Chasing Our Tail - Pesach
Picture this scenario.
Using the negotiations with Iran in Rome as a diversion, the US and Israel launched a combined airstrike on May 17th decimating all Iranian nuclear facilities and setting Iranian oil fields ablaze. At the same time, top Iranian leaders were eliminated by targeted drone strikes emanating from Azerbaijan. The emboldened Iranian people take to the streets and a week later the Ayatollah regime topples.
President Donald Trump threatens to cut all economic and military ties with Qatar. As a result, Qatari leader Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani forces Hamas to release all remaining hostages, lay down its arms and relocate the entire population of Gaza to Qatar by 30th June 2025.
Following unanimous American and European demands on the new Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, all Hezbollah positions in parliament are disbanded. The Lebanese army confiscates all Hezbollah military equipment and armaments, declaring the area between the Israel border and the Litani River a buffer/kill zone devoid of military or civilian presence.
After arresting his political rival Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, millions of Turks flock to the streets in protest, forcing president Erdogan to resign. In an unprecedented snap election, İmamoğlu becomes the new president of Turkey. His first presidential act is to sever all ties with Syrian rebels led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani and he pledges total non-involvement in Syria.
Following the fall of the Iranian regime, the American supported Yemeni PLC launches a surprise attack on the much-weakened Houthis and devastate their army in the north and the west. Yemen is now totally under PLC control.
Saudi Arabia signs a historical peace agreement with Israel, joining the Abraham Accords and relinquishing all prior demands for Israel to facilitate the establishment of a Palestinian state. Israel annexes all of Judea and Samaria.
Seeing their dream crumble before their eyes, over 80% of the Arab population of Yehuda and Shomron emigrate to Europe, Canada and the Arab Gulf states.
In return for an American-promised major share in the to-be-developed "free Gaza industrial zone", Egypt withdraws all its armed forces from the Sinai Peninsula.
Israel enjoys an era of prosperity and security, unprecedented since the establishment of the state.
The above scenario is not total fantasy, it has a high probability of becoming reality.
What I would like to discuss is not the above, but what happens after all of the above.
Picture this other scenario.
After his unprecedented success in the global arena, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu wins a landslide victory in the one-year-early elections. His new government comprises an unprecedented majority of 80 seats in the Knesset.
The new government resumes legislation of the judicial reform, resulting in a return to streets of hundreds of thousands of left-wing protesters. The economic sector, the medical sector, academia, reservists in the air force and army, shut the country down.
The high court, on the request of the government legal advisor Gali Baharav-Miara, issues an impeachment order against prime minister Netanyahu and his government. Following this and a failed assassination attempt on Netanyahu, hundreds of thousands of right-wing protesters throng to the streets in support of the government.
Civil war erupts with violent protests in the streets, accompanied by the police, army and secret service who are fractured between the various factions, resulting in tens of thousands dead.
Does that sound like fantasy? Not totally.
We Jews are famous for our lack of strategic planning. The State of Israel has never seriously invested in long term planning. Ask my wife, a town planner by profession, how urban planning is done (or actually not done) in Israel. Israel is adept at tactical planning, short term planning, living by the seat of their pants, the spur of the moment, improvisation.
I do not believe that there is one of us who would not like the first scenario to become reality. However, unless we give serious thought to the "day after" - what happens after we vanquish our outside enemies - we will find ourselves back at the stage we were on the 6th of October 2023, this time on steroids.
It is not so difficult to understand why such a reality has emerged. We are a poor country with a limited budget and not enough "pie" to go around in the education, health, social, environmental and military sectors. We rely heavily on outside cash flow for our defense institutions, hospitals, academic institutions, cultural institutions and religious institutions. One of the most thriving industries in Israel is the manufacture of donor plaques.
Israel is also located in a very "bad neighborhood" that is extremely fluid and dynamic, with new security and military threats developing at a moment's notice. In such a precarious reality it is difficult to plan for the long term.
Despite already having our own sovereign state for almost 77 years, we still have not managed to shed the after effects of almost 2000 years of exile and persecution. Our mindset has not yet reverted to that of a nation. It remains a mindset of factions, each struggling to survive, no longer separated geographically (as it was over 100 years ago), but by ideology.
What will be the difference between the reality that existed on October 6th 2023 and the reality that will exist if the first scenario above transpires? Not much. Both situations reflect a reality of tranquil prosperity. The only real difference between them, is that on October 6th 2023 the sense of tranquility and prosperity were imagined/perceived and if the above scenario comes to pass, they will be real.
Prior to October 6th 2023 Israel was living in an imagined/perceived state of prosperity and tranquility. The quality of life and standard of living in modern Israel was pretty good. We could travel to most places in the world freely, with little fear of antisemitism. To be sure we had security threats, periodic terrorist attacks and launchings of second-rate projectiles from Gaza. However, we had come to terms with them and we could "live" with them, thinking they were "contained". They were mild bothers at best.
