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Ianai Silberstein

Translating ‘Hartman’

One of the sources I draw from for my editorials on ‘Jewish issues’ in general and on this specific, historical crisis we are presently going through are those provided by the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. There was a time when, in my blog www.tumeser.com, we used to translate into Spanish much of the material produced at the Institute, especially the editorials by its president, Rabbi Donniel Hartman.

We still translate, from time to time, some of the work of one of its leading academics, writer Yossi Klein-Halevi. I admit that, although we have made some attempts, we are in debt when it comes to the material produced in Hebrew; we have quoted professors like Mica Goodman, Orit Avnery, and Mijal Bitton a few times, though. Truth is that the rise of podcasts and audiovisual formats has made this task of translating content into Spanish more challenging.

For more information about the Hartman Institute, visit https://www.hartman.org.il/

Today, I would like to refer to two concepts that emerge from two podcasts of the series ‘For Heaven’s Sake’, which are produced both in English and Hebrew on an almost weekly basis. In one, Donniel Hartman converses with Yossi Klein-Halevi, and in the other, in Hebrew, he speaks with Professor Tomer Persico. Both are titled: ‘They Are Coming Back. Where Are We Going?’.

Without further introduction, I will address the two topics that draw my attention and will try to express them as faithfully as possible.

The first topic I gather from both conversations is power and, in this case, its limitations. This is not a new theme to the ‘Hartman’ discourse in general, as it has been discussed on many occasions, particularly as an attribute that Jews lacked for two thousand years. The philosophical, ethical, and moral implications of power and its use deserve this conversation. What is interesting this time is that, once this new attribute of power is assumed, the question is not about its nature, but about its magnitude: how unlimited is it? This approach ranges from asking how long a war can be sustained, to the issue of recruiting ultra-Orthodox youth, and even the question of being a force, or ‘power’, occupying another people. The Six-Day War is used as a metaphor: we are efficient, effective, and deadly in that kind of operatives, but Gaza, like Lebanon forty years ago, has shown that power does not work the same in the long term.

Furthermore: not everything can be fixed with the use of force, as we tended to believe before October 7. Perhaps it is time to think of other solutions that do not involve the use of power (which we have and is our merit that we do), but the use of other resources that do not cost Israeli lives and do not force us into occupation, regardless of the ethical judgment we have about it and its subsequent international condemnation; there too, there is a limit. In fact, Trump’s election just proved this.

The other topic that arises from both podcasts is the role played by spontaneous and popular demonstrations in public spaces over the past fifteen months, specifically in the ‘hostage square’ in downtown Tel Aviv. Aside from a few demonstrations that reached hundreds of thousands, most of them had numbers in the thousands, perhaps averaging ten thousand, week by week. Even only one person, like Naama Levy’s grandfather, Shaul Levy, 78 years old, who protested every morning in public for 477 days, seeking comfort from his fellow citizens and forcing everyone not to forget his granddaughter and the hostages. They all represent the spirit of Israel and the Jewish people: both in moments of fear and uncertainty with alarms, missiles, and life in shelters, as well as in the euphoria of brilliant and successful military operations, these people never allowed the hostages to be a variable that could be postponed. That was the last battle, deeply rooted in our national consciousness.

Like Moses facing Amalek, if I may add, their arms held high with their banners also allowed us to overcome the battle against forgetfulness and renunciation of ancestral values. What was not militarily possible was largely achieved due to their perseverance. No Jew, in Israel or anywhere in the world, ever forgot the hostages.

Beyond the content of the podcasts, I, personally, do not want to close this editorial without contributing my thoughts on the issues. On the one hand, one perceives an intoxication of power by many Jews and Israelis for whom the defeat that the events of October 7 represent is unacceptable, and on the other hand, one is part of the collective that suffers the contradictory feelings generated by the agreement reluctantly reached with Hamas. I believe in Israel’s moral obligation to defend itself, and therefore I believe in the IDF. I condemn the unforgivable failures of October 7, about which we still know nothing. I believe that the historical difference of our era compared to the previous two thousand years is precisely having the power to defend ourselves, to be viable and sovereign.

At the same time, I believe we do not exist as a people to subjugate other peoples, and therefore, sooner or later, a reality of reasonable and pragmatic coexistence with our neighbors will be forged. Not an idyllic peace, but a possible coexistence. Like with Egypt and Jordan. No one is asking to be loved; our only demand is to live as a free people in our ancestral land. I believe that the issues of power, on the one hand, and peaceful resilience, on the other, sum up very well a vision of reality that I would like to see shared and embraced by many more.

May we continue to bring hostages home until none remain, alive or dead, in Gaza.

About the Author
1957, married, a son and a daughter, three grandsons. Very closely related to Israel, residing in Uruguay. Retired. Lay leader at NCI, the Masorti congregation in Montevideo. Served twice as President of the Board. Vice President of the Board of the Jewish school. Twenty-five years involvement in community affairs. Attended the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem nine times over the years since 2009 for their CLP programs. Writer & lecturer.