For years it has been accepted that Israelis who grew closer to religion after the Yom Kippur War did so like a wave crashes on the beach, widely and suddenly. Was it as sudden as they say or did it have something to do with the war? These questions remain unanswered to this day.
The media and academia referred to several Israeli celebrities who embraced religion, exemplifying a broad trend of Israelis who did so after the 1973 war. The explanation given for this phenomenon was the sudden change from the first two days' trauma in which Israel faced destruction to the counterattack that turned the war around. On the third day of the Yom Kippur War, the people felt the soldiers were blessed with a miracle which quickly spread to the rest of the country.
October 7 was not a miracle, but the opposite. The intense level of helplessness connects the Yom Kippur War to Hamas' invasion of Israel. This raises the question of whether it affected Israelis' faith and their feeling toward religion. Will the events since October 7 affect their faith, lead them away from religion, or will their affinity for religion remain the same? Although almost a year has passed, we barely have any information on the subject.
No 'faith polls'
Not long ago, the JPPI - Jewish People Policy Institute, published a survey that focused mainly on practical questions concerning Jewish faith. The survey examined, for instance, whether after the events of October 7, more people put on tefillin or read Psalms. On the other hand, it also asked about Jews' sense of belonging: Do Jewish Israelis feel closer to Judaism? That survey revealed two main trends: the religious and traditional groups felt closer to Judaism, whereas the secular group formed two sub-groups: those embracing religion and those distancing themselves.
These opposite processes illustrate how secularism is not uniform and its relation to Judaism does not predict the affects of shock. However, what does this say about faith? Similar to the religious and the traditional Jews, the secular Jews also have beliefs. Contrary to popular belief, about half of secular Israel's secular Jews believe in God, similar to the U.S.
If so, then what do the seculars mean when they say they believe in God? Studies show they are very creative in their meaning as related to this concept. They may not believe in an actual deity but have other metaphors for God. Unlike Christians, who tend to read the holy scripture literally, Judaism tends to interpret and discuss possible meanings of passages and concepts.
The whole concept of God is based on the idea that humans are unable to comprehend what God is, and therefore we cannot talk about him except through metaphors that compare him to other concepts known to man. Religion offers us similes such as "God is like a judge," or "God is like a king," but secular believers in my previous research also referred to God-like contact or "like the glass is half full."
The research teaches us two important lessons: Faith is a powerful and significant tool to deal with trauma and disaster. The second lesson shows us we may invent any belief, drawing examples from the culture in which we live. Therefore, I wonder why we haven't seen any organization try to restore our faith, not in the religious way, but the secular way which constitutes at least a quarter of Israel's Jewish population.
Dr. Hagar Lahav is a senior lecturer in the Sapir Academic College's communications department and the author of the book "Women, Secularism and Belief" published by the Van Leer Institute.