Israel Hayom..
28 June '19..
Link: https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/06/28/rome-and-jerusalem-a-farewell-column/
1. The summer of 1982 was steamy and hot. At the end of the Hebrew month of Sivan the IDF had already flooded into Lebanon and was fighting on the Beirut-Damascus road. In Israel, the internal war over the goals of the war and whether or not it was justified still hadn't started. For us, the 9th graders at Kiryat Yaakov Herzog, the junior high school attached to Midreshiyat Noam – including myself – were planning graduation festivities. Three years had passed since I had left my childhood cocoon for a place where I didn't know anybody. It was a special school, for elite religious Zionist students, with English discipline and a Spartan attitude. Some of the teachers were also university professors. We had three phys ed instructors: one for ball games, one for track and field, and one for gym training, which - by the way - included written exams. Parent-teacher meetings were presented as a day of judgment, accompanied by apocalyptic descriptions of the sorrow we would cause our parents if we failed to meet our classroom and educational goals.
I arrived, curious, imagining the special boarding schools I had read about in the English children's literature I swallowed up. My innocent idealism broke down as I missed home, where almost nothing was demanded of me. Day after day, we were handed a page of Talmud to pore over, with commentaries in the tradition of the great yeshivas. I was spitting blood by the time I understood the Talmudic-style letters, sentences, and style, assets that have stayed with me all my life. I always had a hard time with frameworks. We were destined for the famous Midreshiyat Noam in Pardes Hanna, a place that stayed burned in the soul of everyone who passed through it more than any other educational institute or place of work, or even their army service. Meet any Midreshiyat Noam graduate anywhere, and tell him you went there, too, and immediately doors will open, even the doors of people's souls.
In the meantime, our graduation celebrations were dialed back out of respect for the war's fallen soldiers. We marked the end of junior high with a modest event. The administration surprised me. In my first two years, I had been labeled a troublemaker and was occasionally suspended. Now, at the end of my third year, they found it hard to say goodbye, and presented me with an award for excellence: a book inscribed with wishes for my future success.
The book was "A Nation that Lives Alone" by Yaakov Herzog, whom my school was named after. Herzog was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of Rabbi Yitzhak Herzog, who would become the second chief rabbi of Israel. As the son of a great Torah scholar, he studied with one of the elder rabbis and was ordained as a rabbi and a dayan [a rabbinical court judge]. After that, he completed a doctorate in international law in Canada. He became a diplomat, a diplomatic advisor to David Ben-Gurion, and Israel's ambassador to Canada. But more than anything else, he was a shining spokesman for the state of Israel and the Jewish people. He was known for a debate he held with British historian Professor Arnold Toynbee, who declared that the Jewish people had no right to claim the Land of Israel because it was nothing more than a historic "fossil." He also claimed that in the War of Independence, the Jews had done things to the Arabs that were similar to what the Nazis had done to them during World War II. Herzog tore Toynbee's claims apart. Later, Toynbee would admit that he had misunderstood the Jewish people.
The first 40 pages of Herzog's book lay out the debate, and I read it hungrily. Later on came Herzog's important speeches in which he wonderfully brought together the various worlds in which he was equally at home: Judaism, the Bible, Jewish law and commentaries, western literature, history, law, philosophy, and more. I read, astonished and uplifted, and said to myself, I want to do the same things one day. When I page through the book now, notes I made as a youth on sections that I learned almost by heart leap off the page.
2. When you flip though the book at random, it almost always falls open to page 62. Today, I see that as a sign of things to come. In a lecture marking Israel's 20th anniversary, Herzog spoke about four areas of dialogue between us and the world, that began following Israel's great victory in the 1967 Six-Day War and the return to Jerusalem: Israel and the Arab world; Jerusalem and Rome; Israel and the diplomats of the world; and our new dialogue with the rest of the Jewish world. On the specific page I mentioned, Herzog discusses dialogue between Jerusalem and Rome.
Shortly after the Six-Day War, Herzog travelled to Rome. He had been in charge of the matter of Jerusalem and religious affairs since the state was founded. In Israel's early years, the Vatican created a storm in the Catholic world; UN resolutions were passed against Israel, and they didn't want the seat of government to be moved to Jerusalem. Herzog recalls that he came to Rome in September 1948, a few months after the state was founded. They approached the Vatican's internal affairs minister, who said, "Gentlemen, I hear that you arrived from Palestina three days ago." Herzog replied, "We came from Israel three days ago." The words stuck in his throat - he was struck dumb when he realized what he had said - "that after 2,000 years we were the first ones who had the privilege of entering that world fortress and saying, gentlemen, something historic has happened, there is a change." Even then, as a kid not yet 16 years old, I marked that passage with excitement.
