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Shayna Abramson

Is Israel safe right now?

As we hear our enemies call for revenge, many Israelis are once again walking around asking: Am I safe?

I have seen a religious response on social media to the effect that we are safe because God is “on our side”*

I want to be very clear: As a rabbi, I have no doubt that God is on our side. God has been on our side for generations, from the moment He told Avraham to journey to the land of Israel.

But that does not mean it is always safe to be a Jew. God is always on our side. But that has not prevented the Crusades or the Holocaust from happening.

We could engage in theological discussions about how to square the Jewish people’s chosenness with the tragedies of Jewish history (and I do believe it is not just possible, but also, a meaningful and important task) but that is beyond the scope of this blogpost.

God is on our side, and God has promised us that we will have sovereignty over the land of Israel and this sovereignty will be a vehicle to grow closer to him in our role as God’s chosen people. But that doesn’t mean that God has promised us sovereignty over Israel under any and all circumstances. In fact, God has exiled us from the Land of Israel twice before. We do not know whether or not God supports our sovereignty over the Land of Israel at the moment, in the current form of the State of Israel. I really hope He does, because I live here with my family and my whole life is here. But we have been exiled twice before, and we can be exiled again.

It is theological arrogance to assume that we know God’s intentions. Long-term, the Jewish people are safe and will endure, as we have for generations. But are we safe as Jews, in this moment, right now? Ultimately, the Messiah will come. But is the current State of Israel doomed to be another failed experiment in Jewish statehood in the land of Israel, or will it act as the beginning of the Messianic redemption?

As human beings, we don’t have the answers to those questions. Only God has complete knowledge of the situation.

In Judaism, there is a halachic obligation to stay safe – veinshmartem meod lenafshoteichem “and you must guard yourselves very much” (Deutoronomy 4:15). But it is not always easy to put this ideal into practice when one isn’t sure what the safe option is. In practice, as human beings, we accept that certain values can trump absolute safety. For example, many of us would drive a car to the beach, even if there is a risk of car accidents anytime we are in a car, because we value the emotional impact of a day at the beach more than we do the absolute safety of staying at home. That is why Judaism mandates not that we avoid any risk ever, but rather, that we take reasonable precautions: Wear a seatbelt. Don’t drive down a narrow unlit road at night if you can avoid it.

I think that as rabbis, there is a tendency to assume that people are in a crisis, so they crave certainty. And that is true to a very large extent. But increasingly, I worry that this religious certainty prevents us as a society from having real conversations about existential issues in Israeli society, from the relation between halacha and the state to different policies around the current war and the day after, because there is a feeling that we are just waiting for the Messiah to come in and solve the problems. To my mind, that is antithetical to the Jewish tradition. Yes, we do constantly yearn from the Messiah. But we do not use this as an excuse for inaction. If anything, the Jewish tradition is full of an entire branch of halacha, or religious action, that developed largely in exile, from the Babylonian Talmud through to the Shulchan Aruch.

I also think that sometimes it can be comforting to people to see that even teachers and rabbis have moments of uncertainty and doubt. Sometimes receiving validation of the uncertainty and ways to be in the uncertainty can be more effective than creating a false sense of certainty. As leaders, we need to model the possibility of living in doubt.

Lastly, I think we need to be very careful in how we talk about God. When we say that because we are God’s chosen people so Israel is safe, we are making a theological statement. I may agree or disagree with that statement, but my main critique here is that often such statements are being made without enough thought being put into their theological nature. I personally do not feel that I can -nor do I think most rabbis should – be making statements to know what God’s will is in this moment, because unless we have prophecy, we take a high risk of making false statements about God.

We do not have absolute certainty. But we do have hope:

“You will rise and take mercy on Zion, for it is the moment to be gracious with her, the set time has come” (Psalms 102: 14).

We have much to repent for, but God’s mercy is infinite. The time has come for God to take mercy on His nation.

Hoping for safer, more peaceful days ahead.

*The full post that inspired me to write can be found here, by Rabbi Uri Pilichowsky: https://x.com/RationalSettler/status/1819052741576069348. I want to be clear that my writing is not a direct rebuttal of his post; it’s more that after reading it these thoughts coalesced in my mind. I am taking the quote and using it as a way to think about larger issues.

About the Author
Rabbi Shayna Abramson is a graduate of Beit Midrash Har'el in Jerusalem. She holds M.A.s in Jewish Education and Political Science from Hebrew University, and is currently pursuing a PHD in Gender Studies at Bar Ilan University, with a focus on gender and halacha. A native Manhattanite, she currently resides in Jerusalem with her family.
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