It's been two years since Amos Oz wrote the novel "Judas" and told the story in which Shmuel Asch, a lonely, failed doctorate student, once ambitious, writes his unsuspecting dissertation "Jesus in the eyes of the Jews". Shmuel Asch concluded that Judas Iscariot was Jesus' "most faithful and loyal disciple, and that he never betrayed him, on the contrary, he wanted to prove his greatness to the whole world."
Jesus, Ash believes, was a Jewish reformer, he wanted to purify the Jewish faith, the Cohens saw him as an enemy, they sent Judas to insert himself among Jesus' followers, to spy and inform Jerusalem of what they were doing, they chose "wealthy, educated, sober, well-versed in the written and oral Torah" who put on rags and went to Galilee "but then he fell in love with Jesus and loved him with his whole soul, until he became his most devoted believer". Judas believed that Jesus was almighty, he believed in Jesus more than he believed in himself, and that is why he made him leave Galilee, go to Jerusalem in order not to perform a miracle there. He who walks on water, revives the dead, heals the sick, Judas believed, will come down from the cross healthy and intact. "Even when Jesus was dying in severe agony on the cross for hours and hours under the scorching sun... Judas' faith did not sag an inch", and when he realized what had happened, that he was "responsible for the death of the man he loved and adored , he went and hanged himself”.
Oz, he says, realized in his teenage years that "without reading the New Testament, he will never understand the culture of the Western world, the Renaissance, Bach's music, Russian realism... "Jesus left an impression on me, his poetry, warmth, simplicity. Although he and I, like any other two Israelis, do not agree on a lot of things".
The story of Judas
Oz's close relative Jozef Klausner, a historian and philosopher, published the book "Jesus of Nazareth" in 1921, with which he angered both Jews and Christians, claiming that Jesus was born and died in the Jewish faith, that he was not at the end of his mind to found a new religion. Oz remembers how Klausner told him in the early 1950s, as a boy, that it is time for the Jews to recognize both Jesus and Baruch de Spinoza, he encouraged him to read the New Testament, to make sure that "Jesus is truly righteous and a model for his race" .
"I have long been intrigued by that story about Judas, about his kiss, betrayal and 30 pieces of silver as a reward for betrayal. The story of Judas is the Chernobyl of European anti-Semitism, and it has been going on for 2000 years. It is responsible for God knows how many victims through the Inquisition, persecutions, and the Holocaust. Not only is it bad in terms of content, but it is also poorly narrated. I wish the editor of the gospels had taken it out, because apart from being racist and mean, very stereotyping, it's stupid, it just doesn't make sense. The sale for 30 shekels is unconvincing, at that time it was a price for not particularly strong goods. Judah's name is synonymous with traitor, and the entire Jewish people are perceived as traitors," says the author, himself a traitor in the eyes of many Israelis, an advocate of a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict since the 1960s. "Many times it is honorable to be called a traitor. Many traitors were people who paved the way forward, who saw that things had to change and were the first to be ready for change. Many Americans considered Lincoln a traitor, German officers who wanted to kill Hitler were also traitors in the eyes of many, De Gaulle, Sadat, Gorbachev, Theodor Herzl were also called traitors, and Ben Gurion, Yitzhak Rabin... could I would go on for a long time.”
In addition to the reinterpretation of the Christian legend, the novel carries a narrative about the founding of modern Israel, a story of enthusiastic idealists on the one hand and pragmatists on the other. One of the characters, Shaltiel Abarbanel, also a "traitor", mockingly called "muezzin Abarbanel" among "his" because of his friendship with Arabs and calling for coexistence, dies alone and forgotten, in voluntary home exile, unwaveringly believing that nation-states are predators, that they make the world divided into hundreds of cages like a zoo, convinced that Jews, like Palestinians, do not need a state, but that they should live in community, next to each other.
"Traitor" Oz, one of the founders of the Peace Now movement, has been advocating the idea of two states and the return of the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians for decades. Did he ever lose faith in the fact that one day they would live in peace, side by side?
“Never. No. Never. I was 14 or 15 when I realized that the main choice a person has in life is between compromise and stubborn fanaticism. This is true not only in politics, but in life in general, in marriage, in raising children. I believe in compromise. Both in politics and in private life. When I say compromise, I don't mean capitulation. I don't mean 'turn the other cheek'. Compromise means meeting the other somewhere halfway."
Hitler and Stalin
Commenting on revisionism, the rise in popularity of right-wing parties across Europe, the strengthening of anti-Semitism, xenophobia in general, Oz says: "Hitler and Stalin gave us a gift, even if they didn't mean to, but that's how it turned out. For sixty years and counting, many, many people in many countries have felt ashamed at the very thought of ideas of racism. They were embarrassed to be anti-Semitic, to be violent, they were considerate of human life. It was because of the shock that Stalin and Hitler gave to the Western world. I'm afraid that gift from Stalin and Hitler has worn out. The dark parts of human nature once again step to the front of the stage. There are more and more people who know less and less about what Stalin and Hitler left us".
The persecuted long to become persecutors
Li from the novel "Judas", Shaltiel Abarbanel, a dreamer or a man ahead of his time and ours, says that the essence of human tragedy "is not that the persecuted and oppressed want to free themselves and walk uprightly in the world." No. The essence of evil is that the oppressed actually secretly dream of becoming oppressors themselves, and then oppressing their oppressors. The persecuted long to become persecutors".
"If every persecuted person only wanted to be free, without wanting to enslave others, the world would have become a pure paradise by now. There is, on the other hand, this very popular, widespread, sentimental idea that people who have suffered a lot become better people. Belief in this has a deep Christian origin, it comes from the fact that suffering elevates the person who suffers, that the one who suffers a lot becomes almost a saint. If you suffer more and more you become Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, this is not a universal truth. There are people who are spiritualized by suffering, who after suffering become more empathetic, more open to others and to their suffering. However, there are also people who become angrier and more distrustful of people due to suffering. All responses to suffering are equally human, although not equally humane! I do not approve of the policy of the Israeli authorities. On the other hand, the story of Jews turning from victims to perpetrators also does not hold up. It is not the case that the Nazis forced the Jews into the gas chambers and now the Jews are forcing the Arabs into the gas chambers. It's not like that. I have always believed that there are different levels of evil. And those who cannot distinguish also become servants of evil. Israeli oppression of the Palestinians is a disaster, but it is not in the same cosmos as the Nazi genocide, it is not the same degree of evil".
When asked what Europe could learn from Israel, Oz replied: "Perhaps it could learn that free and courageous debate is not the end of the world." Israeli society is deeply divided. Here, everyone is arguing with everyone around the clock. It's not easy, it's not always pleasant, but it's good and it's one of the things I love about Israel. We discuss everywhere. In restaurants, cafes, shops, at train stations, strangers argue with complete strangers".
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