This is part of a newspaper written in 1940 by the Rav Yehuda Ashlag to motivate the jewish people to unite under a common goal in order to defend themselves against their oppressors. I invite both Israelis, Palestinians and their supporters to read this and treat it as if it was written for them and their own, by replacing the words jew,jewish and israel with words that identify you. May both sides be strengthened by his wisdom and find a common goal within their own ranks to establish a state they can be proud of. (Unfortunately I could not find the full translation... this will have to do) (I will post another one in hebrew) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ OUR DIRECTION This paper, The Nation, is a new creature on the Jewish street: an inter-factional paper. And you may ask, What does an inter-factional paper mean? How can there be a paper that can serve all parties together, despite the opposition and the contrasts among them? Indeed, it is a kind of creation that was born in straits, through hard and dreadful labor-pains, from amidst the venom of hatred that had struck the nations to obliterate us from the face of the Earth, the destruction of millions of our brothers, and they are still prepared to continue. The sadistic inclination within them is not satisfied, and the calamity is doubled for we cannot delude ourselves that all this is but a passing, transitory phenomenon, as with our past experiences in history, that if a nation erupts on us, we find its substitute in another. However, now things are very different. Not only are we attacked on all parts of the land at once, but even the highest nations have locked their doors before us without any sentiment of mercy or compassion, and in such a ruthless manner, unprecedented in the whole of human history, even in the most barbaric times. It is clear, save for relying on miracles. That our existence as individuals or as a nation is hanging between life and death. And the salvation is, if we can find the required ploy, that great scheme whos way is only to be found near danger, and which can tilt the scale to our favor—to give us a safe haven here for all the Diaspora of our brothers, which everyone says is, at present, the only place of salvage. Then, the road of life will be open to us, to somehow continue our existence despite the difficulties. And if we miss the opportunity and do not rise as one, with the great efforts required at a time of danger, to guarantee our remaining in the land, then the facts before us are greatly threatening for us, since matters are evolving favorably for our enemies, who are asking to destroy us from the face of the Earth. It is also clear that such an enormous effort, a solid and steel-hard unity is required, from all parts of the nation, without exception. If we do not come out with united ranks toward the mighty forces that are standing on our way to harm us, we will find that our hope is doomed in advance. And after all that, each person and party sit and meticulously guard their own possessions without any concessions. And under no circumstances can they, or more correctly, will they reach national unity, as this perilous time for all of us requires. Thus, we are submerged in indifference as though nothing had happened. Try to imagine if some nation showed us the door, as is so common these days. It is then certain that no one would think about ones factional belonging, for the trouble would mold all of us into one dough, whether to defend ourselves, or to pack up and flee by sea or by land. Had we felt the danger as real, we would undoubtedly be properly united, too, without any difficulty. Under these circumstances, a small group of us, from all sects, met; people who sense the dreadful whip on their backs as though it had already materialized. They had taken upon themselves to publish this paper, which they believe will be a loyal channel through which to convey their sensations to the whole nation, with all its sects and factions, none excluded. By doing so, the contrasts and the narrow-minded factionalism would be cancelled. More correctly, they would be silenced and make way to what precedes them, and we will all be able to unite into a single, solid body, qualified to protect itself at this crucial time. And although this danger is known to all, as it is known to us, perhaps it has not yet sufficiently evolved in all the public, as it truly is. If they had felt it, they would have long ago shaken off the dust of factionalism to the extent that it obstructs the unity of our ranks. If this is not so, it is only because this sensation is still not shared by many. Hence, we have taken upon ourselves the publication of this paper, to stand guard and warn of the trouble, and explain it to the public until all the segregating elements will be silenced, and we will be able to meet our enemy with united ranks, and give it duly response. Moreover, we are certain that Israel is not alone, and among us there are those who search the hearts, and can provide a successful scheme that will unite all the factions in the nation. And from experience we have learned that specifically those people sit at the corner without listeners. In this paper, we are ready to make room for anyone who carries a guaranteed solution for uniting the nation, to publicize it and to sound it in the public. In addition to all the above, by publishing this paper, we aim to defend our ancient culture of millennia, since before the ruin of our country. We aim to reveal it, and clean it from the piles that have accumulated over it during the years of our exile among the nations, so their pure Jewish nature would be recognized, as they were at that time. This will bring us the greatest benefit, for we will be able to find a way to connect our Diaspora milieu with that glorious time, and redeem ourselves from feeding on vineyards we did not plant. THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE NATION The human being is a social being. We cannot satisfy our vital needs without assistance from others. Hence, partnership with many is necessary for our existence. This is not the place to explore the making of the nations. We can suffice for studying reality as it appears to our eyes. It is a fact that the individual is helpless in fulfilling ones own needs alone. We need a social life. Hence, individuals were compelled