One. One and One. One and Two.

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

Here we are, on the eve of the Day of Atonement, and who has atoned for Oct 7? Don’t tell me of the chiefs who announced their retirements in recognition of their failures, because those chiefs, who were responsible for the worse security failure in the history of Israel, remained at their posts. There is no Japanese Hari-Kari out of shame in the land of the Hebrews. So….the leaders that were leading then have been leading since then until now. Isn’t that strange? What kind of resignation is that? A long slow procession into the sunset? Wouldn’t a country want the best leaders at the helm when fighting an existential fight? And if not (think how mad those three words sound in this context, but they need to be sounded, because sadly, they are the sound of Israeli reality), and if not, then for certain we do not want to be led by chiefs who have proven nothing more than that they are the absolute worse choice for leading in a time of war, because they failed, miserably and totally. There is a measure of insanity in this paragraph, that reflects a measure of insanity in the Israeli body politic.

I admit, like many I was from day one yelling: “Throw the bums out! All of them! No air time; do not let them try to rewrite history! Clean out the stables!” What was I thinking? I knew better. I sit amongst my people. It was the easiest, and most Israeli of things that sucked the wind out of our sails. We were told that an independent investigation was on the way. In Israel, that statement is a stress laxative. It all poured out down our legs into a stinking puddle at our feet, meaning that the issue has been passed over into the realm of Israeli politics, meaning that we will be standing in those puddles as we beseech our Creator to pardon us.

It’s just so unfair, isn’t it? What the hell did the little people like us do to deserve this now sticky but still smelly foot mat that follows us everywhere we go? We try shaking our leg, violently, shouting: “Out out, damn dried stinking puddle!” but to no avail. The guilt has been disseminated from top to bottom. With this…with this insult we will beat our chests in repentance. So unfair!

While the prayer leader recites the “avoda,” (a recitation of the procedure for the Temple service on Yom Kippur), we, the simple Israelis, will be wondering how the obvious and undeniable guilt of those in charge, the military, intelligence and political chiefs, was now steaming up from below our seats in the synagogue, as we nurse out fast headaches. “It’s not fair,” we repeat to ourselves as we rub our eyes.

Then, tired of our self-pity and enforced self-flagellation, both so un-Jewish (about as un-Jewish as taking upon ourselves the guilt of others), we hear the prayer leader chanting loudly call-and-answer with the congregation: “One! One and One! One and Two!…” the recitation of the High Priest as he counts his sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifices in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. We hear this, echoing long-forgotten and difficult to understand religious rituals, and this time it has new meaning for us. As the count is made, we are thinking of other accountings, not so different from the one we hear, the count of the slaughtered on October 7th, the count of those brutally taken into captivity where they are enduring a seemingly endless torture of the soul, a counting of the hero soldiers who are are the ultimate sacrifice that this nation has to offer, a sacrifice freely and heroically given.

And another count, that begins with one, and one and another, and one and two more, and onwards. This is a count that starts from the bottom, from the single Jew. He or she now understand that as simple Jews, we cannot look for salvation from the chiefs. We are in this boat together. We need to look at each other, shake hands or even embrace, and confirm this new knowledge that should have been self-evident: The cleaning of the stable begins with us, the simple Jews at the bottom. When our soldiers return from the victorious battle, they need to see a populace that has built bridges, as they did inside their tanks, leftists, rightists, religious and secular. If they return and find that this is so, they may be willing to answer in the affirmative when the People of Israel ask them to take over the reigns of leadership.

One. One and One. One and Two.

Gmar Hatima Tova.