In This Moment: A Rabbi's Notebook
Last Friday, the most destructive Israeli Knesset in history dissolved itself and started the clock ticking toward the country’s most fateful elections, on Oct. 27. It went out with a bang, passing legislation that would weaken the rule of law and independence of the attorney general, expand gender segregation in higher education, subvert press freedoms; and a “Basic Law” that would enshrine Torah study as a fundamental value, which would open the door to allowing ultra-Orthodox (Haredim) to continue to escape military service and avoid punishment for doing so.
The quasi-constitutional law, sponsored by United Torah Judaism and Shas, includes just one clause: “Torah study is a foundational value in the heritage of the Jewish people and in the State of Israel.”
While the intent of the framers of this law is to establish the study of ancient texts as direct replacement for military service, asserting that Torah students protect the country spiritually as much as actual soldiers do militarily, the wording is vague enough as to invite other interpretations.
One is that the actions of the military should abide by the Torah’s well-developed principles of purity of arms, especially in regard to the Laws of Warfare, where safeguarding peace is a priority and the enemy should not be dehumanized.1
And another is that the State of Israel should be guided by the study of its biblically-based principles of its Declaration of Independence, a soaring vision sorely lacking follow-up in the form of a constitution. The declaration’s key paragraph states:
There’s no way the non-Zionist Haredim who drummed up this law were thinking about the prophets of Israel when they devised this scheme to circumvent Supreme Court rulings (they were just thinking of how to keep their kids out of the army and out of jail) but David Ben Gurion’s vision of Israel as a “light unto the nations,” had Isaiah’s phraseology precisely in mind:
“I the LORD have called unto you in righteousness, and have taken hold of your hand, and submitted you as the people’s covenant, as a light unto the nations” Isaiah 42:6.
“Yea, He saith, ‘It is too light a thing for you to be My servant, to establish the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the scions of Israel, and I shall submit you as a light unto the nations, to be My salvation until the end of the earth’ Isaiah 49:6.
“And unto your light, nations shall walk, and kings unto the brightness of your rising” Isaiah 60:3.
Netanyahu himself has used that phrase. But it flies in the face of the isolated, garrisoned Sparta he is now promoting, as well as the discriminatory ethno-state Israel’s fiercest critics deride - which, given another term in power led by a government this extreme, it could well become. An Israel that returns to its biblical roots - but in the right way - could turn a crucial corner in recapturing its founders’ original vision and along with it, the support and admiration of so many newly minted critics whom its current leaders have shunted aside.2
Here are some other observations about this new law:
At the time of Israel’s establishment, the largely secular leadership made a grand bargain with the largely non-Zionist Haredim, exempting them from compulsory military service and granting subsidies that have gotten out of control as their numbers have grown exponentially. Attempts have been made to bring Haredim into national service, but because these parties have often held the balance of power, little has changed.
But now, things have changed. At a time when Israel’s citizen-military is depleted and their reserves demoralized and exhausted, the need for help from the Ultra-Orthodox sector has never been greater, and the resentment of the vast majority of the Israeli electorate toward the Haredim has also never been greater. Prime Minister Netanyahu, already trailing in the polls, seems to be committing political malpractice in supporting this new Basic Law. Commentators suggest that he is playing the long game, keeping the Haredim in his back pocket for a time when his opposition becomes more vulnerable. But right now this is the issue that likely will bring down the right-wing government, and Netanyahu just made matters worse for his coalition’s chances.
Remember that the Haredim are not pacifists or conscientious objectors. These parties, though they officially oppose the existence of the state, have been gung-ho supporters of Netanyahu’s military misadventures (along with Israel’s much more justifiable responses in self-defense following October 7). They just don’t want to fight in these wars, preferring to “fight” for Israel’s cause from behind a folio of Talmud in a dusty yeshiva.
