This essay is an extract from a chapter of Rabbi Perez’s new book to be released in English in November entitled “Smallest Nation, Largest Family: Family as the Foundation of Jewish Identity”.
Israel is currently experiencing one of the most tumultuous periods in its history. The current government brought about deep divisions, including the intense controversies surrounding judicial reform and Charedi enlistment, and of course the disastrous October 7th attack.
The previous government was also among the most divisive and short-lived in Israel’s history, relying for the first time on an Arab party for a governmental majority. Before that, Israel endured five elections within the span of four years, almost unheard of in democratic societies. These dynamics revealed a constant struggle for dominance, in which each side sought to defeat the other in a zero-sum game of power, eroding the trust and solidarity necessary for a healthy society.
What follows are guiding principles for a different mode of leadership, presented in the form of ten commandments, aimed at restoring a much-needed sense of fraternity and solidarity.
- The aim of politics is creating unity, not overpowering opponents
Machiavellian and Marxist politics believe that political leadership is an ongoing power struggle. Through this lens, politics is concerned only with obtaining and maintaining power, regardless of the consequences.
Jewish politics offers a fundamentally different vision. We are bound together in an enduring relationship, not as rivals seeking to overpower one another, but as partners who must cooperate, collaborate, and build together.
- Political opponents are not the enemy
It is deeply corrosive to society when people describe political opponents as the greatest enemies of Israel, even greater than Hamas. Surely, after October 7th, we know who our true enemies are: those who wish to harm and destroy us. From Yair Golan to the students of Itamar Ben Gvir, Israelis across the political spectrum rushed down south on October 7th to protect their country. How, then, can fellow members of our people be viewed as our greatest enemies?
A healthy society must create space for different ideological approaches that genuinely seek the good of the nation. The challenge of leadership is therefore not to eliminate ideological diversity, but to give it a legitimate place within a shared national framework.
- It doesn’t matter anymore who is right
The famous adage in Israel says, “Don’t be right, be smart.”
The great Talmudic sage Rabbi Yochanan taught that Jerusalem was destroyed because people judged strictly according to the laws of the Torah and did not go beyond the letter of the law. Society was destroyed because everyone was preoccupied only with being right, regardless of the consequences. Rashi explains that when the Torah commands us to do that which is good and upright in the eyes of G-d, it means that we must strive to go beyond the letter of the law, seeking win-win solutions and striving for what is fair and compassionate (Rashi’s commentary to Devarim 18:6).
When is being right more important than the relationship itself? The answer is: in relationships where the issue at stake is more important than the relationship itself, such as in war against sworn enemies, where it is us or them. But where the relationship itself is more important than proving who is right, such as in marriage, parenting, friendship, and internal societal cohesion, we must prioritize the integrity and long-term sustainability of the relationship over winning the argument.
- Two diametrically opposite views can both be equally correct
One of the most important scientists of the modern era was the quantum physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Niels Bohr. He distinguished between two types of truth: trivial truth and profound truth. A trivial truth is one whose opposite is completely false. In mathematics, one plus one equals two; any other answer is wrong and absurd. But profound truths are entirely different. The opposite of a profound truth can be equally true.
Bohr reached this conclusion through his analysis of the behavior of light. He demonstrated that light sometimes exhibits wave-like behavior and at other times particle-like behavior, displaying contradictory patterns. This puzzled the brightest scientific minds. How could light behave according to two entirely different and contradictory modes at the same time?
Bohr concluded that light can simultaneously possess two totally contradictory properties, a profound truth. If this is true in the physical world, it is certainly true in the abstract world of ideology. Bohr’s idea from the field of physics had already been articulated thousands of years earlier by the great Jewish sages regarding disagreements in Jewish thought and law. In a powerful passage, the Gemara recounts the many debates between the Houses of Hillel and Shammai, until a heavenly voice declared: “Both are the words of the living G-d; and the law follows Hillel” (Eruvin 13b).
How can both opinions possibly be right when their views are diametrically opposed? The answer is that even when there is objective truth, reality is often too complex to be captured through a single perspective alone. Multiple approaches may illuminate different dimensions of that truth, both in quantum physics and in metaphysics.
