A Tribute to Israel's Philosophers

My seminary colleague, Irwin Huberman, continues to send reports of his experiences in Israel. I would like to share parts of another one of these. In less than a week, I expect to be in Israel and able to create reports based on my own first hand experiences in our ancestral homeland.

JERUSALEM, Israel. July 25, 2008
I recently had the opportunity to speak with one of Israel’s great philosophers.His name is Amnon and he drives Taxi #1048 in Tel Aviv. It seems everyone in Israel is a great philosopher. Each has an angle on life here. As Amnon sped through the streets of Tel Aviv, he reflected on a decision he made years ago, to move to the United States, and why in the end he decided to return. “I lived in United States for six years,” he said. “But I came back to Israel because I wanted to return to a country where life is safer.”“Safer?” I replied, eyebrows raised.

“Look at these streets,” said Amnon, as the lights of downtown Tel Aviv flashed by my passenger window. “No one is mugged. No one is stabbed. Children can walk home on their own. If they get lost, a stranger will take them by the hand to their home. A Jew in Israel is more likely to offer you a ride than bother you. I feel safer here even with one war every ten years, and an occasional terrorist attack.” And Amnon the philosopher offered me a refresher in American history. “Live free or die,” he said, quoting the New Hampshire license plate....

When our...group recently visited Sefad, a northern Israeli city of 37,000, we talked briefly with a volunteer policeman.“How many crimes were there in Sefad last year?” I asked. “There was one,” replied the officer. “But we’re not really sure.”Apparently someone borrowed someone else’s Tallit, and there’s still discussion whether it was a theft or a case of a mistaken Tallit bag.

During the past week, I’ve twice sat in the grass in a Haifa park at open air concerts watching people greet strangers like they’ve known each other for years. You get the feeling here that you’re part of one big family under siege, trying together to carve a slice of peace in this very tough but holy neighborhood. Each member of this extended family has lost someone to terror or in war. They have parents or grandparents in the “old country” who never made it here. Each person waits silently...for the next “incident.” But ultimately, each person basks under this country’s eternal light, because in spite of everything, Israel is Jewish and it is free....

I’ve been writing for weeks about how this new Israel is different from that which we visioned in our Zionist dreams of the 1950s and 1960s....In the evening in Jerusalem, thousands of young Americans and Europeans on Birthright tours come out, to eat, drink, laugh, sing and flirt Jewishly. The beggars beg Jewishly. The street musicians busk Jewishly. And on street corners Israelis argue Jewishly.

In the United States, everyone seems concerned about safety here. But let me tell you... in Israel, chances are you will never feel safer.The wrinkles on the faces of Israelis show the stress of decades of attacks, wars, and most of all looking over your shoulder at the next person. But as I write this from the patio of a small hotel in Jerusalem, I smell the smells of Shabbat coming, and hear the steps of Israelis shopping for their Challah, their flowers and their Sabbath meals. I hear someone playing the flute in the distance. I also recognize the voices of the beggars calling out “Tzedakah l’Yom Shabbat.” (Charity for the Sabbath).The beggars do us a favor. They give us the opportunity to take from our abundance, and help repair and rebalance the world. They provide us with the opportunity to perform a Mitzvah. It’s an important job.

...as Jews in the United States face the threat of assimilation...we need to be reminded that there exists a nation where a people struggles to build a moral and charitable country based on the essence of Torah. In 2008, I believe that we need Israel more than Israel needs us. There is corruption. There is war. There are setbacks. But this is still our country. It is a [place] where everyone on Friday, observant or not, wishes you “Shabbat shalom.”

...as I watch the young children walk the streets holding their parents' hands, I can’t help but ponder what the future will hold. Will this child serve in the army? Will he or she survive? In the end, it’s a matter of what you consider true safety and happiness to be. Indeed, there is wisdom and truth in the words of these great Jewish philosophers. All five million of them.