{"id":71873,"date":"2026-04-16T14:28:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=71873"},"modified":"2026-04-16T14:28:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T12:28:45","slug":"is-community-formed-in-the-mirror-of-the-human-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/is-community-formed-in-the-mirror-of-the-human-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Community Formed in the Mirror of the Human Soul?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reflections on the wars in the Middle East.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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March 9, evening<\/em>. Hesitantly, I reach for the keyboard to share the mood of the Middle East. As a former Israeli living in Switzerland, my thoughts naturally turn first to my daughter, my brother, their families, and my circle of friends in Israel. Then, to all the others affected\u2014gazing into an abyss. The wider my field of vision becomes, the more slippery the ridges I stand upon seem, the deeper and darker these abysses. A WhatsApp group calls on all Israelis to take to the streets and to their balconies on Tuesday, March 10, at 5 p.m., to thank the Air Force pilots with lights, flags, singing, and clapping for what they are heroically doing for \u201cus\u201d to eliminate the Iranian threat and the Lebanese Hezbollah. Not one word about the thousands losing their lives in the process. On March 10 in the daily newspaper Haaretz<\/em>, under the headline \u201cSay Thank You for the War,\u201d journalist Yoana Gonen writes, \u201cEmotional fascism does not settle for silencing opposition to the war. It demands that you enjoy it, fall in love with it, say thank you, and ask for more. In such a reality, even a complaint is a form of petty rebellion: a refusal to become accustomed to the intolerable.\u201d<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can speak with our daughter in Galilee and my brother in Tel Aviv when they\u2019re not on their way to the bomb shelter. Schools are closed; the economy is throttled down. The government meets via Zoom. Behind the chaos of war, new laws are drafted and enforced every day, undermining the separation of powers and granting the government more authority. These fascist tendencies are not merely emotional. Thirteen percent of the population is Orthodox Jewish. No government can be formed without their support. As long as they study in religious institutions, they are exempt from military service. They pay no taxes. Their parliamentary representatives threatened not to approve the state budget and thus topple the government. Now there is war; they will approve it. A military unit has just entered Lebanon to recover the remains of fighter pilot Ron Arad, who went missing in 1986. His widow appealed to Benjamin Netanyahu, asking him not to endanger any lives in the process. Apparently, several Lebanese civilians lost their lives during this failed operation. 250,000 Israeli citizens have left the country since October 7. Protests have been held against the judicial reform (revolution) since it took effect in February 2023. Now, under Iranian and Hezbollah fire, even that is not possible. Netanyahu is letting all this happen\u2014not to bring peace to the country, but rather, presumably, to stop his corruption charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since his second term began in 2009, Netanyahu has been promoting the idea: We are under threat! We are victims of the Holocaust, victims of Arab annihilation, victims of anti-Semitism. It\u2019s likely no one has contributed more to the fact that Israeli politics and Judaism have become merged in the general consciousness, as well as in each individual. When this occurs, criticism of Israeli politics simply becomes anti-Semitism. With this article, I am also exposing myself to this accusation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since October 7, people in Israel have been living in a state of constant trauma. Half-consciously and half-unconsciously, people repress the fact that the response to the Hamas massacre has led to the killing of more than 70,000 Palestinians and the complete destruction of the foundations of life in Gaza. At least 10,000 soldiers have reported suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The number is many times higher for civilians. According to the media, fighter pilots are flying some of their bombing missions while under the influence of stimulants (Modafinil).<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Human abilities are being pharmacologically enhanced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of whether one is left- or right-leaning, no one in Israel, Palestine, and Iran is immune to trauma today. Hardly anyone is exempt. The cohesiveness of the collective\u2014the fear for one\u2019s life, one\u2019s lifestyle, one\u2019s daily routine\u2014remains a powerful social glue. The soul\u2019s ability to reflect is obscured by victimhood, constant existential anxiety, and the aggression of the armed forces. These forces consist largely of reservists torn from their families, businesses, and lives and prepared to fight. The entire community is reflected in a broken mirror. In Israel, Palestine, Iran, Ukraine, and gradually also in Europe, the soul is so emotionally overburdened with negativity. The self, the \u2018I\u2019, is largely unable to act in this soul. But, \u201cthe \u2018I\u2019 lives in the soul. [.\u00a0.\u00a0.] One must therefore say that this \u2018I,\u2019 radiating from there, fills the entire soul\u00a0[.\u00a0.\u00a0.] .\u201d (Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy<\/em>, CW 9.) How can the \u2018I\u2019 continue to do so?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From my perspective, it makes little sense to seek the causes of these incomprehensible and threatening events of the present in a field that has not been sufficiently researched. Esoteric excursions into Steiner\u2019s work, insofar as they deal with politics, concern events that took place more than 100 years ago in a world free of drones and nuclear weapons. However, it will become increasingly important for people to dare once again to look one another in the eye\u2014but now from within the brutal fragmentation of Israeli society, and from there across ethnic boundaries to other Semites\u2014to perceive and accept the humanity in the other. This could take decades. Perhaps, within this cruel continuum of the Middle East ravaging Israel and this region since early 2023, this hope could restore a sense of inner coherence to those who seek to realize it. This is all merely a partial, personal snapshot of the mood, not an analysis: a comprehensive analysis is anyway impossible, a partial one misleading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shlomo Efrati, a devout Jew, was drafted into military service on October 7. His task: identify and bury the bodies. He took over 700 fingerprints and kept a diary:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne day, by mistake, the body of a terrorist was brought to us. Darkness entered the room. The corpse lay lifeless upon the table. How vulnerable he is now, I thought. And in his pocket, the essence of evil: three hand grenades and a pack of condoms. Suddenly, I heard within me the old melody of the Yom Kippur prayer: \u2018Be merciful in your deeds.\u2019 There is not enough mercy in our world. What a tragedy that there are people who, for their whole lives, are trapped in such evil. I am ashamed; I pitied him. Not because of his death, but because of the life that was in him. Because of his capacity to choose good, because of his choice for evil. I held his hand with a pure heart. I saw God\u2019s image in him and thought: What irony that a person with a pure heart cultivates this total darkness\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u201d<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Translation <\/strong>Joshua Kelberman
Image\u00a0<\/strong>Ruins in Gaza, December 2023. Photo: Emad El Byed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reflections on the wars in the Middle East. March 9, evening. Hesitantly, I reach for the keyboard to share the mood of the Middle East. As a former Israeli living in Switzerland, my thoughts naturally turn first to my daughter, my brother, their families, and my circle of friends in Israel. Then, to all the others affected\u2014gazing into an abyss. The wider my field of vision becomes, the more slippery the ridges I stand upon seem, the deeper and darker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18137,"featured_media":71244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8788,8815],"tags":[11777,11785,8824],"class_list":["post-71873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay-en","category-world-situation","tag-ausgabe-12-2026-en","tag-english-issue-17-2026","tag-spotlights"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71873"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71904,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71873\/revisions\/71904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}