Sublime

Given the opposition of the majority of the Orthodox and the influence of modern culture and politics in shaping Zionism, the soul of modern Zionists was divided from the beginning.

Then God, as parent and teacher, must bind God’s own self to humans.

The antagonism sparked by Netanyahu, I gradually noticed, resembled that traditionally triggered by the Jews.

In faithfulness to that commitment, the people of Israel pledge to teach the way of justice and righteousness as best it can; to remain distinctive and unassimilated in the world and thus hold up the message for all people to see; to create a model community showing how the world can go about realizing the dream; and to work alongside others to mov

Liberal rabbis often become sacred social workers, mainly focused on pastoral and lifecycle moments in their communities.

Telling the story and living through these events, liturgically recreated, Jews experience them as happenings in their own lives.

BEYOND THE LEGITIMATE ACCUSATION that Jewish forces at times forced Arab populations to leave their homes, this portion of the war also prompted what the historian Benny Morris called the “atrocity factor”37—allegations that in the midst of the War of Independence, Jewish forces committed numerous

veteran members of the Yishuv essentially accused the survivors for what they had endured. “‘Why didn’t you fight back?’ they would ask. ‘Why did you go like sheep to the slaughter?’ They were First-Class Jews who took up arms and fought, while we were Second-Class Yids whom the Germans could annihilate without encountering resistance.”28

Remembering Jeremiah, the sages formulated a third way: to sustain their faith through institutions that (unlike the Temple) could be established anywhere – the synagogue, the school, the house of study and the home. In the meanwhile they would practise what today would be called active citizenship in the countries of their dispersion.