The need for a unified vision of Torat Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael, and Am Yisrael

In the modern world, the view of 'moral relativism' reigns supreme. We see examples of this all the time, perhaps the most pertinent one to our discussion being the way the Israeli-Arab conflict is reported. The murder of innocent Jewish civilians by a suicide bomber is treated the same as the death of the bomber himself. The killing of Arab terrorist's by the Israeli Defense Forces is treated the same as the murder of Jewish citizens at the hands of those same terrorists. To take a more extreme example, in the latest issue of CAMERA, it was reported that a professor who gave a few lectures on Hitler and the more recent slave trade and some of the other more extreme evils that humanity has known, he was unable to get his students to take a moral stance on the issues. Said one, "Sure the Nazis were bad, but who am I to say they were morally wrong?"

It is out of this relativistic worldview, somewhat forced on somewhat happily accepted by, many Westerners, that the Jews find their identity in trouble. In today's relativistic model of the world, there is no responsibility to one's past; individualism reigns supreme. There is of course a great deal to be said for individualism, and its triumph over many of the human institutions that tried to suppress it for centuries if not millennia. The ability of man and women to be given equal chances, the idea that any person should be given the chance to think, succeed, explore, learn, and conquer life is an amazing achievement of the modern world, perhaps best exemplified in America and her citizens. But this achievement came with a price, and it has been a price often overlooked and dismissed by those who are so proud of the achievement of the "civilized" and modern world.

It is amazing to me the degree to which the elderly and the past are dismissed and looked down upon by Western society. The way we treat our grandparents and their friends speaks volumes about the amount of respect we have (or better said, don't have) for the past and our connection to it. Perhaps the greatest victim of this attitude (aside from our grandparents and the elderly in Western society) has been religion, and 'traditional societies'. I will give two examples to show just how much the dismissal of the past contradicts the Jewish attitude. The first, is the Rambam, Maimonidies, one of the greatest Rabbi's to live in the Medieval ages, who traces back his Jewish lineage as far as he can, going back some 15 generations. The purpose of this was several fold. But at least one of the more forceful reasons, was to demonstrate the power that does exist in tradition and oral tradition. The Jews claim to have had national revelation at Mt. Sinai. If we truly believe in the claims of our ancestors, and we know that our link to them is strong, then it makes our Jewish experience one that is much more rooted in history and the past, it makes it possible to believe or feel as if we were also at Mt. Sinai that we also experienced the Exodus, that we too were promised Eretz Yisrael as an inheritance by the Almighty. In a similar vein, the Rav, founder of modern orthodoxy, when asked why he believes in God, said, "Because my father told me so, and my father wouldn't lie to me." (I have been trying to track down the source for this, I know it is out there, if someone has it, please send it to me!) This again shows the profound relationship that someone like the Rav felt for the past, the respect he had for his father, and the subsequent respect he had for the Jewish past and tradition and Oral Law as a result.

This may be a very difficult viewpoint for us to understand. After all, we have been raised in the modern world, and tradition, respect for one's past, identity with one's past, these are all things that are looked down upon. Not because they are necessarily uncool, but rather because they are viewed as unintelligent, barbaric, backwards.

And yet.

And yet, in my heart of hearts, I know, that all Jews have at least an inkling of what it is that the Rav or Rambam was speaking of. What other people/religion do you know, where "the heretics" are so actively heretical? Who but a Jew would "show" how much he doesn't believe or care about God and religion by going and eating a cheeseburger or pork purposely on Yom Kippur? Said one writer for Ma'ariv recently, "Being Israeli, means having a secular Jew ask questions about God and a religious Jew ask about the IDF." How many Jews do you know who are truly indifferent to their Jewish past and inheritance? I know none.

And yet, what does this show us, except that the Jew can not truly cut herself of from her people. Aristotle said that "man is a political animal" (see Aristotle's Politics). Well, the Jew is a historical animal (among other things). Whether you define us by our religion or by our nationality, both are rooted in history for the Jew.

And yet, despite everything that western society has taught the Jew, despite the often-complete ignorance and removal from a Jewish upbringing and education, the ignorant western Jew still knows in his heart of hearts that something is not right. That something fundamental to his or her being is missing. Something inside pops up every now and then, and screams out, "I am lacking! I am starving!" The Jewish soul is a powerful force. The Jewish identity dies hard.

This does not give an answer to the question we are pursuing, but it is a necessary tangent. For it is important to understand just how much the modern world bias' us and prejudices us to making it extraordinarily difficult for us to connect and identify with our past. And what is maybe even more important, is to recognize that inner voice, that inner target that we so often hear and have. It may not offer us a logical reason for identifying and practicing as a Jew, but it certainly gives us a reason! (More on that later). We will now explore the more logical and rational explanations, and then attempt to piece this all together.

