Perhaps we all need a reminder, in the midst of haggling and dealing, that we are living not in an ordinary land

IT is 6 p.m, the Jerusalem light rail is packed, and I am crushed among the standees. On my left is a man reading a chareidi and very right-wing tabloid with lurid red and yellow headlines. Some might label it sensationalist. On my right is a man reading a secular and very left-wing tabloid, with lurid red and yellow headlines. Some might label it sensationalist. (Thus, my left is Right, and my right is Left: this is Israel….)

I am pressed so close to them that I can read their newspapers. The leftist tabloid offers a screaming headline: “New Government Is Fascist.” The rightist tabloid will not be outdone, and offers its own screaming headline: “Mixed Multitude Out. Decent Government In.”

The train rounds a curve and we are thrown against one another, but the anger is undiminished. A leftist columnist, headlining “the end of democracy,” accuses chareidim of destroying the rule of law by reforming the High Court. The Rightist columnist heralds the long overdue weakening of the “arrogant, anti-Torah High Court.” On my left, a full page notice: “Power-Hungry Rabbis Want Another Medieval Iran!” On my right, a front page ad: “Imitating the West’s Immorality Will Destroy Israel!”

The conversation — shouting match, really — between the tabloids is both amusing and disturbing, but my neck aches from swiveling from right to left. Mercifully, the train stops at the Central Station, disgorging many riders. Gone also are my new friends, the tabloids. My inter-ideological caper has ended.

The train continues on, and I sit down and muse: That was quite entertaining, but, seriously, is this truly Israel — a country of nonstop invectives? Or is it only the sensationalist media fomenting inter-group hostilities, because they live by simplistic black and white ( and yellow and red) “journalism”? Still, is it possible that the media reflects reality? Is Israel splitting into two opposing groups, with civil strife imminent, as they suggest?

I prefer to think that except for some extreme elements on either side, they are wrong. Most Israelis, those in the silent majority, whether in Bnei Brak or North Tel Aviv, know that we are all Jews with Jewish souls, that we are all in this together, and that our gun-carrying, knife-wielding enemies do not distinguish between a shtreimel-wearing Jew davening Minchah, and a bareheaded Jew jogging in gym clothes outside the shtibel. How to get them to talk with one another is the issue.

Personally, though I am not a genuine, card-carrying chareidi, my sympathies are with them in the current debates. It is not fascistic, for example, to hold that the Israeli High Court, in thrall of Western values and running roughshod over religious sensibilities while answering only to themselves, needs some reining in. And are the crocodile tears of the left really about the “loss of democratic values,” or about the loss of leftist power? (Overlooked fact: They lost power not because of a coup d’état, but because of a democratic election.)

Nevertheless, I do not believe that those leftist secularists who disagree with me are necessarily evil and despise religion — just as I do not believe that all chareidim are necessarily tzaddikim. Note: I am not equating Torah observance with non-observance; am not engaging in “you-are-right-and-I-am-right” platitudes; and I do decry pathetic Israeli attempts to mimic the latest Western fads. But at the same time, life is not a simplistic tabloid. And I wonder — since every Jew possesses a holy neshamah — if somehow, perhaps through some Divine intercession there can be created a bridge between those who revere Torah and those who are ignorant of Torah.

Perhaps we all need a reminder, in the midst of haggling and dealing, that we are living not in an ordinary land. Unlike any other place on earth, Eretz Yisrael is G-d’s home base, sacred and holy even today, and the ordinary rules of nations and of history do not apply here. Religious Jews are theoretically aware of this, but a reminder is always in order. Secularists sense this, perhaps subliminally, and are certainly not disinclined towards this concept. This Land is different, we Jews are different (just ask the anti-Semites) and our behavior toward one another should be different. A national, low-decibel conversation, minus grandstanding and vituperation, is devoutly to be wished. Or must we wait for the Mashiach for this to come to pass?

The train arrives with a jolt at its final destination; my reverie comes to an abrupt end. But a new one replaces it: Though the train had carried all kinds of passengers, and negotiated many twists and turns, the long trip is done. If occasionally we experienced some discomfort and bewilderment as to where we were going, some day we will realize that, though unaware of His presence, we were all along in the unseen hands of a concealed and invisible — but very caring — Conductor….

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 950)