I’ve been pondering the huge topic of Judaism and Israel lately (i.e., the “big concept” of Israel, not just the modern nation), after watching some documentaries and listening to some lectures on Middle Eastern history. I am not from the Jewish heritage, and I am not a professional historian. But still, I’m entitled to my thoughts and impressions. And here they are, for what it’s worth.
(With the footnote that my paternal grandfather may have come from a Jewish family that went Christian during the pogroms.)
The way I see it, Judaism is the result of a theologically-inspired “retrojection”, i.e. the re-arrangement of history by an ancient people trying to find meaning and identity after failing at the Middle Eastern “empire game”. This response to their failure was a success; while many nations and ethnic groups have come and gone over the two millennium of Jewish history, the Jews are still going strong. Nonetheless, the origins of “greater Israel” appear to be grounded in the humiliating failure to mimic what the Egyptians and Persians did way back when — i.e., select a dictator (a king), organize a group of unruly tribes into a submissive collective, carry out great public works, and form a mighty army to conquer other peoples and expand the collective’s wealth and power.
David and Solomon gave it a good try, but in the end their subjects were just a bit too unruly. As a kingdom, Israel just couldn’t cut it. It was thus over-run by other, more effective kingdoms (the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks and the Romans). It was rather humiliating and depressing. The Caanan high-country tribes of early Jewish history needed a very good reason to stick together and not dissolve as other conquered peoples had over the centuries (e.g., the Ammonites, the Meades, the Hittites, the Dacians … the list of defunct nationalities is long). And over time — not all at once, as the Old Testament claims — the “tribes of Israel” came to believe in a national identity and a national relationship with an all-powerful God. Those beliefs were based on even more ancient stories, passed on amidst their members, regarding how some parts of the tribe had experienced and escaped slavery in Egypt with the help of a God who demanded exclusive loyalty.
The proto-Jewish tribes in the Canaan hill country had worshipped multiple gods long after the time of the Exodus, but by the time of the Babylonian exile they started taking the demands of “El” or “YHWH” seriously. They gave up on Baal and the female fertility gods and started building their identity around an agreement, a “covenant”, with the exclusive God of Old. These tribes, now captured and subjected to foreign power, forged their identity around 20-20 hindsight, around an historical explanation for their troubles (i.e., that YHWH was punishing them for wayward conduct). All that false gods worship over the years had gotten YHWH angry; if they could get back to living by the covenant, they might be given another chance.
Well, guess what. The gambit worked, even though it was entirely sincere and not imagined as a “political strategy”. Strategies are what we cynical 21st Century people do. And yet, the ancient tribe of Israel is still a viable nation, very much with us. I believe there is a lesson of wisdom to be seen in all of this. The Persians, Greeks, Romans, Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians are either gone or but a shadow of their past greatness. But the Jews just keep coming.
And what is to be said about that? I must admit to mixed feelings; it depends on how you look at it. My feelings get tangled up on the topic of modern Israel. In many ways, today’s Israel is a light in the desert, a haven of democracy and civilization in a land all-too-tied to early human history. But the often-vicious things that the nation of Israel has to do in response to its often-brutal neighbors can be very unsettling. Israel survives only by participating in a never-ending war, just as in Biblical times. Only today, Israel gets the military tactics right (for the most part). It even sends its settlers into conquered territory to crowd out others with ancestral claims. But no matter how brilliant its generals or tenacious its colonizers, the wars just go on and on. Peace treaties are made with certain groups, but other groups arise to continue the battle. Not a pretty picture.
But as to Judaism as a larger, world-wide phenomenon: the historical legacy is nothing short of brilliant, truly amazing. The Jews have been a true leavening to all the peoples on this planet. Where would you even start? Art, science, theology, entertainment, academics, commerce, leadership, music, humanitarianism . . . the list could go on and on regarding Jewish achievement. I have two questions about all of this; for one, I have some thoughts; the other I find ultimately vexing.
