A new, post-Oct. 7 Judaism would be a messy mixture of the mystical, the rational, the national, the religious, the secular, the Ashkenazic and the Sephardic. It would include new art, poetry, literature and cinema. The new, post-Oct. 7 Judaism would break apart all the conventional barriers between Judaism as a religion and Judaism as culture.
Why? Because “we were all washed in the rivers of Re’im and Be’eri.” Re’im and Be’eri were two kibbutzim destroyed on Oct. 7. To be washed in the rivers reminds us of the Israelites crossing the parted waters of the Sea of Reeds. It was that precise moment they became a people.
As the Exodus from Egypt was the beginning of Judaism, Re’im, Be’eri and all the other places of destruction on Oct. 7 were the beginning of a new Judaism.
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