From the Golden Calf to the Baal of Iron

While browsing Instagram, an image appeared to me that seemed particularly appropriate for understanding the problem posed by the Baal of Iron: this omnipotent militaristic State that emerges as a strong solution to the problems brought by the Golden Calf, against which half the world fought while seeking an answer in socialism.

Many people feel the latent impulses of the red planet as a threat dwelling within us all, regardless of gender, race, religion, or location. When the god of war manifests himself in men, the most terrible actions and irreversible events can arise when his force runs unchecked.

The Akedah of Isaac teaches us that the knife must have a purpose. That is why I find it deeply ironic that those who live according to the Torah should forget the second patriarch and Hashem’s commands concerning the use of the sword by Israel and its elites. (Shemot 32:26–27)

Because rejecting the militaristic Baal does not mean rejecting iron. The Torah never demanded that man become a sheep in order to prove that he trusts Hashem. Israel had warriors, walls, kings, judges, and armies. David did not defeat Goliath by hugging him and telling him that the humanities are social constructs. First he declared where victory came from, and then he cracked his skull without hesitation.

The serious martial problem afflicting the West seems miniaturized in these “neo-Levites” who complain about why walls, swords, rules, and courts exist at all… Because it is precisely from this that the Baal of Iron emerges: the devouring State to which Ukrainians, Russians, Israelis, and Arabs alike must offer their sons as sacrifices for “victory” through arms, while it is the blood of the poor that literally supplies the blood for the geopolitical game of Risk.

That is why it is necessary to set out the work according to our master line, the Torah:

An army is a line drawn from it.

A border is a line drawn from it.

A Merkava is a line drawn from it.

The Mossad is a line drawn from it.

Because every line on a construction plan serves to build something. Iron can therefore serve Israel and the goyim nations. But the problem begins when Israel starts explaining its own existence exclusively through those tools: “We survive because we are strong,” “No one will ever touch us again because we have the best army,” “Our security depends on our technological superiority”… Shalom, astrology!

Because when the instrument used to mark boundaries rises until it becomes a national foundation, the problem begins. It is also worth remembering that the Noahide laws require all nations to establish competent courts and judgesbasically, structures of State. Then, on a personal level, the sheer hardness of life teaches us that nobody corrects himself or changes simply through little hugs. After all, Israel is a stiff-necked people; just imagine the granite of the goyim!

Those who survived the European civil war had every reason to fear Mars: they saw him unleashed, devastating the Old World almost a century ago. The problem begins when the trauma of the grandparents becomes the political doctrine of the grandchildren, and peace ceases to be something worth defending and becomes an inability to defend it. In the global struggle for hegemony between Eurasia and the West, such weakness provides magnificent terrain for an adversary’s anti-militarist propaganda.

To be concrete, what recently happened in Ceuta, Spain, is a miniature version of the process affecting all of Western Europe. “Turning the other cheek” in its fullest expression.

But the underlying problem is not merely geopolitical. It is a particular conception of security: believing that we can eliminate violence by suppressing its instruments or delegating their use to somebody else. And here we return to the “neo-Levites” on my cover.

The paradox and irony, then, is that those who supposedly seek maximum theological coherence with the Torah when criticizing the actions of a State nothing wrong with that; on the contrary, it indicates “good democratic health” simultaneously benefit from that State. But let the reader reflect for a moment: what actually prevents a stranger from pulling out a knife in the street tomorrow and slitting you open?

Neither AI, nor cameras, nor 24/7 surveillance can guarantee that this kitchen knife, assigned by Heaven, will not end up falling upon some unfortunate body settling today a debt incurred yesterday…

Because delegating the iron does not mean that the iron has disappeared. It is very pleasant to imagine how happy the world would be without police or armies when one lives precisely under their protection. Of course—as though envy of the blessing could never justify the birth of iron to defend it… Yet it is worth remembering that the Torah also provides its medicine against the Golden Calf: the Jubilee every fifty years. Which, incidentally, I think it is already time to apply, dear capitalists…

So, to bring this to a close, it is worth remembering that when Moshe descended from Sinai and found the people worshipping the Golden Calf, it was precisely the sons of Levi who answered his call.

And Hashem’s command was not to cast away their weapons, but:

“Let every man put his sword upon his thigh.”

(Shemot 32:27)