From Hadesh - Renewal Vol. I, Issue No. 2
By: Ariel Yaari
As of writing this, a new movement has arisen half a world away. Restore Britain, founded by the right-wing independent MP Rupert Lowe, calls for a true British nationalism. Whereas its platform focuses on immigration, seeking mass deportations of those who refuse to integrate into English culture, its main emphasis is on reinvigorating British national identity.1 Lowe and his ilk don’t only seek remigration without structural changes. Restore Britain wants Britain to be fundamentally British - restoring the role of the Church in public life and educating children in English history, including Agincourt, The War of the Roses, the Tudors, the Glorious Revolution, etc. They want a return to form, a revival of their civilization.
Lowe’s movement, along with similar ones in America, continental Europe, and throughout the world, is more than a recent pendulum shift. This is the beginning of a worldwide reaction against the neoliberal empire.2
There are different types of imperialism, not all are created equally.3 The imperialism most familiar to us is that of a country invading another for naked self-interest and to deplete its resources. Think the Congo under the Belgians. However, empires can be pursued for more than power and prestige. The British, while invading lands for resources as well, saw it as their noble obligation to bring order to the more primitive parts of the world.4
Why would an invading empire purposefully divest itself of resources to “educate”? Some might interpret this cynically and argue it is a way for the empire in question to justify the exploitation of peoples and lands to themselves. But there is also room for another, much more interesting possibility. If everyone thinks like you do, then there is relative peace. Everyone agrees with the hegemon about what must be done to ensure stability. This often leads to robust human flourishing. There is a reason why the Roman golden age is termed the Pax Romana (though it was relatively terrible for the Jews).
The imperial argument is a powerful one, but there is another to counter it. The problem with empires and why they eventually fail is that they don’t work in the long run. Nations are distinct from one another with unique characteristics and solutions that work for them and not for others. While the free market capitalism of thinkers like Adam Smith and Milton Friedman works in the contexts of Britain and the United States, it causes untold suffering for others.
Nations come up with the systems they do through a long process of trial and error, which we call Tradition. This Tradition is the nation’s way of maintaining its stability, and when problems do arise, the Tradition has already built-in solutions on how to fix them.5
For example, the preferred Jewish system of government is a constitutional monarchy. While the King has some extensive executive powers like extrajudicial killings and the ability to wage war, his power is restrained by the legislature/court - the Sanhedrin.6 The King, unlike the despots of old, cannot do as he pleases. This became the Halacha because of the Jewish experiment with the extremes of absolute monarchy and semi-anarchy.
The semi-anarchy of the period of the Shoftim, where “every man did what was right in his eyes,”7 led to untold suffering and straying from the path. The nation frequently flirted with idolatry and was consequently mired in conflict due to the lack of order. The most graphic of these episodes was the Concubine at Gibeah, which nearly led to the extinction of the tribe of Benjamin in a brutal civil war.
But then there was the overcorrection. After the establishment of the monarchy, the prophets needed to remind the Kings many, MANY times to remember why they were granted their authority and not to abuse it. The Kings then went on to abuse their power. Saul and David both did, although both repented for their actions and tried to live up to the Prophetic ideal. David’s son, Solomon, then wrought a golden age by absolutist means. He taxed the tribes beyond what they could withstand, forced them to labor on national projects,8 and when they interceded with his son to ease their burden, he doubled down, fracturing the Kingdom.9
Tyranny became a frequent occurrence in both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms until the end of Israelite sovereignty. Our experiments with both of these failed systems led to our robust Tradition of constitutional monarchy - the first in the world.
All nations undergo similar national experiments and consolidations, and arrive at their respective systems, which lead to national stability. Having a foreign system imposed on them by others frays cohesiveness and causes civil strife. Look at the failure of the democratic state in Afghanistan, for example.
The reconstitution of the Jewish state in 1948 is seen as miraculous, even messianic. I tend to be skeptical of any messianic claims, yet I am unable to blind myself to the enormous potential of our current situation. Yet, there is something fundamentally missing.
A man is told by his long-suffering wife to find a job so they can finally afford the necessities of life. The man, not having much experience in the workforce, decides to go to an office and see what they do. He sees people picking up the phone and engaging in work-related conversations, people printing out documents and putting them in files, and typing away at the computer. He thinks he gets the gist of it and goes home.
His wife finds him the next day sitting at his desk, picking up the phone and engaging in work-related conversations, printing out various documents, and typing away at the computer. The problem is that the phone isn’t connected, the documents are blank, and the typing is gibberish. He can only imitate what he saw at the office, but he is not engaging in any actual work.
This is the state Israel finds itself in today. Politically, we are subject to the whims of a foreign empire, which wishes to install its own Pax Americana, and we are so deeply divorced from national consciousness that many view this as GOOD for Israel.
Even supposed nationalists are affected by this. Artificial divisions are placed on Jewish identity, like Ashkenazi and Sefaradi. My father’s family is historically from Poland, before that from Germany, before that from Italy, and before that they were Judeans. Why am I letting the most recent Diaspora dictate my practices?10 I am much more concerned with whether my children will eat Matzah on Pesach than whether rice will accompany it.
If Jews want to unshackle ourselves from the foreign empires that would wish to rule us, then we must unshackle ourselves from an Exilic mindset that still pervades everything we do. There is a rich Tradition, born out of our covenant with G-d at Sinai and our previous experiences of nationhood that is waiting for us, waiting to be reclaimed.
When we reclaim our Tradition, we will reclaim ourselves, and the rest will follow.
I want to see our national consciousness reawakened and for Israel to take its rightful place on the world stage. A nation reborn, a people risen from the ashes.
I am not a revolutionary. I am not a conservative. I am a Restorationist.
https://www.restorebritain.org.uk/
After the fall of the Soviet Union, America became the world hegemon. Many American political analysts felt it was America’s responsibility to uphold global peace and facilitate trade. See Charles Krauthammer, “Universal Dominion: Toward a Unipolar World,” The National Interest (Winter 1989–1990), 46–49.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/42894643
Yoram Hazony, The Virtue of Nationalism (New York: Basic Books, 2018) 10-11.
This was well known as the “civilizational mission.” See Various, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Stanford: Stanford University, Colonialism. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/colonialism/
Also see, Robert Tombs, In defence of the British Empire (The Spectator, 2020) https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-defence-of-the-british-empire/
Yoram Hazony, Conservatism: A Rediscovery (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2022), 105-111. This goes into a larger discussion about rationalist vs. empiricist philosophy that is beyond the scope of this essay, but we will return to it.
See Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings and their Wars, Chapter III. The laws present here are fascinating and allow the Sanhedrin to whip the king if he violates their diktats!
Shoftim 17:6; 21:25
I Melachim 5:27 - The language of the verse makes it explicit that this was mandated labor.
I Melachim 12:1-25
Beyond this, the case for Minhag as equivalent to Halacha is iffy at best. We will return to this subject another time as there are legitimate and illegitimate customs.