The political tensions of recent months, while centering on the coalition’s judicial reforms, are actually an expression of a much deeper question in Israeli society.
What does it mean to be a “Jewish” state?
Underlying the protests in defense of “democracy” is a deeply held belief that if the nature of the Jewish state is determined by the Ḥaredi and national-religious politicians, Israel’s moral quality will dissipate.
They believe that the Medinat Halakha (state guided by Torah law) which these politicians advocate will become the “Jewish Iran” – an authoritarian theocracy where personal freedoms are trounced by zealous clerics.
While Rav Shmuel Eliyahu and other notable spiritual leaders have been leading efforts to change these perceptions through face to face meetings between central organizers of the protest movement and leading national-religious rabbis, other scholars insist that the problem is far deeper than external misconceptions.
Last Sunday, Rav Yosef Kalner called for the national-religious community to engage in a real process of introspection and repentance over their political rhetoric – insisting on a turn from advocating for a halakhic state to advocating for a prophetic state.
Rav Kalner argued that by broadening the scope of our national culture from the “four cubits of halakha” to the moral depth and breadth of how our prophets envisioned Israeli society and all of humanity, we would be able to advance an authentic Jewish culture that even the most adamantly westernized Israelis couldn’t help but admire.
This prophetic state, according to Rav Kalner, could have the power to manifest a moral clarity that has been absent in Israeli politics since the state’s establishment, and could bridge the widening gaps between the various sectors of Israeli society.
As soon as the national-religious camp clarifies its own values, and learns how to express prophetic vision in practical political language, the national perception of a “Jewish state” would become radically different.
This introspection and internal growth is actually more demanding than building dialogue, and is far less likely to make waves in the press or on social media. But it also has the potential to be far more rewarding in the long run. And such a clarification in regards to the true meaning of a “Jewish state” is so necessary precisely because so little work has been done on the subject until now.
While the past few years have seen the rise of various right-wing think tanks, media outlets, and printing houses aimed at combating the cultural hegemony of the Liberal Zionist camp, one thing has been starkly lacking from all of their work. They claim to be the vanguard in the “culture war” gripping Israeli society, but they have yet to present a clear vision of the culture for which they’re fighting. Negation without action, defense without offense, doesn’t win wars.
The problem is that all of these institutions appear to be pushing not an authentic Jewish vision or culture but rather a Hebrew language version of Western conservative political values.
To grow and build an Israeli culture worth fighting for, as a basis for the prophetic state that Israel has the potential to be, we must turn to the ideological lens of our prophets and to the historiography of our sages.
By making ourselves their students, we can acquire the tools to turn the Israeli state into a manifestation of the visions of our most cherished ancestors.
With such a vision for the future of the state, much of the “cultural war” within Israeli society will simply dissipate as it becomes clear that the majority of the nation is not pushing towards a halakhic state – a “Jewish Iran” – but rather a state that, as Israel’s Declaration of Independence proclaims, “will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel,” more compellingly and more successfully than any bourgeois “democratic” state that has yet existed in human history.
After such work, political debates can truly be “for the sake of heaven” as different sectors of Israeli society argue for different practical applications of the same common vision, rather than talking past each other with concepts foreign to our national soul. Then, and only then, can we fulfill our national destiny and lead humanity towards true democracy, true justice, true freedom, and true unity.
