I like to remark that God has a sense of humor. Case in point: we are famously aware of the mandate for the People of Israel to be a light unto the nations. And yet, the modern-day State of Israel appears to be the least popular country in the world. I imagine that Israel’s critics would point to that fact as proving that, indeed, it is not fulfilling its proper mandate to be a shining Light of morality. But that would be a shallow understanding. R. Yishmael teaches us, in his 13th principles of exegesis (see here) that when two verses appear to contradict each other, you need to find the third verse which reconciles between them. If our two contradictory verses are “shining your light” and “being popular”, then perhaps those two factors are not necessarily correlated. It may even be that they’re inversely correlated.

Yosef Soloveitchik (The Rav) would point out to Haredi critics of Zionism that there must be something inherently Jewish about the State of Israel, something that even the Goyim can perceive, because it’s the most hated country in the world! Therefore, as secular as Israel claims to be, it still must be doing something authentically Jewish! At first, that seems like dark humor. But it’s actually quite profound, in diagnosing an inverse correlation between popularity and timeless principles.

Think of how Mordechai the Judean refused to bow down to Haman. I imagine that his stance (no pun intended) must have been unpopular not only with Haman himself, but with many thousands of his Persian compatriots as well, who were all too eager to join in on a war against all of the Jews in response.

It’s only centuries removed from that incident that the objective observer, the reader of the Megillah, be he/she Jewish or gentile, can perceive the heroism in Mordechai’s principles. Perhaps the State of Israel is in a similar position today. If popularity were the litmus test for being a light unto the nations, then my native Canada would likely fit the bill above any other country. Canadians are admired and respected everywhere for being polite and courteous people. However, with all due respect to the land of my birth, that’s also because they don’t ruffle any feathers. They’re not as powerful as the USA, and therefore not forced into the role of world policeman, a role in which the USA, UK, France, and other NATO heavy hitters often find themselves.

And so, in writing this piece, I asked myself, in response to the what the Rav left unanswered: what is it that the secular state of Israel is doing that does indeed come off to the rest of the world as being so inherently Jewish?…

2) A People Who Dwell Apart

The Rav also remarked, on a separate occasion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE18YlW1aHw at 1:40), something which I’ll paraphrase here from his original Yiddish, which my father helped me to translate:

“I try and tell my gentile neighbors that our attachment to Israel is no different than that of the Irish American to Ireland or the Italian American to Italy, but even as the words leave my mouth, I know that it’s not really a true comparison. Our attachment to Eretz Yisrael is different, more transcendent, and they can perceive that”.

America’s........

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