One of the horrifying things I encounter in the public discourse is the talk about the establishment of a "masterpiece company" in Israel.
To an extreme conservative like me, the establishment of a company, any company, requires sticking the other person's nose into my affairs, especially in the case of such a fresh and perfect "masterpiece company".
In any weather, I would rather live in a society full of flaws, than in a smiling laboratory for human relations with the sign "Welcome to Hell" above its door.
At the same time, and for the sake of the academic interest, I tried to think: what is it actually about, and what are the general expectations for such a company to be established in Gaza? Therefore, I will lay out for the reader a few lines about the character of the aforementioned exemplary company.
Some of them are horribly utopian, but I guarantee that reality will also be given the floor towards the end.
First - the other.
I want to see a society where other people's troubles are part of my troubles.
If you will, the human version of "the other is me".
A society where the individual is obligated not only to himself and his family, but to his neighbors in the building and to the poor of his city in general.
The dream is social security, a community that gives its members a safety net of mutual support and help.
I raise the bar of the dream, and allow myself to talk about a society without crime.
I imagine in my mind's eye a community in which there are no thefts or robberies, and in which manifestations of violence are so rare that they are void in sixty.
This result can, of course, be achieved by friendly North Korean-style means, except that my model society will not have a police force, since it will not be needed.
The high standard of behavior will be dictated from the internal codes of the people, and not because of fear of punishment or expectation of reward.
I continue and imagine a society where there are no drug addicts, no alcoholics and no prostitutes.
A society in which our perception of "partnership" will change from end to end and the institution of marriage will be relearned, until the unbelievable happens and we can say about the partnership and the institution of marriage in our new society: "It works. Oh my god it works."
One of the obligatory results from this new perspective is the reduction of divorce cases to a negligible phenomenon, a few percent.
The model society above is indeed completely imaginary, but right below us there is a population group that resembles it, at least in general terms.
I am the last one to claim that the ultra-orthodox society's lifestyle is perfect.
No way.
Haredi society, like traditional, Druze or Tel Aviv society, suffers from dramatic internal problems.
But I don't seem to be exaggerating if I say that in the race towards the "model society" that I described at length above - the ultra-Orthodox are far ahead of the secular public.
They are two laps ahead of him.
The subject of this column is not the way of life of ultra-Orthodox society, but the way of thinking of the secular public.
Maybe it's worth looking at the ultra-orthodox society from a new perspective, one that is not condescending and maybe even interested?
Maybe the patronizing in which we sometimes sin in our approach to the ultra-Orthodox is a bit ridiculous?
The utopian reality I painted above is indeed exaggerated, but it seems to me that it would only be fair to say that one or two things - they, the ultra-orthodox, do better than us.
I support that the state imposes core studies on the ultra-Orthodox, but between me, I think about the core studies that we, the secular public, lack.
missing no less.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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