Hope and Betrayal in the Season of Freedom

The period between Passover and Yom HaAtzma’ut, two holidays symbolizing freedom, calls for reflection on the current state of national and individual freedom in Israel    

The Jewish people have just celebrated the holiday of Pesah, called by our sages zman herutenu (the occasion of our freedom) – referring, of course, to the liberation of our ancestors from slavery in Egypt. In modern times (since 1948), another holiday of freedom – falling less than two weeks after the conclusion of Passover – was added to the Jewish calendar: Yom HaAtzma’ut, The Day of Independence, celebrated on the fifth of Iyar, the Hebrew date of Israel’s declaration of independence.

Thus, similar to the period of the Ten Days of Penitence between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it would not be a stretch to call this two-week span in the spring our annual “season of freedom.” And yet, the term “freedom” itself is not a concept that is so easily defined – especially not this year, when democracy in Israel appears more fragile than it has ever been in the history of the State.

Interestingly, the Hebrew word herut (חירות) never occurs in the Bible; the closest we find is the verse inscribed on Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell, taken from Leviticus (25:10): “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.” The Hebrew word appearing in the original text is dror (דרור). 

The distinction between the concepts “freedom” and “liberty” is not mere nuance. Freedom is measured by countries’ frameworks of laws granting rights to its citizens: famously, the United States’ Bill of Rights extends basic freedoms to its inhabitants: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom of assembly, etc. The extent to which a country in the 21st century may be termed “free” is largely a determinant of how many of these basic human freedoms a government bestows on its citizens. 

Liberty, on the other hand, is the way freedom is exercised by the individual in society. Our civil liberties, therefore, derive from the responsible use of freedom under the rule of law. And even in free societies, liberty may lawfully be taken away as a form of punishment: individuals may be deprived of their liberty – i.e,. Imprisoned – if they are convicted of criminal acts. 

Therefore, the extent to which a country in modern times may be considered “free” can be measured also in terms of whether or not basic human rights may be deemed a punishable crime; in autocratic countries, where there is no freedom of speech or the press, people can be thrown into jail simply for speaking out against the government. In other words, people in any given country are free only when they enjoy individual liberty both in theory and in practice.

Independence, meanwhile, while often equated with freedom, is not at all synonymous with either freedom or liberty. Independence does indeed reflect freedom on a national level from domination by a foreign power; but the achievement of national sovereignty is no guarantee of individual freedoms. In the United States, independence actually meant freedom for the white man, slavery for the black man, and extermination for the red man.   

All of these injustices were rampant even under the supposed protections of the United States Constitution, which followed in the footsteps of the founding fathers’ stirring Declaration of Independence. From its very inception, the vaunted document fell far short of its aspirations: the right to vote – another yardstick of freedom and liberty in democracies – was not granted to American women for nearly 150 years, until the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. The franchise for black voters was not enforced under the law until the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, which finally gave legal underpinning to the provisions of the 14th and 15th Amendments. 

In Israel, after independence was secured only after winning, against all odds, its War of Liberation (the literal translation of the Hebrew milhemet hashihrur), the situation was not much better. The nation’s Arab citizens lived under discriminatory martial law for 17 years, until 1966; and to this day, the country has failed to promulgate a written Constitution in support of the lofty principles set forth in the Megillat HaAtzma’ut.  

It is worth remembering that there was a brief interlude in Israeli political history when civil liberties for the individual seemed on the verge of becoming attainable. In 1973, MK Shulamit Aloni formed the Civil Rights Movement – a.k.a, Ratz – the political party whose raison d’être was “freedom of religion, and freedom from religion.” 

The struggle against religious coercion gained traction to the point when, in 1992, Meretz (the successor party to Ratz) became the third largest party in the Knesset, By then, however, the focus had turned more toward peace with the Palestinians than liberation from the oppression of the rabbinate; thus, Israelis still lack the basic right of civil marriage – a vestige of theocratic rule that continues to cost Israel dearly in the yearly rankings of the world’s leading freedom indices. 

Fast forward to the present day, when our 5785/2025 season of freedom is still in the throes of two years of utter betrayal by a government intent on sabotaging Israelis’ liberties by undermining the democratic institutions that constitute a functioning system of checks and balances. Under the laughable guise of “judicial reform,” the government of Israel, headed by a prime minister currently on trial for multiple charges of corruption, continues to mount an unprecedented assault on the nation’s independent judiciary, one of the three pillars – alongside the legislative and executive branches – of a true democracy.  

This ongoing betrayal has had dire consequences that were previously thought inconceivable: when the defense and intelligence establishments warned Netanyahu prior to October 7, 2023, that our enemies were emboldened by the fissures in Israeli society being caused by his plans to subvert the judicial system, he called the warnings “exaggerated” and refused to even meet with and hear his military advisors out. Ever since then, the government’s needless prolongation of the war that ensued – and which long ago lost the support of the majority of the general public – endangers not only our hostages, but also the IDF soldiers who are still being killed in superfluous and meaningless skirmishes. 

Hypocrisy as well as betrayal are the hallmarks of the current Israeli government, as Netanyahu persists in caving into the Kahanist ministers in his cabinet who are ostensibly Torah-observant, but who nonetheless trample upon the supreme Jewish imperative of pidyon shvuyim (redeeming captives). The rejection by messianic zealots of any prospective deal that might result in the release of hostages is morally unacceptable, as our brethren languishing and undergoing torture in underground dungeons stare death in the face every day they are held captive by Hamas. 

This year, the season of freedom of the months of Nisan-Iyar feels more like the Days of Judgment of the month of Tishrei, as we wonder whether we will be condemned to continued war and unrest, or be free to finally celebrate liberty; whether we will be inscribed in the book of purgatory, or sealed in the book of freedom. 

Finally, even as the country lurches from one brink of constitutional crisis to the next, we hope and pray for the restoration of the freedoms we have lost: 

• for the Israeli hostages, freedom – literally – from cruel captivity; 
• for soldiers of the IDF, freedom from ​the perils of the battlefield and repeated calls to reserve duty (even as anti-Zionist draft-dodgers are showered with taxpayer-funded bribes); 
• for Jews around the world, freedom from antisemitism; 
• for protestors in the streets, freedom from police brutality under a minister with a history of criminal indictments and convictions;
• for conscientious objectors, freedom from character assassination smear campaigns (orchestrated by the oligarchic troika of Bibi, Sara and Yair);
• and for the weary citizens of Israel and the United States, freedom from domestic turmoil, economic uncertainty, runaway cost-of-living, and selfish/apathetic politicians.

Finally, even for those neighboring Palestinians sincerely desiring to live and coexist in peace:

• freedom in Gaza from Hamas;
• freedom in the West Bank from a corrupt PA, from jihadist elements that threaten us all, from violent Jewish thugs who give all Israelis a bad name, and from an indifferent Israeli administration.

May this spring season reclaim its standing as a true season of renewal, marked by hope and serenity.