The Autonomy of Man

One of my critics asked me among other things, how is that different from the general demand to have bitahon in Hashem and in practice, what is the difference between you and Feiglein from Manhigut Yehudit, so I tried to answer, emphasizing the autonomy of man:

There were very few governments that had real and full bitahon – probably none. Mostly, there were governments that had certain degree of bitahon and those that had none. It seems very possible that would Mr. Feiglin become the Prime Minister, his government would be one of those that would have a certain degree of bitahon. I do not criticize Mr. Feiglin at all beyond the degree for which you would (i.e. he might do this or that particular thing that I may or may not agree with.)
I understand your confusion; you want me to relate to particular policies while I discuss general directions. But in this discussion I am not interested in the particulars. As far as I am concerned, I’d like Mr. Feiglin to win the election and implement his policies because after all he IS an ehrlicher yid and is entitled to the human autonomy to have his set of believes and opinions on how things should run. Moreover, he is more likely then Netanyahoo or Livni or Barak to actually go ahead and do what I suggest.
What I say is on a different level then what you discuss. Go-d does give autonomy to people to do as they are pleased and that includes governments. Of course we have the Toarh framework to work with and we know basically what is good and what is bad but we have the autonomy to choose and to implement. One of the good things that the Jewish people as a whole and its leadership in particular have to do is to acknowledge that they MAY NOT act alone. This mere acknowledgement is not so hard to implement and does not negate the general autonomy of man, it just calls for partnership between man and Go-d. This acknowledgement is the exact ingredient that is missing today as it was missing so many times in the past. The Gemara tells us that Bar-Kokhva in the last revolt against the Roman Empire actually said that he does not want the help of Go-d, just that Go-d will kiveyakhol, remove himself from the scene. We know that Zedekiah’s government ignored Jeremiah attempts to persuade it to acknowledge Go-d and even tried to murder him. And so on.
There is a variation to not acknowledging Go-d in the Dati Leumi camp. Years ago, while arguing with one of their leaders, the man told me with a full conviction that Go-d IS with us… as if he had a deed on Go-d in his pants back pocket. It did not occur to him that it might be the other way around and that we might want to be with Go-d.
But I believe I failed to explain the distinction between opinions that humans may have about their worldly politics – that would require examples and details – and the need to just acknowledge that we are not alone – that does not need any positive example, just a clear view on history and those that refuse to express that acknowledgement.
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BTW – there are some people who manage to see this distinction so my failure is not as total as one might think