The Spiritual Iron Wall — Become yourself one with the Shield, fellow Jew!

One year ago, I wrote a piece on the current state of affairs of antisemitism on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the Kristallnacht. On the 86th, very few seem to have changed.

One might find many sources of explanation for what happened on the last Thursday night in Amsterdam. It has to do with the war against Hamas and Hezbollah, it has to do with EU unrestrained and unfiltered immigration policies, it has to do with religious fanaticism, and, above all, it has to do with hate. I claim to be no expert in each of such themes, only a simple Jew who made aliyah not too many years ago.

I claim, however, to bear a solution. One solution Jews have adopted for thousands of years – and one we seem to have increasingly forgotten. In the history of mankind, there were only two conditions that have assured non-hostility towards the Jews. As a naturally well-performing minority, the societies that have accepted Jewish communities have usually shown to be exceptionally civilized – both in intellectual and moral pursuits. But being a successful minority is a double-edged sword – and the price of excellence is envy. Hence, Jews across millennia have had two coping tools: admiration and intimidation. There is no other alternative.

The first strategy was wildly used in the tolerant cities of medieval Europe. In the Arabic Iberia, al-Andalus, Jews were able to become major scholars and sages, such as the Rambam and Ibn Gabirol. Exceptional generals, such as Shmuel Hanaguid, earned fame and prestige by defending cities with outstanding military accomplishments. Apart from the military and intellectual spheres, in Christian times, Jews stood out as bankers, given their unusual non-condemnation of “usury” – or interest rates. However, no matter where they came from or where they settled, Jews would never fit. As expressed by the revered Spanish medieval poet Yehuda HaLevi:

My heart is in the east, and the rest of me at the edge of the west.

How can I taste the food I eat? How can it give me pleasure? 

How can I keep my promise now, or fulfill the vows I’ve made

While Zion remains in the Cross’s reign, and I in Arab chains? 

With pleasure I would leave behind all the good things of Spain,

If only I could gaze on the dust of our ruined Holy Place.

More recently, Jews have been widely successful in the sciences. Despite being around 0.2% of the population, they have been awarded 22% of all Nobel prizes. Wherever they have set their foot, their Midas touch accompanied them. But just as Midas, turning disposable things into gold draws undesirable consequences  – for Jews, undesired attention. That’s when we go to the second possible strategy.

In non-tolerant societies, Jews shall never have their guaranteed space in order to achieve great contributions to humanity. This, of course, offers not only unintended consequences for the short-sighted malefactors, but many intended casualties against the Jews themselves. To them, doors are closed, their stores are vandalized; their tombs, profaned; and their dignity, stolen.

They must, then, turn to violence – not by choice, but by obligation. Whenever the demands of the circumstances say “React or die”, passivity is not a possibility.

It is naive to expect that peace is the natural state of mankind. The political philosopher Thomas Hobbes realized and detailed that in his work Leviathan, by calling homo homini lupus – man is wolf to man. Yet, long before that, in the Hebrew Bible, the same principle is vividly evident in narrative terms: the first naturally-born humans, Cain and Abel, soon decay to fratricide. Before that, their parents did not hesitate to eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. After them, in the generation of Noah, people would kill, steal, and devour living animals, and, still after that, driven by vanity and pride, foolishly attempt to reach the heavens by building the Tower of Babel. The bottom line is: humans mess up. And, despite all that, the Source of all things, in his loving compassion, keeps His promise not to destroy humanity ever again.

And then comes the story of this week’s Parsha, Lech Lecha – in which the initial story of Abraham, still living as Avram, is told. It is the first recorded case of active fighting in order to avoid injustice being done unto oneself. The story basically goes like this: in a war of nine kings, Avram’s nephew, Lod, is kidnapped. Striving for justice, Abraham gathers 318 of his best men and goes for the hunt. Despite being outnumbered by a great margin, not only does he save his kidnapped nephew, but he also retrieves the stolen goods and women by the quintet of kings who started and won the war. In the end, attesting to the purity of his intentions and his unwillingness to be seen as debtful, he denies the keeping of any spoils of war – God only would reward him. After the episode, God told Avram he should not be afraid, for He is his Shield and his reward would be great – as great as the amount of stars in the sky.

Jews must do the same. Return to their origins and learn from Abraham. Do not fear, fellow Jews, for the Shield of Abraham accompanies you. Every day you pray for Him, and every day He shows up for you. Yet the covenant of God and Men does not account for unearned merit – to the contrary, it allows for merit on the basis of human freedom. Make yourself defensible, then! Fight! Learn to bear arms, as Jabotinsky so many times insisted upon. Learn to defend yourselves, learn to throw a kick and a couple of punches. The metaphorical Iron Wall he spoke so much about should apply not only to the state, but also to the soul of every Jew. Make your own spirited Iron Wall! Be yourself an Iron Wall! Do not accept to be a defenseless Jew. Become your own shield, and The Shield shall accompany you.

To my fellow Jews: you may strive for admiration, for an ideal peace should never be settled by the language of force. But there are those who understand no other language. So it’s about time we learn theirs – and strive not to become monsters while looking at the abyss, for, as Friedrich Nietzsche said, it does look back. 

But that’s why we have our sources, our traditions, and our values. It is our greatest source of strength, and what makes us different than those driven by hate and vileness. May we never lose our humanity in becoming the strong, imposing nation we must become – and may we become proportionately ethical and wise to know when it is time for force, and when it is time for dialogue. There is no virtue in being harmless. True virtue lies in the capacity of being harmful, yet choosing not to use violence against innocence – and still defending oneself whenever necessary.

Finally, may we always remember why we needed the Jewish State in the first place: “lihyot am chofshi beartzenu” – to be a free people in our land.

May we remember that so we don’t need to be remembered – just like we were on the last dark Thursday.

Am Israel Chai.

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Written on 08/11/24  (dd-mm-yyyy).

Replenished, Reviewed, and Finalized on 9/11/24 – the 86th anniversary of the Night of Broken Glass.