Many have asked, is being Jewish being part of a Nationality? Religion? Culture? The simple answer is that the Jew is not a nationality or a religion or a culture he is all of these. To be Jewish in the fullest sense means to identity and take part in Torat Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael, and Am Yisrael. It has not only been non-Jews who have asked this question, such social and political thinkers as Marx also spent time thinking about this question. It is surprising how few gave the simple and Jewish answer to this question.

Jews in the Tanach are referred to by various names, among them Hebrews (showing our common bloodline, our race) or as Am Yisrael (the nation of Israel) or as Bnai Yisrael the Children of Israel. We are the descendents of Abraham, but this has more layers to it than meets the eye. For while many other nationalities or races are based merely on geography, the Jew is not. Being a Jew, is not to merely be a descendant of Abraham (or Jacob/Israel), for if that were the case, our Arab cousins and the Muslim world would be equivalent with Judaism, and I think it is fairly obvious that this is an absurd statement. To be a Jew also means to accept the religion of Abraham, the God of Abraham, and the Torah that would eventually be given to his descendants several hundred years after his life. The Jew is a religio-nationality. And the recognition of this has profound implications.

Perhaps one of the more relevant consequences of this realization is that the American Jew is an oxymoron. It is a contradiction in terms. This is a charge that many an American Jew would do all sorts of acrobatic tricks to prove as untrue, perhaps among religious Jews more than others, but this does not change the simple fact that being an American Jew is an oxymoron. The anti-Semitic nations of Europe used to level this very charge against us, and use it as an excuse to do with us as they pleased. There was truth in their words, even if the conclusions of their statements were perverse, cruel, and deadly.

When Israel was created one of the first laws passed (and unanimously at that) was the Law of Return. This law guarantees Israeli citizenship to any Jew, anywhere in the world upon her return to Eretz Yisrael. Why is that? One can answer that it was to prevent any future Holocaust from ever happening again, and that certainly has truth to it. But it was also because Israel, as the Jewish State, was created as a state whose citizens, by definition, should be Jews. And therefore, Jews anywhere in the world, including the majority of Jews who were in exile and were away from their homes, if they choose to return home, should, of course be granted citizenship, as Jews.

This, of course, points to the fact that Israel, is the Jewish State, not the Israeli State, and that it is because Israel is the Jewish State, that Israel BY LAW discriminates against non-Jews. It is because Israel is the Jewish State, that Jews are guaranteed citizenship. And all of this, is a result of the fact that Judaism, is in part, a nationality. That the very comfortable American Jew tries to deny this has no bearing on the truth! All it points to is the extent to which the Jews in America have assimilated and been acculturated. It points to the fact that Jews in America are not even sensitive to their inner longing for their home. That Jews in America have become insensitive to their inner compass and are no longer even aware of where it is they belong as Jews. (In Eim Habanim Smeichah, which is under our recommended readings, Rav Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal discusses at length his despair and shock at a parallel situation that existed both in ancient Babylonian and in pre-Hitler Europe.)

As for Judaism being identified with the Religion of Israel, with Torat Yisrael, this aspect is a little more obvious to us today, as it is the more common perception (if not lopsided and incorrect) of Judaism. Indeed being Jewish also means partaking in the religious Jewish Heritage, in the Torah. Although not a point I wish to go into at great lengths here (for it is not the appropriate place), it is worth beginning to note the connection here between history, the notion of Am Yisrael, and Torat Yisrael. For indeed, the Torah of Israel means what is called "orthodoxy" today, or what is also referred to as normative Rabbinical Judaism. And the justification for this has many reasons (again, not the place to go into a complete discussion of this). But at least one reason worth noting here, is the connection between Torah and our past; between Torah, and the Oral Tradition that we have which is what makes the religious aspect of Judaism something recognizable to us today, and why orthodoxy does have a claim to Torah as opposed to those who would do away with parts of our Torah and tradition. It is also worth remembering at this point, the examples of the Rambam and the Rav, two of the more philosophical religious figures of their time, both of whom were orthodox, and based their explanations for that, at least in part, on the history of the Jews. (A more complete discussion and argument about this topic will hopefully be added in the near future).

So where does that leave us? It was my hope and intention that the two points that would have been demonstrated up to this point are that: to be a Jew means to have an identity in both the Torah of Israel and the Nation of Israel. I am not saying that it means to "identify as a Jew" or "to identify with the Jewish people" because many non-Jews do that as well. What is meant, is that as a Jew, the core and fundamental connection between the self and the Torah, between the self, and the rest of Klal Yisrael, the Community of Israel, is felt in one's person, in one's heart and mind, in one's soul. This is a result of the Jewish identity, a result of being Jewish, and being fully conscience of that identity. To be aware of this connection is already a big and important step, and one that I hope and pray all of you can share in.

So where does Israel fit in to all of this?

Israel is the bridge for the Torah of Israel and the Nation of Israel. The Torah of Israel and the People of Israel can not be in harmony with each other anywhere but Israel.