Do you know the distinction between “Purim Jews” and “Passover Jews”? Purim Jews live in a zero-sum world, where the response to the persecutions we have suffered is “Venahapoch hu”(the other way around): now we hold power, and therefore we will persecute our enemies, behave as they do, conquer, humiliate, dispossess, expel, and kill, trapped in an endless cycle of revenge. Passover Jews, by contrast, understand that the journey from slavery to freedom is not the end of the story. Freedom finds its fulfillment in the acceptance of Torah, which warns us that if we behave like the nations, we will be perish as they have. It is a Torah that commands us to take upon ourselves the discipline of historical responsibility, transforming the memory of our own victimhood into a lesson for generations. We know the soul of the stranger, his weakness, vulnerability, and pain; therefore the litmus test of whether we are truly Jewish lies in our ability to treat strangers and others with justice and compassion.
One famous Jew, Freud, explained a psychological mechanism that is relevant here: unprocessed trauma can generate a pathological and dangerous defense mechanism in the form of identification with the aggressor - adopting the role of the one who harmed us. Tragically, Israeli society today is deeply invested in maintaining the trauma of Jewish persecution in exile, culminating in the Holocaust, and channels this untreated trauma into policies of violence toward Palestinians, while imitating the worst of our enemies. Instead of an “Israel Defense Forces,” we have an army that wages wars of brutal revenge, committing war crimes and causing ongoing harm to uninvolved civilians - including children, hospitals, houses of worship, and schools in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.
Worst of all, this army protects terrorist settlers who harass Palestinians daily in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley. This is not the terrorism of isolated individuals or “bad apples”; it is a deliberate policy of occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing, designed to eliminate any prospect of peace and any possibility of Jews and Palestinians living together in this land.
Israel’s Declaration of Independence celebrates the establishment of a Jewish state while emphasizing that its founders intended to create a state of democratic Judaism, ethical Judaism, and a Judaism grounded in the vision of the prophets of Israel. A Judaism of national identity that takes pride in belonging to the “family of nations,” those peoples who see all humanity as one family and who recognized the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their historic homeland. This is a people whose national revival in its land is defined by an extraordinary cultural treasure- its Book of Books, the Bible - which it bequeaths to all humanity. This is a people proud of its participation in the struggle against Nazi evil alongside all lovers of justice and freedom who established the United Nations. This is a people that promises human and civil rights for all, and the shared economic development of the land together with its Palestinian inhabitants. This is a people that extends its hand in peace to the entire Arab world even during murderous attacks imposed upon it.
It is easy to ground this vision in thinkers such as Maimonides, who recognized the fundamental equality of Jews and non-Jews. But today I will choose a quote from Rabbi Judah Halevi, who believed there was an essential difference between Jews and other human beings, just as there is a difference between humans and animals. In his view, only Jews possess the “divine element” that enables revelation and prophecy. Yet Judah Halevi constructed his philosophy as a dialogue between the Havert, i.e. Jewish sage or scholar, and a wise and upright non-Jew, the King of the Al Khazari who seeks truth to live by it.
In the first essay of Kitab al Khazari (sections 113 and onward), the discussion turns to the lowly status of the Jews in the reality of the twelfth century. The Haver defends this condition by arguing that, like Christianity and Islam - religions that glorify suffering in this world - “Yet our relation to God is a closer one than if we had reached greatness already on earth.” The King replies: “This might be so, if your humility were voluntary; but it is involuntary, and if you had power you would slay". The Haver’s response does not reject his interlocutor’s insight: “Thou hast touched our weak spot... If the majority of us, as thou sayest, would learn humility towards God and His law from our low station, Providence would not have forced us to bear it for such a long period… If we bear our exile and degradation for God's sake, as is meet, we shall be the pride of the generation which will come with the Messiah, and accelerate the day of the deliverance we hope for." (Translation: Hartwig Hirschfeld)
Today we are not a glory but a disgrace: “rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah,” in the words of the prophet Isaiah. We deliberately forget even the teachings of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, who held that while non-Jews have no national ownership in the Land of Israel, they certainly possess private property rights, and it is forbidden to harm either them or their property. We have become addicted to the arrogant consciousness of “My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me.” (Deuteronomy 8:17).
As early as 1933, Dietrich Bonhoeffer - the German Lutheran pastor who lost his life in resistance to the Nazis - wrote that religious leaders have three responsibilities when the state abuses its power: to speak moral truth aloud, to protect the victims of the regime, and to disrupt the implementation of criminal policies as much as possible.
