A Free Nation in Our Land

By Guy Rakover

The development of a culture based on instant gratification causes the downfall of the system within which it exists. When a society reaches the stage where its only goal is to find instant satisfaction the civilization’s values collapse in pursuit of that goal. As a result, the society ceases to exist and becomes a new entity, where morals are cast aside, allowing for rampant corruption and dishonesty, resulting even in the collapse of the family unit.

It is not surprising that many people feel that as a society we are barren. Our fathers’ generation, the first to be born in the independent state of Israel, has failed in providing stable ideological leadership to carry us into the coming years. Brave and gallant soldiers they were, but the struggle for security and the growing influence of western culture on our society has caused an imbalance, veering us off the path of true cultural and political advancement.

Our generation is no different, we are also on the most part without ideological goals or motives, and western influences replace our national morals and values. We are worst off then our fathers in the sense that we did not grow up with the ideology and vision they were taught. While still in our childhoods our parents, tired from the struggle of wars with no end, in many cases did not instill the true meaning of Zionism and our Jewish history, leaving many of us to only accredit the importance of the existence of our state as protection against anti-Semitism abroad. This view is shallow and secures no true future for our people.

Israel is a haven, but that must only be one of its rolls. First and foremost it must be the center of our nation, culturally and spiritually, economically and politically, from the Knesset to the Beit Din in Jerusalem. We must see our state not only as a bunker to hide in when pogroms are rampant, but also as holy and as a symbol of who we truly are as Jewish people, and not a symbol to the hatred that we have been and are still plagued with.

Wars will continue. Our neighbors and other nations around the world still pray for our destruction, but that is not a good enough reason to fight. We must focus on building our unity and pride as a nation, and then we will be accepted, not as a Jew pretending to be American, European, etc. but as a Jew whose pride in his traditions and identity are an inspiration to the advanced nations of the world. And when our enemies attack and try to destroy the good that we represent, we will be strong as the heroes who fought in the war of Independence, because we will be united as a people. And the soldier who stands on the battlefield will not fight just not to die, he will fight for the right to truly live as a Jew in his land.