In response to my last opinion piece, ?A Halachic State?, many readers expressed trepidation with such a notion. The main concern has been expressed variously as follows, ?If I accidentally fornicate, or if I accidentally broil a steak on Shabbat, I don?t want to get executed. We don?t want any Talibanesque executions.? Of course, when I ask for evidence of any executions at all in the entire Jewish legal history, no one can produce it. What would make members of a Beit Din Hagadol of today any more bloodthirsty than those of 2,000 years ago?
The fears some of us have about a halachic system are because we visualize it in a first century paradigm. Unfortunately, there are many proponents of a halachic state who are also stuck in the first century paradigm, with a perspective from the galut ghetto. We all struggle with this to some degree, because halacha has evolved informally for the past 2,000 years through different times and different places that are not Eretz Yisrael. The Beit Din Hagadol is the only body that can normalize halacha, especially if people sitting in that assembly are our neighbors, who are trying their best to live the same halachot. What kind of insane rulings can they conceivably conjure up?
The original wording in the establishment of the Beit Din Hagadol called for ?people of accomplishment, people who fear HaShem, people of truth, people who despise money?? (Shemot 18:21) As the Beit Din HaGadol serves both judiciary (supreme court) and legislative (senate) functions, members of the Beit Din HaGadol would not necessarily be from the rabbinical world. Although the judiciary branch would be dominated by Torah scholars, the legislative branch need not be. Since the Beit Din HaGadol is an appellate court system, problems that most people fear in halacha will only become issues when challenged in an appeals process. This would spawn a halacha that is as fluid as it was intended to be, to people who can read and understand Torah in their own idiom, people who own their Judaism, unlike 20 centuries ago. Therefore, the cure for fear of a Beit Din HaGadol is the establishment of one, for it is only within the framework of a Beit Din HaGadol that any obsolete or irrelevant halacha can be normalized. And Am Yisrael would have a hand in who is nominated and confirmed to sit on the Beit Din HaGadol.
It has been said that the state of Israel needs a written constitution as other nations have. Some have retorted that the state of Israel already has a constitution; we have just been neglecting it - the Torah. Torah establishes Israel as a democratic republic with a constitutional monarchy. Indeed, efforts should be made to bring about a constitutional Israel for several reasons. We are stuck with economic woes resulting from the Eastern European communistic vestiges of governmental management that defy logic. If our government were structured according to the dictates of Torah, our chances for an economic system that works would be better, despite our paucity of ?natural? resources. The same economic woes are holding us hostage to economic assistance from the USA, for which Ariel Sharon is being compelled to create a Palestinian state. Half of our problems, as a state, have to do with a structure and process lacking continuity, resulting in constant electoral wrangling. A halachic government leaves very little room for such electoral instability.
The most preposterous idea in Israel today is the ?separation of religion and state?. Even Britain, whose amorphous style of constitution is embraced by some in Israel, does not sanction such a separation. The US constitution, to which many aspire, does just the converse. It strives to protect religion from the government, not the government from religion. In fact, the term ?religion? does not belong in the Jewish lexicon. Israel, of all places, needs to recognize that without Torah, we have no mandate for existence. Furthermore, the absence of Torah legitimizes the Palestinian claims. Rashi?s very first commentary on Torah underscores this fact.
There are those who say we cannot establish a halachic government today. First, the constitution (Torah) is devised in such a way that terrestrial matters are under the jurisdiction of human beings. Secondly, a halachic state is essential for the survival of the state of Israel. Both these are mitigating factors to whatever halachic constraints some may believe exist.
The fact that the state of Israel now exists is a compelling enough reason to aspire to a halachic government. Aspiring to a halachic state means setting things in motion that will lead to a halachic state. The actual establishment of a halachic state is a different issue, which will most likely require trauma and much soul searching in many enclaves of Klal Yisrael.
Israel is not just another state among nations. HaShem created Israel for a purpose, but when we abrogate that purpose, we cannot justify our existence. The real estate of Eretz Yisrael is governed by a different law than any other real estate on the planet. This is a fact that the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, or any other alphabet soup organization, will never understand. HaShem has extended to us a 50-year opportunity and we are squandering it, to our own demise. We are pilfering whatever meager merit we may have in HaShem?s eyes.
Let the Arabs give up the pieces of greater Israel that they occupy, not the other way around. They learned that they could invade Israel, lose ground and have it returned. We have learned just the opposite? to give it away.
?Behold, the days come, saith the L-rd God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord [Torah]. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord [Torah], and shall not find it.? (Amos 8:11-12)
The affairs of Israel are between HaShem and Israel. When the Jewish state aspires to do away with Torah in its affairs, it denies its very mandate for existence. This is why we are now reduced to fighting anemic, apologetic and non-decisive skirmishes, waiting for the non-Jews to approve every kill we make. Whatever happened to the Israel of Entebbe and the Yom Kippur War? We yearn to be invited to their treif teas and lunches at the White House in order to feel important in their eyes. We go from sea to sea, treif lunch to treif lunch, seeking a word from non-Jews to make the Palestinians go away, but we will never find it until we, as a nation, come back to Torah.
?For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes [Torah], and ye shall keep Mine ordinances [Halacha], and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God. And I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye may receive no more the reproach of famine [economic aid] among the nations. Then shall ye remember your evil ways [separation of state and Torah], and your doings that were not good; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. Not for your sake do I do this, saith the L-rd God, be it known unto you; be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel. Thus saith the L-rd God: In the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be builded [Judea, Samaria and Gaza]. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say: This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited. Then the nations that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord have builded the ruined places, and planted that which was desolate; I the L-rd have spoken it, and I will do it. (Ezekiel 36:24-36).
We need national t?shuva.
