Aa
  • Read, Watch, Listen
  • TJI Series
  • Community Action
  • Events
  • Zedi
Follow us and continue the conversation
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • FaceBook
  • X
  • YouTube
Test yourself with the TJI Quiz!

Adjust size of text

Aa

Follow us and continue the conversation

  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • FaceBook
  • X
  • YouTube

Your saved articles

You haven't saved any articles

What are you looking for?

Original reporting, insightful analysis and diverse views, delivered straight to your inbox

  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • FaceBook
  • X
  • YouTube
Your support fuels our mission to inform, entertain and inspire.

The Jewish Independent is bound by the Standards of Practice of the Australian Press Council. If you believe the Standards may have been breached, you may approach The Jewish Independent or make a complaint to the Australian Press Council in writing at www.presscouncil.org.au. The Council may also be contacted on 1800 025 712.

  • Our Story
  • Contact us
  • Our Team
  • Support us
  • Guidelines
  • Pitch your idea
  • Republishing us
  • Community Action
  • Our Awards
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • FaceBook
  • X
  • YouTube
Aboriginal FlagTorres Strait Islanders Flag

The Jewish Independent acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and strive to honour their rich history of storytelling in our work and mission.

© The Jewish Independent 2026All Rights Reserved
Website design and development by Your Creative, MelbourneTerms & ConditionsPrivacy Policy
HomeRead, Watch, ListenArts & Culture
ReflectionArts & Culture

Between tribalism and compassion 

The struggle between national identity and universal love is an ancient tension which has found new forms in the past two years.
Andrew Wirth
Print this
The word LOVE in a square (in the style of the Indiana artwork) with the O replaced by a globe and the V replaced by a heart with a Star of David.

Jewish tradition requires our love to encompass both particularism and universalism (TJI)

Published: 27 August 2025

Last updated: 28 August 2025

Jewish tradition contains powerful and contradictory messages about our responsibility to our own community and way of life versus our responsibility to others.  

We encounter this tension in the final book of the Torah, Devarim (Deuteronomy) which we read now as we approach the end of the Jewish year. It is Moses’ farewell address to the Israelites, a recounting of their history and moral instruction for their future. It is a book of strict law and harsh tribalism and yet embraces justice and is, to quote Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “saturated with the language of love”. 

Devarim emphasises national destiny and a militant ethos which echoes in current events. Israel is promised that in conquering the land of Canaan “You shall be blessed above all other peoples” and (God) will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall obliterate their name from under the heavens; no one shall stand up to you, until you have wiped them out.”  

However, Devarim is also a book of mercy and love. The Torah teaches “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”. Rabbi Sacks wrote that it is easy to love a neighbour who is usually quite like yourself. “What is hard is to love the stranger, one whose colour, culture or creed is different from yours. That is why the command, “Love the stranger because you were once strangers”, resonates so often throughout the Bible.”  

We read that God “…upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and befriends the stranger, providing him with food and clothing. You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” This is a vision of Jewish life embracing compassion and social justice and again, echoes current events and the needs of those ravaged by war in Gaza.  

Turning inwards

Devarim spans the Jewish calendar between Tisha B’Av and Simchat Torah.  

Tisha B’Av, described by Rabbi Soloveitchik’s as “old mourning”, reflects a collective Jewish response to historic tragedies from the destruction of the Jewish Temple 2000 years ago to the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto in our parents’ or grandparents’ generation. For many, this history informs a sense of communal solidarity and commitment to Jewish safety and independence.  

On Simchat Torah two years ago, Hamas’ brutally attacked the communities of Southern Israel initiating the gruelling and tragic war which continues to this day. We are in a time of “new mourning”, despair over the lingering trauma of that day, the fate of the hostages, and a morally compromised Israeli leadership engaged in a morally impossible war. We are confronted daily by the unfolding tragedy of death and destruction in Gaza and continued violence on the West Bank. In the diaspora we face rising global antisemitism.   

These experiences have led many Jews to turn inwards, to “circle the wagons” and care for our tribe. However, this very human impulse to solidarity can lead to callousness and a closing of our hearts to the value of compassion. As Rabbi Sharon Brous observed, it is “… very hard to hold both of these truths at once… when we’re in trauma and in grief… in a time of mourning, it’s really important that we take care of our hearts…(I understand a) temporary retreat into the tribal and away from the universal for the moment. The danger is staying in the tribal.” 