In this perceived sense of prosperity/tranquility, where were our attentions focused? They were focused on fighting amongst ourselves.
Unfortunately, our nation has an inherent self-destruct mechanism called וַיִּשְׁמַן יְשֻׁרוּן וַיִּבְעָט, which means that peace and tranquility (perceived or real) have the potential to bring out the worst in us.
October 7th 2023 was a turning point that shattered our perceived sense of prosperity/tranquility and exposed how fragile our existence really is and how many enemies we have, domestic and non-domestic.
When the true reality of prosperity/tranquility that we all hope for will come to pass (hopefully besiyata di'Shamaya in the next months), unless we alter our mindset, we will return to the same self-defeating pattern that existed prior to October 7th 2023. Unless we invest energy in strategic planning for what our nation will look like after the war, we will have accomplished nothing by winning the war.
The Jewish People are currently locked in a conflict, not between left and right wing, not between religious and secular, but between world philosophies – the philosophy of the individual and the philosophy of the collective.
The first faction is solely focused on the individual rights of him/her/"they" (Rachmana litzlan). This faction is single in its purpose to ensure the rights of the individual in preference and precedence to all else. According to this philosophy, by focusing on and improving the reality of the individual, this will lead to a better society as a whole. This is the philosophy of the liberal, progressive, "woke" movement that has relatively recently dominated Western culture and has infiltrated Israeli society, in our courts, military, academia and economic sector.
The second faction is solely focused on collective, national values such as faith, family, responsibility of the individual to the collective. This faction is similarly single in its purpose to ensure the rights of the collective in precedence and preference to individual rights. According to this philosophy, by focusing on and improving the reality of society, this will filter down and improve the reality of the individual as well. This is the philosophy of the conservative, nationalist movement that permeates the religious and right-wing sectors in Israel society.
Essentially, both philosophies share noble ideas and goals – a better reality for the individual and for society. They differ though in methodology - the first is "bottom-up", while the second is "top-down".
Where both philosophies fail is the misguided belief that their philosophy alone can achieve the desired goals. The only way to achieve a better reality for both the individual and the collective is a balanced combination of the two philosophies.
With only individual values and rights you create a society of egocentric individuals, each going off on their own tangent, most often at cross purposes, each competing with one another. In such a society, individuals are each other's enemy.
With only collective values and rights, you create a society where the individual does not exist, is disposable and has no voice. In such a collective there is no self-expression, no ambition and no liability. It is a society that fosters abuse.
The Torah model of society is a balanced combination of the two, where the individual has a place (each individual is a world on their own) and also the society has a place (each individual is responsible for all the other individuals).
If Israeli society followed the Torah model of societal balance, you would have a government that furthers the agenda of its voters who democratically elected it, but at the same time respects the rights of those who did not vote for it - by legislating in a way that does not upset the balance between the two philosophies.
You would have a judicial system that protects both the individual and the society in equal measure. You would have a civil service that is subservient to the government. You would have a balance between the judicial and executive bodies with checks and balances on both sides.
During our almost 2000 years of persecution and exile we have incurred trauma that even 77 years of renewed statehood have not yet managed to heal. We have become polluted by other cultures and philosophies that are foreign to our own intrinsic culture and philosophy.
We are currently in the midst of the process of reacquiring our essence as a nation. To do so is not painless. It requires letting go of many things that we have so come to covet and enjoy – power, control, status, luxuries, preconceptions, dreams, aspirations etc. Relinquishing such things takes courage and faith.
We have unfortunately become like so many other nations, but we are unlike any other nation. It is not acceptable for the Nation of Israel to only aspire to achieve a safe haven from persecution and to live our lives in selfish tranquility like many other nations do. We have a responsibility to the rest of the world to do more than that, to serve as a moral compass for the rest of the world. The only way we can achieve that is by reacquiring our own moral compass and returning to our authentic roots as a nation.
In order to enable the Torah model of society to work, the prerequisites are tolerance and respect. In the absence of these the system fails.
The secret to restoring balance is to be found in the Pesach seder, where all the four sons are seated at the same table. They are present – that is the first prerequisite. They are also cognizant and respectful of the others' presence. That is the second. They are mediated by a responsible adult who knows how to interact with each in their own way.
The factions in our nation need to be able to sit together at the same table. The leaders on all sides need to be responsible adults who can interact with their "sons" appropriately, restrain them when necessary and encourage them to share mutual responsibility for one another.
We can learn this all the easy way, willingly, by taking the initiative and thus "fast track" the happy end (אֲחִישֶׁנָּה). Alternatively, we can learn this the hard way (וַיִּבְעָט), through unnecessary suffering, which will eventually lead to the same inexorable happy end (בְּעִתָּהּ).
The first scenario discussed at the beginning of this shiur is happening as we speak. Now is the time to start the strategic planning for what happens after it.
If we do not, we will be chasing our own tail and dooming ourselves and our children to unnecessary suffering and pain.
