On the Threshold of Greatness: the Singular Ideal

By Tuvia Brodie

The nation of Israel lives. She is not an inanimate object. She has a communal, human spirit—complex, contradictory and subject to all the joy and pain of the human experience. Her national soul is a multi-faceted diamond. It reflects our conflicting aspirations and our hopes—and pulses with an inner war that wages continuously (see An Angel Among Men, Simcha Raz, Kol Mevaser Publications, 2003, p 11). Our mission as a nation is not to fight these inner battles until someone wins—or until they tear us apart; rather, our purpose is to acknowledge that these struggles exist so we can take the best of each warring fragment. We must take and build; and as we build, we will find a gift: a singular all-inclusive unifying concept, a national ideal whose depth and strength will make us great.

Already, we stand at that threshold. Despite our current problems—and despite the negative headlines that bombard us daily-- Israel is ready. Our economy is not only one of the strongest in the developed world, our currency is strengthening as other currencies weaken, our research and development is among the best in the world and the number of patents per capita is among the best in the world. Already, Israel leads the world in business start-ups per capita. The importance of this statistic cannot be overstated because a nation’s total wealth depends on the small –business sector. Freeze, limit or destroy that sector and your national economy can stagnate and fall; empower that sector—especially in a free-market environment—and your nation’s wealth potential has almost no limit.

Our military strength and our democratic institutions are in place and strong. Our freedoms are established.

Recent oil/gas discoveries make Israel, potentially, the world’s number one or two oil/gas country.

For more than 100 years, Zionism was driven by the desire to ‘be like everyone else’. But we must now re-invent that dream because we have begun to separate ourselves from ‘everyone else’.

Look at Europe: the PIGS—Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain—have economies that are on the verge of collapse. Moreover, saving the PIGS could weaken and threaten the survivability of the entire European Union. There are worker-inspired riots in the streets. The European experiment with multiculturalism threatens to destroy the social fabric of Europe. There are religious-inspired riots in the streets.

In America, economic fear spreads like an unchecked virus. The value of the dollar cannot stop dropping. China—which controls an enormous portion of US debt—threatens to destabilize our debt structure. The IMF is already thinking out loud about dropping the dollar as the international currency of choice—an action that could cut down the American economy at the knees. Long-term unemployment is now greater than that of the Great Depression. Gas-pump prices are at historic highs—and going higher. Food shortages and high food prices are predicted. One prominent political pundit has already said that he could see civil unrest in the US coming soon.

The Arab Spring has become a season of fire and destruction.

Israel has seen none of this. Why should we desire to be like everyone else? They falter and fail. We, however, can see greatness before us. But we have a problem: in order to step across that threshold and assume that mantle, we have to change. To use a really bad metaphor, you cannot become a celebrity while you dress like a fashion mistake; to be recognized as great, you have to be great. We are close—but we lack the key ingredient.

Almost two hundred and fifty years ago, a new idea was born. This singular idea became the force that unified a people and made that people great. This idea was called ‘American Freedom’. Not everyone believed it. Not everyone wanted it. Not everyone accepted it. But enough people bought into it that a critical mass was formed—and the American idea of Freedom drove and energized a nation to greatness. That was 1776.

Today is 2011.

Today, there is an irreconcilable difference between the worlds of 1776 and 2011. What worked for America then does not appear to work for America—or Israel –now. America falters. She may have begun to unravel. The fabric of her founding ideal has torn. She is no longer the go-to model for greatness.

Look at Israel. What do you see? Our nation is like the human soul, driven by inner struggle and conflicting aspirations. But this is not simply bad news about us; it is also the good news, for this struggle, these aspirations are the key to our greatness: we are willing to struggle, and we yearn, we dream.

Israel stands on the threshold of greatness. But time is short. We may only have one opportunity. We must act: if we do not advance we will fall behind. To borrow from Yoram Hazony (The Jewish State, Basic Books, 2001), if we are to become great we must commit to a singular, unifying ideal that can energize our national soul. We need an ideal not just for today or next year (greatness is not a flavour-of-the-decade thing); we need an ideal that can be preserved from one generation to the next, an ideal profound enough to withstand the results of application across many times and places. This ideal must be vibrant enough to become a living tradition that can take root in the mind---and stick, from generation to generation. Israel may stand on the threshold of greatness but without this key ingredient—the unifying ideal--we will not advance. We will fall.

If the multiculturalism of Europe and the Americanism of the US and the communism of Russia are faltering—and if the fascism of Hitler and the Totalitarianism of Stalin have failed-- where do we find this singular ideal? Do you know of such an ideal? Can you name an ideal that can actually grow and strengthen from generation to generation, instead of weakening over time?

For almost two hundred and fifty years, we have tried communism, socialism, fascism, totalitarianism, anarchy, chaos, monarchy, Americanism and governing by committee. Everything man’s mind can create, we have tried. All of these ideas have worked—for a time.

There is one idea we have not tried. It is so powerful, it frightens grown men. It frightens men because man cannot control it; and when you are a control-freak—when you believe that all power lies only in the hand of man—then the one thing that frightens you most is giving up control. Do you know what this singular ideal is? It is an ideal that man, who so obsessively seeks control, rejects.

Dare you speak of it? Israel’s media won’t. Israel’s academics won’t. Most of Israel’s political leaders won‘t. The signs of it are everywhere but not everyone will believe it. Not everyone will want it. Not everyone will accept it. But within Israel today we are close to a critical mass, a population ready now to step across that threshold. They know the unifying ideal. They live it. It is Torat Hashem—the Jewish heritage.

Our leaders and trendsetters will not speak of it. They reject. They refuse. They are afraid.

Dare you speak of it?