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Talmud Class: Asymmetry - They Have No Other Country, and We Do
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For our last Talmud class of the year we want to leave you with a question to ponder about asymmetry—an asymmetry between Israeli Jews and American Jews.
For its 75th, Israel had a contest for what Israeli song best captures Israel? Israelis voted for the winner: a song that was composed in 1982 called ein li eretz acheret, I have no other land.
Here are some questions:
What is the essential message of this song?
What is it about this song that inspires Israelis to vote for it as conveying the Israeli condition?
What language, what adjective, would you use to describe the rendition of this song in the video, accompanied by photos of life in Israel?
The song, the lyrics, the video, all suggest a deep purpose and blessing, and a deep cost and heaviness, to living in Israel, but the narrator has no other choice: I have no other country. With all its challenges, with all the blood, sweat and tears, with all the wars and terrorism, with all the Israelis who have died in battle or from acts of terrorism, it is the only country they’ve got.
But we’ve got another country, imperfect though it may be. When the going in Israel gets tough, we have another home to come home to.
Their 18-year olds do military service in places like Gaza and Jenin. Ours go off to college. How do we think about that asymmetry? Is that just a fact of nature, like gravity. Or do we have a decision to make about how to think about and act in the face of this asymmetry?
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