to unite into a union called a nation or a state, in which each engages in ones own trade, some in agriculture, some in artisanship. They connect through trading of their products. Thus, the nations were made, each with its unique nature, both in material life and in the cultural life. Observing lifes reflections, we see that the process of a nation is very similar to the process of a single individual. The function of each nation is like the function of the organs in a single body. As the body must have harmony among its parts—the eyes see and the brain is assisted by them to think and to consult, then the hands work or fight, and the legs walk. Thus, each stands on its guard and waits for its function. Similarly, the organs that comprise the body of the nation, the counselors, the employers, the workers, the deliverers, etc. should function in complete harmony among them. This is necessary for the normal life of the nation and for a secured existence. As the natural death of the individual results from disharmony among ones organs, the nations natural decline results from some obstruction that occurred among its organs, as our sages testified (Tosfot, Baba Metzia, Chapter Two) that Jerusalem was ruined only because of unfounded hatred. At that time, the nation was plagued and died, and its organs were scattered in all directions. Therefore, it is a must condition for every nation to be strongly united within, so all the individuals within it are attached to one another through instinctive love. Moreover, each individual should feel that ones own happiness in the happiness of the nation, and ones decadence in the nations decadence. One should be willing to give ones all for the nation in a time of need. Otherwise, their right to exist as a nation in the world is doomed from the start. This does not mean that all the people in the nation, without exception, must be so. It means that the people of that nation, who sense that harmony, are the ones who make the nation, and the measure of happiness of the nation and its right to exist are measured by their quality. After a sufficient sum of individuals to the existence of the nation has been found, there can be a certain measure of loose limbs, which are not connected to the body of the nation in the above-mentioned measure, since the basis is already secured without them. Hence, in ancient times, we do not find unions and societies without kinship among its members. It is because that primitive love, which is necessary for the existence of the society, is found only in families that are offshoots of a single father. However, as the generations evolved, there were societies connected under the term state, that is, without any familial or racial ties. The connection of the individual to the state is no longer a natural, primitive connection, but stems from a common need where each individual bonds with the whole into a single body, which is the state. And the state protects the body and possessions of every individual with all the power of a state. Indeed, that transition, where the generations moved from the natural nation to the artificial nation, from ties that stem from primitive love to the ties that stem from a common need, does not take anything from the conditions necessary in a natural, racial state. The rule is that as every healthy individual has complete control over ones organs, based on love, because the organs joyfully obey without any fear of punishment, the state should completely dominate all the individuals within it with respect to its general needs, based on love and instinctive devotion of the individuals to the whole. This is the most convenient force, sufficient to move all the individuals toward the needs of the public. However, domination based on coercion and punishment is too weak a force to move every individual sufficiently to guard the needs of the public. The public, too, will weaken and will not be able to fulfill its commitment to guard and to secure each individuals body and possessions. And we are not concerned with the form of government here. Whether autocratic, democratic, or collective; they do not change the essence of the establishment of the force of social unity. It cannot be established, and much less persist, if not through ties of social love. It is shameful to admit that one of the most precious merits we have lost during the exile, and the most important of them, is the loss of the awareness of the nationality, that natural feeling that connects and sustains each and every nation. The threads of love that connect the nation, which are so natural and primitive in all the nations, have become degenerated and detached from our hearts; they are gone. And the worst of all is that the little we have left of the national love is not naturally instilled in us, as it is in all the nations. It rather exists within us on a negative basis: it is the common suffering. Each of us suffers being a child of the nation, which imprints in us a national awareness and proximity. We are fellow-sufferers. This is an external cause. As long as this external cause joined and blended with our national awareness, an odd kind of national love emerged and sparked off this jumble, unnatural and incomprehensible. And the most important is that it is completely unfit for its task. Its measure of warmth suffices only to an ephemeral excitement, but without the power and strength with which we can be rebuilt as a nation that carries itself. This is because a union that exists due to an outside cause is not at all a national union. In that sense, we are like a pile of nuts, united into a single body from the outside by the sack that envelops and unites them. Their measure of unity does not make them a united body, and each movement applied to the sack produces in them tumult and separation. Thus, they consistently arrive at new unions and partial aggregations. The fault is that they lack the inner unity, and their whole force of unity comes through an outside incident. To us, this is very painful to the heart. Indeed, the spark of nationalism was kept within us in its fullest measure, but it has dimmed and become inactive. It has also been greatly harmed by the mixture it had received from the outside, as we have said. However, this does not yet enrich us, and reality is very bitter. The only hope is to establish a thoroughly new national