Professor Manuel Trajtenberg, Executive Director of INSS:
Of all the Jewish holidays, Passover is no doubt the one most closely linked to the revival of the Jewish people in its homeland after 2000 years of exile, since Passover marks the sharp transition from slavery to freedom – the foremost condition for the transformation of a gathering of tribes into a people with a shared destiny. So it was at the time of the Exodus, and so it has been for the last hundred years, as Jews from all over the world have left behind the Diaspora and rebuilt their old-new homeland.
The Exodus was only the first of the three pivotal events that shaped the Jewish people in its infancy – the second was the receipt of the Torah at Mount Sinai, and the third the building of the Tabernacle. Receiving the Torah signified the acceptance of a normative system that would guide the Israelites, while building the Tabernacle involved the establishment of an institution with the authority to implement it. These three formative chapters are the essential building blocks of any nation: freedom, ethics, and authority. However, while the first two came about “top down,” the Tabernacle was built with contributions from every Israelite, in resources and labor. In other words, the institutions that are intended to regulate a people’s existence as a collective were – and should be – built “bottom up,” involving all its members.
While the first and crucial chapter of once again acquiring freedom is now behind us, the second and third chapters in the modern evolution of Israel as a nation are still a work in progress: the State of Israel of the 21st century has yet to establish a definitive normative system and government institutions that are acceptable throughout our highly fragmented society. Indeed, many of the crises that we are experiencing at present are an expression of such unfinished work, and thus it is incumbent upon each of us to contribute to the collective task. It is a great privilege to be part of this effort, and I have no doubt that our work at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) constitutes an important contribution in that regard.
Passover is celebrated in the spring, a season of renewal, light, and blossoming. Nonetheless, recent weeks have witnessed harsh, dark events that we had hoped were long behind us: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; the wave of shocking terrorist attacks that hit us in the past few weeks; and a new political crisis that threatens to drag Israel once again into a political maelstrom of inconclusive elections. Understandably, these events generate feelings of bewilderment, anxiety, and anger, which are bound to cloud our perspective. Nevertheless, we should not let these feelings derail us from the search for long-term, sensible strategies to confront the deep challenges that we face that have given rise to recurrent crises.
Among many other gems, the Passover Haggadah includes the wonderful poem “Dayenu” (“it would be enough”), which teaches that we should be content and give thanks for what we already have, but at the same time, be mindful that there is always a further stage, a higher summit, a loftier goal to pursue. INSS has recorded remarkable achievements as an influential think tank in the past few years, and for that we should say dayenu, yet at the same time we must strive together to climb to new heights, to reach further audiences, to design more innovative strategies – in short, to contribute further to the national security of Israel.
I wish you all a happy, peaceful, and fulfilling Passover.