Separation of Synagogue and State

Separation of Church and State is considered an essential characteristic of the modern democratic nation. Here are a few thoughts on separation of synagogue and state in Israel:

1. Yeshayahu Liebowitz was in favor of the separation - he believed that mixing religion and politics was unhealthy, and tended to corrupt religion. This has proven true; rabbinic courts are corrupt - if not financially, then at least they're corrupt religiously - they rule in favor of the status quo and in order to enhance their own power. A good example is the reluctance of the rabbinic courts to use their powers to help agunot - the rabbis have no desire to change the status quo and its patriarchal values.

2. When politics and religion mix, the non-religious start resenting the religious. Many secular Israelis are especially upset about the control the rabbinic courts have on marriage and divorce issues. This resentment contributes to the rift between the religious and non-religious.

3. A problem with complete separation of synagogue and state: If the separation is complete, then what makes Israel a Jewish state? This question comes from thinking of Judaism as a religion, but Zionism is not concerned with Judaism, but with Jewishness - and Jewishness is defined as belonging to the Jewish nation. So, while Israel should separate between religion and state, it should not separate between culture of the Jewish nation and state.

What is that culture? For thousands of years, Jews have celebrated shabbat, rosh hashana, yom kippur, etc - those are national Jewish days of rest and celebration, and so should be the state days of rest and celebration.  Public schools should provide adequate Jewish education: Jewish history, the Bible which has shaped Jewish culture, and the rabbinic laws - which, whether one observes them or not, are a major part of Jewish culture by virtue of the fact that they were observed by our ancestors for thousands of years. Bios of famous rabbis should be included in Jewish history. Students must be taught about the historical and biblical relationship between the Jewish people and the land of Israel. They must also be instilled with the Jewish values that are part of our culture: charity, loving-kindness, not oppressing the stranger, etc. These values are essential to a successful society. Part of having a Jewish state is expressing those values in government policies. A government that ignores the poor is, in my opinion not a Jewish government - because Jewish culture has always considered it important to help the poor, probably because of the influence biblical passages about charity had on the culture, and because the exile existence forced Jews to take care of their own - the local governments were often not merely apathetic, but actually hostile, to the Jewish community.

If one defines a Jewish state as a state where the majority of citizens are Jews, placed upon the traditional Jewish homeland, that has a unique Jewish national culture, then the complete separation of Judaism and state, with the complete integration of Jewishness and state, is the way to go. This definition is more in keeping with secular Zionism than religious Zionism, but I believe it could have positive benefits for the religious Zionist movement. It would lessen the Orthodox/non-Orthodox rift, lessen people's resentment towards the Jewish religion, and possibly encourage them to adopt cultural practices that often overlap with religious practices simply because the Jewish culture is so strongly influenced by the Jewish religion.

The power of the Sinai experience is that the Jews voluntarily accepted the Torah by saying "We will do and we will listen". Trying to force religion on people negates the power of their religious acts - the Orthodox community should let each Jew stand at their own metaphoric Sinai, with the freedom of choice to say those words. Ultimately, the Sinai covenant is about choice: the choice to accept the national covenant thousands of years ago, the choice to do right or wrong - it is choice that makes the mitzvot meaningful. To paraphrase Maimonides: If people didn't have freedom of choice, then why would God bother giving them commandments, or enacting a system of justice, with reward and punishment? For the sake of the Jewish religion, the religious establishment should stop trying to force people into being religious.