Ralph Genende’s seven lessons after October 7

Seven has always been a magical number for us Jews. Seven are the days of creation and seven is the sacred Shabbat day. Seven brought down the walls of Jericho and seven is the circle of love that a bride weaves around her groom. But in the past year the seventh heaven turned into the seventh hell, October 7, a day that will now always be etched into Jewish consciousness, another crack in the crevice of our pained history.

There are many things we have learned from October 7 and this awful war. Here are seven:

The cliché that we are all basically good is as dangerous as it is untruthful. It's been a tough wakeup call, especially for those of us born after the Shoah to face this reality because on one level we do believe in the inherent goodness of humanity, that a divine spark inhabits every human being, even the habitual sinner and criminal.

We were lulled into a belief that evil was retreating. We failed to read the warning signs. Human beings are as capable of devastating demonic behaviour as they are of infinitely fine action. It’s not a new lesson but one as old as humanity itself; found in the first chapters of the Bible when Cain viciously turns on his only brother.

It’s prevalent in history and literature, for instance the Greek tragedian Aeschylus called on us to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. The barbaric actions of Hamas, Hezbollah and their fellow travellers embody this lesson.

2. We Jews are simply more vulnerable than others

The re-awakening and legitimisation of antisemitism across the world are a stark reminder that while toxic human beings are a threat to all of humanity, they specialise in the irrational hatred of Jews.

The hatred of Israel exemplified by the obsessive attention of the UN and its distorted focuson Israel also highlight this. The very presence or existence of the Jew can evoke horrible and outrageous actionsin the mannerof Haman’s uncontrollable hostility towards Mordechai the Jew in the book of Esther (5:13): “Yet all this honour and exemplified prestige is worthless to me as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the gate.”

We shouldn’t be surprised by the crude and primitive antisemitism being graffitied across Sydney and Melbourne or displayed at the protest marches. We should, however, be careful not to dismiss our enemies as animals — they are as human as we are and unlike animals, are responsible for their words and actions and for their lack of conscience or moral coherence. 

3. We are a resilient people, seasoned by centuries of hostility and persecution but also united by a common destiny regardless of our differences.

Like boiled eggs on the Seder plate, the more you “boil” or threaten us, the harder we get — and we rise united by our common destiny, regardless of our differences. Some of the prodigious acts of goodness, kindness and ingenuity by Jews across the world in support of each other and affirming our common destiny are breathtaking. The Israeli commentator Yossi Klein Halevi put it well when he said that on October 8, rather than disintegrate from within, we instantly pivoted to one of the peak moments of solidarity.

No less impressive, we didn't wait to be mobilised and inspired by our leaders. Of Israel he said, “even as our government effectively collapsed, we mobilised ourselves. That was the moment of our maturation.”

However, we need to be as obstinate in our determination not to allow our own extremists — be they wild-eyed settlers or wide-eyed anti-Israel ideologues — undermine or destroy us from within. If solidarity is our strength, arrogance and hubris is our flaw.

We sometimes get up ourselves, thinking our chosenness is a given and not a huge responsibility. That is the fatal flaw of Smotrich and Ben Gvirand their ideology of power, monopolistic and hubristic beliefs (talking in the name of God) at the cost of democracy, justice and righteousness.

The Torah has always championed the necessity of strength and self-defence as distinct from the fantasy and aphrodisiac of power. Strength is exercised by a leader with some restraint on his or her ego. Power is exercised by a leader with an absolute belief in their own ego.

4. Never underestimate the utter foolishness of humanity

Einstein put it best when he said, “two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe”. This is most evident in the denial and even defence of the violent evil and self-declared annihilatory intentions of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. These forces proudly assert their intention to destroy Israel and kill all Jews and are profligate in their disregard for their own citizens. Their toxic forms of Islamism have little respect for our liberal Western values and lifestyles.

The impassioned protesters, progressive university leaders and teachers across the Western world display at best, a lack of moral clarity, at worst an indecent and wilful prejudice.They also simply manifest an inability to appreciate the inevitable horrors, costs and complexity of all wars. King David got it so right when he said, “they have eyes, but they can’t see, ears but they can’t hear”.

Apropos this, I came across a wickedly delicious piece called Seven life lessons from my grandma, the first indigenous woman senator of Canada. Her fifth lesson is: Never get into a piss fight with a skunk. Some people just play dirty, and it's not worth my energy to engage them. It's not worth our energy to engage with the rabid antisemites or self-pitying Jews out there.

5. Don’t forget that words shape our world

They can connect, heal and inspire us. They can damage, harm and injure us. Words in the command of a wordsmith can be gorgeous, clarifying and elevating. Words in the armoury of an extremist can be gangrenous, confounding and devastating. Since October 7, words have been supersonically weaponised against Israel and the Jewish people.

A barrage of words charged with venomous lies, propaganda and misinformation continues to target us daily. We have moved from truth being a casualty of war to what the late Australian cartoonist Bill Leak called Chronic Truth Aversion Disorder.

Our enemies have also appropriated our words in what is described as mirror politics or Accusation in a mirror (AiM). Drawing on the ideas of Joseph Goebbels, a Rwandan propagandist once instructed his colleagues “to impute to our enemies exactly what we are planning to do to them”. Nasrallah and Sinwar and their followers knew exactly what they were doing when they chose to accuse Israel of the genocide they had proposed and planned against Israel and the Jews.

We Jews have such fabulous wordsmiths but we still haven’t got it right in this torrid environment to present and articulate the story of the challenges facing Israel.

6. Never let go of your compassion

I struggle with my outrage at Hamas and my anger at the refusal of the world to understand Israel’s suffering (a country traumatised and in a war with more than 60,000 citizens displaced and rockets still being regularly aimed at its civilians).

I am full of rage at the blatant lies and antisemitism unleashed across the world and in our own Australia. But I will not surrender my compassion for the suffering of the countless innocents — of my people and of Gaza and Lebanon, who did not choose this war and do not support Hamas or Hezbollah.

I strive to emulate our request of God who we ask to let his compassion quench his anger. I have no pity for Hamas fighters and their followers who have given up their humanity, but I weep for the children of Gaza they have so callously endangered and abandoned as they hide in their tunnels and stash their weapons in schools, hospitals, and mosques.

We need to begin to find ways of ending this year of mourning and getting back to our mission to be messengers of meaning, to recognise our own pain, trauma and loss but also that of the countless ordinary people caught up in Gaza and Lebanon in the terrible vortex of loss and bitterness.

Yes, initiated and perpetuated by their own people, Hamas and Hezbollah, but also sometimes brought about by the fierce retribution of Israel.

We need to ask the agonising question about the cost of this war to the Israeli soul, to our Jewish consciousness in a spirit of love and in the framework of what choices does Israel have when attacked by an enemy that wants to eradicate it?

 7. Don’t let go of your hope and your belief in humanity 

This war may have unleashed a tsunami of hatred, but it has also unleashed a torrent of love and generosity. The Jewish people are singled out by God to be messengers of justice and righteousness. They are called on to join hands with all who believe in bettering our battered planet.

And we are not alone — we have many friends here in Australia and across the world.

So let’s hold on to hope and to our many friends and allies of different faiths, cultures and communities. Let’s affirm the Psalmist’s words echoed in Israel’s national anthem: Our hope won’t be lost.