Sparta and the Tokhacha
I belong to a beit-knesset that parcels out the Shabbat morning Torah reading, and this past Shabbat I read the aliyah that comprises the ‘Tokhacha,’ a seemingly endlist list of admonishments and punishments that will befall Israel if they become smug and abandon the covenant. The Tokhacha, stretching across three columns in the Torah scroll, consists of dire imprecations in the spirit of, “You will work hard and plant crops, but there will be little for you to eat, because your enemies will devour the fruits of your labors,” and “You will go into battle against your enemy as a single entity, but flee before them in seven directions.”
It occured to me after finishing my reading, that although Mr. Netanyahu would have us believe that Israel has become the new Sparta — as if our increasing isolation should be a source of pride — that we are rather experiencing a modern Tokhacha. Or as the Author of Deuteronomy might have put it:
“You will have brilliant scientists and engineers who will develop cutting-edge technologies, but your companies will be barely profitable, because foreign firms will cancel orders.
“Your students will obtain graduate degrees, but they won’t be able to keep up with developments in their field, because they will not be invited to professional conferences abroad, and leading universities across the globe will reject their postdoc applications out of hand.
“You will produce wonderful musicians, actors, and athletes, but their foreign counterparts will boycott events at which Israelis artists are present.
“You will be able to fly anywhere in the world, but you will be afraid to travel, because you will be anxious about being made to feel unwelcome and unwanted.
“Your relatives in the Diaspora will feel compelled to hide signs of their Jewishness, because they will fear for their safety if their identity is discovered.
“For every country that concurs with your policies, there will be seven and seventy that will furiously oppose you, and they will express their wrath at your actions by expressing support for the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
Now Mr. Netanyahu, you’re an expert at spinning any crisis to your advantage, always informing us in a series of first-person, past-tense verbs that you’ve given your underlings their marching orders, and that you’re in control of the situation; and that in fact, under your “best Jewish leader since Moses” stewardship, things couldn’t be better. The entire defense establishment warned of an impending disaster before October 7? No, you convinced us behind rose-colored glasses, all was well. And ever since that tragedy, you’ve been constantly assuring us that we were merely a step away from victory — a victory that in actuality has been strangely elusive. Well, I’m afraid that try as you might to put your usual spin on the situation, we all realize that the defiant ‘Sparta’ label is a pathetic attempt to make us forget that our present reality is the result of a grievous self-inflicted wound. And that Sparta is, more accurately, Tokhacha 2025 — a Tokhacha that, alas, has come to fruition.
