Gil

Naming the Crimes

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It’s interesting what people assume.

For those few who regularly read what I write 🙂 you’ll have noticed that I’ve been very careful for years not to refer to members of Hamas, PLO, Hezbollah, etc, as terrorists, especially after Oct 7.

I prefer to name their crimes:
– murder
– kidnapping
– r*pe
– extortion
– theft

I don’t believe that committing these crimes supposedly in the name of some ideology makes the crimes any more significant than ones committed in the name of profit or pleasure. Giving them a special category seems like endowing them with a perverse nobility.

Having watched how people and politicians use the term “terrorist” for decades, it’s become apparent that it’s nothing more than a vague rhetorical device, now mobilized by all sides of many conflicts, and crucially it is utilized by the Israeli and American governments to justify placing someone accused of committing particular crimes, squarely outside of the justice system.

I firmly believe that no one should be outside the justice system, that everyone has the right to a fair trial, and that all criminals should be held accountable in courts of law.

(I derived little satisfaction from the extrajudicial killing of Sinwar, for example. I would much rather he had been tried and faced the law.)

Words matter.

They shape our perception of and relationship to reality.

I don’t think choosing better words replaces the need for further actions to build a better world, but those actions start with the words we choose.

Words Matter

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Words matter.

I try to choose my words carefully:

The IRGC – not Iran.
Hezbollah – not Lebanon.
Hamas – not Gaza.
Criminals – not terrorists.
Autonomy – not sovereignty.
Etcetera…

And because I choose my words carefully, I inhabit a very different world than most other people

Comparing to Nazis

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I am not persuaded that Israeli soldiers are Nazis.

There is so much that separates your average soldier from an actual Nazi, just as there is so much that differentiates the Israeli state’s pointless military occupation of the West Bank and patchwork of anti-Palestinian policies, from the mobilization of an entire civilization for the express enslavement and murder of millions of people based on their ethnicity.

Even the decimation of Gaza – which stands as a permanent stain on our conscience – does not begin to approach, in intent, scope, or method, the orchestrated genocide of an entire population.

The war on Gaza, like most anti-Palestinian things the state of Israel does (and despite the words and actions of a vocal, violent minority that has found its way into the governing coalition and into positions of power over Palestinians), has been typified by an immoral disregard for Palestinian lives and property – not hatred for them or a thirst for their blood.

The difference is crucial when we’re talking about Nazis.

But the act of making the comparison itself – of holding up a mirror and seeing for ourselves if and how closely we start to resemble Nazis – is not only legitimate imho but absolutely necessary, after Auschwitz.

We SHOULD be comparing our soldiers to Nazis and seeing where there might be some similarity in tactics, outcomes, or attitudes.

We SHOULD be comparing our government to the Third Reich and seeing what policies and propaganda they might have in common.

We SHOULD be comparing our leaders to Hitler and seeing if the things they’re saying and the moves they’re making have uncomfortable, unacceptable precedent.

Because after Auschwitz, we can never, ever again let any society go down that dark path.

And the #Holocaust is the most clear benchmark we could ever use for evaluating where a society stands.

Does a country stand only 1% chance of murdering its citizens (or strangers) for the taint of their blood upon its soil?

Barukh Hashem, the disease is present but contained.

But 2% is worse than 1%.

10% is worse than 2%.

Every step along that scale is an inch closer to Auschwitz.

The abyss of the human soul.

The black whole of civilization, exerting an inexorable pull on members of society towards a collective madness born of fear and hate.

No society is totally immune to the lure of Auschwitz, the demonic promise of false justice bought for the price of human lives, of a grand future soaked in strangers’ blood.

And the worse the social conditions, the more wounded the collective and individual spirit, the easier the slide along the slope to Auschwitz becomes.

As human beings – as a species – we must always set Auschwitz before us as a memory, seared into our souls, of where we never wish to return.

We must use that memory as a guide, not just for our collective policies and institutions, but in our own personal thoughts, words, and actions.

And together, we must build the antithesis of Auschwitz – we must plant the Paradise as our answer to its Hell.

Hungary Reminder

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The people of Hungary have given us a breath of fresh air and reminded us all that This Too Shall Pass.

They suffered for over a decade under an incompetent, criminal, failure of a politician, and then they aligned together and kicked him out.

Soon by us.

Hope on a Sunny Day

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I’m hopeful.

Yeah I’m watching the clock waiting for the missiles to start coming again – waiting for the big barrage of remaining missiles, recovered missiles, manufactured missiles, while we sit here like ducks in our unfit shelters and an interceptor stockpile that is nearly all gone – but for the first time in over a month I’m feeling hopeful.

This war may get a lot tougher – the state in its current incarnation may face an existential challenge after years of failed wars and mounting casualties – but Israeli society will survive.

We will endure.

We will rebuild whatever is broken.

We’re not going anywhere.

And if our state crumbles because our politicians failed us and played endless political games for decades, failed us in our hour of dire need –

We will organize a new state.

Maybe some institutions will stay. Maybe some will go. Maybe some will be reworked.

Maybe we’ll create new institutions, that better serve our needs as a society.

Maybe we’ll internalize the lessons that righteous leadership isn’t optional and that the theoretical ends never justify the actual means.

Maybe we’ll write ourselves a constitution that balances rights and responsibilities and protects lawful order and civil society and human freedom all together.