education for ourselves, to discover and ignite once more the natural national love that have been dimmed within us, to revive once more the national muscles, which have been inactive in us for two millennia, in every suitable means to this end. Then we will know that we have a natural, reliable foundation to be rebuilt and to continue our existence as a nation, qualified to carry itself as all the nations in the world. There is a precondition for any work and any act. Because in the beginning, the foundation must be built in a manner sufficiently healthy to carry the load it is meant to carry. Then the construction of the building begins. But it is a shame on those who build building without a solid enough basis. Not only are they not building anything, they are endangering themselves and others next to them, the building will fall with the slightest movement and its parts will scatter in all directions. Here I must stress concerning the above-mentioned national education: although I aim to plant great love among the individuals of the nation in particular and for the whole nation in general, in the fullest possible measure, this is not at all similar to chauvinism or to fascism. Those are loathsome in our eyes, and my conscience is completely clear from of them. Despite the apparent similarity of the words in their superficial sounds, since chauvinism is nothing but excessive national love, they are essentially far from one another as black from white. To easily perceive the difference between them, we should compare them to the measures of egoism and altruism in the individual. As we have said, the process of the nation is very similar to the process of the individual in all ones particular details. This is a general key by which to understand all the national laws without deflecting right and left in them even as a hairs breadth. Clearly, the measure of inherent egoism in every creature is a necessary condition in the actual existence of the creature. Without it, it would not be a separated and distinct being in itself. Yet, this should not at all deny the measure of altruism in a person. The only thing required is to set distinct boundaries between them: the law of egoism must be kept in all its might, to the extent that it concerns the minimal existence. And with anything that is a surplus to that measure, permission is granted to waive it for the well being of ones fellow person. Naturally, anyone who acts in this manner is to be considered extremely altruistic. However, those who relinquish their own minimal share, too, for the benefit of others, and thus risk their lives, this is completely unnatural, and cannot be kept, but only once in life. The excessive egoist, who has no regard at all for the well being of others, is loathsome in our eyes, as this is the substance from which the looters, the murderers and all those of bad culture come. It is similarly so with national egoism and altruism: the national love, too, must be imprinted in all the individuals in the nation no less than the egoistic individual love in a person for ones own needs, sufficient to sustain the existence of the nation as a nation, so it can carry itself. And the surplus of that minimal measure can be dedicated to the well being of humanism, to the whole of humanity, without any differences of nations or of race. Conversely, we are utterly hateful of the excessive national egoism, starting from nations that have no regard for the well being of others, to the ones that rob and murder other nations for their own pleasure, called chauvinism. Thus, those who completely retire from nationalism and become cosmo-political for humane, altruistic motives, are essentially erring. This is because nationalism and humanism are not at all contradiction in terms. It is therefore evident that the national love is the basis of every nation, just as egoism is the basis of all individually existing beings. Without it, it would not be able to exist in the world. Similarly, the national love in the individuals of the nation is the basis for the independence of every nation. This is the only reason for which it continues or ceases to exist. For this reason, this should be the first concern in the revival of the nation. This love is not presently within us, for we have lost it on our wandering among the nations for the past two millennia. Only individuals have gathered here, without any ties of pure national love. One connects through the common language, another through the common land, a third through the common religion, and a fourth through the common history. They all want to live according to the measure by which they lived in the nation they came from, and do not take into account that there it was a nation based on its own members before he or she had joined it, and which he or she took no active part in establishing. However, when a person comes to Israel, there are no prearranged orders that suffice for a nation to function on its own, we have no other national substance on which structure we can rely, and we also have no wish for that. Rather, we must be completely reliant on our own structure; and how can we do that when there is still no natural national connection that will unite us for this task? These loose ties—language, religion, and history, though they are important values, and no one will deny their national merit, they are still completely insufficient to rely on as a basis for the independent sustenance of a nation. In the end, all we have here is a gathering of strangers, descendents of cultures of seventy nations, each building a stage for oneself, ones spirit, and ones liking. There is no elemental thing here that will unite us all from within into a single mass. I know that there is one thing that is common to all of us: the escape from the bitter exile. However, this is only a superficial union, like the sack that holds the nuts together. This is why I stated that we need to arrange for ourselves a special education through widespread circulation, instill in each of us a sense of national love, both from one person to another, and from the individuals to the whole, and rediscover the national love that was instilled within us since the time we were on our land, a nation among the nations.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 08:33:05 +0000
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