How can a State determine a citizen's relationship with God?
The American government was established on the idea that no government can define or interfere in a citizen’s relationship with the Divine. For Israel, it is an entirely different matter; not only does the State interfere, the State defines this relationship for the individual as both a religious and a national concept.
For Americans, religion is an act of choice that does not affect their status as citizens of the United States. For Israelis, religion defines their status as citizens of the State. In fact, for some Israeli politicians, religion is not only a matter of citizenship; it is a matter of national security.
Americans could never understand this concept because they have never had to live with it. In fact, their government was created to avoid it.
But how do you avoid the religion-state relationship when you are Jewish?
Why did the colonialists seek to ensure that the government of America would “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”? Did they do this to escape the corrupt church-state governments of Europe where priests and monarchs played the role of God? Did they do this in order to be able to express their faith in a public forum without fear of persecution? These are both true reasons and, perhaps, there is another to be found in the wording of the Declaration of Independence itself: the recognition that God, not the Protestant god, nor the Catholic god, nor the Jewish god, nor any other god, but God was the Creator who endowed every individual with inalienable rights.
I don’t see God being given much consideration in Israeli politics today. Zionism, yes. Religion, yes. God? No. Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu Party advocates a national pledge to a Jewish State for purposes of Zionism. Shas and UTJ oppose the ratification of a Conversion Bill because it goes against the established Rabbinical authorities. The majority of Israelis sit between a rock and a hard place, between left and right, between nations that wait for their demise and politicians who are digging the grave. Meanwhile, the people of God know nothing of God because they are too busy being told what does and doesn’t make them a Jew—that is, acceptable in God’s presence—by a group of rather corrupt individuals with high personal stakes and extremely limited objectivity.
It is strange for an American Jew to try and comprehend the idea that the food you put in your mouth, where you set your foot on Shabbat, or who your father did or didn’t fall in love with could impact your status as a citizen of the land you’re supposed to be able to call home. It is even harder to understand how any religious leadership could declare a person who is willing to study for their nation to be a better person than the one who is willing to risk their life for their nation. It is hard for American Jews to understand these things because ours is a Jewishness of choice. If we want to wear peyas and sheitels, we do; if we want to drive on Shabbat, we do; if we want to marry gentiles and still raise our kids Jewish, we do. America has afforded us the opportunity no other nation ever has; to make the choice as to whether or not we want to live Jewish lives on our own terms.
I am of the opinion that Israel must be a Jewish state simply because that is the destiny of Israel. What “Jewish” means and how “Jewish” is expressed, despite the wishes of certain political parties cannot be legislated through mandated pledges, a minyan’s agreement, or a forced dictatorship. God Himself knows you cannot change a person’s heart. You can, however, “instruct them in the way they should go so that when they grow old, they will not sway from it.” You can encourage them with joy instead of force and love instead of judgment. You can instill pride of nation and of self so that the decisions they make as citizens will be in the best interests of the nation.
There are solutions to the fears that Zionists like Avigdor Lieberman face regarding the future of the Jewish State. Perhaps if he spent less time agitating the Arabs and more time praising his people, and perhaps if the religious parties like Shas and UTJ spent less time politicizing religion and more time promoting faith, they might find them.
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