TJS S4 Interlude Yom Ha'atzmaut: whom do you serve?

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Heroism, says legendary Palmach Commander Yitzhak Sadeh, is not a military term. Wherever there is sacrifice, there is heroism. The opposite of heroism isn't cowardice, but selfishness. A selfish person can be brave, but he cannot be a hero. Well, I hope I've got a little bit of bravery in me, but I'm not looking to be a hero. I'm Rav Mike Foyer, and this is The Jewish Story. You know, when I sat down to try to think about what I could possibly add to the discourse, this Yom Ha'atzmahut, to be frank, I was a little bit stumped. You ever have that feeling that everything's already been said? Or that anything that you have to say really has too many sides to really flesh out? I'm kind of holding there. Nonetheless, I'm going to try something a little bit new.

And rather than having a fully thought out process, I'm going to share with you just kind of where I'm at. And I want to start actually with a structure that I used often when I work with my spiritual counseling clients, particularly on the question of leadership, because I feel that leadership is a quality which is poorly understood in our day, has been given a somewhat thin, populist, media-driven facade, and yet is so, so desperately required. So that structure is what I call the three scales of malchut. If you were going to translate it, we'd call it the three scales of kingship. But kingship doesn't quite touch it here. Remembering that the word malchut in Jewish tradition, and particularly influenced by the mystics, really means the ability to build a context that allows the pieces to come to right relationship.

Let me explain via these three scales. When I'm working with someone on the personal level, malchut is really identity. What's my sense of selfhood? It allows all the pieces of my story, my experiences of the past, my interests in the present, my vision for the future, to come into, if not a perfect expression, because of course this is always a dynamic process, but at least a way in which they can all work rightly together. We call that identity, and cultivating the tools of self-awareness and discipline in action are absolutely essential. The second scale of malchud is classic leadership. It's the interpersonal, grading from simple direct relationship between two people into group dynamics and all the way up into, of course, a national entity.

Now, on that scale, the definition doesn't change. We're still building the context that allows the pieces to come to right relationship. But it's no longer simply about self-awareness and discipline. Now, the challenge is communication. How do I take my vision, communicate it to another person? How do I become not just a leader, but an educator? And not just self-aware, but deeply aware of other. That's how we begin together to build a context that allows not just our inner identity to work, but allows us to have an interaction in which an interpersonal or even national identity can emerge. And last, but certainly not least, the third scale of Malchut is what I think of as Malchut Shammayim. the kingdom of God, or if you're not such a believer in God, simply the visionary.

Where is it that we all are embraced by the infinite, where the ultimate context is only one context, and that my vision of what that one context is, what perhaps it wants of us or how we can relate to it, allows all the diverse pieces of creation to come into, if not a harmony, because dissonance is part of reality, at least right relationship. You know, not every conflict is bad after all. So these are these three scales, the personal, the interpersonal, and the visionary relationship to the infinite. Right now, my interest is in the Malchut of the Kingdom of Israel. Now, the State of Israel is way more than just another kingdom. It's not simply a refuge that allows the pieces of a, let's face it, historically quite broken and complicated people to begin coming to right relationship, even though it's an important element of what's happening here and should never be taken lightly.

Just the insane thought, much less the incredible effort, it's taken to gather the remnants of a scattered people from such diverse cultures, religious worldviews, educational background, fill in all the complicating factors you want and build a vessel that can hold us together. Credit where credit is due. We're doing pretty darn well. Nonetheless, it's not the goal. Because at least in the world in which I dwell, when we speak about the state of Israel, we characterize it as a reshit smichat ge'ulatenu. That the state is the beginning of the flowering of our redemption. That this is a redemptive process. It's a redemptive project. And there's a particularly important relationship between malchut and ge'ulah, to this idea of kingship, the capacity to build a context that allows the pieces of a situation to come into right relationship.

and Geula, redemption. Because when I build a context that allows pieces to come together, it's really what allows for the expression of new life. Just think about it. When you're able to put the pieces together in your own life, when you feel a sense of wholeness of identity, you gain greater energy, greater agency, greater clarity on your goals, more life. And when we build a context which is an up-leveling, moving from my own personal sense of identity to my ability to be a leader and aid other people, not only to find their own selfhood, but to interact with one another, that's an up-leveling that allows not just for more life, it's giving an expression, really, to a new level of creation. And that's why there's a connection between Malchut and Geulah, building a kingship in my selfhood, in my interpersonal, on the state level, and of course in the world, is what allows us to give greater expression to the wholeness of creation.

