Why We Need Israel
Moses, the paradigm of Jewish leadership, is singled out for one characteristic: humility. Humility in leadership is vital because it helps a leader to always remember that leadership is not about them but about the honor, welfare, and flourishing of those being led. This is especially crucial in political leadership which, due to all the “politics'' involved, tends to pull leaders in the wrong direction — away from humility, away from maintaining focus on the ultimate purpose of their leadership: the greater good. As the Mishnah says in Pirkei Avot (2:3): “Beware of those in [positions of political] power, for they only bring a person close to them for their own needs.”
This is why a king must always carry a Torah, to remember what their purpose and goal is. Yet, in Jewish history, carrying a Torah does not seem to be enough of a fence to stop a king from being self-interested. What, then, does work to regulate the power of political leadership? An institution which provides a check on power. In the Tanach this was the prophet, and we see this especially in the cases of Saul and David. Saul sins by letting Agag the King of Amalek live and the prophet Samuel takes him to task, overriding him and putting another King, David, in his place. When King David sins, it is Natan the prophet who takes him to task. David desired Batsheva after seeing her bathing on a rooftop; he sent her husband to the front, and took her as his wife. Natan rebukes him and David comes to realize his sin. Ultimately, Natan says God pardoned David, but in theory, Natan would have had the power to depose the King like Samuel before him.
Israel has recently erupted in unprecedented protests over this question of power and its checks and in the eyes of both sides the future of Israel's democracy is in the balance. Power often corrupts, so the stakes are very high.
This past Sunday, I was at an all day event about Israel sponsored by the Jewish Federation for local Jewish leaders. Most of those in attendance were from the Reform and Conservative Jewish communities. Many of them, for whom issues of world justice, diversity, and kindness are the central spires of their Jewish lives, find the attempt by Israel's more parochial government to concentrate power and potentially marginalize the country's non-Jewish constituents anathema. They express the desire to, in the words of one participant I sat next to,“wash their hands of Israel”. They question whether Israel must be a central part of Jewish life, for indeed, Jews have survived millenia without having a country of their own.
I believe that though one can be a religious Jew in Brooklyn or Washington without the modern State of Israel, the existence of the state after 2,000 years of waiting is a messianic gift, one vital for the continued existence, safety, and flourishing of the Jewish people. Its very existence confers a new religious obligation upon us. The obligation of being a great nation on the world stage to, as God first put it to Abraham (Genesis 12) when he led him to the land, “Be a blessing to all the peoples of the world.”
During the conference I realized how siloed we are in the Modern Orthodox community, a section of the Jewish world in which support for Israel is expected, and to criticize it comes with negative repercussions. I think it is vital that we, as Orthodox Jews, become familiar with what the 80% of the non-Orthodox community is thinking about Israel, and to contemplate the best way to engage with their concerns. I think it unwise to stand by as a large portion of our people backs away from the modern State of Israel.
We come from very different points of view than they do, and just insisting we are right will not be productive. But make no mistake, it is upon our shoulders to not just support Israel but to address the real concerns of our Jewish brethren so they do not “wash their hands” of the most important positive Jewish phenomenon in millenia, the State of Israel.
