From Madness to Insanity

When eating bugs is not the craziest thing happening

After a long absence, the Biblical Museum of Natural History finally has kosher locusts back in stock (see below for details on how to order them). People who haven’t heard about this famous kosher speciality respond as though it’s something far-out and crazy. But by the standards of what passes as normal in Israel today, it’s positively mundane.

Here in Israel, things are only getting more insane. It emerged as factual that one of the Prime Minister’s aides was receiving payments from Qatar (!). But we can be certain that this will not be investigated further, because Bibi just fired the head of the Shin Bet (!!), and we can be sure that he will only hire a replacement who will shut down the investigation of the links between Qatar and the PM’s office. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister sent out a crazed tweet, claiming that there is a “Deep State” in Israel (!!!) which is trying to thwart “the people’s will,” and he assured the country that “we stand strong together” (!!!!).

There are many disturbing aspects of this tweet, but I just want to focus on one of them. The Prime Minister is supposed to be the Prime Minister of the entire country. But his audience - those that he speaks of as “we,” as the “people’s will,” as those who are “standing together,” are only a portion of the country; according to most polls, Bibi would dramatically lose in a new election, which is precisely why he’s ready to compromise the country’s interests to avoid it.

And it might be considered that there is not just be a slim majority who are opposed to Bibi, but a large one. There’s a question to be asked when considering the will of “the people”: which people should be counted? For example, I’m pretty sure that most of us would not believe that the will of those hostile to Israel’s existence should be counted; indeed, Satmar has the integrity not to vote in Israeli elections. But if what we are counting are loyal Israeli citizens, people who care about the country’s wellbeing, then perhaps this ought to likewise be restricted to those who believe in supporting the nation rather than not caring about the war, not caring about helping with national defense, and not caring about harming the economy.

And if this is the group that we are considering - which excludes most charedim - then certainly the vast majority do not support Bibi. They do not support him in his paying charedim to be exempt from both military service and from supporting the economy, and they do not support him in his firing and undermining of every person and state institution who challenges or investigates him.

But whether it’s a slim majority against Bibi or a large one, if there’s a force “weaponizing the system to thwart the people’s will,” then it’s not a “leftist Deep State,” it’s the Prime Minister!

At a time of war and immense national difficulties, when the country needs to be united and to genuinely stand together, the Prime Minister prefers to wield his power to delegitimize the majority of loyal citizens, to tear the country apart with selective enlistment, to get rid of any checks and balances on his power, and to promote conspiracy theories. It’s simply insane.

But life goes on (at least, for those of us who are not being dragged into a fifth round of reserve duty due to the IDF manpower shortage). And it’s time to get prepared for Pesach. Here’s a few notes and announcements:

• If you want to know all about why the size of a kezayit grew so large, read the chapter in Rationalism vs. Mysticism, which you can buy on the museum website with free US shipping.

• No seder table is complete without kosher locusts! If you’re in Israel, you need to collect them from the Biblical Museum of Natural History; if you’re in the US, buy them online and we will ship them from our US office.

• For a Haggadah, I cannot highly enough recommend the Koren Graphic Novel Haggadah.

• Tours at the Biblical Museum of Natural History over Pesach always sell out. Book online as far in advance as you can (and it’s even better if you can visit before Pesach and beat the crowds)!

• Here’s a post, A Rationalist Pesach, indexing all many of my posts about different aspects of Pesach.

Looking ahead to Shavuot, I have availability as Scholar-in-Residence for Shavuot and for the immediately preceding Shabbat - please write to me if this is relevant. I also may have availibility in July, with preference for the West Coast.

Shabbat Shalom, and may we see saner times.