And I'll say it now, my vision of our national existence is certainly not a refuge state on the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean. And it's not just a place in which we can be the Jews finally as the Jews and not worry about what the world thinks, although, trust me, I find that quite appealing. My vision of our national existence is is that we're meant to letakin, to put the world into its right form within the kingdom of God. And the question I'm holding right now is, how do we build a context that will bring the world together on that level? And how do we do so without giving up the previous scales? I want to be clear on this. All the failed projects that litter the path of history, that have thought that you could unite the world by removing divisions, are a thing of the past.

Wake up, people. The homogenizing instinct of imagining there no borders no religions no countries too has gotten us nothing but misery People want to be different And they celebrate that difference And we need the Jews to be the Jews just like we need the Christians to be the Christians, the Muslims to be the Muslims, and fill in the category. But nonetheless, there has to be something which binds us together. There must be some context, some maulku, that will allow those pieces to come to right relationship. Each of us needs to find that personal skill of identity, needs to hone their skills of communication in interpersonal interaction in order to build the bridges that allow the scale of classic malchut, of our own little kingdoms, to come into being.

And then we have to work together upon those foundations to build the context that allows the whole world to come together into right relationship. So that's a little bit about what I want to think about right now. First things first, happy birthday to Israel, happy birthday to Israel. And it's a joke and all, but I think it's very important, before I start into on what, God forbid, might have a little bit of a critique, just to let ourselves feel the gratitude. You know, the word for gratitude in Hebrew is hoda'ah, and it contains that important combination between an acknowledgement and recognition of what is and a sense of the goodness which we've been granted. And when I look out my window, which is exactly what I'm doing right now, and I see the flowering hills of Judea, I see the brand new synagogues which they're building in the apartments and a land filled with my people, I feel gratitude.

And yes, I'm aware that if I look a little further, that the edges are more than just rough. In some places, they're bloody. And I'm not going to ignore that. Nonetheless, I'm not sure that right now is really the time to sort of focus on the negative. As a dear friend of mine said the other night, when someone challenged him on the idea that he doesn't like to bring competing narratives or critique into Yom HaHatzmuth, and the student said to him, well, listen, you're compartmentalizing. If you want to celebrate the state of Israel, you also have to recognize its flaws. And what he said was, that's kind of like taking my wife out on our anniversary and pulling out a laundry list of everything she does wrong to share it with her in this intimate moment.

Nonetheless, beyond the simple gratitude, every Yom Ha'atzmuth as a birthday is an opportunity to reflect on our present reality. And in particular, what I'm interested in thinking about is the aspect of our reality. Whom do we serve? Whom do we serve is an important question, because this isn't called Independence Day, as we've spoken about in the past. This is Yom Ha'atzmaut, a day of self-actualization. And when we look around at who we are, you know, there's a great phrase in the self-help world. They say that who you are is actually what you're committed to. If you want to know what you're committed to, look at who you really are. I want to lose weight, I say. Well, maybe, but you say that, but if you really want to, you'll act on it.

I understand there's a little bit of dangerous absolutism in that. Nonetheless, if you want to understand what you're committed to, look at who you are. Look at what you've actualized in your life. And in particular, in the case I'm interested in, if you want to know who you serve, look at the world which you have built, the malchut, the context that you've created for your life. And there's this phrase in our tradition, which I want to use to explore this question of where we're at here on our 73rd birthday. And it's ol malchut. You usually say ol malchut shemaim, but it's not the only one. It literally means the yoke of the kingdom. the yoke of the kingdom of heaven. I want to check our yoke. Because a yoke is basically the limiting conditions of existence.

