If so, the most important ministry in our state is the Ministry of Education. As of now, and for some time already, we are in a national crisis in the face of a disturbing lack of Jewish education. So, we need to act quickly to promote a Jewish core curriculum: to assure that there is no Jewish boy or girl to whom the fundamental concepts of Judaism are foreign – the prayer book and the synagogue, the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, the Pentateuch and the Prophets, Mishnah, Talmud and Code of Jewish Law, the history of the Jewish People and the great Jewish figures, the Land of Israel and Jerusalem, good virtues and pleasant conduct, Shabbat and kosher food, and so on, with education beginning at infancy and continuing without end. A distinction must be made between principal issues and those that are secondary, and between sacred and secular; therefore, in authentic Jewish education secular studies and vocational training take second place to Torah study, without minimizing the importance of studying a respectful profession.
All this has always been true, but now we are accelerating closer to a spiritual revolution. Until now, Torah and science have usually been perceived as two different fields and sometimes even as conflicting with one another. The Torah is Divine wisdom that descends to us from above, while science is the field of human knowledge which grows out of observing the world around us. However, the complete vision is to unite Torah and science. The Zohar states that the world is destined for a flood of knowledge (like water covers the seabed). And just as the flood in the days of Noah occurred as the result of “All the springs of the great deep were split, and the windows of the heavens opened up,” in the same way, the flood of wisdom will come from two complementary sources: human wisdom, as “the springs of the great deep [which burst open from below]” and the Torah, as “the windows of the heavens opened up [from above].” Science will substantiate the Torah for all to see, and the Torah will illuminate and enrich science with a new light.
Select individuals throughout the ages have dealt with this task – such as the righteous Joseph, who was a phenomenal sage both in worldly wisdom and Divine knowledge. Currently a “Torah Academy” should be established in which students study “secular studies in pure sanctity.” However, the ultimate relationship between the two will manifest through the full revelation of Divine Providence, as stated with reference to Mashiach in whose days will be revealed, “A new Torah,” meaning that new, more profound facets of the Torah that Moses transmitted to us will be revealed.
Towards the Kingdom of Israel – Kingdom
The final sefirah is malchut (kingdom), the ability for rectified self-expression in speech and action, by recognizing that I am a vessel that receives all energy from above, with nothing that I call my own, “For from You is everything and from Your Hand we have given it to You.” The inner power of kingdom is positive lowliness – the attribute of King David, who said, “And I am lowly in my eyes.” It is specifically this power that gives us the ability to rise up and rule without a trace of negative arrogance.
In the public realm, we must remember that the goal of a Jewish state is to become the Kingdom of Israel. When we recall all that the evil kings of the past had in mind for the Jewish People and for all of humankind, our natural instinct is to recoil from the concept of a monarchy. However, the desired Jewish King is the complete opposite of a tyrannical dictator, as Maimonides describes, “In the way that Scriptures paid great respect [to the king]… so too they commanded that his heart should be lowly and hollow inside him, as it states, ‘and my heart is hollow within me,’ and he should not act too harshly with the Jewish People, as it states, ‘so that his heart shall not be elevated above his brethren,’ and he should be gracious and merciful to the small and the great, involving himself in their care and wellbeing. He should protect the honor of even the humblest of men… He should always conduct himself with great humility… a king is referred to as a shepherd… as the Prophets have described the behavior of a shepherd, ‘He shall pasture His flock like a shepherd, He shall gather the lambs with His arm and carry them at His chest.’”
