Introduction: Israel Shahak and the Demystification of Tradition
Israel Shahak, a chemist with Warsaw roots and a human rights activist, went down in history as one of the most uncompromising critics of Judaism. In his work “Jewish History, Jewish Religion,” he rejected the perception of this tradition as a purely spiritual system. Shahak, a self-declared atheist, subjected Judaism to sociological and historical analysis, exposing it as a hermetic legal system used to maintain power and dominance. His goal was to deconstruct the mechanisms that shaped not only orthodoxy but also modern Zionist ideology and the Israeli state apparatus.
The Evolution of Judaism: From Antiquity to Totalitarian Control
Shahak distinguishes four stages of doctrinal transformation. In antiquity, Judaism was a marginally monotheistic system, free from chauvinism. The turning point occurred during the Babylonian and Roman periods, when the top-down codification of norms (the Talmud) created the Halakhic system—a totalizing set of regulations governing every aspect of life. In the era of classical Judaism (8th–18th centuries), the religion became a tool of totalitarian control.
Diaspora communities, serving as economic intermediaries, developed a rabbinic caste that legitimized elite power and suppressed dissent. Rabbis wielded nearly absolute authority, employing corporal punishment and excommunication. In this view, Judaism was not a persecuted religion but a collaborating structure with local monarchies, systematically eliminating critical reflection and dissent.
Halakha and Kabbalah: The Ethics of Exclusion and “Cheating God”
A key element of Shahak’s analysis is the ontology of exclusion embedded in the Halakha. The concept of “neighbor” refers exclusively to Jews. This law explicitly differentiates the value of life: according to Maimonides, saving a drowning non-Jew is not an obligation, and medical assistance on the Sabbath is permissible only to avoid the hostility of Gentiles. This dehumanization was deepened by Lurianic Kabbalah, which attributed non-Jewish souls to the sphere of impurity.
Shahak also condemns heterim—a system of legal dispensations he describes as ritual cheating of God. These allowed elites to bypass strict prohibitions (e.g., the Sabbatical year) for material gain while maintaining the appearance of religiosity. The author also points to an asymmetry in the treatment of other faiths: Christianity is combated in the Halakha as idolatry, while Islam is treated as theologically neutral, though socially inferior.
Religious Ideology and the Ethnocracy of the State of Israel
According to Shahak, modern Israel after 1967 became the political expression of religious ethnocentrism. For him, Zionism is not a secular movement but a project to rebuild a closed rabbinic community in modern dress. Evidence for this is found in the historical alliances of Zionist leaders (such as Herzl or Jabotinsky) with anti-Semites, based on a shared desire for ethnic separation.
The author defines Israel as an ethnocracy rather than a democracy, pointing to laws that restrict parties questioning the “Jewishness” of the state from running in elections. Although scholars like Jacob Neusner accuse Shahak of ahistoricism and biased selection of sources, Shahak himself believed his critique struck at the taboo mechanisms that prevent honest debate about segregation and the sacralization of settlement.
Summary: The Legacy of Diaspora Social Structures
Shahak’s analysis leads to a bitter conclusion: modern Israeli policy toward Palestinians reflects the historical contempt of leaseholders toward the peasantry in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The distance from the “primitive masses,” deeply rooted in classical Judaism, has transformed into the cold mechanisms of systemic oppression. While Shahak’s theses provoke resistance, they represent a radical call for emancipation from the tyranny of myths and expose how religious formalism can become an alibi for political immorality.
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