One image came to my mind when I read the book: I am walking along a pathat night, content and happy. When dawn comes, I realize that I have beenwalking on the edge of a precipice the entire time.
Sefi Rakhlevsky’s book, “The Messiah’s Donkey,” is the mostimportant book published here in recent years. It is a must-read foranyone who cares about the country’s future.
For many years we have witnessed an unexplained phenomenon. How has asweet-natured house cat turned into a ferocious tiger? We knew thefounders of the National Religious Party (then “HaMizrakhi” and”HaPoel HaMizrakhi”), men like Moshe Shapira and Yosef Burg whosupported within the cabinet the moderate Moshe Sharetagainst David Ben-Gurion. Men who opposed military adventurism andbelieved in compromise. Now, this party has become an extremenationalistic, messianic-fanatical party, the party of extremistsettlers.
The lunatic fringe of the religious camp has turned into a lunatic center.It is where the likes of Baruch Goldstein, Yigal Amir and their disciplescame from. We see the children of settlers and their pupils turn overfruit stands in the Arab market of Hebron, to their mothers’ shoutsof glee. We see their adolescents kill Arabs as “a prank.” We seetheir grownups beat Arabs with chains. We see many respectablerabbis take part in a conference for the construction of a temple onthe ruins of two of Islam’s most holy shrines, knowing fullwell that this is bound to lead to a war between us and a billionMoslems — and there is not a single rabbi who dares protest inpublic! We see the “religious-nationalists” and the haredim — whountil recently were sworn enemies — close ranks under a common flagof hatred of the goyim and of any peaceful solution. We see suchrabbis as Eliezer Shakh and Ovadia Yosef, who in the past justifiedthe return of the territories, now keep a deafening silence.
We see that the remnants of those religious moderates, Meimad and itslike, can’t even come close to one percent of the vote. Wesee that in the entire huge religious block, not a single prominentindividual remains who would have had the guts to speak out againstthe “Din Mosser” (death penalty to perceived traitors) and similarhorrifying expressions. We see and do not comprehend.
There is no doubt about it: The Jewish religion in Israel has undergone amutation in the last generation. It has changed radically. We have beenseeing the facts, not the causes. What happened? How did it evolve?From where have these forces exploded? What spiritual roots nourishthem?
Now comes Rakhlevsky and explains the process in detail. He exposes thesources of the process, the forces, the leaders, the secret code for themessage. He rips off the mask from the faces of the religiousmissionaries, who anesthetize the secular public with their soothingwords. He reveals to us a whole world never before shown to us: Hundredsof unknown facts, hundreds of quotes from the Talmud, the Book of Zohar,the Rambam, Ha’Ari, the Maharal, Rav Kook, and many more.
It was obvious that such a provocative book would not remain unanswered.But it is the the very “answers” that prove just how credible andabove-board the book is. None of the attackers could find a singleincorrect quote, a single false fact. Yes, the quotes are correct, saythe critics, but this is merely one part of Judaism. Judaismhas many faces, which the evil Rakhlevsky chooses to overlook.
Unfortunately, this argument is irrelevant. Certainly, every religion isa vast sea in which many fish swim, from goldfish to sharks. Christianitygave birth to St. Francis, who spoke to the birds and tried to bring peacebetween Moslems and Christians, but it also gave birth to the infernalinquisition. Judaism has a lot of magnificent elements. But the crucialquestion is: Which of these elements has taken root here inpresent-day Israel? What is the philosophy of those rabbis whoconstitute the vast majority, to whom all the others defer, whobrought about the election of Netanyahu and his gang, and who are nowpushing for the undoing of the Oslo Accords and for war?
Rakhlevsky proves that a particular philosophical version of Rabbi Kookhas taken over to the exclusion of all others. So when those critics saythat here are other aspects to Rabbi Kook’s philosophy as well, I say: Sowhat? I am not interested in the abstract philosophy of Rabbi Kook — allthat interests me is the concrete version, forced on the country by hisdisciples, his son, and by the settlers of Gush Emunim.
It is curious that the main attack on the book has come frompseudoleftists — those individuals masquerading as left-wingers. Thereason is quite simple: If there is, indeed, such an imminent danger to usas proved by Rakhlevsky, then how could they explain to themselves and toothers their shameful avoidance of a struggle? It is much more pleasantto speak of “meeting of the hearts”, “mutual understanding” and”dialogue.” The lamb in dialogue with the wolf.
And this is the central lesson of the book: The settlers who are incontrol of this government, the army, and the political structure, donot see the Arabs as their chief enemy. The Arabs, as far as they areconcerned, are sub-human, lower than beasts. The primetarget of the settlers is us — the state founded on our blood,Israeli democracy, the liberal, secular, open-to-the-world,peace-driven camp. Until now this camp has carried itself like adonkey which carries the Messiah on its back. Rakhlevsky gives us,for the first time, the ideological weapon to fight back withoutwhich we will not be able to free ourselves –before we all plungeinto the abyss.