Israeli society must reclaim the Torah’s moral core - opinion

But an honest assessment of the Israeli reality shows that it is becoming, in some hands, an elixir of violence and death, of exploiting others and shirking responsibility. Yeshiva heads and TikTok rabbis are leading large groups of believers down a path that heads in the opposite direction from the Torah path.

The festival of Shavuot, and these days in particular, are an opportunity to recalibrate our moral compass and steer those who seek to receive the Torah toward better places – out of responsibility for a country whose Jewish identity and values should be a moral beacon to the world.

The data increasingly shows that young Israelis, and Israelis in general, want more Judaism. The Jewish People Policy Institute’s Israeli Society Index, for example, found that 35% of young people say their belief in God has strengthened because of the war; 33% report observing more Jewish practices; 38% pray more; and 27% read the Bible more.

Among traditional and religious young people, the numbers are even higher. These findings join a long line of social and demographic indicators. Israel was, and remains, a Western and secular state. However, the religious turn among many Israelis is felt everywhere: Jewish-traditional symbols, rituals, and language are becoming a more natural and accepted part of the identity of many Israelis.

But what kind of Judaism do these “strengthening” secular and traditional Israelis consume? A scroll through the “Judaism feed” of Israeli TikTok yields depressing conclusions. The language of many of the rabbinic “preachers,” who command large audiences of believer-followers and rack up millions of views, is often violent and crude.

Alongside the glorification of mitzvah observance, many of these videos negate the other – the secular Jew, and certainly the non-Jew – and, here and there, implicit calls for violence against anyone who does not fall into line with this religious “theology.”

The most extreme result, but one that lays bare the distortion of Jewish values, is the horrific footage from the Independence Day murder scene of Yemanu Binyamin Zelka, the 21-year-old Ethiopian Israeli. Videos from outside the pizza shop, where Zelka worked, show a pack of bloodthirsty youths, tzitzit fluttering from beneath their shirts, beating Zelka and ultimately murdering him in cold blood.

Another grave result – also a growing phenomenon – is violent attacks on businesses that operate on Shabbat.

Here, too, a dangerous brew of false doctrine and racist nationalism – concocted by the young but nourished by their rabbis – leads to disastrous outcomes far removed from the Torah of Sinai, its commandments, and any semblance of Jewish values.

That directs their young people, and their vast broader community, to disavow any responsibility for the whole of Israeli society and any share in carrying its burden. In the name of heaven, it often teaches them to treat the State of Israel like a feudal lord whom one may, and even must, cheat and steal from.

The Torah of Sinai and the Jewish values it espouses are the very heart of our national heritage. The Torah we received at Sinai has 70 faces. The task of every generation is to interpret it and adapt it to its time and place. Our generation has been given a historic mission and responsibility.

Therefore, we are obliged to reveal its luminous and ethical face: the face grounded in the commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself” – even when the other does not share our values or belong to our people. We must not turn it into an elixir of death.