All I could think of as my plane landed last week, was how I was going to get home, take a shower and go to sleep. But even before I got off the plane, I turned on my cell phone and my plans changed. Instead of going home, I was to drive straight to the Channel 2 television studio for an interview about my US visit with Jonathan Pollard. At my side sat the first interviewee, an attorney whose ‘item’ opened the show. That is how I found out about the Chametz law that had created quite a stir while I was away.

The attorney represented small businesses that had sold chametz (leavened products prohibited by Jewish law during the week of Pesach) last year. These businessmen had been penalized by the Jerusalem municipality in accordance with Israel’s law forbidding public display of chametz on Pesach. The attorney was being interviewed after he had won a court case for his clients. “The court decided to interpret the law in its most narrow sense,” the attorney explained, “and authorized the sale of chametz on Pesach.”

“Don’t you think that it is problematic that the court has essentially nullified a law passed by the Knesset?” the interviewer rightfully asked the attorney.

“I see no problem at all,” the attorney answered and embarked on a convoluted explanation to try to convince his audience that the court has every right to override the Knesset.

I sat there, waiting for my turn to be interviewed. It was very difficult for me to keep quiet and not comment on what the attorney was saying. But I did not want to divert attention from the topic of Jonathan Pollard, so I remained silent.

Later, I met the attorney in the waiting room. While we were both rubbing the studio make-up off our faces, I said to him:

“This may come as a surprise, but I completely agree with you on the chametz issue. However, I completely disagree with the means that you used to achieve your goal.”

“What do you mean?” the attorney asked.

“I think that the less religious laws, the better. I think that it would be best not to have any law prohibiting chametz. From that standpoint, I agree with your clients and not with the Jerusalem municipality.

“But,” I added, “why does the court suffice itself with merely nullifying Knesset laws? Maybe we should just let ‘Their Honors’ make the laws themselves? What do we need an elected legislative branch of government for, anyway? Why bother with elections, campaigns and all the ugliness? Why can’t we just leave legislation to the enlightened elites in the courts?”

That was more or less the end of our conversation. He asked me where I was going, and when I offered him a ride to my home-town of Karnei Shomron, he courteously thanked me and left.

The attorney notwithstanding, religious legislation is a pre-determined failure. I remember that as a child, the stores on the main street of Rehovot were by and large closed on Shabbat. Today, forty years and twice as many religious MKs later, many stores are open on Shabbat and Israel’s Jewish identity is flagging. 

The conclusion? Less politicization and religious legislation equals more Jewish identity for Israel. It’s as easy as that. We really do not need religious political parties. The vast majority of Israel’s public defines itself as traditional at some level. Only 20% define themselves as secular. In other words, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of Israelis do not want chametz publicly displayed on Pesach. The Jewish majority in Israel wants to feel the holiday atmosphere, and if a person can’t manage without a pita, he does not feel a special urge to eat it in public. The moment that chametz is prohibited by law, though, he feels coerced. Now, it is “us” against the “religious.” Now it is already a matter of principle to eat pita on the sidewalk and to remind all the passers-by that he is a free man who can eat what and where he pleases. 

I do not think that there should be religious parties. That way, the non-observant Israelis will have nobody to fight against and the responsibility for Israel’s Jewish identity will be placed firmly on their shoulders – and not on the shoulders of the religious. I have complete confidence in Israel’s Jewish public – 80% of whom say that they are first Jews and then Israelis. When responsibility for the Jewish identity of the state will be transferred by the religious minority to the Jewish majority, we will have a Jewish country. 

Luckily, there is no law requiring us to stand for a moment of silence when the Memorial Day sirens go off. If there would be a law like that, I am not sure that I would abide. We stand during the siren because that is what our culture dictates. We do not need a law. We must strive for a situation in which a person who sells chametz on Pesach or opens his store on Shabbat would feel like someone walking down Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Avenue in the middle of the Memorial Day siren.  

This is a multi-generational process. Our Judaism has to become our culture – without laws and without coercion. For that to happen, we have to return our state to the large Jewish majority. In the meantime, the ruling elite running our lives uses the Supreme Court, the media and academia to keep themselves way above democracy and the law. In this way, we have lost both our Jewish identity and our basic democratic rights. 

So strange as it may sound – the fact that it is now permissible to sell chametz will not increase chametz sales. I believe that ultimately, the sales will even decrease. But the fact that there is no law prohibiting the sale of chametz will increase our liberty. And that is what Pesach is all about, isn’t it?
 

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