I think dealing with your own country is excellent for Judaism.
When Judaism did not have a state for nearly 1900 years, the religion turned inward and became obsessed with tiny rituals rather than the practicalities of running a nation-state.
When you have to earn a living, your observance of Judaism is more challenged than when you are supported by welfare. Reality is messy.
Jeremy Kalmanofsky is a rabbi at Ansche Chesed in Manhattan. He writes:
Jews must recognize that there are places in the Palestinian territories that are basically Mississippi in 1963 — places where the powerful may kill the powerless without fear of prosecution. (No one has been arrested yet in the Duma attack, although the authorities say they know who perpetrated it.)
Lest you think I am getting all hysterical and anti-Zionist on you, I assure you I am not. The scope of the problem was aptly described by former Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin in September, in an essay noting that dozens of messianic ultra-nationalists attack Palestinians every day, and that they and their hundreds of supporters have come to “set the tone for mainstream religious Zionism.” And I urge Hebrew readers to consult the searing Tisha B’Av dirge by Dov Halbertal, a Haredi attorney who bewailed the Duma attack among other dark trends, like the 100,000 votes in the last election that were cast for Baruch Marzel, the Kahanist thug who openly advocates expelling Arabs. “How have we reached this stage,” Halbertal wrote, “when religious and Haredi Judaism is becoming more and more violent? And it is not just a marginal fringe, but a large minority.”
I will remain a liberal Zionist until my dying day, even if I am the last one. In my humble view, given the events of the past 150 years, there is no credible alternative to Jews having power and learning to wield it responsibly. I’m just not sure we’re passing that test.
I know very well that the “price tag” perpetrators are not interested in what a liberal rabbi from Manhattan has to say. But since, as the Talmud states, every Jew is responsible for every other Jew, I am not free to ignore them. I remain responsible for the Torah. Jews of spirit and ethics must offer an alternative.
We are told that the Second Temple was destroyed because of sinat hinam, abundant, pointless hatred. Now, the remarkable Jewish society created in our ancestral homeland might likewise be destroyed by hatred — the kind found in the souls of those who hate Arabs and want to burn their homes, and those who hate secular Jews and want to destroy their values and sometimes their bodies (remember the murderous madness at the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade).
As the senior Rabbi Kook taught, the only plausible response to abundant hatred is abundant love, ahavat hinam.
