1.
At first, when I saw the call to protest against that program, I thought it was an ad from its production. In other words, I was sure it was a sophisticated campaign that the public broadcasting corporation was putting up to create buzz around the program. This option seemed more logical to me than understanding the ad as a simple one.
What, out of all the evils of Israeli media – radio, press, television, websites – religious and ultra-Orthodox organizations are coming out with an impassioned call to protest in the streets precisely against a not particularly important satire program? It can't be. This is probably a provocation on behalf of the program. An attempt to grab some ratings for the faltering Kan channel.
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2.
Interim note: I hope you noticed that I don't mention the name of that program. It's not because I'm so righteous that I'm careful not to mention, God forbid, the names of abominable programs on the unclean device. I don't mention the name of the program because I don't want to give it validity. Why mention its name? If it were a program with high ratings and influence like 'Eretz Nehederet,' or even a long-standing program with mythological status like 'Zehu Zehu,' then fine. Maybe I can't ignore it. Millions of viewers, the discourse is influenced by it, the politics, the humor.
But that show? Maybe now, after the demonstration, it will become a mythological show. And I'm very sorry, I'm not willing to be a part of it under any circumstances. I don't want to add even one viewer to it, and especially I don't want to add even one millimeter of self-importance to it.
3.
And here we actually get to the point: When you go out to protest against something or someone – from the million-strong demonstration in front of the Supreme Court to a local demonstration in front of the city hall because the mayor is not allocating a proper building for your children's school – you need to carefully examine whether the demonstration can affect the object of the demonstration. Does it put them under pressure, give them a headache, or does it strengthen them.
In this case, I tell you without a shadow of a doubt, if you ask the editors of that program whether the demonstration moves them, the answer is yes. It moves them, absolutely. But not in the way you would like it to move them. It makes them feel good about themselves.
Now they are biting, kicking satirists whose work has managed to shock and hurt so much that the masses have taken to the streets. It's literally every satirist's dream.
How do I know? Very simply, I was there. For years I edited a satirical section in the newspaper Haaretz and later in Yedioth Ahronoth, and as such I am still invited to respected forums (to name a few) or to television broadcasts that discuss the state of satire in Israel.
All the panels look the same. Humorists from all eras sit down, and the moderator always asks the usual question: "Where do you think the limits of satire are? Should it even have limits? Are there sacred cows that we are not allowed to slaughter?".
And then, at this moment, each of the panelists sits up straight in their chairs, and in turn proudly tells about the TV show or newspaper column they edited and how subversive it was, and how in such and such a year this and that politician tried to censor that sketch, and how much it provoked criticism, but didn't help anyone - we did some kick-ass satire, because that's our job and that's our duty in our world.
4.
I won't bore you with examples, but I know these stories by heart. The fondness for 'Three in One Boat' of the 1950s, for Hanoch Levin of the 1960s, for 'Cleansing the Head' in the 1970s, for 'Davar Achhar' in the 1980s, for 'The Hartzofim' and 'The Chamber Quintet' in the 1990s, and for 'Shay and Dror' in the 2000s. Each program and its enduring legacy.
And by the way, always, always, without exception, the satire comes from one direction, and always the sacred cows that are slaughtered are from the same herd, and always the environment in which the creators lived and worked applauds them with blind admiration. It's been that way for seventy years.
But that doesn't stop them from taking pride in their "courage" - with an unawareness that is not appropriate for people with humor.
And starting this week, the editors of that unimportant program that thousands protested against are going to sit to the east of every panel on the borders of satire, with the entire audience singing to them with devotion, "Blessed are you satirists, whose words of Torah are mocked!".
I'm sorry, but I don't condone their prestige and fame. And by the way, the way to take down the show is really not through loud protests, but by ignoring it, which will lead to a drop in ratings and no ordering of a new season.
And above all, we need to recognize reality: a demonstration against a funny TV show will not be well received by the public. It will look like a war of dark fanatics against people of freedom and art.
5.
Come on, I hear you saying now, stop with all these accounts. When it hurts, you shout. And if you're not part of the demonstration, it means you're not really hurting. These guys crossed every line. Didn't you see the videos we posted this week with the shocking examples from the programs? If someone mocked your mom and dad like that, would you start all kinds of media chatter then too?