[The text in square brackets is my own interpretation and I humbly defer to experts who see these passages differently.]
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Moshe Yisraeli is a promulgator of Jewish thought in modern times. He is making aliyah and can be reached at mosheyisraeli@yahoo.com.
The fears some of us have about a halachic system are because we visualize it in a first century paradigm. Unfortunately, there are many proponents of a halachic state who are also stuck in the first century paradigm, with a perspective from the galut ghetto. We all struggle with this to some degree, because halacha has evolved informally for the past 2,000 years through different times and different places that are not Eretz Yisrael. The Beit Din Hagadol is the only body that can normalize halacha, especially if people sitting in that assembly are our neighbors, who are trying their best to live the same halachot. What kind of insane rulings can they conceivably conjure up?
The original wording in the establishment of the Beit Din Hagadol called for ?people of accomplishment, people who fear HaShem, people of truth, people who despise money?? (Shemot 18:21) As the Beit Din HaGadol serves both judiciary (supreme court) and legislative (senate) functions, members of the Beit Din HaGadol would not necessarily be from the rabbinical world. Although the judiciary branch would be dominated by Torah scholars, the legislative branch need not be. Since the Beit Din HaGadol is an appellate court system, problems that most people fear in halacha will only become issues when challenged in an appeals process. This would spawn a halacha that is as fluid as it was intended to be, to people who can read and understand Torah in their own idiom, people who own their Judaism, unlike 20 centuries ago. Therefore, the cure for fear of a Beit Din HaGadol is the establishment of one, for it is only within the framework of a Beit Din HaGadol that any obsolete or irrelevant halacha can be normalized. And Am Yisrael would have a hand in who is nominated and confirmed to sit on the Beit Din HaGadol.
It has been said that the state of Israel needs a written constitution as other nations have. Some have retorted that the state of Israel already has a constitution; we have just been neglecting it - the Torah. Torah establishes Israel as a democratic republic with a constitutional monarchy. Indeed, efforts should be made to bring about a constitutional Israel for several reasons. We are stuck with economic woes resulting from the Eastern European communistic vestiges of governmental management that defy logic. If our government were structured according to the dictates of Torah, our chances for an economic system that works would be better, despite our paucity of ?natural? resources. The same economic woes are holding us hostage to economic assistance from the USA, for which Ariel Sharon is being compelled to create a Palestinian state. Half of our problems, as a state, have to do with a structure and process lacking continuity, resulting in constant electoral wrangling. A halachic government leaves very little room for such electoral instability.
The most preposterous idea in Israel today is the ?separation of religion and state?. Even Britain, whose amorphous style of constitution is embraced by some in Israel, does not sanction such a separation. The US constitution, to which many aspire, does just the converse. It strives to protect religion from the government, not the government from religion. In fact, the term ?religion? does not belong in the Jewish lexicon. Israel, of all places, needs to recognize that without Torah, we have no mandate for existence. Furthermore, the absence of Torah legitimizes the Palestinian claims. Rashi?s very first commentary on Torah underscores this fact.
There are those who say we cannot establish a halachic government today. First, the constitution (Torah) is devised in such a way that terrestrial matters are under the jurisdiction of human beings. Secondly, a halachic state is essential for the survival of the state of Israel. Both these are mitigating factors to whatever halachic constraints some may believe exist.
The fact that the state of Israel now exists is a compelling enough reason to aspire to a halachic government. Aspiring to a halachic state means setting things in motion that will lead to a halachic state. The actual establishment of a halachic state is a different issue, which will most likely require trauma and much soul searching in many enclaves of Klal Yisrael.
Israel is not just another state among nations. HaShem created Israel for a purpose, but when we abrogate that purpose, we cannot justify our existence. The real estate of Eretz Yisrael is governed by a different law than any other real estate on the planet. This is a fact that the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, or any other alphabet soup organization, will never understand. HaShem has extended to us a 50-year opportunity and we are squandering it, to our own demise. We are pilfering whatever meager merit we may have in HaShem?s eyes.
Let the Arabs give up the pieces of greater Israel that they occupy, not the other way around. They learned that they could invade Israel, lose ground and have it returned. We have learned just the opposite? to give it away.
?Behold, the days come, saith the L-rd God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord [Torah]. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord [Torah], and shall not find it.? (Amos 8:11-12)
The affairs of Israel are between HaShem and Israel. When the Jewish state aspires to do away with Torah in its affairs, it denies its very mandate for existence. This is why we are now reduced to fighting anemic, apologetic and non-decisive skirmishes, waiting for the non-Jews to approve every kill we make. Whatever happened to the Israel of Entebbe and the Yom Kippur War? We yearn to be invited to their treif teas and lunches at the White House in order to feel important in their eyes. We go from sea to sea, treif lunch to treif lunch, seeking a word from non-Jews to make the Palestinians go away, but we will never find it until we, as a nation, come back to Torah.
?For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes [Torah], and ye shall keep Mine ordinances [Halacha], and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God. And I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye may receive no more the reproach of famine [economic aid] among the nations. Then shall ye remember your evil ways [separation of state and Torah], and your doings that were not good; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. Not for your sake do I do this, saith the L-rd God, be it known unto you; be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel. Thus saith the L-rd God: In the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be builded [Judea, Samaria and Gaza]. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say: This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited. Then the nations that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord have builded the ruined places, and planted that which was desolate; I the L-rd have spoken it, and I will do it. (Ezekiel 36:24-36).
We need national t?shuva.
[The text in square brackets is my own interpretation and I humbly defer to experts who see these passages differently.]
--------------------------------------------------------
Moshe Yisraeli is a promulgator of Jewish thought in modern times. He is making aliyah and can be reached at mosheyisraeli@yahoo.com.