These are a lot of maybes. And I can’t ignore the feeling that I’m staring down the barrel of a gun. But thinking of what this threat actually means, and what it doesn’t, and what can come out of it –

I’m left with a feeling of hope on a sunny day.

The missiles may come.

Our lives may change.

But our society is not so easily uprooted…

May we all be blessed with the gift of peace.

May we all be blessed with a revolution.

Doña Gracia, Mother of Israel

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Went down the rabbit hole today researching alllllll the links in the chain from the expulsion from Spain in 1492 to the establishment of the state of #Israel in 1948.

I won’t go into all the details in this post – this needs to be a book – but here’s the upshot:

This is not a case of someone starting a project that failed and was picked up three centuries later and brought to fruition… This is someone starting something that continued and grew and eventually attained one of its concrete goals.

Doña Gracia Nasi, born into a culture wrestling with the political implications of being a disenfranchised minority and the national alternatives to perpetual exile and instability, literally started modern #Zionism (defined as the organized movement to reestablish Jewish autonomous society in Israel), developed the Galilean communities into a thriving independent society, and built the political, economic, and social networks that coalesced into what became later known as the Old Yishuv.

The communities that she built spread to Jerusalem and Hebron, absorbed waves of Sepharadi and Maghrebi immigrants, and eventually (re)established the northern coastal cities as Jewish centers. It was the Sepharadi and Maghrebi leaders of these communities who helped the incoming Europeans establish what became known as the New Yishuv.

Theodor Herzl definitely contributed to modern Zionism. He established many effective organizations that exist to this day and translated the Zionist project into the European political language of nation-statism in vogue in his day. But Herzl inherited an intellectual apparatus that originates with Sepharadi rabbis wrestling with the expulsion from Spain and he built on a foundation laid and lived by Sepharadi and Maghrebi immigrants and their descendants. Herzl’s efforts were just one phase in the long story of modern Zionism, and he ultimately did not succeed in creating a state.

It took two world wars, the fall of the Ottoman and British empires, and a genocide, before conditions emerged and international support could be garnered for the creation of a fully autonomous Jewish state in Israel.

Which leads us to an intriguing What If:

If Herzl had never been born, but all the international events of the first half of the twentieth century transpired, would we still have a state?

Maybe. The Old Yishuv was a robust, autonomous society, and in the 20th century it could have conceivably transitioned into a state.

But if Doña Gracia had never been born, could Herzl have done what he did? Could a state have later emerged?

I think the answer is, most likely not.

The truth is, modern Zionism starts with Doña Gracia Nasi:

The mother of the state of Israel.

Ask Me About Anything Else

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Don’t ask me about the ceasefire (it’s BS and prepare for the possibility it won’t last). Don’t ask me about the war (it’s BS and prepare for the possibility it will get worse).

Ask me about Rambam and Arizal. Sinai and Zion. Distant worlds and other dimensions.

Ask me about science and philosophy. Physics, biology, geology. Anthropology and psychology. Mathematics and technology. Human history.

Ask me about how to be a modern person, a Jewish person, in a world that won’t stop changing.

Ask me about my dreams of the future.

You can even ask me about work, if you’re interested in business.

But just don’t ask me about the ceasefire or the war.

There are so many better things to talk about.

1492 and Modernity

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Hot Take 🔥🔥🔥 The event that catalyzed the dawn of modernity in general, and of modern Zionism in particular, was the expulsion of the Jewish people from Spain in 1492.

Four Categories of Disagreement

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4 Categories of Disagreement with the Orthodox Street
(Believe it or not the great rabbis of the past actually got most of the following right imho)

A) Issues where the settled law simply does not support the popular post-Talmudic position

B) Issues where applying settled ritual law to modern life is unclear and the popular approach is to be stringent

C) Issues where implementing the settled law in modern times systematically results in comprising someone’s well-being or an affront to their dignity, a desecration of the idea of God especially among gentiles, and/or decreased overall observance of the law individually or communally

D) Issues where I think the settled law itself needs to be updated by a national court, of our wisest and most virtuous judicial scholars, that represents the people and can restore halakha to the living, dynamic system it is supposed to be (this category is currently theoretical and aspirational, “I’ve gotta list of demands, written on the palm of my hand”)

And Rambam has been the guide throughout.

May Hashem protect us in his merit, during this fragile and dangerous time.

Two Roads of Love

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“Love the Lord your God with your entire mind, personality, and capability” is no small thing, yet crucially, the road of this love is meant to be easy.

We are to be lenient and accommodating in matters dealing with God.

God gets nothing from our arduous effort, and if our arduous effort is directed towards the instrument and not the outcome, then we get nothing from it.

“Love your fellow as yourself” is no big thing, yet in truth, the road of this love is meant to challenge us for life.

We are to be strict and demanding in matters dealing with other people.

Every human being is a living ikon of the Divine, in actuality or in potentia – God has no image made of wood, stone, or metal, but one of flesh, blood, and mind. In our holy treatment of other people – in taking an elevated approach to other people – we discover, honor, and further reveal that image, in them and – crucially – in ourselves.

At home, at work, in the street, on the bus.

In Jerusalem, London, Tehran, Beirut, or Bethlehem.

It’s not easy.

It’s not supposed to be.

It’s where the real growth is.

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In truth, the first road is reached via the second. Try relating to a stranger – or someone who annoys you – as a living ikon of the infinite Creator of the entire kosmos, and see what it does for your love of God.