So first of all, I saw these videos, and the truth is I'm pretty sorry I saw them. And I'm certainly sorry my children and tons of other children were exposed to them. There's no chance they would have heard about it without such a noisy campaign. But you're right, when it hurts, you shout. Right. There's just nothing you can do except wage a public fight from the gut. You need a strategy.
If someone, for decades, had made fun of my mother and father, I wouldn't just go on a semi-spontaneous move like this to shout at them from under the window. There needs to be an organized campaign here, and not against one program, but against this whole spirit in culture and the media. A struggle that would set goals, precise objectives, that would offer an alternative, that would motivate action. Your protest as it looks now is a reward for satirical terrorism.
6.
But then a little thing happened. Late on Monday night, after we returned from a tubing trip in Ashdod with the kids, I sat down in front of the Hidabrot website and started watching the replay of the rally. Not the whole thing, just snippets, a minute here, a minute there. And then slowly, from speech to speech and song to song, I started to feel a sense of missing out.
How was I not there? How did I lose? It was a historic moment, no less. Why? Because despite all the very correct things written above against holding the rally, for some reason, something unprecedented happened here that many have been hoping for for years. A rally in which representatives of the majority camp in the State of Israel came together for the first time.
Not an "alliance of moderates" (in their own eyes), but an alliance of believers. An alliance that crosses parties, denominations, and sectors, of men and women who take to the streets not over the cost of living or Milky Way, and not even against Bibi or for Bibi, but for the most important thing, which affects all of our lives here: Judaism in the State of Israel. The spirit, the openness, the identity.
There was Rabbi Zamir Cohen and the Rabbis of Hidabrot (I don't know them all, but how exciting it is to see and hear "Rabbi Ravid" and "Rabbi Snir" and "Rabbi Eldad" and "Rabbi Lior" and this entire flourishing genre of young and strong rabbis whose names and appearances indicate that they were not born with an beard), and there was Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, MK Bezalel Smotrich from his right (it is recommended to watch the excellent speech he gave there), MK Yitzhak Pindros from United Torah Judaism, and Knesset members Moshe Aboutbul and Uriel Buso from Shas, MK Shlomo Kerei from Likud, and Elad Tzadikov from Herzliya, and Rabbi Yitzhak Neriah and the national religious "Rabbiyeh Keheteim" organization.
And there was a diverse audience of Haredim and Haredim, and national religious and secular people who, while not observing the 13 commandments, would never laugh at the 13 commandments.
And there were mostly wonderful speeches. From my impression, by the way, there were many more speeches in favor than against. In favor of tradition, in favor of keeping the Sabbath, in favor of studying Torah, in favor of reading the Psalms, in favor of connecting with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Mordecai, and Esther. The feeling was the fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy, "Then the fearers of God spoke." This is the definition of what was there on stage and in the audience. A true connection of the fearers of God.
I wasn't really enthusiastic about the ad and some of the videos calling for a jihad war with arguments like "If you did this to Muslims, they would burn the country down," but I was really enthusiastic about the rally itself. I realized that no matter how many clever arguments I had against the demonstration, in reality a different dynamic had been created. Apparently there are deep public currents beneath the surface.
If I were a rabbi on the Hidabrot channel, I would end this column with the second part of that verse: "Then those who fear the Lord spoke - and the Lord listened and heard." What an impression, my teachers and masters, this gathering made in heaven. But I am not a rabbi, hardly a former satirist, so I will just say that this gathering made a great impression in the country.
I am sure that something very big has been set in motion here that has never been here before, and it is much bigger than the (important) war in some outrageous plan or another. This was the first, defining event, and in my estimation it will definitely not be the last. There is a new movement that has been set in motion here. The Jews are coming! (Hello, why are you looking at me like that? I didn't just say the name of any plan, God forbid. I described the reality of a blessed process that is happening in the State of Israel).
7.
And there's only one thing I can't understand: How did the people behind this unimportant plan in the corporation succeed in awakening the people of Israel and the Jewish heart in this way, and in bringing about such wonderful unity, something that generations upon generations of "bitters" did not? Why them, Lord of the world?
Well, what do I understand about heavenly accounts? Maybe they have ancestral rights. Apparently years ago, one of the actors' grandmother prayed in tears as she lit Shabbat candles.
And the Lord listened and heard.
• The column is published in the newspaper 'Bisheva'.'