You can self-actualize all you want, but I'll never be Superman. Why? Because there are barriers to me flying. Don't try that at home. If you want to understand the power of a yoke, there's a mashal, a metaphor that I find very informative. It comes to us from the Altarebi, the great founder of Shnur Zalman Miliyadi, the great founder of Chabad Hasidut, he says, listen, the reality of life is you're going to pull the load. But if you recognize that you have a yoke that's allowing you to do it, it's the difference between a cow that's wandering in the field and just expending its energy on nothing, and one that's plowing the ground. A yoke may be constraining, it may in fact be the limiting conditions of our existence, but it is also what allows our efforts to be productive.

The other way I might say that in the words of another famous Jew is everybody got to serve somebody. If you think that your energies aren't harnessed to some sort of malchut, some sort of system that's attempting to put the pieces together, then you're simply deluding yourself. You know, if you look at Pirkei Avot, the ethics of our fathers, there's a fantastic statement there by Rabbi Nechonia ben Hakana, who's a character that deserves attention, but not right now. He says, If you accept upon yourself the yoke of Torah, you remove from yourself the yoke of malchut, of government, and the yoke of derech eretz, worldly concerns. And if you cast off the yoke of Torah, well, they're going to place upon you the yoke of government and the yoke of worldly concerns.

Now this is an important structure for analysis, because what we have here is your stomach, your government, or your understanding of God. Now I say your understanding of God rather than God, God's self, because let's not forget that everything in our relationship to the infinite is on some level a projection or a contingent construct. Nonetheless, we're striving. If we're striving to have all Torah, Torah is the hora'ah, it's the practical instruction for building creation. It's a task which will never be done. And that's why our understanding of God's will and creation is always contingent in process. Nonetheless, Shemaim, O Malchut Shemaim, O Torah, is a deep commitment that that is the context which I serve.

The other option, of course, is serving your stomach. This is what most of us do on some level. And it may just be an existential reality. there's a reason that the Mishnahh calls it Derech Eretz. So I'm not going to argue with the stomach and I'm certainly not going to argue with God because as I already said, that's my vision, not just for us as a people, but for the world as a whole that we're really we're looking to fix the world so that the context of all our acts of service are the will of God. And you can't get away from the fact that everybody's got to And that deserves its attention, that yoke of derech Eretz, as Rabbi Nehonyim and Hakana called it. What I interested in right now is the middle piece the Ol Malchut the yoke of the state Now in general if we were going to do a quick and exhaustive review of political philosophy you will see throughout history, the question is, are the organizations that create a context for human beings to live together a means or an end?

Meaning, the reality is life is easier when we're together, and therefore, since I'm really just serving my stomach and I want an easier life, let's band together, and I'm willing to sacrifice some of my freedom and give some of my energy to a context larger than me simply to get what I want out of it. Meaning I'm serving the state because the state is a means to the ends of serving my stomach, or I'm serving the state because the state is a means to the ends of serving God. Let's not forget, of course, that all the way from the religious kingdoms of the past to the ideological kingdoms of the present, there is this notion that being part of the state is an act of serving the yoke of heaven, and I certainly don't discount that.

But actually what I want to offer to you is that between the stomach and God, between the yoke of Derek Eretz and the yoke of the kingdom of heaven, lies malchut, right? The yoke of the state or political organization whose primary organizing value is that you can't be who you want to be unless you serve something larger than yourself. You know, I quoted Yitzchak Sadeh at the opening of the episode. Legend, a legend who it's worth looking into his lifetime. He was one of the original commanders of the Palmach, that striking arm of the Haganah's underground army in the pre-state days. Also one of the founders of the IDF, of Tzahel, the Israel Defense Forces. And he teaches a critical lesson. I sort of quoted it there, but I want to give it to you in his own words.

He says, He says, you know, the opposite of heroism isn't fear. The opposite of heroism is selfishness. It's the sense that the essential measure of creation is the individual. To do the heroic is the call of our day. And really, on some level, the heroic is, as he just said, a willingness to live for, and of course, God forbid, if necessary, die for, it is after all, what I'm recording this, the Yom Hazikaron, Lecha'alei Tzahal, the day of remembrance for all the soldiers and citizens who's given their life so that I can have the privilege to stand here in my sunny kitchen and rant at you, right? That what we're after is gaining greatness through service of something larger. And selfishness will deny our ability to ever be heroes.

