If we really want to influence our religious opponents, we ought to take the concept of brotherhood seriously and respect them even when we are in strong disagreement. There ought to be no more use of words like parasites and Amalek. There ought to be no more talk about the nefarious motives of the other… or calling people like Yair Lapid a Rasha. He is not a Rasha.
There ought to be interaction on all issues of the day with willingness to compromise for the benefit of the greater whole. There ought to be no assumptions of nefarious motives by one side about the other. If that happens we can hopefully achieve some permanent achdus instead of the temporary kind generated by troubled times.
The same can be said about our interaction with secular Jews. There ought to be a lot more of it. This is where Chabad has got it right and from whom we should take note. Their religious convictions are so strong that they do not fear their observance being tainted by interacting with secular Jews. That is unfortunately not the case for most of the rest of observant Jewry. They fear being negatively influenced by people whose values are not Torah based. Especially where their children are concerned. While this is a legitimate fear, it need not be the determining one.
Today’s secular Jews are not yesterday’s secular Jews. A few of generations ago many Jews that were raised in religious homes became disillusioned with religion and left religious observance in droves to find other movements that spoke to them. Communism, Zionism, Secularism, , Reform, Conservative and even atheism had more appeal to them than the values of their parents. Why this happened is beyond the scope of this post. This phenomenon has produced today a generation of Jews that are ignorant of their faith. Many of them that are naturally spiritual people looking for meaning in their lives
We need to recognize that and reach out like never before. This war should be a wake-up call. We should not allow our resolve to be better and to influence others in positive ways – wane after the War. There ought to be achdus not only with observant Jews. We should seek achdus with all Jews. That should be our goal, and we need to follow up. The old paradigm of religious self interests ought to be discarded once and for all.
Let us hope that we never hear words of enmity ever again from one segment of Jewry (or from any of their leaders) against another. Instead let us integrate in the fullest sense of the word.