The Movement for Reform Judaism

In my attempt to describe the new paradigm of Jewish existence that shifted from a Holocaust-centred to an Israel-centred Judaism (The Star of Return, Greenwood Press, 1991), I described three characteristics that emerged after the renewed link that Zionism brought about between the faith, the people and the land of Israel: power, hope and righteousness (tsedek). My contention was that each of these also has a downside: power not applied with the Jewish memory of powerlessness (treat the stranger well for "you were strangers in the land of Egypt") may end up as unbridled violence; hope cam easily deteriorate into apocalyptic pseudo-messianism that claims supra-historic rights, and righteousness can turn into self-righteousness.

A new book by Aviad Kleinberg, a significant Israeli public intellectual, on the seven deadly sins (Shivat Hachataim, Yediot Achronot, 2007) adds an eighth to the traditional list: tsidkanut, self-righteousness. He writes: "Even though the inclination to self-righteousness is especially widespread among those who observe Mitzvoth, it is, of course, not only their patrimony. Self-righteous elements have become a part of all of Israeli culture. We are certain that we are always right as a nation and more righteous than others" (p.190). In practice this suggests that the abuse of power and apocalyptic pseudo-messianism often manifest themselves as self-righteousness.

In a London newspaper article, Jacqueline Rose - one of the signatories to the tract that challenged the Jewish establishment in Britain because of its allegedly blind support for Israel - makes reference to that last chapter in Kleinberg's book as an implicit accusation of Jewish self-righteousness everywhere. Though I hold no brief for Professor Rose and I find the tract in question quite despicable, she may nevertheless have a point when she includes diaspora Jewry in Kleinberg's charge of Israeli self-righteousness.

Though I normally avoid the kind of theoretical discussion you find above, I feel a need today to make the point that one of the problems of contemporary Jewish life is that so many of us are mired in self-righteousness. We react against criticism by insisting, whatever the circumstances, that we're occupying the highest possible moral ground. When we run out of arguments, we tell the world that we're victims and, therefore, entitled to do things that even our Jewish teachings forbid us. Those who disagree with us should, almost by definition, be counted among the victimizers.

In this scheme of things, moral improvement is impossible, for the implication is that we already are perfect, if only the rest of the world understood us. Kleinberg suggests that politicians, like Orthodox Jews, are particularly prone to this stance. If you disagree with an Orthodox Jew, you're obviously an am ha'aretz (ignoramus); if you knew more you'd agree. If you disagree with a Jewish politician you run the risk of being described as an anti-Semite (if you aren't Jewish) and a self-hating Jew (if you are). 

Much of what I've been writing about from Israel these past months has tried to point to the abuse of power in the Jewish state, the distortion of Jewish hope as triumphalist messianism masquerading as nationalism and piety, and self-righteousness. Fearing that the self-righteous don't want to read what I'm writing, I've tried to send my pieces only to those who I hope will understand. Perhaps I'm still a preacher. And as a preacher I know that you always only preach to the converted.

Jerusalem 11.3.07 

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