3. Many years later, in March of 2015, I had the privilege of being present in the US Congress when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke against the international nuclear agreement with Iran. One section of the glorious speech moved me more than anything else, to the point where I got goose bumps. In the section for honored dignitaries sat author Elie Wiesel. "I wish I could promise you, Elie, that the lessons of history have been learned," Netanyahu said, looking at Wiesel. "I can only urge the leaders of the world not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Not to sacrifice the future for the present; not to ignore aggression in the hopes of gaining an illusory peace." Then he looked at the audience - senators and congress people from the strongest superpower in the world - and said, "But I can guarantee you this, the days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over. We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves. This is why as prime minister of Israel, I can promise you one more thing: Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand!"
A few hours later, I was sitting in a café in Washington, trying to calm down and understand why I was so excited. It seemed to me that I had Herzog in mind while I was listening to the speech in Congress. In my imagination I saw the prime minister of the Jewish state arriving in Rome in our time, 2,000 years late, and announcing to the world: Am Yisrael Chai! (The Jewish people live!)
4. Now I am heading for Rome to represent the same people that rose from the ashes time after time, even after the collapse of that empire. As I leave for Rome, I will take the memory of the prisoners of Judea and Jerusalem, who were humiliated in the Roman victory parades, which brought back the pillaged holy objects of the Temple as the citizens of the empire mocked. The Emperor Vespasian marched at the head of the procession, followed by his son Titus, the destroyer of Jerusalem. The onlookers included Jews whose hearts grieved at the offense to their people, their homeland, and their religion. The Italian Jewish community and particularly the Roman community are one of the oldest in the Jewish world, dating back to the first century BCE, around the same time when Rome entered Judea and Jerusalem with its army under the commander Pompey. The Roman general took advantage of the dispute between brothers Judah Aristobulus and Yohanan Horkonos over the kingdom, and our people began to lose their independence. Since then and through to today, there has been a Jewish presence in the boot-shaped land, with its own ancient customs, traditions, and versions of prayer that are different from those of other Jewish communities.
I am a descendant of the priests of the First Temple. After the destruction of the first temple (586 BCE), my ancestors decided to stay in exile in Babylon and Persia and not answer the call of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, who went back some 70 years later to the Land of Israel to build Jerusalem and the Second Temple. The Jewish elite was well-integrated in the ruling systems of Babylon and Persia, and left it to the unsophisticated folks to change history. When the state of Israel was established, 2,500 years later, my late parents decided to cut the bonds of exile and make aliyah to the young state. My father would say that the Messiah, for whom our people had waited for so many years, was before our eyes in the form of our own new independent state. When they made aliyah, they spent 10 years in an immigrant transfer camp, and what were those camps, if not refugee camps? But unlike our neighbors, my parents didn't complain, and like the rest of our brothers and sisters, busied themselves starting a family and building a country out of the ruins and making it bloom. In their modest way, they joined the pioneers of the Petach Tikva, "Em hamoshavot" (the mother of all colonies), who created a gate of hope (= Petach Tikva in Hebrew) in our people's national consciousness as early as 1878. I will carry them with me to Rome, as well.
5. Ancient Rome no longer exists, only ruins of it. After it, Italy rose, a vibrant and exciting nation. The history of Italy's unification in the 19th century is similar in a number of aspects to the history of our national resurrection in the 20th century. Israelis (and Jews in general) like the Italian people. Language, culture, literature, philosophy, religions, music, sculpture, architecture, history, sport, cars and motorcycles, economy, trade, fashion, military and diplomatic cooperation, space, innovation, good food, and plenty of other areas that I've forgotten. Look around – you'll certainly find something Italian in your lives. Italy is also an important partner in Europe and in the EU, and as we see day after day, activity on the old continent on behalf of our people and our country is needed now more than ever. I will do everything I can to justify the trust that has been placed in me.
6. I don't know how to end 12 years of writing for this paper, and another decade and half of published writing before that. It is difficult for me to stop, and what stopping means is hard for my soul and my heart and my mind. In the past few years, I tended to stay up Wednesday nights, wandering around the quiet rooms of my home and bringing a new column to light at dawn. Every week, I was asked to reinvent myself, even in moments of personal sorrow and grief - to put my feelings aside and write about the matter of the day or the period or rise above them. "This is the poem/ from my mind I carried it, until it grew / The pacing of sleepless nights / From the table to the window, from wall to wall / From picture and eyes bleary from lack of sleep." That is how poet Natan Alterman described his work. That is how I thought about mine.
