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February 26, 1999/10 Adar 5759, Vol. 51, No. 22
Ben-Gurion's legacy: Write a constitution now
JOSEPH AARON
Chicago Jewish News
It's been 50 years in the avoiding.
But it's finally here, no longer able to be swept under the rug, to be avoided in light of more pressing concerns, to be ignored while other matters are attended to.
It is nothing less than the most profound question the state of Israel faces. What should a Jewish state be?
How Jewish, when Jewish, what kind of Jewish? What is the role, if any, of Torah, of God, of Jewish law, of Jewish tradition. Should there, in short, be separation of shul and state or mingling of them?
Simple questions, the most profound of questions.
Anyone who thinks the answers are obvious, who thinks there can be only one answer is incredibly wrong. Anyone who thinks the answers are unattainable, that there can be no answer is equally wrong. Nothing about this is easy, but nothing about it should make us run in fear.
Quite the contrary. It is something that it is about time for us to wrestle with. Something that if we do not wrestle with and resolve, will lead to nothing short of Jewish civil war in the Jewish state. Recent rulings by Israel's Supreme Court, strengthening pluralism's position and weakening Orthodoxy's hold on state matters, have shown us that. Recent rallies in Jerusalem, held by both sides, made it even more clear, as have the words said by both sides before, during and after words that should send chills down the spines of all Jews, for they are being said by Jews about Jews, all in the context of the most important debate to face the Jewish people perhaps ever.
What should a Jewish state be?
Listen to the words. Yossi Sarid, head of the Meretz party which champions secular rights in Israel, said, "You must understand that this is a war, a war over the character of our beloved country."
A war, he said.
He's talking about war against other Jews.
Israel's two most prominent writers, Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua, accused the Orthodox of wanting to turn Israel into a "non-democratic state ruled by religious law."
Meanwhile, one of Sephardic Orthodoxy's most prominent rabbis called Israeli Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak, "an enemy of Judaism," while one of Ashkenazic Orthodoxy's most prominent rabbis called the court's decisions "anti-Semitic" and said there would be "a revolt" if the court does not stop interfering in religious matters. At the Feb. 14 rally of the Orthodox, those there prayed "Our father, our king, obliterate the designs of those who plot against us."
Obliterate, it said.
It's talking about obliterating other Jews.
Listening to that makes you think that maybe David Ben-Gurion knew what he was doing. Maybe.
Ben-Gurion was, of course, Israel's founding father. But when it came time to establish the state of Israel, Ben-Gurion made the very important decision to avoid dealing with the fundamental issue of what the first Jewish state in more than 2,000 years should be.
Ben-Gurion's reasoning was that debating that would be too divisive at a time the new state could least afford it, would divide Jew from Jew at a time when unity was essential, would raise issues that could not be resolved and that might stop everything in its tracks.
Which is why Israel did not begin its life as a country the way most countries do: by coming up with a constitution.
Having just concluded the impeachment debacle in this country, we see how vital a constitution is, how much we, more than 200 years later, look to it for guidance, for eternal wisdom, as a measure of what we should be all about.
Israel has no constitution because back 50 years ago, Ben-Gurion decided the old saw about "two Jews, three opinions" would prove especially true when trying to write, in effect, a statement of purpose for the Jewish state.
And so he didn't even try. And Israel hasn't. Israel to this minute has no constitution, no bill of rights, none of the guiding documents we take so for granted and so rely on in this country. Which is why Israel is in its present predicament. It is having the debate it's been putting off for 50 years.
And with good reason. Surrounded by Arabs determined to drive it into the sea, Israel had to be less concerned about what a Jewish state should be than simply about making sure a Jewish state would be.
But times, thank God, change. And now there's every good reason to put it off no more.
For Israel, more secure than ever, no longer has to worry about its very survival. In physical terms. And so now, it has the luxury of being able to have the biggest fight the Jewish world has ever seen. The fight to write that constitution and, in the process, put down on paper just what the Jewish state should be.
If we do it right, it will be an exhilarating process. A time for Jews to think out, talk out, debate about what it means to have and be a Jewish country, how to be a modern state and how to be a Jewish one, how to honor Judaism's unique values and eternal truths and how to embrace the diversity of Jewish expressions and viewpoints.
If we do it right, this can be an enormously creative time in Jewish life, a way to galvanize the Jewish people for a truly compelling reason. It can be the next great Jewish project and one, thankfully, that does not involve saving or rescuing Jews at risk but rather energizing Jews at home.
Or it can be a very ugly Jewish civil war.
The early signs are not very encouraging. The words being used, the attitudes being taken, the uncompromising positions being staked out do not bode at all well.
And that is not at all to be taken lightly. This truly can turn into the greatest crisis facing the Jewish state, far more dangerous than Saddam Hussein or Gamel Abdul Nasser or any of Israel's shooting wars. Shooting wars we have known how to handle and know how to win. This could be a war where the shooting is all done in a circle. Meaning at each other, by each other. Meaning nobody wins.
What's scary is that it seems almost no one believes that there is a solution to this. Thinking there is no answer to something is not something Jews have ever done. Believing we can find a solution to any situation is what has kept us going under all kinds of conditions in all kinds of places for thousands of years.
Yes, there are all kinds of differences between all the different kinds of Jews. But there are so many more similarities and would be incredibly more if we just sat down and felt the weight of working to formulate a statement of purpose for all Jews, for the Jewish state. Understood that what the Jewish state most needs now is a vision of what it wants to be, beyond just surviving.
Can't be done, all sides are too quick to say. And they then ensure that by saying more. The liberal movements take out ads in the New York Times calling Orthodox Jews "fundamentalists," denouncing their "madness," accusing them of not accepting Reform and Conservative Jews as Jews.
The Orthodox take out ads in Israeli papers calling Reform and Conservative Judaism "cults," and saying their followers are "Jewish haters of religion and Torah."
Use that kind of language and it's hard to sit down and work things out.
But sit down and work things out we must. For Israel is at a point when it can avoid the fundamental question no longer, where to be a healthy, vibrant state it must be clear about what it wants to be. To get to its destination, fulfill its destiny, it must know where it wants to go.
We have no more wars that we have to fight. Which is why we now have the privilege of engaging in a battle that is vital to the Jewish future. The question is: Will we come together and thrash out together the issues, arriving at a vision of the Jewish state that will give new life to Judaism and to all Jews? Or will we name-call each other, hate each other, dismiss each other, mistrust each other and so not only avoid answering, together, the fundamental question, but wind up tearing each other apart in a way that we will never recover from.
It is up to us how to proceed. The only war on Israel's horizon is a civil war, if we do not choose well, if we do not act wisely.
Joseph Aaron is editor and publisher of the Chicago Jewish News.
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