Opinion | Not just the mountain, the whole kingdom Israel today

In recent years, Israel has undergone processes of secularization and de-nationalization.

Its two Jewish elements - the religious and the national - have been weakened, weakened.

Not least due to the involvement of the legal system and the education system in reshaping the Jewish character of the state.

Literature distinguishes between "secularism" as an ideology and "secularization" as the devaluation of religious practice.

Although the minority of the public in Israel is secular in its definition, the common public space is secular.

The religious status quo has changed on a variety of topics, such as transportation on Shabbat, opening businesses on Shabbat, selling pork and chametz and more.

The same is true of the Jewish-national aspect.

One does not have to be too old to recall the curricula in public education, which were here until recently.

The study of the Bible, Jewish history and philosophy, as well as the place of the Declaration of Independence, the flag and the anthem - all weakened. The prestige of the army and the motivation for enlistment in it changed accordingly.

While some today resent the brigadier general's statement at Yosef's tomb, it is worth mentioning, for example, that after the Six Day War, Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin received an honorary degree from the Hebrew University.

Today, however, in some institutions of higher education it is currently forbidden to wave an Israeli flag spontaneously, and there are lecturers who are not willing to teach soldiers in uniform.

Simultaneously with secularization, it overcame narrow religious institutions, which some call "religion."

In practice, this is a struggle to regulate religious rules in a confined space that remains, or is allowed to be, religious.

The military is less religious, but the military rabbinate and religious preparatory schools have more power.

And similarly, when in public schools education became completely secular, religious schools became more closed and more religiously strict.

The same is true of the national issue.

When legitimate national expressions were pushed out of the general public space;

When Israeliness became a code name for multinationalism;

When the Declaration of Independence is no longer seen as a historical-national document expressing the right of the Jewish people to their land, but as a manifesto for equality between Jews and non-Jews in the country - the Nationality Law should be enacted and protected from those who want to repeal it.

The weakening of Judaism, whether nationally or religiously in public spaces, has created a reaction.

Her more stubborn expression in the particular spaces in which she was allowed to continue to exist.

When Judaism is pushed out of space, when all its expression is considered religion or art, it moves (only) to Sheikh Jarrah and the Temple Mount in Ramadan.

Every possible expression becomes a symbol and a principle.

The last Hersh sheep.

Not because we have become more national or more religious, but because we are more isolated and more limited to express our Judaism in these arenas.

And in them only.

A large-scale flag parade throughout Jerusalem - for example, of course - is an answer to all of these.

A parable for the return of collective Jewish expressions to space.

Just as I do not want to send my children to a religious school just to study the Bible and the history of the people of Israel, or to go to a military (religious) preparatory school to be highly motivated to serve - the ascent to the Temple Mount does not address all these desires. The kingdom, on the return of Judaism to the public space, and not (only) to the mountain.

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