David Encaoua · September 2024 · Times of Israël — David Encaoua's Blog
The tension between universalism and particularism is constitutive of Judaism. Abraham is called to be a blessing for all the families of the earth — universalism. The Jewish people is chosen, set apart, particular — particularism.
Zionism inherits this tension. How can one build a particular state — Jewish in its definition — that is also universal in its democratic values? Israel's Declaration of Independence of 1948 attempts to resolve this tension. It does so with a remarkable elegance, which we would be wrong not to reread today.
The Sephardic tradition represented by the Encaoua lineage brings an original perspective to this debate. Having lived for centuries in Muslim and Berber societies, the Jews of the Maghreb developed a particular capacity to articulate Jewish identity and openness to the other.
Rabbi Éphraïm Aln'Kaoua, in his Chaar Kavod Hashem, cites Aristotle and Al-Farabi as much as Maimonides. This open culture, at once deeply rooted and curious about the universal, is perhaps the most precious contribution of the Sephardic tradition to the contemporary Zionist debate.