It is too early to eulogize Naftali Bennett's political career.
The energetic leader, on the verge of frenzy, had not yet said the last word.
Still, Bennett's (temporary?) Retirement is an opportunity to look back.
It has been 16 years since Ayelet Shaked recruited him to the post of Chief of Staff of Benjamin Netanyahu, and until he occupied, for one tumultuous year, the Prime Minister's chair. Today (Wednesday) he left Shaked alone in the arena.
Bennett officially announced his retirement: "I will remain a loyal soldier of the country," Knesset Channel
During his years in politics the belly and baldness grew, but with them also wisdom, maturity and a broad vision.
From the leader of a small and sectoral niche party, with the style of an enthusiastic guide in Bnei Akiva and heroic stories about the General Staff patrol, Bennett has become prime minister in the past year. On a mission, and dedicated to the benefit of the general public.
After the spin of four election campaigns, the State of Israel returned to running.
Sometimes lame, but still, we have discovered that the world does not collapse even when Netanyahu no longer lives in Balfour.
Although on the way to the Prime Minister's Office, Bennett buried the Jewish Home Party and trampled on his electorate, it was perhaps inevitable.
The process that Bennett went through from the sectors to the state, also teaches a lot about what religious Zionism went through.
Many parts of it began to stumble upon the small, sometimes petty political pragmatism, and sought leadership that saw the good of the State of Israel before the good of the sector.
The general public wanted to translate the fervor of religious Zionism, in settlement in Judea and Samaria, in the service of the best construction in senior positions in the army, in flourishing yeshivas and studios and Torah nuclei throughout the country, also to a leading political force in Israel.
MK Mansour Abbas and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (Archive), Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
No longer a trailer being towed from behind, but a company whose leaders are holding the wheel.
Bennett was the first religious leader to win it.
He has cleverly managed to become a tongue in cheek and make a political exit, up to the senior position in the country.
Bennett's passion for holding the wheel at all costs, was also what eventually knocked him down and led to his retirement.
The train cars did not stop at the speed he dictated, and disengaged on the way.
It remained a locomotive without wagons.
A leader without a public, a prime minister who does not pass the blocking percentage.
The experiment may have failed, but the path paved by Naftali Bennett remains open.
The footprints he left on the way will in the future help other leaders, who connect in their way of life between the sacred and the profane, between Torah and Derech Eretz, to march to the front of the stage, to lead big, to lead.
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