So I say aloud: occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, war crimes. And participating in a protective presence for Palestinians who are victims of daily Jewish terrorism and doing my best to disrupt the prevailing political order. And I am not alone: credit and thanks are due to my fellow volunteers in Rabbis for Human Rights, Bnei Avraham, Tag Meir, and MachsomWatch.
Shabbat Shalom.
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Rabbanit Leah Shakdiel is an educator and a social and political activist from Yeruham.
One famous Jew, Freud, explained a psychological mechanism that is relevant here: unprocessed trauma can generate a pathological and dangerous defense mechanism in the form of identification with the aggressor - adopting the role of the one who harmed us. Tragically, Israeli society today is deeply invested in maintaining the trauma of Jewish persecution in exile, culminating in the Holocaust, and channels this untreated trauma into policies of violence toward Palestinians, while imitating the worst of our enemies. Instead of an “Israel Defense Forces,” we have an army that wages wars of brutal revenge, committing war crimes and causing ongoing harm to uninvolved civilians - including children, hospitals, houses of worship, and schools in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.
Worst of all, this army protects terrorist settlers who harass Palestinians daily in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley. This is not the terrorism of isolated individuals or “bad apples”; it is a deliberate policy of occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing, designed to eliminate any prospect of peace and any possibility of Jews and Palestinians living together in this land.
Israel’s Declaration of Independence celebrates the establishment of a Jewish state while emphasizing that its founders intended to create a state of democratic Judaism, ethical Judaism, and a Judaism grounded in the vision of the prophets of Israel. A Judaism of national identity that takes pride in belonging to the “family of nations,” those peoples who see all humanity as one family and who recognized the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their historic homeland. This is a people whose national revival in its land is defined by an extraordinary cultural treasure- its Book of Books, the Bible - which it bequeaths to all humanity. This is a people proud of its participation in the struggle against Nazi evil alongside all lovers of justice and freedom who established the United Nations. This is a people that promises human and civil rights for all, and the shared economic development of the land together with its Palestinian inhabitants. This is a people that extends its hand in peace to the entire Arab world even during murderous attacks imposed upon it.
It is easy to ground this vision in thinkers such as Maimonides, who recognized the fundamental equality of Jews and non-Jews. But today I will choose a quote from Rabbi Judah Halevi, who believed there was an essential difference between Jews and other human beings, just as there is a difference between humans and animals. In his view, only Jews possess the “divine element” that enables revelation and prophecy. Yet Judah Halevi constructed his philosophy as a dialogue between the Havert, i.e. Jewish sage or scholar, and a wise and upright non-Jew, the King of the Al Khazari who seeks truth to live by it.
In the first essay of Kitab al Khazari (sections 113 and onward), the discussion turns to the lowly status of the Jews in the reality of the twelfth century. The Haver defends this condition by arguing that, like Christianity and Islam - religions that glorify suffering in this world - “Yet our relation to God is a closer one than if we had reached greatness already on earth.” The King replies: “This might be so, if your humility were voluntary; but it is involuntary, and if you had power you would slay". The Haver’s response does not reject his interlocutor’s insight: “Thou hast touched our weak spot... If the majority of us, as thou sayest, would learn humility towards God and His law from our low station, Providence would not have forced us to bear it for such a long period… If we bear our exile and degradation for God's sake, as is meet, we shall be the pride of the generation which will come with the Messiah, and accelerate the day of the deliverance we hope for." (Translation: Hartwig Hirschfeld)
Today we are not a glory but a disgrace: “rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah,” in the words of the prophet Isaiah. We deliberately forget even the teachings of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, who held that while non-Jews have no national ownership in the Land of Israel, they certainly possess private property rights, and it is forbidden to harm either them or their property. We have become addicted to the arrogant consciousness of “My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me.” (Deuteronomy 8:17).
As early as 1933, Dietrich Bonhoeffer - the German Lutheran pastor who lost his life in resistance to the Nazis - wrote that religious leaders have three responsibilities when the state abuses its power: to speak moral truth aloud, to protect the victims of the regime, and to disrupt the implementation of criminal policies as much as possible.
So I say aloud: occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, war crimes. And participating in a protective presence for Palestinians who are victims of daily Jewish terrorism and doing my best to disrupt the prevailing political order. And I am not alone: credit and thanks are due to my fellow volunteers in Rabbis for Human Rights, Bnei Avraham, Tag Meir, and MachsomWatch.
Shabbat Shalom.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rabbanit Leah Shakdiel is an educator and a social and political activist from Yeruham.