- Present the opposing view before presenting your own
What is fascinating about the above Talmudic source is the reason why the law follows Hillel and not Shammai. The Gemara maintains that it is not because Hillel was more learned or clever. Rather, it was because Hillel was considered more humble, always citing Shammai’s view before his own. What does humility have to do with being more accurate in rulings of Jewish law?
The answer is that genuine humility is the key to wisdom. Only one who understands that truth is more complex than his particular opinion truly grasps the truth about truth. Hillel understood this best: that real-life issues are complex and often require a nuanced, multi-faceted understanding of truth. This is why Jewish law ultimately follows his rulings.
Imagine if every political speech began by saying, “Before I explain why I believe I am right, let me first explain the rationale of those who disagree with me.” If every leader had to demonstrate that he or she genuinely understood the strengths of the counterarguments, society would become remarkably more humble. Such an approach could transform political discourse.
- Attribute to others no less noble intentions than you attribute to yourself
One of the most destructive habits of political discourse is the assumption that my motives are noble while yours are corrupt: I am putting my country first, and you are putting yourself first.
This is spiritually poisonous. Healthy Jewish politics begins with a presumption of human dignity. If I believe that I am motivated by concern for the nation, I should at least be willing to believe that my opponent has the same positive motivations.
Our Sages teach, “Judge your fellow favorably” (Pirkei Avot 1:6). This is not merely an interpersonal ethic; it is also a political one. We must resist the temptation to explain disagreement by impugning the character of those with whom we disagree.
- Argue with the opinion, not with the person
There is an important distinction between disagreement and delegitimization. Fight ideas vigorously, but never confuse an individual’s ideas with his intrinsic worth. In sporting language: play the ball, not the man.
You can say, “I believe your policy is profoundly mistaken,” without saying, “You are a bad person.” The moment political disagreement becomes personal demonization, the possibility of reconciliation disappears.
If every election transforms citizens into enemies, societal capital erodes. A person is more than his political ideology.
- Live by the golden rule
The Torah’s great interpersonal principle is: “Love your fellow as yourself” (Vayikra 19:18). Hillel rendered it in the negative: what is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow (Shabbat 31a). This golden rule is simple enough for a child to understand but extraordinarily difficult to live by consistently.
Simply put: in every situation without fail, treat others as you want to be treated in that same situation. If I want my opinions to be heard, I must hear yours. If I want my political camp to be treated with dignity and compassion, I must treat your camp the same way.
- Speak respectfully to ideological opponents
Words matter. Political rhetoric does not simply disappear when the speech ends. It penetrates the consciousness of society.
When we speak about fellow citizens as enemies, traitors, or illegitimate members of society, we should not be surprised when they speak about us in the same way. Trust is once again eroded, as each views the other with suspicion, fearing that, Heaven forbid, those who disagree may actually be enemies of the state.
Every election campaign ends, and political victory eventually fades. But we still have to live together. Burning the bridge of fraternity for the temporary satisfaction of political victory is damaging in the long term.
- Unity is never uniformity
One of the great mistakes in political thinking is to confuse unity with sameness.
Uniform thinking leads to crushing totalitarian regimes, such as the Tower of Bavel. This is because uniformity ignores a fundamental reality of human existence: our inherent differences. Reality is too complex to be understood through a single approach to objective truth. The Sages express the same idea when they say there are “seventy facets of the Torah.” While there is one objective Divine truth, once Torah descends from heaven into the earthly realm, it branches into many legitimate interpretations. Absolute truth can manifest in multiple ways.
Of course, this does not mean that truth is relative and that “anything goes.” That is the error of moral relativism, which denies the existence of objective truth. But the opposite extreme is equally mistaken. Absolutism, which assumes that only one perspective can contain the truth and that every other perspective must therefore be false, is also a distortion of reality.
The answer is more nuanced. There is objective truth, the truth of Torah, but within that truth there is room for a range of legitimate interpretations. This is the great balance of Torah Judaism: embracing absolute objective truth while recognizing that it can be understood through multiple legitimate perspectives, each shedding light on a different dimension of that truth.
Unity means embracing diversity of opinion, recognizing that different perspectives may each contain an element of truth and can all find their place within one overarching rubric of Divine Truth.
Rabbi Doron Perez is the Executive Chairman of World Mizrachi.