It wasn't for myself or for my love of writing or the joy of debate that I wrote for so many years, even if these were in my mind – it was mostly for the sake of my people and my homeland and my heritage. I argued with ideological and political opponents as a public emissary, speaking in the name of the masses who did not always take the time to frame their words carefully. I did it for them. Often I wonder, do the rival speakers who insult public officials not understand that by doing so, they were insulting the public who voted for those leaders?
And who were the people in whose name I wanted to speak? Mostly the "second Israel," which included my blessed parents. During my childhood and youth and adulthood I searched for a scrap of a column that would move me and express my opinions. Eagerly, I would look at page after page of the newspapers, and I found mostly people who were speaking against me and against my beliefs. Only on the fringes of the newspaper would I occasionally find a writer or two whose columns had been sidelined. But in contrast, all around me - my family, my neighborhood, my street, and the schools I went to - they spoke differently. Journalism was supposed to reflect the range of voices among the public, but it spoke in only one voice. It was as if we were dumb. This, at least, was one of my formative experiences. That is why I began writing for the public.
And who were the people in whose name I wanted to speak? Mostly the "second Israel," which included my blessed parents. During my childhood and youth and adulthood I searched for a scrap of a column that would move me and express my opinions. Eagerly, I would look at page after page of the newspapers, and I found mostly people who were speaking against me and against my beliefs. Only on the fringes of the newspaper would I occasionally find a writer or two whose columns had been sidelined. But in contrast, all around me - my family, my neighborhood, my street, and the schools I went to - they spoke differently. Journalism was supposed to reflect the range of voices among the public, but it spoke in only one voice. It was as if we were dumb. This, at least, was one of my formative experiences. That is why I began writing for the public.
7. In my columns, I tried to not only present debate and sharpen opinions, but also encourage and recognize what is good. We are a people who survived death who have the privilege our ancestors were denied for centuries: of returning to Zion and founding the Third Kingdom of Israel, which is the state of Israel. I couldn't sit by as our top leaders and writers poured boiling oil on the people who refused to follow their advice and predicted tough scenarios and a black future. Only a moment ago we rose from the ashes, 1,813 years after we lost our independence and our sovereignty. Why was it so urgent for them to scare people about how much evil and bitterness awaits us and how we aren't aware of how bad things are for us right now? From the dawn of our existence, this people has been accustomed to prophets. And look at how all our prophets knew to include words of comfort in their predictions, how to steady trembling knees, and point out the good and tell the people that the time of our redemption had arrived. A prophet whose prophecy is nothing but gloom and doom is singled out as a false one. Let us learn from the true prophets.
And another important idea guided my writing, something our sages called "the opposite is true." It's true that the conservative-right-wing-traditional camp comprises a majority of Israeli society, but the main power centers where elections aren't held – academia, the legal system, culture, and the media – are still in the grip and under the control of the old elite, which refuses to move aside and make room (not give up its place!). There has been a change in the media, due in a great part to the influential presence of Israel Hayom and social media. Other news outlets are now bringing more journalists and reporters on board who present the voice that has been silenced and excluded for years.
And that voice is the voice of the Land of Israel, the voice of Jewish tradition and the Torah, the voice of the "second Israel," the voice of a free economy, standing up for our national rights, our right to self-defense against our enemies even if that means a pre-emptive strike, the voice of the nascent conservative elite, which is increasingly taking its place at the helm of the Zionist ship, and not only in government, but also in intellectual spheres, in the legal system, in culture, and in society.
Therefore, I saw myself deeply obligated to representing the other side of the public debate, even if at times I was booed and insulted and slandered for it. I took those insults and wore them like medals of honor. I tried to explain and back up my claims as deeply as newspaper writing allows. I admit that I was not given an opportunity for fruitful dialogue with ideological opponents. Many good people among them read me regularly and even responded to me personally, but the vast majority - even those who would carry on a dialogue behind the scenes – opted not to do it publicly. You can guess why.
8. And now the time has come to say goodbye. Our sages taught us thatit is not incumbent upon us to finish the task, but neither we are free to absolve ourselves from it (tractate Avot 2:16). I never thought that I have a grasp of the complete truth, but I had a hang of it to the best of my understanding. I am thankful for the privilege I had of serving my people on the battlefield of intellect and writing. Now I am about to take on the diplomatic battlefield. I will try to be a faithful emissary for our people, our country, and our ancient heritage. A new chapter in my life is beginning, a chapter that is one small page in our people's ancient book of life. "There is no end to this upward path / the ends of paths are full only of longing." (Alterman, who else?)
My thanks to all the readers throughout the years. A small request: please send me your responses to this email address: Dror.Eydar.Bye@gmail.com. I'll be very happy to receive them. Thank you to everyone I met and worked with, or who touched me or my soul or my mind. We'll meet along the way, and see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of our lives!
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