My first question is whether the greatness of the Jews reflects an existential truth behind the mythologies that have sustained their identity over the many centuries of recorded history. I.e., are they “powered by God”? I believe that they are. I’m not saying that all of what the Old Testament professes about God is true; if God is really as great as those old stories teach, then how could any human writing, however inspired, capture what is beyond our inherent frailties and limitations? But the greatness of the Jews must, in my view, owe something to the “glue” that holds their identity together. That glue must be real, not just a human mythological notion. Plenty of nations had powerful myths but are now long gone. The Jews had God, and are still here. All those brilliant Jewish atheists like Einstein (and Dave, my former boss) notwithstanding!
The more confounding question for me is whether Judaism needs that dry tract of land along the eastern Mediterranean Sea for its identity, much as it needs YHWH. I’ve heard people, both Jewish and non-Jewish, argue that modern Israel is absolutely necessary to Jewish identity and survival. Without it, arguably the Jews could perish; either through genocide (as has been tried, more than once), or by assimilation, or some combination. I cannot glibly respond to this point.
However, I can’t help but wonder if the ultimate failure of the ancient Caananite tribes to hold land against the mighty world powers, their repeated exiles and repatriations and diasporas, formed the setting from which their unending strength was derived. I can’t help but ponder whether in geopolitical failure the ancient Jews brought forth the best within them, and the best in all humankind. The core of the Old Testament, i.e. the Torah, which acts as the Constitution of Jewish identity, can be read to require both God and the ancient homeland as Jewish necessities. But the later parts of the Hebrew Bible extend Judaism into something more than a land-based concept, into a more ethical, moral and intellectual form of strength. God remained the God of the Jews even in the most horrible places so far from . . .
OK, I need to stop. I have no warrant to talk about those horrible places; I’m way outside of my league. But the Israel / Jewish identity connection is an awfully confounding question, and I respect those who have strong feelings about it. For now, I cannot offer a conclusion.
Jim,
I have always had a totally different view of what I consider you are talking about here–the “politics” of Israel.
If I remember correctly (and here I go waaaay back) and I ask forgiveness for not being able to cite references, etc., I remember the question being asked (perhaps back in the late 1940s or early 1950s) why it was that the Jews in the German extermination camps simply did not rise up in revolt and rebel. Sure, some of them would have died, but the majority would have been able to overcome their captors.
And if I remember correctly, the response by thoughtful Jews of the time was that they would “never let this (such genocide/extermination) happen to us again.”
Israel was given land after WWII to establish a “homeland” it never had, if I remember correctly. And if I further recall correctly, the people living in the area were not asked if they would like to give up their land. (Blame the Allies for that.) I have always thought that the concept of never allowing themselves to be “exterminated” again was and is what has fueled Israel; and that the Palestinians have, since their land was summarily taken away from them, resented the fact of their land simply being taken from them.
So Israel is fighting for a basic instinct to survive; Palestine considers that the “interlopers”, “robbers of their land(s)” should be treated as such and removed/eliminated (a stronger word) from what they still consider their land.
Thus, you have a continuous fight between these two groups that seemingly will never end. I doubt that the conflict between the two groups has anything to do with any of either group’s religious convictions. They may bolster their arguments with religious reasons, but religious reasoning is not what is the bedrock of the conflict in this line of thinking.
I often think that perhaps a closer (better?) reading of the Bible story of how the initial Jews “conquered” the Promised Land when they arrived there would be helpful. If one reads the Bible carefully, one finds “between the lines” that the way the Jews “conquered” the Promised Land originally was by intermarrying among the groups that were already there. Then after the Jews had sufficiently intermarried to become influential, they began to see the groups they “conquered” as “enemies.” I have always wondered what the wives thought–but they, of course, had no say whatsoever. On the other hand, perhaps there were several generations between the original Jewish “conquerers” intermarrying and the time the original people of the land became “enemies” of the Jews.
