Out of Boot Camp and Into Reality

By Moshe Feiglin

For the Jewish People, real life begins when they enter the Land of Israel. The intense experience of the exodus from Egypt, receiving the Torah and forty years of wandering in the desert were all a divinely inspired boot camp; preparation for entering the Land of Israel.

Just like the spies who discouraged the Israelites from leaving the desert boot camp to enter the Land in this week's Torah portion of Shelach Lecha, our modern-day will to leave boot camp is not faring much better. The moment of truth is here, and our recruits are running away from the challenge. The entire world is in awe of the infinite resources that have been invested in our nation. The entire world anticipates our nation's message - the wonder of the fusion of the divine and the mundane.

Western culture has created a religious world outside the parameters of the mundane. Eastern Islamic culture has created a religious world outside the parameters of the divine. The message of the Jewish nation is the message of the connection between the divine and the mundane. That connection can occur in only one place; in the Land of Israel. But instead of inspiring the world with our message, the Jewish nation prefers to 'admit' that the others are right; that the fusion of the divine and the mundane is impossible, after all.

The message that we are currently giving the world is that there is no such thing as the Torah of the Land of Israel; that the Torah is at most just another religion and that like all the other religions - it exists only outside of reality. Sometimes nations make mistakes. But when a nation ignores its divine destiny, the price is severe. The sin of the spies hounds us until this very day - particularly the religious. While the religious will go head to head with the government to prevent the building of a highway over suspected Jewish graves (and that is fine) they will remain absolutely silent when the Temple Mount - the palace of the King of the world on earth - is plowed under. Better for the palace to remain in heaven.

We proudly proclaim that Religious Zionism has a new message for our nation, but in our hearts, do not believe that the Torah that we learn is relevant outside the study halls. That is why so many Religious Zionists fight against Manhigut Yehudit. They prefer the sectoral desert boot camp and do not understand why it spells political death.

Polls show the Religious Zionist National Union party - upon all its sub-parties - in a steady state of decline. The fact that the decline continues despite all the 'unification' efforts to prop the party up shows that although the leaders of the Religious Zionist public may not yet feel it, the Religious Zionist public is voting with its feet against the exile religious mentality. It is slowly but surely groping its way toward the Torah of the Land of Israel - toward reality and its destiny.

Shabbat Shalom,

Moshe Feiglin