So with this new Basic Law exacerbating tensions that are already ripping apart Israeli society, opposition parties, who are not as tone-deaf as Netanyahu, are looking to present ways that Haredim can contribute their fair share. Varying forms of national service are being discussed, in particular by former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, the un-Bibi, so lacking in charisma, smugness and English fluency that he appears refreshingly authentic - in a Yitzchak Rabin kind of way - has posited a national service plan that might also incorporate Palestinian citizens of Israel, so that they might also have a place in Israel’s next government.
That kind of plan could be a game changer that, along with quick shifts in other areas, could begin to reverse the dramatic decline in Israel’s standing in the US and around the world.
Not merely the act of study
Let me add one additional observation about the new Basic Law. Torah study is a foundational value of Judaism. But not merely the act of study. The content of Torah, the values and principles espoused, these are what’s most essential.
In the Talmud (Mishna Pe’ah 1:1) there is a famous passage that is recited every morning in the traditional liturgy. It mentions various commandments (mitzvot) that are very important, like honoring parents, being hospitable, attending the dead and forging peace between neighbors - and between partners. But as the rabbis stated, “Talmud Torah K’negged Kulam,” “The study of Torah equals them all,” meaning if you put all other commandments together on one side of the scale, the study of Torah alone on the other side will balance them. One commentator suggests that is not just because Torah study is in itself that important, but because that one activity will lead to the performance of all the mitzvot on the other side of the scale.
That’s how I would interpret this new law.
Those very parties that claim to sanctify Torah study are the very ones that abuse their neighbors, both Jewish and Palestinian, and they are the ones who glorify military might as opposed to peace. They are the very ones who prefer Sparta to Athens, and Rome to Jerusalem.
If you’re going to take Torah study seriously, you’ll learn quickly that Torah Judaism has no core principle greater than peace.3 We read it in scripture ("Seek peace, and pursue it" - Psalm 34:14), in commentary (“The world is sustained by three pillars: truth, justice, and peace” - Pirkei Avot 1:18, and over and over in our liturgy, in prayers like the Amida and Kaddish. The Talmud enshrines it: "The whole Torah is for the sake of peace" - Gittin 59b and in his Code of Jewish Law, Maimonides makes it the closest thing Judaism has to a Basic Law:
Below I’ve included a chart of the Shabbat Eve service. These prayers, more or less, are chanted in this order in synagogues all over the world, spanning the denominational spectrum. Orthodox, progressive, secular-humanistic, pro and anti-Zionist, Yiddishists, Bundists, Kahanists, Kvetchers, you name it. And in all different musical styles: davenning4 acapella, with organ, keyboard, drum or dulcimer. These are the prayers Jews recite to welcome Shabbat - the ones that have been recited for many centuries. Check out the themes:
Circle the most significant, recurring themes, words like remembering, unity, oneness, love, hope, gratitude, blessing and above all, peace, which is repeated five times.
THESE are the foundational values of Torah. THESE are the values that Judaism has always espoused - and will continue to. These are the values that must guide a Jewish state if it is truly to remain Jewish and live up to the principles of Israel’s Declaration of Independence.
Nowhere in this liturgy do you see a prayer for genocide or apartheid, a prayer for indiscriminate murder or slander or gender segregation or curtailing press freedom or carpet-bombing entire neighborhoods.
And when the prayers are over, the last words uttered as people get up to leave are “Shabbat Shalom” - Sabbath Peace. By the end of Shabbat, Jews have uttered the word “peace” so many times (the over/under is 50) that they can’t possibly forget its centrality, not only to our faith, but to our very humanity. And that’s as true in Israel as anywhere else, in fact more true, because there people say “Shabbat shalom” to everyone they pass on the street while coming home from reciting all those prayers about - you guessed it - shalom.
Raised on songs of peace
For hundreds of years, and especially since the advent of Zionism and Israel, Jewish children have been raised on songs of peace. They’ve yearned for nothing but peace. Check out any Israeli kindergarten and look for songs extolling the sugar highs of territorial conquest, discrimination, mass murder and ethnic cleansing. Building up the land, yes, but not seizing it from neighbors. I know Palestinians yearn for peace too, though I cannot say that peace is a prime theme of the Hamas musical oeuvre and suspect Iranian school kids haven’t grown up singing songs of peace with their Jewish neighbors. But Israel kids and still do - though sadly not as much, and I know there are now exceptions to my claim. But these are the values that have sustained Judaism and the Jewish people for centuries and will into the future.
