We are privileged to be living through one of the greatest moments in modern Jewish history with a pro-Torah government without a Heart of Stone (against G-d and His Torah).
Popular in the late 50s was the song “Accentuate the positive” sung by Perry Como and Bing Crosby (for those who remember). It went like this:
You’ve got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mr. In-Between
This sage advice was recalled with the election of the new “religious-oriented” government in Israel for the first time. While there were “religious” parties in Israel ever since its beginning, never did the State find itself not only with the “positive”, a Torah-oriented government, but after 75 years, the voting public succeeded in eliminating the anti-Torah hatred of parties such as Mapam, Mapai, Labor, Meretz and more.
In Navi Yehezkel (11, 17-25) G-d says:
“I will gather you from the people, and assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.
And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit inside you; and I will take the stony heart from their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh.
That they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you from all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put inside you; and I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit inside you, and cause you to follow my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them.
And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
It was inconceivable to the founding fathers that a modern Jewish State could be achieved by the Torah Jew, long scorned, and put down as an ancient anarchistic relic of the past and not compatible with modern liberal and democratic principles.
The humbled, bent over ghetto Jew was not suited for nor able to govern a nation among nations with the elegance, sophisticated and grace demanded to survive among the 70 wolves surrounding it from its very independence unto this very dramatic political moment in history.
The Torah must be relegated to the shteibels and chederim of Hungary, Poland and its environs and was not suitable for a pioneering generation of soldiers and statesmen, the likes of Chaim Weizmann and Theodor Herzl.
The historic revelation on Har Sinai was valiant and adequate throughout the long Exile from the Jewish homeland. But, now with the Jewish return to its Biblical borders, it would not suffice for a freedom wont battered Jew yearning to be a nation like the others.
Herzl believed that “enlightened” Hungarian Jews such as himself could shake off their “shameful Jewish characteristics” caused by long centuries of impoverishment and oppression, and become civilized Central Europeans, a true “culture folk” along the German lines.(Wikopedia).
Even before Israel’s independence in 1948, its major labor party, Mapai (Mifleget Poalei Eretz Israel), a Zionist-socialist party, served as the dominant political party in the pre-state and early post-state years. The left-of-center Mapai led every coalition and owned the premiership from 1948 until the party merged into the Labor alignment in 1968.
While much credit for the physical and political establishment of the State of Israel goes to these Zionist movements, its primarily Marxist and Socialist agenda did not leave room for a Torah society. While Ben Gurion did understand that without Jewish character there could be no State of Israel, Torah was relegated to the “religious” parties, and was no different politically than other religion within the fledgling state. The thought of an halachic state of Israel was anathema to him.
Religious belief
According to Wikipedia Ben-Gurion described himself as an irreligious person who developed atheism in his youth and who demonstrated no great sympathy for the elements of traditional Judaism, though he quoted the Bible extensively in his speeches and writings.
Philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz considered Ben-Gurion “to have hated Judaism more than any other man he had met.” He was proud of the fact that he had only set foot in a synagogue once in Israel, worked on Yom Kippur and ate pork. In later time, Ben-Gurion refused to define himself as “secular”, and he regarded himself a believer in God.
However, Ben-Gurion realized that world Jewry could and would only feel comfortable to throw their support behind the emerging state if it would include an orthodox practice to the body. Ben-Gurion sent a letter to Agudat Yisrael stating that while the State would function as a non-religious state, he promised that the Shabbat would be Israel’s official day of rest, Bet Din would have jurisdiction for Jewish family affairs, and that each segment would be granted autonomy in the education of its children.
This framework remained the basis for religious affairs in Israel until today.
The removal of the Heart of Stone leadership in Israel is a major turning point in the Redemption of the “body” of the re-established Jewish nation as we move on to the Redemption of the Jewish “soul” and towards our destiny.
There’s a lot of work ahead as God prepares the “Heart of Flesh” to be replaced where the Heart of Stone of the anti-Torah Jew previously existed since the State was established in 1948. We have a lot to be thankful for with the new Netanyahu government.
While more than half the country praises Netanyahu and others do not, the shift from a Heart of Stone to a Heart of Flesh is just the stepping-stone towards the rest of the prophecy, culminating with God’s promise:
“And I will put my spirit inside you, and cause you to follow my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them.
And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
Footnotes:
1. Zvi Zameret; Moshe Tlamim (1999). “Judaism in Israel: Ben-Gurion’s Private Beliefs and Public Policy”. Israel Studies. Indiana University Press.
2. Ari Shavit, Survival of the Fittest”: An Interview with Benny Morris, Ha’aretz Friday Magazine, 9 January 2004.
3. The Status Quo Letter Archived 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, in Hebrew
4. “Biography: David Ben-Gurion: For the Love of Zion”. vision.org. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
5. Michael Prior (12 November 2012). Zionism and the State of Israel: A Moral Inquiry. Routledge. pp. 293–. ISBN 978-1-134-62877-3. Retrieved 20 May 2013
