The Next Step for Feiglin and Manhigut Yehudit

I see almost everything from a pan-Jewish historical perspective. The vote that happened on Thursday is no different. Yesterday, the true meaning of the results suddenly occurred to me, and though the immediate consequences are dark, the overall depth of it will, hopefully, allow us all to look up with our heads held high in hope and anticipation.

If we take a big look at the history of the Jewish people, a victory in Thursday's vote would not have made any sense. What you had was a vote on a very murky proposal, confusing to everybody, and participating were only 2,100 people. The technical question was, should internal elections be postponed? Yes or no. What it really meant was, should elections be canceled forever? But what it really, truly meant was should Jerusalem be divided? Central Committee members didn't even recognize the reality of the second question, let alone the third. They had no idea that elections will never happen again now. All the more so did they have no idea that this had anything to do with Jerusalem. But even if they did, the Jewish people as a whole certainly did not. Most were probably not even aware that a vote even took place among some obscure committee that most people don't even know exists in the first place.


Let's say Feiglin won. That would have meant that a third of the committee, about 600 or so people, voted against postponing elections, for various reasons. Some because they hate Netanyahu for some personal issue. Some, because they want democracy in the Likud. Others because they don't want Netanyahu to go "left". They would have voted with Feiglin for every petty narrow political reason except for the real one: That we are the chosen people of God and must rise up and lead the world by moral example.

If Feiglin won, Jerusalem would have been saved, but the Likud Central Committee, and a fortiori the nation as a whole, wouldn't have realized what it was they almost lost. This would not have made any sense. We would have saved the nation from much hardship without anybody noticing how or why. The Jewish people would not have been required to take a good look at themselves in the eye and come to serious conclusions about their Jewish identity and where it must lead them. In a wide sense, national teshuva would not have taken place.

Nobody, not even a potential faith-based leader like Moshe Feiglin, can inspire this people to embark on national repentance. We can only do that ourselves - not as a "Likud Central Committee," or a third of it or whatever. Only as a nation can we do such a thing. In order for that to happen, we have to be aware of what we are, meaning we have to be aware of what we have, meaning we have to be aware of what we are about to lose.

Moshe Feiglin is not here to inspire national repentance. He is here, God-willing, to be the vessel the nation uses once it comes to its own conclusions about its destiny and repents on its own. We will come to that conclusion when we realize that there is no other choice, when it is literally do or die, when our holiest sites are about to be taken away from us and we feel an incredible sense of emptiness and suddenly remember that there was one man who predicted it all, last Thursday, April 29, 2010.

When we are on the verge of despair, closed on in all sides and illegitimate in the eyes of the entire world, we will then see the light. The Jewish people will realize that they have no other choice but to come to terms with their own national existence as a nation that dwells alone that must lead the world by example.

On that day, Netanyahu and the normalcy dream will fade away like tissue paper, and the Jewish Nation will seek a new leader. We will be there for them, to catch them, to hold them at the last minute before they fall, for we are the only alternative.

God willing it will happen soon, when Netanyahu makes his attempt and God willing his government falls. A new leader will have to be chosen for the Likud. And Moshe Feiglin will be there--not for the Likud Central Committee, or for a third of it, but for us all.