The extremists are talking too loudly, and everyone is convinced that only he is on the right side. It’s not just Jews against Arabs. It’s the Orthodox versus those who don’t think they can keep all six hundred and thirteen commandments of the Bible. It’s rich people versus poor people. At some point, something came over Israel so that everyone has his own ideas—and everyone else is an enemy. It’s a dialogue among deaf people and it is getting more and more serious.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the divisions within society and the dangers of extreme ideologies that lead people to view others as enemies.
This quote by Reuven Rivlin reflects on the polarizing nature of contemporary discussions, especially within conflicts like those in Israel. Rivlin points out that the extremists dominate the conversation, creating a perception that only their views are valid while others are marginalized. He illustrates the various conflicts at play, not just in a religious sense between Jews and Arabs, but also socially and economically, emphasizing that these divisions foster an environment where listening and understanding disappear, leading to a dialogue where opposing sides become increasingly deaf to one another's perspectives.
In practice
During a lecture on social justice, this quote can be used to illustrate the importance of listening to all perspectives.
The depth of this conflict, which is more than one hundred years old, requires us to find a way to communicate... so that the residents of the Middle East, Jews and Arabs alike, can live not as if they were forced to live together, but rather destined to live together.
We must remember that Islam is not an enemy, and we have no war with Islam.
The fish in the water is silent, the animals on the earth is noisy, the bird in the air is singing. But man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earth and the music of the air.
In the dark colony of night, when I consider man's magnificent capacity for malice, madness, folly, envy, rage, and destructiveness, and I wonder whether we shall not end up as breakfast for newts and polyps, I seem to hear the muffled cries of all the words in all the books with covers closed.
Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.
Although it has been said by men of more wit than wisdom, and perhaps more malice than either, that women are naturally incapable of acting prudently, or that they are necessarily determined to folly, I must by no means grant it.
Come, Friend, you too must die. Why moan about it so? Even Patroclus died, a far, far better man than you. And look, you see how handsome and powerful I am? The son of a great man, the mother who gave me life-- A deathless goddess. But even for me, I tell you, Death and the strong force of fate are waiting. There will come a dawn or sunset or high noon When a man will take my life in battle too-- flinging a spear perhaps Or whipping a deadly arrow off his bow.
But there are not a few who would be indignant at having their belief in God questioned, who yet seem greatly to fear imagining Him better than He is.
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