Fruitful tension

It is challenging to contain these conflicting moral commitments. We feel it within ourselves and see it in growing polarisation within families and the broader the Jewish community. Some respond by lapsing into uncritical loyalty to Israel and hatred towards the other - others feel unable to remain in relationship to the Jewish national project or indeed the Jewish community.  

However, at its most fruitful this tension leads to what political theorist Michael Walzer called the “connected critic… situated in a society, and committed to the best interpretation of its moral self-understandings”. Recently we have seen emerging voices, pained calls from communities strongly connected to Israel and citing Jewish tradition as a source of moral inspiration. 

In a recent open letter, eighty orthodox rabbis, “devoted supporters” of Israel, call for moral clarity in the face of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. “Our tradition teaches that every person is created b’tzelem Elokim—in the Divine image. We are the spiritual descendants of Avraham, chosen to walk in the path of Hashem, “to do righteousness and justice.”   

The London Initiative, in a letter signed by thousands of Jews worldwide, declares solidarity with Israel while speaking out against “…policies of starvation or expulsion as weapons of war…” and condemns the  language of racism, hatred and incitement as a “moral abomination and a chilul hashem – a desecration of Jewish values and Israel’s founding principles.”  

Our historical moment strangely parallels that of the Israelites gathered before Moses. We are children and grandchildren of a generation that experienced profound historical upheaval.  After decades of comfort and stability we are entering a new historical period. Over the past two years our assumptions about our place in the world, about Israel’s safety and Israel’s morality are shaken- and our future requires wise and moral choices.  

We must find a way to navigate between tribalism and universalism, law and love. As the Torah teacher, the late Debbie Masel wrote, “God is to be found in the tension between opposites.” 

You might also like
  • Tame apologises – but with little grace
    Deborah Stone
  • Confronting Richard Flanagan and the myth of the Israel lobby
    Mary Garden
  • UK’s dramatic policy change on Israel-Palestine
    Colin Shindler
logomark.67a07ee3
We believe in the free flow of information

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, by using our Creative Commons licence

You might also like

    haredi street guitar
    Photo EssayArts & Culture

    Jerusalemites through the lens

    Sharon Gabay
    Jewish word map
    FeatureArts & Culture

    Was the barmi a shemozzle? How Australians use Jewish words 

    Caroline Hendy & Emma Breslow 1
    Copy of Website books template (2)
    FeatureArts & Culture

    The winning Jewish books by Australians in the past year

    Gideon Cohen

About the author

Andrew Wirth

Andrew Wirth

Andrew Wirth is a medical specialist, a member of the Melbourne Jewish community and an active participant in an egalitarian orthodox shul. He is deeply concerned about the future of Israel/Palestine and contributes to the Times of Israel blogs.

More from the author

ReflectionWorld

At home where we are: Salzberg, The Sound of Music and the value of ‘here’

AnalysisAustralia

Anti-Zionist Jewish voices pose a risk at Royal Commission

AnalysisAustralia

From the opera house to Bondi: a direct path

Comments4

  • Avatar of Gregg Eisenberg

    Gregg Eisenberg7 September at 06:20 am

    This war has shown that Israel is largely encircled — both militarily and politically — still. To believe this won’t continue well into the future is to believe in a prayer. The road ahead is going to be very difficult. We’re allowed to fight back. And we’re allowed to make mistakes.

  • Avatar of Brian Meltzer

    Brian Meltzer1 September at 12:00 pm

    A beautifully crafted account of the historic tensions between looking inwards to community versus outwards to humanity that have confronted Jews for three thousand years. Andrew superbly ended the discussion with the perfect quote from Debbie Masel. But does this mean we need to accept the eternal conundrum and never find peace?

  • Avatar of Justin

    Justin28 August at 08:52 pm

    Thanks Andrew

  • Avatar of Jeff Szer

    Jeff Szer28 August at 11:47 am

    Andrew Wirth is a wise man with great compassion and deep insights into many things. This carefully written article is excellent but I have some concerns that we “good Jews” may be starting to believe the Hamas retoric about the evils perpetrated by Israel. I prefer to believe that the intentions of Israel are better than most other nations would have, but that actions by individuals are doubtless sometimes suspect. Nevertheless, our place in the world has been deeply affected. That it should be so as a result of acts of violence committed against our people, is more than ironic. It is further evidence of the calculated evil we face.