{"id":1229,"date":"2018-01-02T00:52:11","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T00:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/?p=1229"},"modified":"2018-01-09T14:34:26","modified_gmt":"2018-01-09T14:34:26","slug":"israels-survival-lies-in-religion-not-secularism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/2018\/01\/israels-survival-lies-in-religion-not-secularism\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s survival lies in religion, not secularism"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his article in the Saint Louis Jewish Light<\/a>\u00a0discusses the balance between religion and secularism in Israel in response to\u00a0Michael Steinhardt’s suggestion that \u201cThe modern state of Israel is the Jewish miracle of the 20th<\/span>\u00a0century, but it\u2019s the secular part of Israel that\u2019s the miracle. It\u2019s the extraordinary achievement, it\u2019s the technology, the military \u2026 Israel has become for me, the substitute for religion.”<\/p>\n

Moreover, Steinhardt\u2019s response is precisely at issue. It is the worship \u2014 a substitute for religion \u2014 of the state that is dangerous. It is blind faith in technology and the military that is dangerous. While we celebrate Israel\u2019s miraculous technological, economic and military success, each is not free from the vulnerabilities of excess.\u00a0 . . .<\/p>\n

Admittedly, all religions are vulnerable to their own excesses, and the Jewish religion is no exception. Issues such as tolerance in general, spiritual living without material responsibility, marginalization of women and non-Jews, and rabbinic authoritarianism, for example, are modern religious excesses that often conflict with the Torah and rabbinic law.<\/p>\n

Internal corrections are needed. Solutions lie within those religious sources, not in secularism. And they are there. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

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In his article in the Saint Louis Jewish Light\u00a0discusses the balance between religion and secularism in Israel in response to\u00a0Michael Steinhardt’s suggestion that \u201cThe modern state of Israel is the Jewish miracle of the 20th\u00a0century, but it\u2019s the secular part of Israel that\u2019s the miracle. It\u2019s the extraordinary achievement, it\u2019s the technology, the military \u2026 Continue Reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":1028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,93,78],"tags":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-1229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-israel","category-modern-judaism"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t