Recent articles appearing in The Jerusalem Post called for strengthening the Jewishness of Israel. I agree: We must be vigilant and protect Jewish values in our society. To live freely and authentically as Jews in our homeland has been the dream of our ancestors, from antiquity to the advent of modern political Zionism, to Israel’s establishment and its Declaration of Independence.
However, due either to ideological zealotry, selective amnesia, or rank ignorance, the authors of these recent articles say little about what constitutes authentic Jewishness; nor do they specify what fundamental Jewish values are.
The head of the Yesha Council, Shlomo Neeman, explained his understanding of the ideal Israel in an extended interview on August 18.
“Land is everything,” he proclaimed, never mentioning any other value. Full sovereignty and Jewish control over all the land from the Jordan to the Mediterranean is what he dreams of, and works daily to realize.
Ten days later Douglas Altabef also called for intensifying the Jewishness of Israel. In a transparent argument to support the present coalition and its judicial reform, he tarred the popular opposition by labeling the reform’s opponents as weak, Jewishly ignorant, anti-democratic, and people who betray Jewish tradition for a mess of porridge-like university tenure.
Again, the only specific value in Jewish tradition he identified was “going from strength to strength, building and securing Israel, both on the Mediterranean coast and in the hills of the Shomron, for Jewish sovereign life.”
For these ideologues, land, sovereignty, and brandishing physical power are the apotheosis of Jewishness and tradition. Nothing else much matters.
What are the real Jewish values that religious Zionists eschew?
Deeply traditional Jews and the founders of the Jewish state alike understood that the foundation of Jewish values and identity is the Bible. Yet both the Torah of Israel and rabbinic tradition had very different ideas about authentic Jewishness and how Jews should live. The Torah indicates that Abraham, the first and prototypical Jew, was chosen to be our patriarch because he would teach his descendants “what is right (tzedek) and just (mishpat).” (Genesis 18:19) Assured residence on our land depends on us remembering, tzedek, tzedek tirdof – that we must pursue and live by justice (Deuteronomy 16:20), and that we are religiously obligated to judge fairly according to mishpat tzedek or objective law (Deuteronomy 16:18) in whose eyes all are equal – Jew and non-Jew alike (Deuteronomy 1:16).
The Torah also demands of us that we keep far away from lies and falsehood (Exodus 23:7), root out corruption from among us (Deuteronomy 19:19), not defile the land by spilling innocent blood (Deuteronomy 19:10), and not allow murderers to go free (Numbers 35:31).
It teaches us that the sovereign of the state is permanently subject to the law and that he or she must not override that law for his or her own interests (Deuteronomy 17:18-19). It also demands that all Jews share the burden of defense fairly and that no individual is permitted to shirk his responsibility to fight for his land and country.
Moses was scandalized at the idea of some Jews not sharing the burden of defense with their fellow Jews: “Will your brothers go out to war and you stay here?” (Numbers 32:6) And Jewish law is crystal clear: In a defensive war like the one Israel is embroiled in today, everyone – without exception – must fight.
The Torah also teaches us that all human beings are created in the Divine Image (Genesis 1:26-27). This means that every human person has intrinsic dignity and must be accorded transcendent value. The Talmudic rabbis expanded on that axiom, understanding that it entails the fundamental equality of all individuals. In the words of the Mishna, “No person can say, ‘My father is greater than yours.’” (Sanhedrin 4:5)
These are authentic Jewish values, honored by Jewish history and tradition. Yet, all these fundamental traditional Jewish values are in peril in Israel today – undermined by so many of our leaders, our government, our rabbis, and by militant hypernationalists. These values rarely pass the lips of today’s religious Zionists.
Convicted criminals sit in the cabinet, bribes are de rigueur in government dynamics, lying by the country’s highest leaders is commonplace, racists and extremists have been given power, self-described homophobes are ministers, religious zealots call for freeing convicted murderers of innocent Arabs, and an entire large class of Israelis selfishly demand that others risk their lives to defend them and their brothers while they remain free from responsibility. Never before in Jewish history has this occurred, and nowhere in tradition is this permitted or valued.
Let us not be seduced by physical power or land as an ultimate value. If we adopt those values, Zionism will evolve into just another materialistic amoral, sometimes immoral, coarse struggle for a place in the sun, no different from other nationalisms.
And let’s not be fooled by large hats, kippot, tzitzit, or payot as markers of Jewishness, or by jingoistic calls for wiping out those who are not like us. These are not Jewish values, only superficial facades and expressions of the vulgar abuse of power that is antithetical to the spirituality of the Bible and our religious tradition.
The Torah warns us against these seductions, and tells us not to become drunk with power (Deuteronomy 8:17) or behave like the blood-thirsty pagan Canaanite nations that preceded us in Eretz Canaan. If we fall prey to these vices, we will be “vomited out,” as were they. (Leviticus 18:24-27).
Yes, let’s strengthen Israel as a Jewish state, in a profound, unique way. We can do so by committing ourselves to the traditional Jewish values of justice, equality before the law, honesty, rejection of violence against innocent persons, and fairly sharing national responsibilities. These are the ideals of the Torah, of our prophets, of Jewish tradition, and of our ancestors.
Let us be proud, strong, and courageous today in the State of Israel, striving to realize the Torah’s dream of Jews becoming a holy people, a different kind of people, who reflect Jewish tradition’s high moral ideals in our behavior and in the construction of the Jewish character of our country.
The writer is an Orthodox rabbi who lives in Jerusalem. He is formerly the academic director of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding in Israel. His recent publications include To Be a Holy People: Jewish Tradition and Ethical Values (2021), and Israel and the Nations: The Bible, the Rabbis, and Jewish-Gentile Relations (2023).