Noted television show host and newspaper commentator Dan Margalit, who says he \"respects the Torah\'s commandments but feels no need to fulfill them,\" spoke with HaTzofeh\'s Yehudit Gurfein this past Friday about Israeli society today. His comments:
\"To my sorrow, I have no Talmudic knowledge, and I was exposed to Mishnah and Medrash only at a late age... It saddens me that the young generation in Israel is prevented from being exposed to Judaism\'s spiritual richness... I greatly fear a situation in which the State of Israel will not be conquered by an enemy, but will disintegrate on its own because of loss of its identity.\"
Gurfein: \"What should be done to ensure that this does not happen?\"
Margalit: \"The youth should be directed to rebel against the generation of parents that have become bourgeois, and to rebel against the \'sacred value\' of personal success. The young must tell their parents that they don\'t want to travel to Paris again for Passover, but rather to celebrate it together at home and to learn its significance. The youth must rediscover their Judaism. They should come out against the prevailing mode of giving goyish names to the kids so that they will have an easier time abroad. We need a spiritual revolution and a generation of leaders that acts not out of personal interests but out of concern for the nation and the country. Enough already of this \'self-fulfillment\'\' that leads to the disintegration of Israeli society. Aside from the religious-national public, every group in Israel sees only its narrow interests. Only the \'knitted yarmulke\' public, in my opinion, really cares about what happens to the whole of society.\"
Gurfein: \"As a media person, have you publicly said or written these things?\"
Margalit: \"Truthfully, no. And this is the first time that I\'ve been asked about them.\"
\"To my sorrow, I have no Talmudic knowledge, and I was exposed to Mishnah and Medrash only at a late age... It saddens me that the young generation in Israel is prevented from being exposed to Judaism\'s spiritual richness... I greatly fear a situation in which the State of Israel will not be conquered by an enemy, but will disintegrate on its own because of loss of its identity.\"
Gurfein: \"What should be done to ensure that this does not happen?\"
Margalit: \"The youth should be directed to rebel against the generation of parents that have become bourgeois, and to rebel against the \'sacred value\' of personal success. The young must tell their parents that they don\'t want to travel to Paris again for Passover, but rather to celebrate it together at home and to learn its significance. The youth must rediscover their Judaism. They should come out against the prevailing mode of giving goyish names to the kids so that they will have an easier time abroad. We need a spiritual revolution and a generation of leaders that acts not out of personal interests but out of concern for the nation and the country. Enough already of this \'self-fulfillment\'\' that leads to the disintegration of Israeli society. Aside from the religious-national public, every group in Israel sees only its narrow interests. Only the \'knitted yarmulke\' public, in my opinion, really cares about what happens to the whole of society.\"
Gurfein: \"As a media person, have you publicly said or written these things?\"
Margalit: \"Truthfully, no. And this is the first time that I\'ve been asked about them.\"