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Amy's avatar

This week I listened to Tal Becker's recent talk at Shalem College. He said 'I believe in the permanent possibility of the presently unimaginable.' He also said 'the opposite of conspiracy is Zionism'.

Conspiracy theories create a false sense of power for those who feel powerless. They are magical thinking. They are shortcuts. But believing in the unimaginable is the long game and Jews are the long game. The long game is rarely cool or charismatic

That can be terribly discouraging. But I derive great comfort from Tal's words. They remind me I belong to Jewish history from the beginning and our message, our power is the long game.

Mijal Bitton's avatar

Amy - can you please share the link? I am a big fan of Tal, we were colleagues at Hartman for years and I'd love to listen to this. Indeed, "Our power is the long game." Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom!

Disa sacks's avatar

Beautiful. I will repost your comment with attribution on X so more Jews can feel hopeful as we go into Shabbat here in America

Amy's avatar

Thank you Disa. Much appreciated

Amy's avatar

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4U3Yz569-Y

The event is called Victory and Vilification

I may have gotten the first quote from a recent interview of Tal with Dan Senor. I have been listening to Tal as much as possible so I may have confused where I got the quote! Every time he speaks my heart, soul and mind fire up!

Miriam Shenkar's avatar

Brilliant analysis.

Mijal Bitton's avatar

Thank you, Shabbat shalom

Dave Bender's avatar

Thank you for this. We print your essays out weekly for Shabbat - but this one - for some reason - isn't printing correctly. The words are going off the tab on the right margin, and, thus, only partially readable. Any ideas?

Mijal Bitton's avatar

Will look into this later! Shabbat Shalom -

Kid Charlemagne's avatar

שבת שלום

Inna's avatar

It's been a hard week for me too. I appreciate your wisdom and steps to gain agency in this time. Particularly, helping almost adult children to recognize fanciful magic.

Mijal Bitton's avatar

That is very hard. I work with lots of young Jews and understand the seduction of utopian thinking.. Shabbat Shalom

Edward Braun's avatar

My reading and studying of Judaism leads me to its two most important facets: men and women are created in the image of God and two, we were strangers in the land of Egypt. For the past 20 or more years we have abandoned these precepts and now it is time to awaken, stop beating our chests with fear, stop musing about magic and find leaders for our beloved homeland who will finally admit that the present course of it is destruction, and needs to be remedied.

Beth Lewis's avatar

Where do I find Aboubakr Mansour's assessment on "where we are right now"? I would like to read it.