ISRAEL REPRESENTS THE REENTRY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE INTO HISTORY.

On another level, Israel represents a renewal of the original covenant between God and the Jewish people, the covenant of tikkun olam—the Jewish commitment to repair the whole world, with our own nation as a role model. I and others have argued that the destruction and mass murder of the Holocaust was such a contradiction of the whole idea of Jewish covenant—such an assault on the idea that the good guys will win and the whole world is headed for universal justice and peace—that the covenant had been broken. I have changed my position on that. I would say now that the covenant itself is going through stages.

In the initial biblical covenant, God saves us from oppression as long as we are faithful to God: When Israel is destroyed, it’s because the Jews didn’t live up to God and were punished for it. The Haredim still believe this about the Shoah. I would argue rather that by rabbinic times, though the covenant continued, it had changed: God had self-limited and would no longer save the Jews by visible miracles. The Talmud says the First Temple was destroyed by idolatry but the Second by baseless hatred. In other words, the Second Temple was destroyed because we sinned against one another, not against God—by engaging in a civil war and a reckless revolt against a power we couldn’t beat.

Now, after the Shoah, we are in the third stage of covenant: God is with us, but we take full responsibility for our survival. In the Shoah, as I see it, the world learned what happens when it doesn’t take up the responsibility for preventing catastrophe. The Shoah made people wake up and see that everyone is a potential victim and you can’t depend on other people to protect you. If you’re not strong enough to protect yourself, you’ll be in serious danger. The Jewish response was to create the State of Israel. That’s what we’re living through right now—a renewal of the covenant under new rules. God is present as our partner and companion, but one who has called us to take responsibility. This is what the Haredim are wrong about—they say they can learn Torah and be exempt from the army because God will protect us. But in Europe, all the prayers and learning of Torah didn’t stop the Holocaust. The Jewish people overwhelmingly get that. And in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, the founders, although called secularists, said openly that their top priority would be to work in the spirit of the prophets: bringing back scattered Jews from around the world and fulfilling the traditional promise of justice for everyone. There was a very conscious taking of responsibility for what Jewish tradition defined as the covenant with God.

Eighty years ago, and for 2,000 years before that, if you were a Jew you were in more danger than other people. Jewish blood was cheap. Israel in 75 years has not only guaranteed a haven to ev- ery Jew in the world, it has made Jewish lives more likely to be saved, as you saw happen in Ukraine. If you were a Jew, there were people out there who made special efforts for you. That’s an amazing accomplishment—Israel and world Jewry have restored the value of Jewish life.

Irving “Yitz” Greenberg is an Orthodox rabbi and president of the J.J. Greenberg Institute for the Advancement of Jewish Life at Hadar. His many books include the forthcoming The Triumph of Life: A Narrative Theology of Jewry and Judaism