And he goes further, he says, the ability to overcome fear, and there's so much fear that stops us today. How many of us have beliefs we hold dear, but we don't act upon, things that we want to say, but we're afraid to, actions that we want to take, but we fear the judgments of others. He says, the power to overcome fear, mikorob avat zulat. The source of our power to overcome fear is in our love of one another. If it's truly important to you, act upon it, because it's likely that there are others around you who need it as well. And so the state, in that case, is an end unto itself. It's a profound commitment to live for something larger, to be a hero, and not just an individual. And I want to consider what it might actually mean to serve God as a people together.

You know, there's a classic structure of thought within Jewish tradition that there are actually going to be two phases to the Messianic redemption. And these phases, as is pretty common in our lore, are embodied in personalities. We call them Mashiach ben Yosef and Mashiach ben David, the Messiah, Ben of Joseph, and the Messiah, the son of David, who's the one that most people are more familiar with. Now is not the time for a full analysis of these powers or personalities, however you want to see them. But I do want to quote to you a somewhat classic statement from Moreno Urabbeinu, Rav Avram Yitzchak HaKohen Cook, on the topic of the fact that there's a belief that the Messiah ben Joseph must die before Mashiach ben David can arrive.

He says, Mashiach ben Yosef mitkalei ha-tekhuna shel lumiot Yisrael mitzad atzmam. He says, this idea of the Messiah ben Joseph is the revelation or the sort of expression of the nationalist characteristic within Israel itself, a characteristic, of course, which Rav Kook recognizes exists more or less on some level in all nations. On them. Ha-Tachlit Ha-Krona Eina Hit-Gadrut Hit-Ya-Dut Ha-Lumi-Ut Bil-Vada. But he says, really, our ultimate purpose is not bounding ourselves, and he doesn't use the language, but isolating ourselves within our national characteristics. Ki-In Ha-Shifah La-Achid Ko-Ba-I-Olam Be-Yishpacha-Achad Be-Ko-Kulam Be-She-M-Hashem But rather, it's an aspiration to unite the entire world into one family.

All call together on the name of God. And the fact that Rav Kook chooses family is so important to me here. Not into one nation, into one religion, into one ideology in which we would all have to be homogenized into some sense of harmony. Listen, I don't know about you, I have five children and a wonderful wife, and it's chaos half the time that we're in the house together. But there's a malchut. There's a context that holds us, and ultimately, please God, allows us to come to right relationship by not demanding we be other than what we are, but actually demanding that we be fully what we are while accepting fully what the other one is. That's what family is. It's a commitment to one another, to self, and to the wholeness of being together.

And that's that vision. Beyond the le'umiyut, the nationalism of Moshiach Ben Yosef, lies the human family, and I would argue even the family of creation. He goes on to say, When the world needs to pass through this phase of nationalism, into the wholeness, When you want to make that transition from the national to the creation orientation, well there's going to be a certain type of destruction of the things which were specifically rooted in the narrowness of the national view and it's got one problem and it's one problem which is a tremendous blessing which is the particularism of nationalism allows for just a little bit too much love you know it a funny thing but you love your family and there a place in which that love of the family can become exclusive because people on the outside aren't on the in.

You love your nation. It's a critical thing. People love your nation. Be empathetic to your nation. Be proud of your nation, but not at the expense of other. I'm not getting into the whole enemy thing, etc. We've spoken about it, and we'll speak about it another time. I'm just saying simply, don't let your love become something which causes you to hate. Now, this is Rav Kook's take, and I want to add one more layer of thought to it. This idea, not just that there are two phases. First there's the national, and then there's all creation united, ma'uchut sh'dai, in the kingdom of God. but that somehow Moshiach ben Yosef has to die before Moshiach ben David can really emerge, I want to offer to you that the death of Moshiach ben Yosef might be seen in our story as the end of the re-entry phase into history.

