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For Heaven's Sake

Hopes for Israel's 78th Birthday

4/22/202638 min

What do you wish for a country you love that is still learning to love itself? 

In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi mark Israel's 78th Independence Day with a meditation on eulogies, blessings, and the distance between the two. They dissect the growing divide in world Jewry over Israel's future and the stranglehold of an "October 7 consciousness" on Israeli political imagination. Between the grief of Memorial Day and the joy of Independence Day, they articulate their wishes for a society desperate to heal, demanding a return to hope and the courage to envision a thriving Jewish future. 

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Past episodes of this show, and other podcasts from Ark Media can be found at arkmedia.org. 

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Clips

Blessing: Post-Netanyahu Israel
Reuniting Requires His Removal
Blood On The Ground
“My blessing: We won.”
No Closure Without Inquiry
“Boorishness” And Being Stuck
Choosing October 8th, Not 6th
Own The October 8th Victory

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Speaker 00:00

    [gentle music] You are listening to an Ark Media podcast.

  2. Yossi Klein Halevi· Host0:06

    We've been hearing more and more voices who have entered eulogy mode. They look at Israel and say, "Well, it was once a beautiful dream, maybe even once a beautiful reality, but Israel has been in a moral decline for many years, and we no longer see any hope for the Jewish state."

  3. Donniel Hartman· Host0:31

    A eulogy, it's the end. Birthdays are about a future. Even on birthdays, we give an accounting about how wonderful the person was, but then we could talk to them about what more you could be, everything else that you could yet fulfill. And when we bless you for the next year, we're so full of hope.

  4. Yossi Klein Halevi· Host0:52

    Don't give up on the blessed. The birthday of Israel is an opportunity to renew our commitment to the Israel that we want, the Israel that we love.

  5. Donniel Hartman· Host1:01

    [gentle music] Hi, friends. This is Daniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi from the Shalom Hartman Institute, and this is our podcast, For Heaven's Sake, in collaboration with Ark Media. Today is April 21st, Tuesday, Israel's Memorial Day. Tomorrow is Israel's

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