Like Jews everywhere in Israel and around the world, I am still processing what happened. So please bear with me.
There is an idea in Religious Zionism that while there were two exiles in the past, there will never be a third. The basic premise of the idea is that this third return home to Eretz Yisrael, as embodied in the State of Israel, is in fact the final redemption and, as such, we are guaranteed that this time we are here for good.
I never bought into this idea. First, the textual evidence does not back up the claim; second, we have no concrete idea of “how it works”; third, it goes against everything we have been taught in Judaism for millennia.
Ever since the destruction of the First Temple, 2,600 years ago, we, the Jewish people, have taken the collective blame. When the sages asked why the Temples were destroyed, no one answered with an analysis of the relative strengths of the Babylonian and Roman armies vs the Jewish ones. The rabbis never discussed military strategies or tactics. They stood up and said that the reason the First Temple was destroyed was moral sins, and the Second Temple was destroyed because of senseless hatred Jews had for one another.
Avoiding a third exile
During the time since the last exile, we sat on the floor every Tisha Be’av mourning those destructions and owning up to our responsibilities and guilt. Our liturgy reminded us through the exile that “because of our sins we were exiled from our land.” Ever since then, it has been drilled into us that our ability to hold onto this land is connected to our moral actions, and that is still true today. And having internalized these lessons, I dare say that we absolutely positively do not deserve to lose the state we have now.
What happened on October 7 poses an existential threat to Israel. For decades, our ability to exist in this neighborhood was based on our position as a military superpower with an all-knowing intelligence agency. Both of those ideas were shattered that Shabbat. The peace agreements we made with our neighbors were based on the realization that Israel is here to stay and a permanent part of the region. The attack has put that in doubt.
So now we must fight – not just against Hamas but for our very existence. We have learned that we cannot live next to monsters who threaten to annihilate us and continue to go about our business. There is no placation nor appeasement. There can be no agreement with them. You do not negotiate with Nazis, you bring them to their knees. We must destroy the threat in Gaza and in the North. If Israel is not a place that can make its citizens feel safe in all of its borders, then Israel will not exist.
This war was not chosen by us but was thrust upon us. We have no choice but to wipe out these threats so that Israel can live in peace. As Winston Churchill said about another monster whose ghost we thought was gone, “Without victory, there can be no survival!”
I, TOO, am scared. I, too, am traumatized. I, too, have lost people whom I care about. What happened upended almost everything I believed about Israel’s military capabilities. But it also confirmed everything I believed about Israel’s citizens. We are amazing!
Israel called up 360,000 reservists, and over 120% of those called up came. The outpouring of simple kindness of hundreds of thousands of people opening their homes to strangers, cooking incredible meals, and creating care packages is unbelievable. We have come to the collective understanding that what divided us in the past is nothing compared to what unites us now. There is no longer Left or Right; there are just Jews, Jews in all their colors and varieties. All of us are brothers and sisters.
But it isn’t just the last two weeks; this has been going on for the last 75 years. Since its founding, Israel has created for itself and the world an example of a just society. Sure, we have our faults, and there is much to improve, but what we built here is a country that is filled with hessed (loving-kindness).
We took in Jews from all over the world. They came dressed in rags from the DP camps of Europe and hijabs from Yemen. They came illiterate and with PhDs, penniless and with wealth. They came because they were Jews, and they were welcomed as such. We built homes and towns for them and gave them all free healthcare and education. We taught them Hebrew and gave them the right to vote in one of the most vibrant democracies in the world. We built a society that takes care of the weakest among us and promotes the welfare of all our citizens.
We built some of the world’s finest yeshivot and universities, start-ups, museums, and theater groups. And it was all so beautiful. I have spent the last 30 years walking the streets of Israel as though I was a dreamer, still amazed at all that we have and all that we accomplished.
Watching Channel 12 the past couple of weeks, I couldn’t help but think how amazing it is that one of their top commentators is someone who was severely disfigured during the Yom Kippur War and another veteran journalist, Moshe Nussbaum, recently diagnosed with ALS, is still featured interviewing people as he slowly slurs his words. The daughter of a friend of mine is a talented solder in the IDF who helps autistic soldiers contribute in the best ways they can. We are going to win this war, not because we have better soldiers with muscles and six-packs but because we are a better society which includes soldiers with Down syndrome.
We really are the sons and daughters of light, fighting the evil monsters of darkness. And we will win, not just because we are stronger but because we really are the good guys. For the last 2,000 years we have taught that it was not by the merit of our strength but by the strength of our merit that we survive. Never before has this been more true.
The State of Israel is greater than any Jewish kingdom in the past. They may have had the Temple, but we have the National Insurance Institute, the greatest social welfare program the Jewish people ever had. They may have brought animal sacrifices to God, but we sacrifice half our salaries to high taxes to fund the sick and needy. They may have had a king, but we have a real democracy. They may have had people studying Torah, but their numbers were paltry and cannot compare to the numbers of Jews we have sitting and learning Torah today, and all of it funded by our tax dollars.
More Jews put on tefillin, pray in a synagogue, go to the mikveh today in Israel than ever before in Jewish history. More cycles of the Talmud have been completed by more varieties and flavors of Jews than ever before in Jewish history.
And while we have no promise barring a third exile, we will not leave here again. As we all heard President Joe Biden quote Golda, “We have a secret weapon here in Israel; we have nowhere else to go!”
The writer holds a doctorate in Jewish philosophy and teaches in post-high-school yeshivot and midrashot in Jerusalem.