No wonder peace - SHALOM - is the first Hebrew word most people learn. It appears 350 times in the Hebrew Bible (including derivatives). The word’s root denotes wholeness and it is aspirational of shelemut, perfection and in Jewish tradition, it is the very opposite of - and superior to - war. Shalom is said to be God’s very name.5
Netanyahu might be aiming to become the ruler of Sparta and Rome, but Torah says “Whoa, there.” Maybe the new Basic Law can serve as a reminder to him and his cynical, militaristic, barbaric political allies in the Knesset and White House that Israelis used to sing songs of peace even as their leaders were being assassinated and the blood covered the lyrics. Even in their darkest hours, they never gave up singing and yearning for peace.6
This week Jews commemorate the 9th of Av, a fast day marking the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and the Romans in the year 70. A well-known Jewish legend speaks of the founder of the first rabbinic academy, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai, escaping the besieged Jerusalem and pleading for mercy from the Roman general Vespasian, offering to give up fighting in favor of study. Many considered him a traitor to the Zealot cause, but he ended up saving Judaism, even as the temple was burning.7
Ayala Deckel writes of Yochanan Ben Zakkai’s impact on Israel’s narrative:
Generations of Israelis have been raised on the story of Masada, which tells of how the rebels resisted to the last drop of blood, and preferred to take their own lives rather than surrender. But even as these zealots and extremists were taking drastic action which would be mythologized for centuries, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai and his students were sitting in Yavneh and studying. They chose a different option, one which exalts moderation and the ability to find solutions, even in the midst of an existential conflict.
Sure, I’d have preferred that the Knesset not enact this Basic Law. But I do believe it could mark the moment when the pendulum began to swing back toward Isaiah’s and Ben Gurion’s majestic, hopeful view of a nation guided by its prophetic ideals.
For Israel - and the world - we had best hope that’s the case.
See my summary of the Torah commandment “Thou shalt not murder.” Including these two commentaries:
Two Words of Warning before Every Battle
We must teach our soldiers to remember two sources when they go out to fight our enemies:
- When Jacob heard that Esau was coming, it says: “And Jacob was greatly frightened and distressed” (Genesis 32:8) and the midrash explains: “frightened – lest he be killed; and distressed – lest he kill” (Genesis Rabbah 76:2; cf. Ginzey Schechter, vol. 1, p. 60 and Rashi on the verse).
- When Israel left Egypt “the angels wanted to sing. Said God: “My handiwork [=the Egyptians] are drowning in the sea -- and you are singing?!” (Megillah 10b).
Some hear Congressman Ro Khana’s piercing criticism of his recent experience in the West Bank as indicating that American support is lost, especially on the left, but I hear it as a signal that Israel now has an opportunity to prove her harshest critics wrong - and that begins at the ballot box this fall.
Peace is the highest Torah value:
Davvening - to pray with the congregation and individually at the same time.
Shalom is God’s name:
Prime Minister Rabin sang that popular song of peace, “Shir L’Shalom,” just before he was killed on November 4, 1995, and at his funeral, his speechwriter, Eitan Haber, read from Rabin’s bloodstained copy of the lyrics:
See this from the National Jewish Library
Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai’s Choice: Jerusalem or the Jewish People?
Shortly before the destruction of the Second Temple, with Jerusalem under siege by the Romans, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai made a very difficult decision, leaving his beloved and holy city behind to its fate. Feeling he could not save it, he decided to try something different in an attempt to keep the Jewish People alive.
Ayala Deckel | 08.08.24
At the end of the Second Temple era, with Jerusalem besieged by the Roman army, the wealthy of the city donated all the food in their warehouses to the public. In doing so, they hoped the Jews of the city would have what they needed to survive the siege.
