6 Days and 12 Days
There is a general sense that there is something much more muted in our response to the miraculous quick turn-around in this recent Twelve Day War than there was after the Six Day War. That’s not to say there is no reaction. For example, our shul is having a holiday-level Kiddush. (Whatever that means. I haven’t been home for a Yom Tov since making Aliyah a half-year ago.) Even in the Mir Yeshiva, no bastion of Religious Zionism, they held a special service of Gratitude to the Almighty including the recitation of Nishmas mid-week.
But comparatively speaking, not like what I heard and read of the mood in 1967. A rise in Jewish Pride globally that fueled the Kiruv Movement. College professors and secular Kibbutznikim so curious about traditional Judaism, they invite Rav Shlomo Wolbe to give the talks that got collected in his “Bein Sheish leAsor” (Between the Six [Day War] and the Ten[th Day of Tishrei of the Yom Kippur War]).
When Scott Kahn quoted Rabbi Sacks about the mood generated in 1967 and wondered about our cooler response in the Orthodox Conundrum Commentary Substack post “Where’s the Jubilation?” started thinking about. He listed 5 reasons, roughly:
In the same news cycle we learned of the death of 7 soldiers in Gaza when their armored vehicles were hit by an explosive.
And in fact, that just highlights a second issue — the war with Hamas is continuing.
News outlets politically opposed to Pres. Trump and PM Netanyahu raised questions as to whether Iran’s ability to wage war was indeed “stand for generations”, and that perhaps they were only set back by months.
Immediately afterward, Pres Trump “scolded” Israel for striking back during an already broken ceasefire, reminding us of the unreliability of his support.
World response to the news reminds us of the general rise of antisemitism after 7.10 and the unlikelihood of any support globally.
But I think there is more going on… The difference didn’t start with our reaction to the news of winning, it began back on the day after Hamas’s horrific 7.10 attack.
After the Six Day War, there was a run on tefillin. I had a neighbor who told me once that he turned Bar Mitzvah that Spring. His parents tried obtaining tefillin, but their Conservative synagogue couldn’t get ahold of any, as Israel had none left for export.
But that’s just it — after that war, there was a religious awakening.
This war has been quite different; there has been a run on tzitzis, an increase in Shabbos observance, we read stories of hostages turning to kashrus even as their food options were taken away from them.
In this war, the religious awakening is during.
So to me, the response we’ve seen to the victory against Iran is more of a second layer to a mystery I was already curious about. And I think I have a theory, but it is going to require some seemingly off-topic background.
Star Trek, the original series, ran from 1966 to 1969. The typical episode was a morality play, forcing you to think about issues like racism, the relationship between personal happiness and the general good, not judging a monster by appearances — it could be a mother protecting her young, the Cold War, etc… This same trend existed in the first sequel, but far muted. But in 1967, entertainment was okay with clearly defined good vs. evil, and letting the Good Guys win.
The more modern Star Trek episodes lack that clear good vs evil. In fact, a lot of attention is paid to “Section 31”, a secret security division that can make morally questionable decisions to obtain that security for the Federation. The captain of Discovery for most of that series starts off being a mutineer, if with the best of motives. People are more gray, complex. The stories are more realistic, less mythic. The Good Guys do indeed almost always win, but there is less tapping of that raw excitement of good over evil.
In the 1970s we had Star Wars. Again, the clear demarcation of Good vs. Evil. The story is so clearly in that realm, George Lukas consciously follows a trope found in myths, the Hero’s Journey. And to extent that first success into a trilogy, he added two movies with another such trope, he gave Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader a classical Redemption Arc.
And again the new movies don’t assume the audience will buy into a clear good vs. evil. It makes a point of subsverting our expectations of Luke Skywalker, questions the entire value system by which we had though the Jedi were Good, etc… The villain is a troubled youth, not a simple icon of evil.
In the 1960s, Superman had the spotlight in the DC universe. Cooperated with the law, a predictably good character. Today most of the stories are about Batman, who is the product of a troubled past, a morally complicated vigilante. Again, the shift from a mythic Good Wins Over Evil to a more complex realism.
(A similar analysis of the Marvel Comics Universe movies can also be done, even though at first glance it appears to buck this trend. However, I found it ended up being too long of a digression just to add to the list of examples.)
What happened between 1967 and 2025 was the transition from Modernism to Post-Modernism. Moral Clarity was lost, and a movie that wants to make money cannot rely on leveraging righteous indignation for the audience to be excited about the story’s climax. Instead, people want realism with that happy ending.
Which gets me back to the actual point. In 1967, the victory of Good over Evil took center stage. And seeing it happen miraculously drew people’s attention to G-d. In 2025, most pf us live in a world where instead the complexity of life is front and center. And therefore, people were drawn to G-d as soon as they realized no one else was listening.
In 1967, we celebrated Hasheim Ish Milkhama — G-d is a Master of War. (Shemos 15:3)
In 2023-2025, we are embracing the G-d Who “walks” with me “even when I walk in the valley of Tzalmaves. (Tefillim 23:4)
It isn’t as jublant. But it’s certainly no less important to a healthy relationship to the A-lmighty.
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