You know, I think of Zionism as the re-entry vehicle for Am Yisrael into the land of Israel. And, you know, as is true, the re-entry vehicle really only has one purpose. And this end of the re-entry phase in history, I might in social psychology call the end of the we made it phase. That sense of we made it is incredibly intoxicating. I mean, listen, 2,000 years of suffering, culminating, at least for European Jewry, in literal destruction, means that once you finally get to home base, you make it in, you shut the door, and you create a context in which we can relate to each other instead of being battered by the world about, relief is an almost instantaneous and euphoric experience. But that relief can quickly become complacency and a desire, conscious or not, to forget the past.

To forget the past because of its trauma. I feel like we got through, let's let it go and move on to the future. But in forgetting the trauma of the past, we also forget its lessons. And not only that, there's a strong incentive, I see it in people all the time who've survived trauma and have managed to build a better life, to insist now everything is okay. And anybody who says otherwise needs to be booted out. But physical salvation is not our mission. And if we're going to move from our physical salvation to our spiritual awakening, and not just our spiritual awakening, the state as the beginning of the dawn of this flowering of our redemption isn't just for us. this is a mission for creation then we need to move from the mode of Ben Yosef to Ben David we need to change from that place of we made it to now what do we make of it we have an incredible opportunity in front of us I mean it's cliche but it's worth it to just point out that here in the year 5781 or 2021 depending on what year you think it is the state of Israel really in many ways couldn't be stronger need I mention the fact that we're vaccinating at a rapid pace at a time when most of the powers of the world are struggling even to stay afloat?

You know, Archimedes said a fantastic thing. He said, give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world. And I offer to you that the land of Israel is our place to stand. The lever we've been granted is unquestionably the Torah, but our mission is to move the world, not just to use that stick to fend off those who might be threatening. I want to end with a reflection once again upon those three scales of malchut. Because the question here is, whom do we serve? Am I serving myself? Am I simply interested? Well, remember, what Yitzchak Sadeh said is that the power to overcome fear, and that really is the stumbling block that on some level we all face is in my love of other. Therefore, if I only serve myself and I'm stuck in that first scale of malchut where my issues are purely selfhood, then I will never be a hero.

The other way to say it is another quote from Sadeh. He says, only a person who has a lot within him can give back a lot. That first stage of identity and coherence and building a context in your own life that allows the pieces of you to come to right relationship is an opportunity for you to give. He says, he who has a thin personality has nothing to offer to the greater good of others. So build up yourself in order that you can be in service of others. And of course, like I said, the land, the state, this is where we stand to move the world. It is not a small thing, not in the scale of human history and not in the present day that we have a strong state for which we can be grateful and not take for granted.

More on that later. I think that there's much, much can be done with the cultural, political, and religious structures that we've inherited in our day. But just remember what Archimedes said, give me where to stand and a lever long enough and I'll move the world. If you don't have where to stand, then that lever is nothing more than a stick to hold off a hostile existence. And last but certainly not least, Yitzhak Sade goes on and he says, our path is a path with a mission. It is difficult, but it is the right path. And only he who walks it all the way to the top can breathe the fresh air of a full, rich life. And on some level, that's what I want. It's what I want for me. It's what I want for my people.

It's what I want for all creation. Getting to the top so we can all breathe the fresh air of a full, rich life. So that we can, indeed, bring the world together in right relationship within the context of the kingdom of God. So my blessings to you is that we all self-actualize a little bit more on the personal, national, and creation scale this Yom HaTmut from now and forever. Blessings and Shalom. I just want to thank a few people before I sign off. I want to thank all the folks that give their hard-earned money to make this show available, keep it free and distributed. And I want to invite you to join them. Go right now to my website, jewishstory.co and you'll find a button in the upper right hand corner that says be a patron.

You can click on that to give a little bit of per podcast support. Or if you'd like to dedicate a show in honor of someone who's here today or in memory of those who've passed on, send me an email at robmikefoyer at gmail.com or personal message on Facebook, robmikefoyer and I'm happy to share the details with you. I want to thank the Land of Israel Network that's thelandofisrael.com for creating a platform that allows me to reach so many amazing people. I want to thank to the Pardes Institute, P-A-R-D-E-S dot org dot I-L, for creating an educational institution that gives me the privilege of teaching so many wonderful Jews. And I want to thank you for listening. I'm Rav Mike Hoyer, and this is The Jewish Story.