Internal Division: The Modern-Day Pharaoh Endangering Israel

Passover marks the most festive Jewish holiday, a celebration of freedom when the people of Israel united around Moses, overcame internal divisions, and earned freedom from slavery in Egypt.

Today, as Passover approaches, instead of approaching such unity, we see how the people of Israel are engaged in egoistic power struggles, letting their divisive drives rule over them like a modern-day Pharaoh.

On one hand, Israel faces many enemies. Iran and its proxy groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and Islamic Jihad continually wish for Israel’s total elimination. Moreover, international movements like BDS persist in their attempts to delegitimize Israel.

But external enemies do not pose Israel’s greatest threat, internal division does. After the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre and the war that followed, fleeting national unity dissolved into political, religious, and social polarization. Judicial reform disputes, debates over military exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox, and widening economic gaps tear away at Israeli society.

Today, political battles consume Israel, with each side blaming the other for the country’s decay, up to a point where civil war has become a real threat. Prominent figures like Former Supreme Court chief justice, Aharon Barak, warned that Israel is at risk of civil war if the Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar becomes dismissed, stating that “the situation is very bad, and that we are heading […] toward bloodshed, toward a civil war.” Tel Aviv-Yafo Mayor Ron Huldai has also commented that “Israel will only be saved through a major crisis or civil war.” Internal strife threatens Israel’s long-term stability far more than external enemies ever could.

Israel stands at a critical crossroads. Without rebuilding our relations and strengthening unity, we risk collapse from within. 2,000 years ago, baseless hatred cost us our sovereignty. Since then, we have only deepened these divides.

But the root problem is not political affiliation, it is hatred itself. The Left despises the Right, secular citizens scorn the religious, the rich disdain the poor, and vice versa. In every division, hatred is winning.

History repeatedly shows that division brings disaster. In my book, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, I pointed out the recurring historical pattern of how our internal hatred and divisions repeatedly led to our downfall. After Joseph’s death in Egypt, internal divisions let a new Pharaoh arise and enslave Israel. Disunity led to the coming of Nebuchadnezzar who sent Israel to the Babylonian exile. Hatred intensified during the time of the Second Temple, inviting the Roman general Titus to lead the destruction of Jerusalem. Also, the Spanish Inquisition, Hitler’s rise to power, and the more recent October 7 massacre by Hamas also emerged hand-in-hand with growing division among the people of Israel in each respective period. Before every calamity, our internal hatred paved the way.

We continually blame external enemies for our suffering. But our sages teach that hatred among our own ranks empowers our enemies.

Pharaoh is the inner egoistic quality that lives within us today, setting us against each other and convincing us we work for ourselves while we are in fact enslaved to him. But we can choose otherwise. We can strengthen the voice of Moses, the inner call for unity that beckons us to unite as one nation despite our differences.

If we continue letting Pharaoh rule over us, we will destroy ourselves from within. But if we instead seek to nourish and nurture the quality of Moses within us, choosing unity above our burning divisions and hatred, we will bear witness to a great transformation the likes of which we have never seen before. We will then invite the eternal and perfect unifying force of nature into our connections, a sublime force that will elevate us to new heights of harmony, peace, and happiness. We will then truly become free from the shackles of our inner egoistic Egypt.

I sincerely hope we take heed to our sages’ advice and awaken our unity above our widening rifts. Nothing good will come from our divisions, while everything good will blossom from our unity.