Israel

The state, the society, the war, the present hour.

Purity of Conscience Is Not a Gift

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At the beginning, I supported the war, with many doubts and reservations, because despite the perceived downside, repercussions, and moral quandary, it seemed like the least wrong move to make in a situation that demanded action.

Now, I support the deal, with many doubts and reservations, because despite the perceived downside, repercussions, and moral quandary, it seems like the least wrong move to make in a situation that once again demands action.

Purity of conscience is not a gift of this world order. We have to be willing to make moves when the hour calls for it even if none of them seem ideal, and we have to be willing to change and adapt when the hour calls for it even if we’re not entirely sure of what the change means.

מעשה אבות סימן לבנים

Israel and the Industrial Revolution

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Would the establishment of this state have been possible without the industrial revolution?

The more I think about it, the more the watershed events of recent history that seem most impactful on the application of Talmudic law – including the rise of mass production, electricity usage, and women’s liberation (note the connection there by the way) – seem to trace their origins back to the industrial revolution.

And so the rise of the state itself – could the required resources have been marshalled and coordinated without the modern supporting infrastructure born in the wake of the industrial revolution?

The Shabbat Linecook

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A Jewish person is employed as a linecook in a restaurant and cooks an omelette on Shabbath for a customer.

Can any leftovers from the omelette (let’s say they made a double portion accidentally) be eaten by other people after Shabbath? Is any food that cook makes afterwards categorically prohibited?

Even when the cook is engaged in direct melakha, it’s unlikely they’re doing so with full and flagrant intent to transgress the law. Here in Israel, unless you know for sure the cook (or essential participant in cooking) is דתל”ש, the probable assumption is that they are אנוס or תנוק שנשבה in some way (like most “Hiloni” Israelis), partially educated here and there (and trustworthy in factual matters to which they can attest, like whether the meat they serve has a hekhsher or whether it was cooked with any dairy ingredients or in a recently used dairy pot) but ultimately denying them full legal culpability for their transgression. They don’t have sufficient knowledge to transgress במזיד and certainly not בפרהסיה.

These are important factors imho.

There is an implicit assumption behind denying restaurants certification for opening and serving customers on Shabbath: it’s that any Jewish person who transgresses the Shabbath must be doing so with full knowledge and awareness of their transgression and with full intent to transgress, and so therefore must be “prosecuted” (or at least judged unfavorably) to the full extent of the law.

Does this assumption match reality? No, I don’t think so.

Does this assumption reflect a healthy attitude towards one’s fellow Jewish people? No, I don’t think it does.

I’m not here to tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t eat. But I think this din requires public clarification.

A Religious Reform Bill for Israel

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Since the politicians in the governing coalition are so concerned with reform, I think the rest of the Kenesset should propose a Religious Reform Bill (including common-sense updates to the Draft Law!) :

1) Cease bureaucratically empowering the Rabbanut in the areas of Jewish identity, family life, and diet; legally recognize Israeli citizens’ freedom of association in these areas
2) Withhold the Rabbanut’s funding until it reorganizes as a free, open institution of higher rabbinic education, that does not discriminate against any Israeli citizen (under penalty of losing its government funding, including for the chief rabbi offices)
3) Form committees (in partnership with the rabbinic departments of state universities Hebrew U and Bar Ilan) to create a) an independent professional standard and regulating body for municipal rabbinic appointments and b) a series of standardized tests to evaluate yeshiba students receiving government benefits
4) Make eligibility for municipal (and higher) rabbinic appointments conditional on completing national service
5) Make yeshiba students’ exemption from military service conditional on achieving passing scores on standardized tests
6) Make government stipends to yeshiba students conditional on achieving distinguished scores on standardized tests

I Resolved to Learn More Torah

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As I stood this morning, looking at the posters of hostages taped to the bus stop over a year into this miserable war with no rescue or exit in sight, I got so fed up with this criminally incompetent government of self-serving career politicians playing October 6th political games as usual while the country staggers from the economic, social, psychological, moral cost of the war, that I resolved to learn more Torah and do more מצוות.

I may have no direct control over the socio-political forces in my life but I can always choose to build a radically better alternative to this mess of a world we’re caught up in.

(And to vote for moderately better alternatives to the incompetent criminals in office.)

(And to keep reminding you my friends that now is the best time for elections.)

