The world before October 7 cannot be the same world thereafter.
Simchat Torah 5784 must be an inflection point for the Jewish world – a time to heed the wise words attributed to Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Almost without precedent in the history of democracy, Israel endured five elections within four years. When the gridlock was finally broken, instead of stability we had a year of extreme divisiveness and demonization.
Reforming the legal system or protesting against it at all costs threatened Israel from within and caused a deep rift between the State of Israel and many Diaspora communities. Everything became a zero-sum game, and everyone was unequivocally right – in their own eyes.
Most concerning was how moderates became extremists; no one listened to anyone else. An extremist, says Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, is a person who makes one truth into the only truth. We began living in echo chambers of self-righteousness and exclusive truths, which we just happened to have alone.
Two high-speed trains were hurtling toward a head-on collision, with neither prepared to change course. I had spoken to a government minister and asked whether he was waiting for an assassination attempt before backing down. I sit on the board of the World Zionist Organization and on many occasions called for the board to be a unifying influence.
During a board meeting prior to October 7, one board member from the Left said that the Right wing had murdered an Israeli prime minister. I then asked, “Are you waiting for the murder of a right-wing prime minister from someone on the Left, so it will be 1-1, and then things will be equal?!”
The desecration of the holiest day of the year followed on Yom Kippur, with Jews protesting against one another about how to pray in public. Almost every red line had been crossed – an ominous sign that catastrophe was not far away.
And then, October 7.
October 7 changed the course of Israel's political catastrophe
ON ONE dark day – as if transported from the most petrifying pogroms in Jewish history – everything changed. The Gaza border area turned into the most dangerous place for Jews anywhere on Earth since 1945. More Jews were murdered and maimed in a single day than on any day since the Holocaust.
Our family, like many others, was also affected. Our two sons, Yonatan and Daniel, both officers in the IDF, were wounded on October 7. They, like thousands of other brave soldiers and civilians, literally put their bodies on the line to save others and defend our country.
Yonatan, who was shot in the thigh, married Galya 10 days later. Daniel, his younger brother, and best friend, was wounded and taken captive by Hamas. We have not heard anything about his whereabouts almost 90 days later.
A day of torture and torment, horror and hostage, death and destruction. In one fell swoop, on October 7, a fragmented society reassembled and fused back together. No more supporters and opponents of legal reform – no “Just Not Bibi” or “Only Bibi”… no Left and Right… no ultra-Orthodox and secular… no reservists and those refusing to serve… no coalition and combative opposition… no Israel and Diaspora Jewry. One national unity emergency government.
Our mutual covenant of fate as a people that had been profoundly compromised had now been so painfully and valiantly renewed.
One of the most revolutionary ideas in the Bible is that of brit – covenant. What unites the Jewish people is not a social contract as articulated by Hobbes but a very different and uniquely Jewish idea – covenant.
Covenants differ from contracts in three distinct ways. Covenants are unconditional, everlasting, and always for the greater good, whereas contracts are conditional, for a limited period, and driven by mutual self-interest. The covenant of Jewish destiny is indispensable, explains Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, from the covenant of our collective fate as the family of Jacob and the Children of Israel. We are a historic community and are travelers in the very same boat.
It is this eternal covenant that brought 300,000 Israelis to battle instead of fleeing the war zone. As someone who is involved in Israel-Diaspora affairs, it is so heartwarming to see this covenant in action – the thousands of global Jewish leaders from across the spectrum and hundreds of solidarity missions that continue to flow to Israel from around the world.
IT IS HIGH time for covenantal politics – our public interactions – to be conducted differently. The culture of mutual denigration, self-justification, and finger-pointing are corrosive impulses that only weaken us. We know who will point a finger at whom. We’ve experienced it for years, and it has not led to any positive results.
Woe to us if we revert to those same behaviors of recklessness and belligerence, of self-righteousness and canceling views of others. Creating a new political culture of consensus, empathy, and broad agreement should dictate all of our country’s major decisions – at every stage of the war, and beyond.
This ought to be the paradigm for “the day after” – regarding the strategy for Gaza, as well as the national commission of inquiry that will invariably follow. That will be a big test for Israeli society. The commission of inquiry should be composed of people free of any personal political agendas and void of any preordained outcomes. It must be acceptable to as broad a majority as possible – otherwise, it will not be trusted.
It ought to be part of society’s rehabilitation and not an encore to its deterioration. It should not be a committee that will deal only with military and political malfunctions but a forum that will be part of a process rebuilding the very foundations of society – mutual trust and solidarity.
With enough humility and generosity of spirit, I believe it is possible to usher in a new reality, enlightened by our covenantal renewal. No one person or sector has exclusivity to all the truth.
The motto of Israel today is “Together we will win.” If there is one thing Jewish history has taught, it is this: Genuine Jewish unity is our spiritual Iron Dome. No one knows for sure what the exact solutions are going forward, but one thing should be crystal clear by now. We have the best chance of overcoming any hurdle if we face it together.
Indeed, please God, only together we will certainly overcome. ■
The writer, a rabbi, is executive chairman of the World Mizrachi movement. His son Daniel was considered missing in action following October 7 and was later categorized as kidnapped. Another son, Yonatan, was wounded on October 7 fighting Hamas terrorists.