Not only unity was imposed on us on 7 October, but also the beginning of an understanding that Judaism is nevertheless a central component of personal identity. Nukhba forces and Gazan civilians set out to kill Jews. Not "Israelis," not "settlers," and not even just any "enemy." When Elhanan Clemenson's team went to rescue the residents of Kibbutz Be'eri, who were afraid to leave the safe room, the call "Shema Yisrael" served as a means of identification. The commandos did the same in order to convince the soldiers besieged at the Sufa outpost.
Maj. Gen. (res.) Noam Tibon was equipped with tzitzit for identification purposes when he went to rescue his family at Kibbutz Nahal Oz. And he's not the only one: At the end of the first month of the war, Kan 11 News reported a particularly high demand in the IDF for tzitzit. A matter of personal security, or a renewed connection to practical Judaism that means not only feeling Jewish, but also behaving Jewish?
Ultra-Orthodox soldiers sing the national anthem at the swearing-in ceremony // Photo: IDF Spokesperson
A secular Israel is an old and popular concept, dating back to the early days of Zionism. It helped cut Zionism off from the weakness of the Diaspora and build a muscular fighting Judaism. After 75 years of statehood, one can get the impression that this concept was also fuel in the engines of the illusion that a secular Israel would harmoniously integrate into another nonsense concept, this time the "family of nations." In the eyes of the world, secular Israel is also the place where Jews live. And the world doesn't like Jews, even Jews who don't really connect to their own Jewishness.
Traditional and religious Jews have always understood the religious component of Israel's wars with its neighbors, as well as the religious component of the State of Israel itself. And this sometimes contradicted the desire to create a new Jew here, detached from the helplessness and persecution of the Diaspora.
The leaders of Zionism tried to naturalize and secularize the Jewish holidays: Hanukkah is a holiday of military heroism, sometimes at the expense of purifying the Temple and restoring religious worship; Yom Kippur is a kind of bicycle holiday – and the Tel Aviv municipality declared last September, when Yom Kippur is celebrated, as "Bicycle Month"; Purim is a holiday of costumes, Shavuot is an agricultural holiday no less than the holiday of giving the Torah.
Since its earliest days, Zionism has tried to be both Jewish to the right extent and secular. But secularism becomes sacred to folklore, and folklore, like fashion, changes faster than the prayer book. Last year, there were still some among us who were outraged by the Halloween incidents for children in secular neighborhoods. This year, this imported folklore disappeared like never before. But Hanukkah is as bright as ever, and maybe even brighter. The menorah has become one of the symbols of Israel's takeover of Gaza, and it brings there a spirit not only of victory but of the miracle of the jug of oil. Also Hasmoneans, also high priest.
It is difficult to know whether there will be a change in the Jewish perception of Israelis after the war. "There are no atheists in the trenches," reads an old saying, and these days we are in the trenches. There is no telling whether Jews of "these candles" or of "a miracle did not happen to us" will emerge from there.
Substitute species
"What a vision: We would stand on Independence Day and sing together things like: 'Because my soul Dror still aspires, I didn't cut it off to a golden calf. And in the land a generation will arise, its iron will be removed, eye to eye will see light. May they bear peace then and a blessing to a nation from a nation. Play because I believe in man, because I still believe in you.'"
This vision was articulated by Merav Michaeli in a column in Haaretz in 2014, in which she suggested replacing Hatikva with Shaki Shahaki. What's wrong with Hatikvah? First, Michaeli has a formal argument: it was enshrined in law only in 2004, so its roots are not particularly deep.
Second, it includes the words "Jewish soul," and they wound the non-Jewish soul. Michaeli was moved by MK Mohammed Bracha's proposal from Hadash to replace "Hatikvah" with another song: "I believe" by Shaul Tchernichovsky, from which the first verse is especially remembered: "Play on dreams, this is me dreaming chess, play because in man I will believe, because I still believe in you."
Secular Jews sometimes struggle with the "Jewish soul." On 6 October, Tel Aviv was still fighting over laps on Simchat Torah. There were those who came to blow up Yom Kippur prayers. In 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, Givati Brigade Commander Ofer Winter caused a storm because of a letter to fighters in which he wrote: "I look up to heaven and call with you, 'Shema Yisrael, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is one.' O God of Israel, please succeed through us, that we are going to fight for your people Israel against the enemy of your name." Now it's the language of the IDF. In the assembly areas, soldiers sing "We believe, sons of believers," officers blow the shofar before going into battle, synagogues open in Beit Hanoun. Atheists in the trenches, or deep and lasting change?
Tchernichovsky also failed
It's not that we haven't tried in the past to put Judaism in some kind of boidham, or to use it as a decorative accessory. It is difficult to crown this attempt as a success. Tchernichovsky also failed him, and understood. He wrote Credo in Odessa when he was 17, and was probably fascinated by utopian ideas about a world without national identity in the style of John Lennon's Imagine, which is, by Lennon's own admission, "a sweetened version of the Communist Manifesto."
In this world, the individual, abstract, imaginary "person" is the focus of goodness. In such a world, Tchernichovsky dreams, "A settlement will flourish so will my people." Another people among peoples, like them, nameless, devoid of religion, devoid of place. There is no song less fitting than this to serve as a national anthem for any country.
Five years later, Tchernichovsky became disillusioned with his dreams and realized who he was, what he was and where he belonged. He wrote "Lullaby" for the unborn son, the son is not a "man" but "the Hebrews of the Nach, my son", "the trunk of the ancients". And the universal dream was replaced by a Jewish dream: "Wandering shall be in the fullness of the world, but your homeland is one, this one do not forget: Nesach - Zion until you fall hay."
Tchernichovsky abandoned his youthful dream, the Diaspora, and in 1931 immigrated to Israel. The soul needed space. Now it has become clear that the place also needs a Jewish soul. I wonder what form she will take after the war.
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