The Jewish zealots had other plans, and they set fire to the stocks of food. Comfort and convenience do not maintain the spark of rebellion, and so they needed to be snuffed out. The rebels were seeking hunger, anger, rage. These are the things that nourish rebellion.
As hunger began to increase, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai, a leader of the moderate camp, summoned the leader of the zealots, Abba Sikra, to try and find a solution. The Gemara explains that this happened privately. No-one knew about the meeting but the two of them.
Abba Sikra (or Sikkara) is the name the Jewish sages attached to one of the leaders of the rebellion, who was named Ben Batich (or Batiach). This mysterious person was likely linked to the sect known as the Sicarii. The Gemara tells of his large and exceptionally imposing figure and how his fist was the size of an average man’s head.
The Sicarii were a sect of zealots who fought the Romans and who are primarily famous for their role in the last stand of Jewish rebels at the desert fortress of Masada, where many of them eventually committed suicide.
But Abba Sikra was also a blood relative of Yochanan Ben Zakkai – he was the son of the Rabbi’s sister. Thus did two members of the same family find themselves leading opposite sides in the bitter divide which had torn the Jewish People apart during an existential war. Now they came together in a desperate attempt to salvage what was possible.
“Why do you act in such a manner? Will you kill us by famine?” Ben Zakkai asked Abba Sikra in their secret meeting (Gittin 56a). The rebel leader suddenly didn’t seem so tough. He shrugged his shoulders and replied “What shall I do? If I tell them anything of the kind, they will slay me.”
The rebel leader admitted to his uncle that he had little sway over his soldiers, who were so caught up in the fight that even he couldn’t get them to think of doing otherwise.
With the hope of saving Jerusalem gone, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai understood that he had no choice but to leave the city. Consulting his nephew, the rebel leader, he asked him to think of some solution, some way to get him out. The only way out, Abba Sikra explained, was death.
And this is exactly what Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai did. He disguised himself as a shrouded corpse, asking his two faithful students – Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Eliezer – to take him outside the walls, ostensibly to bury him there. Once out, he met with the Roman general and future emperor Vespasian, who was besieging the city. Ben Zakkai asked the general to give him the town of Yavneh and its sages, guaranteeing the survival of a remnant of a glorious nation whose world had been destroyed.
There, at Yavneh, Yochanan Ben Zakkai created the Jewish world as it would continue to exist for the next two thousand years. He rebuilt Judaism after the destruction. Some say the Jewish People still exists thanks to him.
But some judge him more harshly, and Ben Zakkai’s actions have been the subject of much criticism over the generations. Should he not have fought harder for Jerusalem and the Holy Temple? Maybe he shouldn’t have given up, instead working to convince the Roman general to not destroy his city? For all the criticism, though, there was widespread recognition among the Jewish sages that Judaism was still alive and kicking thanks to him.
Generations of Israelis have been raised on the story of Masada, which tells of how the rebels resisted to the last drop of blood, and preferred to take their own lives rather than surrender. But even as these zealots and extremists were taking drastic action which would be mythologized for centuries, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai and his students were sitting in Yavneh and studying. They chose a different option, one which exalts moderation and the ability to find solutions, even in the midst of an existential conflict.
What can we learn from Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai? He teaches us that even if reality is complex and difficult, one can always find a solution, regardless of what side you’re on.
The 9th of Av (Tisha B’Av), the day of the Hebrew calendar on which the Holy Temple was destroyed, is an appropriate day for placing faith in the Jewish People, who survived the destruction and pogroms and always managed to continue marching forward.
Sharon, So grateful for your comment to Rabbi Hammerman's piece. Your "prayer for the pendulum swing(ing) back to peace" brought to my mind MLK's, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." And so it may ... sooner or later. I think and hope that making that swing back to peace sooner rather than later requires a nudge and a pull from We the People. IMHO, waiting and hoping and praying alone are not enough. Patience may have its rewards, but in a functioning, healthy, liberal democracy agency, personal and collective, is fundamental in matters of justice and in peace. Shalom, Sharon.