וַיֹּ֨אמֶר אַבְרָהָ֜ם אֶל־נְעָרָ֗יו שְׁבוּ־לָכֶ֥ם פֹּה֙ עִֽם־הַחֲמ֔וֹר וַאֲנִ֣י וְהַנַּ֔עַר נֵלְכָ֖ה עַד־כֹּ֑ה וְנִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֖ה וְנָשׁ֥וּבָה אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃
At sinabi ni Abraham sa kanyang mga kabataang lingkod, “Manatili kayo rito kasama ng asno; at ako at ang bata ay pupunta roon, at kami ay sasamba, at babalik kami sa inyo.”
Kol Dodi Dofek
Albeit, even in the experience of Shared Destiny there is an element of separateness, but the apartness of destiny is totally different both in character and experience. It is not the negative sentiment that Balaam foresaw in his prophecy of “they are people which dwells alone” (Numbers 23:9), but rather the special awareness that Moses promised Israel in the last few hours before his death: “And Israel shall dwell in safety [separate and secure] by the fountain of Jacob”(Deuteronomy 33:28). In truth, this self-isolation is nothing but the aloneness of a glorious, strong, holy, and sacred existence. It is the isolation expressed in the singularity of a people, in its holy self-image and unique existential experience. It is loneliness that creates an individual spiritual personality. It is loneliness that demonstrates man’s honor and his aloofness. It is the solitude of Moses, whose exalted spirit and sublime vision the people did not comprehend. It is the solitude of Elijah and the other prophets. It is the solitude of which Abraham spoke to his attendants when he said, “You sit here with the donkey, and the lad and I will go to that place, and we shall worship” (Genesis 22:5, emphasis added). While man’s isolation is a destructive feeling of inferiority that expresses self-negation, the solitude of man testifies to his greatness and sanctity — the greatness contained within himself and the sanctity that hovers in the recesses of his unique awareness. Isolation robs man of his inner peace; loneliness bestows upon man security, self-esteem, significance and confidence — “separate and secure” (Deuteronomy 33:28).
Kol Dodi Dofek
Judaism has always believed, as we said at the outset, that man has it within his power to take fate into his own hands and shape it into the destiny of a free life, a life full of meaning and saturated with the joy of living, turning isolation into aloneness and disparagement into significance. For this reason Judaism places so great an emphasis on the principle of free will. [And] for this reason [Judaism] so appreciates the human intellect, which has it within its power to free man from his enslavement to nature and allow him to rule over his environment and its blind circumstances and subjugate it to his will. The Community of Israel is obligated to use this free will in all facets of life, and especially for the good of the State of Israel. If secular Zionism, in the end, comes to understand that the establishment of the State of Israel has not weakened the paradoxical fate of Jewish aloneness, but, on the contrary, that the incomprehensible state of, “I shall take you unto Me as a people” (Exodus 6:7) has become even more pronounced in the international arena, it must ask itself the age-old question: “What is your occupation; from where do you derive . . . and from what people do you come?”(Jonah 1:8).The question is asked in any event; if not by the Jew, then by the gentile. We must answer with pride that, “We fear the Lord, the God of the heavens” (Jonah 1:9). Our historic obligation today is to raise ourselves from a people to a holy nation, from the Covenant of Egypt to the Covenant of Sinai; from a compelled existence to an original way of life, permeated with morality and religious principles, that transcends history. We must go from being an Encampment to being a Nation. The task of religious Zionism is to fuse the two covenants, the Covenant of Egypt and the Covenant of Sinai; the covenants of fate and destiny, of isolation and loneliness. This task entails self-perfection by suffering; the out-pouring of lovingkindness brought about by combining all the elements of the nation and uniting them in one community, “A nation unique in the land”(II Samuel 7:23),and the readiness to pray for one’s friend and to feel his joy and his grief. The goal of this self-repair is the purposeful consecration of self and ascent to the “Mountain of God” (Psalms 15:1).One great goal unites us all. A single exalted vision captures our hearts. One Torah (Written and Oral) directs us all to a unified end — the fulfillment of the vision of aloneness and the vision of the sanctity of an Encampment/People that ascends to the level of a Community/Nation and ties its lot to the destiny that was proclaimed to the world in the words of our ancient father Abraham: “And I and the lad shall go unto that place and shall worship God and return to you” (Genesis 22:5).