Could Israel be considered a balanced Jewish state without its religion?

Today, as the Israeli judicial overhaul flounders, the political Left openly attacks Israeli Orthodox Jews, accusing them of refusing to contribute to the nation’s economy and defense. The Left portrays Orthodox Jews as people who refuse to work and to serve in the army – and as individuals who spend their whole time studying the Torah and who avoid engagement in basic studies, such as in languages, math, physics, chemistry, and other disciplines and fields.

All of this is a gross misrepresentation and slander of Orthodox Jews.

It is telling that what the Israeli political Left leaves out in its portrayal of Orthodox Jews is that they are consistently found everywhere in all Israeli hospitals, and that they are almost always the first ones to run to the scene of a terrorist attack. They are in Israeli ambulances, in the nursing homes for the elderly – whom they help to cope with their conditions – and they are seen untiringly distributing food to needy families.

What would we be without faith, without hope, without our religious moorings? What would we be without our Jewish landmarks – such as humanity, help, and compassion?

Would we be Jews? No.

Let’s put aside the state and take a simple rose as an example: it is beautiful, and it emanates a fragrance that enchants us. It also has thorns. Many of us wonder why we don’t get rid of the thorns. The answer is quite simple: the thorns are not useless. They are a weapon to protect the rose from all those who may try to destroy it. The thorns are the rose’s vital defense.

It’s about resilience.

Without Orthodox Jews, what would Israel look like? Like a Western state tarnishing and ridiculing its own religious foundations from within – decaying from its own inability to defend itself and its roots, its culture, art, ancestors and identity.

Any natural composition/structure has obligatory elements/organs, while others are used less often as secondary elements. It is necessary, therefore, to look more closely at each organ in a living organism and to study scrupulously its functions in all aspects and environments.

Leftists revile traditional identity, homeland, faith and religious culture. The political Left is mostly atheist and refuses to observe the Jewish faith’s minimal rules. No Torah, no God. The LGBTQ agenda appears to be much more important and relevant to them than the Shabbat.

In every state, there are old people, handicapped people, and physically and/or mentally ill people, who cost the state a fortune. Should we exterminate them? As a specific French Jewish intellectual (Attali) said, “We should establish a maximum life expectancy for the elderly and help them to die. This would reduce the costs of the state.”

How low will these people go?

I remember having been asked to write an old Australian friend’s biography, and while describing his life to me, he underlined that he was aware that it was insignificant. I responded to him:

“Even the ant that bothers us and forces us to try to exterminate it has a role to play in this world. It is the one that shapes landscapes, builds and destroys mountains. And the world needs it for its perpetuation.”

There is nothing in this world, in all of God’s creation, that is useless. Every creature has a duty, a role to fulfill in the radius of our existence or in the global space, for our happiness, needs, and wholeness.

Israel needs its Orthodox Jews to put the Jewish nation back on track, to remind us all that we are only visitors on our planet, and that we take nothing with us when we die. “Naked you came into the world and naked you shall leave it.”

So, try to do something good for your fellow man so that when you leave this world, you’ll do it with your head held high and your conscience clear.

If the Jews stop being Jews, our state will disappear. And in that truth abides the vital importance and necessity of Orthodox Jews.