The clip above is a very short portion of a lecture delivered recently at Shalem College by Einat Wilf, who to my mind is one of the most creative and serious thinkers about Zionism on the scene today.
Later this week, we will post the entire lecture, and since most of our readers and listeners could not be present at the lecture in Jerusalem, we’ll give our (paid) subscribers an opportunity to pose questions that they would have liked to ask had they been able to attend. Einat Wilf has agreed to come back on our podcast, and she’ll address as many of those questions as she can.
Below, a few glimpses at the sort of questions Israelis are going to have to start to ask …
Today, all eyes are on Washington, DC. Netanyahu has already arrived there (Israeli news covered his arrival) but he has not yet (as of this writing) met with President Trump. Is there going to be an end to the Gaza war (which Trump apparently wants, but which Bibi may or may not be willing to agree to because of the potential domestic political costs)? A ceasefire?
How hard will Trump press Bibi? Or, as many are suggesting, is Bibi really hoping Trump will leave him no choice? Might the whole trip be a cover for him to come back and tell his right flank, “Here’s where the President of the United States drew the line. This is no longer up to us.”?
We shall see.
Perhaps the most agonizing dimension of this unknown is the fate of the twenty hostages who are believed to be alive. If the present draft of the agreement with Hamas comes to be, only ten are getting out in this deal (first eight, then two more down the road). The other ten? It’s unbearable to imagine what their families (whichever families they will end up being) must be feeling.
With all this in mind, two of the families allowed the Hostage Family Forum to release clips of their sons in captivity. The clips were shown all over Israeli media, and were referenced by the English media, but mostly without subtitles.
We’ve added subtitles so everyone can understand what it is Israelis were just exposed to. Will it make a difference? Not clear.
Netanyahu’s flight to the US was actually delayed because of a wrench that the Ultra-Orthodox tossed into the politics machine just as he was about to leave. With all eyes on Gaza, they apparently believe that this is the moment that they can get a bill passed that will permanently exempt their sons from serving in the army.
If the bill passes, will the country explode? Quite possibly. (One has to hope that it will.) Does Bibi have an escape hatch? Not clear.
Since it’s all up for grabs, once again, parties are shuffling and leading figures are making statements to the public. Here is one by Matan Kahana, who recently resigned the Knesset along with Gadi Eizenkot.
Why people of all ilks make these videos from their cars has never been clear to me, but so it is. Here’s a video that Kahana just released about the Haredi draft issue, trying to make sure that Yuli Edelstein, who is widely suspected of getting ready to give into them, toes the line.
Kahana is a very impressive guy, having served in elite units both on the ground and in the air. He was a colonel in the IDF, both a combat soldier in the most elite commando unit Sayeret Matkal as well as a fighter pilot. He was also a commander of a squadron of F-16s.
Will Israelis share his disgust (at both the Haredim and Yudelstein)? The answer to that question may determine Bibi’s political future.
I rarely raise matters of religious tradition in these columns, but every now and then, something feels like it’s just begging to be mentioned. A recent page of the daf yomi, the cycle of a daily page of Talmud study (which gets you through the whole thing in about 7 1/2 years), struck me as eerily timely.
Before we get to it …
When I was a kid, my family lived in Israel from 1969-1971. My father, who was an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins (back in the days before anyone knew what an epidemiologist was), was very involved in public health in the Negev.
With some regularity, his work in the Negev caused him to have to go into Gaza. But it was no big deal. On more than one occasion, he actually took me in our car. I don’t remember much of it … it didn’t seem all that different from Arab neighborhoods in Israel (back then), I recall thinking.
Obviously, Israeli fathers no longer take their kids into Gaza (just as Jerusalemites no longer get their cars serviced in Wadi al-Joz or other East Jerusalem neighborhoods as they did when we first moved here, where it’s much cheaper, but no longer so safe).
Last week, we were studying Avodah Zarah, the tractate about Jewish interactions with Gentiles and their religious customs, when we came to this on AZ 11b:
MISHNA: In the case of a city in which there is active idol worship, it is permitted to engage in business transactions with gentiles who live outside of the city. If the idol worship is outside the city, it is permitted to engage in business within the city. What is the halakha with regard to traveling there, a place where a pagan festival is being celebrated? When the road is designated only for that place, it is prohibited to use the road, as onlookers will assume that the traveler intends to join the festival. But if one were able to travel on it to arrive at another place, it is permitted to use the road to reach the place that is observing the festival.
ON THE SURFACE IT SEEMS PRETTY CLEAR, but things are never that simple in the Talmud. So the Talmud asks how far outside the city one of the idolatrous places must be to be considered outside. And the answer is, “just like things are in Gaza.”
And this was almost two thousand years ago …
GEMARA: The Gemara asks: What are the circumstances that determine whether a place is sufficiently far from a city to be considered outside of it? Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says in the name of Rabbi Ḥanina: A place that is far enough away is, for example, the bazaar [atluza] of Gaza, which is located outside the city walls. And some say that Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish asked Rabbi Ḥanina about this issue: What is the halakha with regard to the bazaar of Gaza? May one conduct business there on the day of a festival celebrated in Gaza? Rabbi Ḥanina said to him: Did you never in your lifetime travel to Tyre and see a Jew and a gentile place two pots on one stove, and yet the Sages were not concerned and did not issue a prohibition with regard to the meat that was in the pot belonging to the Jew, despite the fact that forbidden food was in close proximity to the permitted food? Similarly, in this case as well, the Sages were not concerned about the bazaar’s proximity to Gaza and did not prohibit engaging in business there.
SO THE SAGES OF THE TALMUD knew Gaza well enough to know its geography and local customs. I don’t know how well my father knew his way around Gaza … I have a recollection of another professor in the passenger seat in the front, so perhaps that guy knew his way around better.
But it’s clear. There were days, two thousand years above and 55 years ago, when Jews went into Gaza freely, to engage in commerce, to attend to their health needs.
We’re a long, long way from that, but still—one can’t help but wonder and hope. Any chance that my grandchildren will one day just drive into Gaza for whatever reason?
That, too, remains to be seen.