Hannukka in Captivity

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If the status quo continues, Hannukka will be the first of a new cycle of holidays which the hostages have now fully completed in the miserable captivity of Hamasniks, other militants, and crime families.

Hannukka was their first holiday spent in captivity – may it also be their last.

Scratch that. May it be their first holiday spent in newfound freedom, celebrating with the rest of their families.

You Can Run to Russia

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You can run to Russia… But you can’t hide.

May Assad face justice soon.

Meanwhile,

Congratulations to all the rebel factions, religious and secular, and especially to the Kurds, who have been kicking regime @$$ for years and aren’t getting any kudos now for some reason. 🧐

They’ve been dreaming of this moment for years. Many of us have. Assad was a cruel dictator who disregarded human rights with impunity, and as a loyal puppet of the Ruso-Iranian axis who was no friend of liberal democracy in general and of Israel in particular. It is a good thing that he is gone.

But he is gone and now the assorted members of the resistance in Syria all have to come together and fill the vacuum that Assad left behind him. Preferably with something that isn’t equally as terrible as the Assad regime. Even more preferably, with something that can rebuild Syria into a strong, liberal ally – and not another hot or cold war enemy – of Israel, their anxious neighbors of old sitting just south.

In the meantime, we’re watching what unfolds and praying for righteous – good – people to win out, seize the day, and lead Syria out of the civil war that has ravaged it, towards the brighter future Syrians (along with everyone else in the Levant) deserve.

“In that day, Israel shall be a third partner with Egypt and Assyria as a blessing on earth.”

Here’s to hoping.

May It Be Permanent

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It’s been a day. The ceasefire got off to a rocky start but looks like it’s holding.

May it be permanent.

May it spread.

May it give us a moment’s rest to catch up with our thoughts and our emotions.

May we seize the moment and bring in a new governing coalition. May we seize the opportunity and investigate everyone and everything responsible for Oct 7 and the year that followed. May we seize the hour and make the changes that need to be made, holding accountable those who need to be held accountable.

May we confront the Ruso-Iranian axis that seeks our destruction, with the help of the Highest and the Torah we were given. Not with strength, not with might, but with the spirit of the Lord.

May we prosper in peace and may we rebuild – ourselves, our land, and the homes we have destroyed in this war.

May this all be a sign of better days coming.

3,663 Years Indigenous

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The Samaritans, the once numerous descendants of Ephraim and Menashe, evolved from our ancient Israelite ancestral society and culture in parallel with the Judeans, the descendants of Yehuda now known worldwide as the Jewish people.

They have siphré Torah (written in the old Hebrew script), they scrupulously observe the mitswoth of the Torah as they understand them, and they have their own rich traditions of Hebrew prophecy, philosophy, and messianism.

At times we descendants of Yehuda, Ephraim, and Menashe have been natural allies and brothers in the covenant of Israel; at times we have ruthlessly fought each other in bloody civil wars that needlessly wasted countless lives and desecrated the name of the God of Israel.

Today the Samaritans live as a tiny community mostly within the state of Israel, straddling Israeli and Palestinian neighborhoods in Shekhem and Holon. They serve in the same national service as their fellow (Jewish) Israelis, grow up with the same Israeli culture, and despite the differences in our traditions and even versions of history, warmly seek our mutual peace.

Nice people, really.

But here’s something else about the Samaritans:

As children of Yisrael who were never fully exiled from the land, they count the years in terms of the start of the settlement of the nation of Yisrael in the land of Kena’an. The start of Hebrew civilization in its ancestral habitat. Year in, year out, the Samaritans have never lost track of this monumental event.

And no, their calendar didn’t start 76 years ago – this year marks 3,663 years since the nation of Israel entered the land.

Three thousand
Six hundred
And
Sixty three
Years

I believe the word you’re looking for is “indigenous”…

Foreign Arrest Warrants Are Superfluous

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Foreign arrest warrants are superfluous.

We are still a functioning, lawful democracy.

We will hold our current leaders accountable in our next elections and – when we finally launch and then complete the requisite comprehensive legal investigations – we will hold any individuals guilty of committing any war crimes, accountable in our courts of law.

To my mind, that is the outcome we should all be seeking, regardless of where we live, regardless of whom we feel is best suited to replace the current political cohort.