrates Israel's values as a Jewish and democratic state.
The true test of human dignity, however, resides not in declarations and laws, but in the answer to this question: Is respect for universal human dignity a leading value in the behavior of the majority of Israelis? Public opinion surveys find repeatedly that in the eyes of most Israelis, the traits that characterize their fellow countrymen are lack of respect for others, chutzpah and raucousness. Indeed, human dignity in Israel is seriously affronted in many areas: in the widespread violence of men against women, in the growing violence among youth, and in the attitude toward new immigrants, distressed populations, foreign workers and Palestinians in the territories.
The value of knowledge: Some 1,700 years ago, Rabbi Shimlai reduced Judaism to one principle, taken from the Book of Amos: "Seek me, and you will live." In other words, in order to live, a person must be a seeker, an investigator, a critic and a reinterpreter of his world, which is hidden from him. Indeed, for generations the formative experience of many Jews was the Beit Midrash, the school (house) of religious learning (the Midrash refers to the homiletic interpretation of the Scriptures, and the root of the word, meaning to investigate, expound, interpret, is the same as that of the word used by Amos in the verse referred to above) - not only as a place of rote study but as a house of interpretation. This tradition of constantly renewing study was certainly one of the reasons that Jews have been among the leaders in many spheres of science.
Although Israel has its share of impressive scientific achievements, the status of knowledge as constant study and fresh exegesis is declining, its place being taken by here-and-now values, the values of the culture of consumption and entertainment. The achievements of students in Israel are regressing from their former leading place to a low rung on the ladder among the developed countries.
The value of rejecting idolatry: The companion value to that of knowledge is the demand not to idolize anything we know: not to idolize man, Torah or concept; nor nation or land. In other words, despite the great value we attribute to them, we must not render them omnipotent in our inner being, we must not subjugate ourselves to them.
Israel is today rich in idols: the idolization of leaders and rabbis and actors, of force as the exclusive solution for human problems, of consumer products. The tragedy is, as Emil Fackenheim said, that idol worshipers do not know that their idols are idols.
The value of equality for minorities: Dozens of times the Bible declares: "You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." This refers, of course, to strangers as minority groups. And the emphasis is on the fact that the Israelites were liberated from their bondage in Egypt not so they might repeat the same pattern in regard to members of minorities in their country. Israel's Declaration of Independence, too, promises the country's Arab citizens full civil equality and integration in all the state's institutions. Yet, more than 55 years after its establishment, the state continues to infringe the right of equality for non-Jewish citizens in many spheres.
Israel is hardly Sodom. Many Israelis whether as individuals or as members of various organizations, wage a daily struggle for the basic values that reside in our Judaism. However, can we say of ourselves, in the words of the prophets, that "out of Zion shall come forth Torah"?
The more progress we make in the areas outlined above, the more Israel's identity as a Jewish state will be strengthened. The more we regress from them the deeper will become the contradiction between our being a Jewish state and our being a state in which the basic values of Judaism are not at the center of its life.
The writer was the director of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.
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By Aluf Hareven
Israel will undoubtedly continue to exist as the state of the Jews. However, is a state in which Jews constitute a majority also by the same token a Jewish state? Is it a state in which the humane values of Judaism in the course of 3,000 years are also leading values for the majority of its citizens?
We can distinguish at least four spheres in which the basic values of Judaism cohered:
The value of universal human dignity. In the words of Hillel: Do not do unto others what you find hateful. That is the whole Torah, and all the rest is commentary. In the words of Akiva: Love your neighbor as yourself, that is a great principle of Torah. But Ben Azai said: This is the book of the generations of man; in the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God - that is an even greater principle. Former Sephardi chief rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron said human dignity is more important than other religious precepts, because to violate it is tantamount to violating the foundation of faith and the Creator who thought so highly of man that he made him in his image. Finally, in the words of the president of the Supreme Court, Justice Aharon Barak: The Basic Law of Human Dignity and Freedom is a meta-law, which integrates Israel's values as a Jewish and democratic state.
The true test of human dignity, however, resides not in declarations and laws, but in the answer to this question: Is respect for universal human dignity a leading value in the behavior of the majority of Israelis? Public opinion surveys find repeatedly that in the eyes of most Israelis, the traits that characterize their fellow countrymen are lack of respect for others, chutzpah and raucousness. Indeed, human dignity in Israel is seriously affronted in many areas: in the widespread violence of men against women, in the growing violence among youth, and in the attitude toward new immigrants, distressed populations, foreign workers and Palestinians in the territories.
The value of knowledge: Some 1,700 years ago, Rabbi Shimlai reduced Judaism to one principle, taken from the Book of Amos: "Seek me, and you will live." In other words, in order to live, a person must be a seeker, an investigator, a critic and a reinterpreter of his world, which is hidden from him. Indeed, for generations the formative experience of many Jews was the Beit Midrash, the school (house) of religious learning (the Midrash refers to the homiletic interpretation of the Scriptures, and the root of the word, meaning to investigate, expound, interpret, is the same as that of the word used by Amos in the verse referred to above) - not only as a place of rote study but as a house of interpretation. This tradition of constantly renewing study was certainly one of the reasons that Jews have been among the leaders in many spheres of science.
Although Israel has its share of impressive scientific achievements, the status of knowledge as constant study and fresh exegesis is declining, its place being taken by here-and-now values, the values of the culture of consumption and entertainment. The achievements of students in Israel are regressing from their former leading place to a low rung on the ladder among the developed countries.
The value of rejecting idolatry: The companion value to that of knowledge is the demand not to idolize anything we know: not to idolize man, Torah or concept; nor nation or land. In other words, despite the great value we attribute to them, we must not render them omnipotent in our inner being, we must not subjugate ourselves to them.
Israel is today rich in idols: the idolization of leaders and rabbis and actors, of force as the exclusive solution for human problems, of consumer products. The tragedy is, as Emil Fackenheim said, that idol worshipers do not know that their idols are idols.
The value of equality for minorities: Dozens of times the Bible declares: "You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." This refers, of course, to strangers as minority groups. And the emphasis is on the fact that the Israelites were liberated from their bondage in Egypt not so they might repeat the same pattern in regard to members of minorities in their country. Israel's Declaration of Independence, too, promises the country's Arab citizens full civil equality and integration in all the state's institutions. Yet, more than 55 years after its establishment, the state continues to infringe the right of equality for non-Jewish citizens in many spheres.
Israel is hardly Sodom. Many Israelis whether as individuals or as members of various organizations, wage a daily struggle for the basic values that reside in our Judaism. However, can we say of ourselves, in the words of the prophets, that "out of Zion shall come forth Torah"?
The more progress we make in the areas outlined above, the more Israel's identity as a Jewish state will be strengthened. The more we regress from them the deeper will become the contradiction between our being a Jewish state and our being a state in which the basic values of Judaism are not at the center of its life.
The writer was the director of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.
Top Articles
Waking up the city
The new deputy mayor of Modi'in doesn't mind making a few enemies.
By Charlotte Halle
Gentleman with a mission
On Frederic Warburg, who 'blundered' into the field of publishing and left his imprint on it.
By Michael Handelzalts
Don't assume malice for what stupidity can explain.