The Times They Are A-Changin’

Leon Orbach

Come gather 'round people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You'll be drenched to the bone

Change is about to sweep Israel (and in the not too distant future the USA). Do we know what sort of change? No. But surely, whatever the outcome of this year’s elections, there will be transformative changes. If the Netanyahu government is thrown out, then a National Commission of Inquiry will be set up, the corruption trials will come out of hibernation and laws will be wiped from the books. If the Netanyahu government succeeds in retaining office then the march towards fascism will gain momentum, never-ending wars may morph from a possibility to a reality. Either way, chaos and internal conflict seem inevitable.

The existing chaos already has far-reaching effects. We live in a world where Israel and the Diaspora are intertwined. What Jews in the world do has an impact on Israel and what Israel does has an even greater effect on the Diaspora. Anti-Semitism has put on a new cloak and called itself anti-Zionism. This new cloak is made of different material. Once it was fashioned from superstition then it was fashioned from religious doctrine, then racist Darwinian theory (science). Whatever was the currency of the day, was brought to bear. More recently Colonialism, Imperialism, cruel oppressor. The list goes on, truth the first victim and ever newer ways are found to say the same thing – that Jews are strangers everywhere to be vilified and contained.

Herzl’s dream has turned to poison in our mouths. We are a nation among nations, carving out a space for ourselves in the crowded space of nations – each nation saying their history is glorious, and each, for the most part ignoring their transgressions against other nations. Nationhood creates Kings and Kings amass power and power corrupts. It is not a new lesson, it has been repeated all over the world and it is clearly described in the Bible. But this new King, King Bibi, has not just brought misfortune to his kingdom, he has caused our youth around the world to question their allegiance, question their identity and question the truths that their parents and grandparents believed to be self-evident.

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don't criticize

What you can't understandY

our sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

We live in a world where the mantra is: ‘the only constant is change’. How is one to deal with this reality? Pessimists will say that ‘we are doomed’. Perhaps they will seek to return to the ‘good old days’. They weren’t so good, but at least change was a bit slower. Optimists will say, “we’ve seen worse, we will probably see even worse again … yet somehow humankind has managed to find a way to move forward”.

I would like to believe that the pendulum has swung far enough in one direction, and that Israel will return to being a country that embraces pluralism, that seeks to save its sons and daughters from being killed or from needing to kill. I would like to believe that Israel will return to the values of social democracy that lay behind the impulse to build a state that gave expression to Jewish self-determination. I want to tilt at that windmill, for what is our existence if not driven by the impossible dream.

Someone once said that there is no such thing as ‘a glass half full’ or ‘a glass half empty’. There is only a full glass – full with liquid and air.

I like the ambiguity, I like the potential implied, I like the rejection of a binary world and I like the twinkle in the author’s eye.

The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is rapidly fadin'

And the first one now

Will later be last

For the times they are a-changin'

The Times They Are A-Changin' lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group