Rabbi Soloveitchik on Jewish fate and security, in Israel and the Diaspora (1959)

The following is a lightly edited transcript from Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s 1959 lecture series, “Religious Definitions of Man and His Social Institutions” (Part 7). The context of this excerpt is a discussion of fate compared to destiny, for both man and the Jew. 

No Jew can say what happens to X cannot happen to me. This is a mistake. I resent very much when Zionist leaders, of the Ben Gurion type, begin to tell us how unreliable the Diaspora is. And I don’t say the Diaspora is very reliable. I don’t say that. But I say something else: If the Diaspora is not reliable, so is Israel.

If -- I must use the Hebrew expression, chas ve-shalom -- the day should come when the American government and the American people should turn antisemitic and begin to pass anti-Jewish legislation, and engage in a campaign of religious persecution or minority persecution, then, of course, we will have no shelter here, but we won’t have any shelter in Israel. Ridiculous!

Many times [I would like to say to] the Zionist leaders, it is crazy because it is nonsensical. Because the security of Israel depends on Western society, and not only on the United States, the leading country, but if Western society should go antisemitic then there will be no safety in Israel. On the contrary, we will be safer in America, even in an antisemitic America, than in Israel, with Nasser on one side and Hussein on the other.

However, there is no security for the human being. This American ideal that man can find security is false. Man has no security as an individual, as I’ve said many times. If I have a big bank account, am I secure? I’m not secure because of the vicissitudes of life. Not only in the economic area. Today, I can move my fingers, the next day I cannot move my fingers. So today, is this security? Who can secure against a heart attack, or paralytic shock? . . . It’s ridiculous when people speak about security. There is no security.

And for the Jew to say, I am secure, is ridiculous. I say, for many reasons therefore, ladies and gentlemen, I say, first of all, this is the prevailing mood in Judaism. But it's not pessimism. The Jew is never secure as a person and the Jew is an optimist. It's a combination; the Jew thinks in dialectical terms. The thesis is right, but the antithesis is also right. The thesis is right: no one is secure. The antithesis is also right, and man should feel secure as far as possible. You see, if you operate with a thesis and an antithesis, this is dialectical thinking. You don't operate with ultimates, either this or that. Then you develop a different approach. I'm saying that for two reasons. I told you that my interpretation of Judaism is not objective. No person who interprets Judaism can be objective. Judaism is an experience and experiences vary as personalities vary. Of course, my interpretation of Judaism is an outgrowth of my own personality, my own experiences.

I lived in Germany for many years. The good years, the seven good years, we say in biblical language, when Germany was ruled by social democracy. Of course in Poland and in Lithuania, you used to have antisemitic violence and outbreaks from time to time. The German Jews and the assimilated Jews – all German Jews were assimilated whether they were pious or not pious -- and don’t forget that German Jewish society was integrated into German society far more than American Jewish society is integrated into American society, because integration is a problem of years. It's not a question that you can resolve by changing the language. It’s a question of mores and a way of thinking. And don’t forget that the German Jewish society was almost as old as German civilized society.

[The German Jews] used to tell me, what happened in Poland cannot happen here. It’s impossible. And of course, Hitler was on the scene a little bit. He was more of a comical figure in 1926, 1927, 1925 – he was a comical figure, no one paid serious attention to him; a crackpot from Vienna who didn’t speak a decent German. He spoke a grammatically wrong, faulty German. This is a fact. He never learned how to speak German properly even when he was the leader, the Fuhrer of the German people. It cannot happen here.

I always felt a certain sense of complacency about it, complacency and security. It happened. It could happen in Germany. And then to say that Germany is different from all other nations? It’s ridiculous. I knew many Germans -- good Germans and bad Germans -- a very cultured people. As far as culture is concerned, they are second to none, as far as philosophy and physics. And who wrote all the beautiful books about ethics if not the German people? The categorical imperative, that man should sacrifice himself on the categorical imperative. Even the Notlüge, the necessary lie, one shouldn’t even say a necessary lie to save his life – who said it if not Fichte, the famous German philosopher?

Why is it? Because human beings can be either devils or angels. And we are all human beings. I'm not sure that even in Israel, Hitler is impossible. Even in Israel it is possible. We are also human beings! With all our charismatic endowments, we are still human beings, and a human being is not reliable. You know what David says, “all men are liars.” That doesn't mean you shouldn’t trust man, but you should always remember that. You know the Talmudic expression, kabdehu ve-chashdehu – pay him respect, but watch out. 

The vicissitudes of life. And there are biological vicissitudes and also historical vicissitudes. At certain periods, a nation might go crazy, might run amuck, and not only an individual. Now the Germans are a sober people again. You have some antisemites, some crackpots, but we have some crackpots here, and who cares about them.

But Jewish history wants solidarity of fate. Disaster for one community, Judaism said, even though distant from and strange to the other community, must alarm and summon to defensive action all Jewish communities.