I also think that the comic Doonesbury captured well what is going on in the region in general: Two men from the Israel/Palestine region are talking. One says to the other that “they” killed my cousin. The second person says, Oh, when was that? The first says back in 1300. It seems that a little less of really long-term memory would be helpful over there–on the part of both sides.
Furthermore, I think both sides would do well to listen more to their women–well, not the women, such as the recent female suicide bomber who killed numerous women and children at a market this last week, who buy into their men’s thinking (the only way for the females to participate in power over there). A woman’s approach might be helpful–seeing that both sides have some right on their side and both sides have some wrong on their side.
I doubt any of what is going on in Israel/Palestine today has much to do with religion at all. I think much of it is basic survival instinct and politics–and acting on such instinct does not allow for much rational thought. Somewhere along the line, someone needs to say, hey wait a minute: let’s give this some careful thought and consider with EMPATHY both sides of this issue.
MCS
Comment by MCS — February 15, 2009 @ 11:54 am
Jim,
I have always had a totally different view of what I consider you are talking about here–the “politics” of Israel.
If I remember correctly (and here I go waaaay back) and I ask forgiveness for not being able to cite references, etc., I remember the question being asked (perhaps back in the late 1940s or early 1950s) why it was that the Jews in the German extermination camps simply did not rise up in revolt and rebel. Sure, some of them would have died, but the majority would have been able to overcome their captors.
And if I remember correctly, the response by thoughtful Jews of the time was that they would “never let this (such genocide/extermination) happen to us again.”
Israel was given land after WWII to establish a “homeland” it never had, if I remember correctly. And if I further recall correctly, the people living in the area were not asked if they would like to give up their land. (Blame the Allies for that.) I have always thought that the concept of never allowing themselves to be “exterminated” again was and is what has fueled Israel; and that the Palestinians have, since their land was summarily taken away from them, resented the fact of their land simply being taken from them.
So Israel is fighting for a basic instinct to survive; Palestine considers that the “interlopers”, “robbers of their land(s)” should be treated as such and removed/eliminated (a stronger word) from what they still consider their land.
Thus, you have a continuous fight between these two groups that seemingly will never end. I doubt that the conflict between the two groups has anything to do with any of either group’s religious convictions. They may bolster their arguments with religious reasons, but religious reasoning is not what is the bedrock of the conflict in this line of thinking.
I often think that perhaps a closer (better?) reading of the Bible story of how the initial Jews “conquered” the Promised Land when they arrived there would be helpful. If one reads the Bible carefully, one finds “between the lines” that the way the Jews “conquered” the Promised Land originally was by intermarrying among the groups that were already there. Then after the Jews had sufficiently intermarried to become influential, they began to see the groups they “conquered” as “enemies.” I have always wondered what the wives thought–but they, of course, had no say whatsoever. On the other hand, perhaps there were several generations between the original Jewish “conquerers” intermarrying and the time the original people of the land became “enemies” of the Jews.
I also think that the comic Doonesbury captured well what is going on in the region in general: Two men from the Israel/Palestine region are talking. One says to the other that “they” killed my cousin. The second person says, Oh, when was that? The first says back in 1300. It seems that a little less of really long-term memory would be helpful over there–on the part of both sides.
Furthermore, I think both sides would do well to listen more to their women–well, not the women, such as the recent female suicide bomber who killed numerous women and children at a market this last week, who buy into their men’s thinking (the only way for the females to participate in power over there). A woman’s approach might be helpful–seeing that both sides have some right on their side and both sides have some wrong on their side.
I doubt any of what is going on in Israel/Palestine today has much to do with religion at all. I think much of it is basic survival instinct and politics–and acting on such instinct does not allow for much rational thought. Somewhere along the line, someone needs to say, hey wait a minute: let’s give this some careful thought and consider with EMPATHY both sides of this issue.
MCS
Comment by MCS — February 15, 2009 @ 11:54 am