The Ashkenazi Revolution

45sorrow, over the death of an important leader, and in its place was wild joyover the opportunity that was given them to destroy their enemy. Politicalinterests and moral soul searching were mixed and confused in a dangerousmanner. Just as in the days of the destruction of the Tribe of Benjamin,hysterical pseudo-religious people and self-righteous propagandists, whodrew from the New Hebrew Literature, stood at the gates of the Labormovement. Something even worse than the tragedy that befell the Tribe ofBenjamin was about to happen. Then, in those distant days, a crime wascommitted in Gibeah, but the punishment was too severe. However, in theyear 1933, they were about to destroy a tribe not because of a crime butbecause of an accusation without foundation… and also this time, as in thedays of the concubine in Gibeah, it was the hysterical pseudo-religiouspeople who were the source of the threatening tragedy. Only theinvolvement of the faithful who held their ground - among whom weshould give honorable mention to Rabbi Nathan Milikovsky and Ben SiyonKatz of blessed memory - prevented a great tragedy.9The battle between the Tribe of Judah and the Tribe of Benjamin continuedeven after the wholesale murder that was perpetrated upon the children ofBenjamin. The great killings awakened, in the hearts of the other tribes,feelings of awe and fear toward Judah, lest other tribes suffer the fate ofBenjamin. The decision of Samuel the prophet to coronate, over all thetribes of Israel, specifically Saul – a man of Benjamin – was perhapsmotivated partly by the reasoning that this king, a member of the strickentribe, would not be able to tyrannize as much as candidates from othertribes. But the battle between Judah and Benjamin continued even in thedays of David, as Abner Ben Ner represents the interests of Benjamin andthe sons of Zeruiah the interests of Judah. The killing of Abner was a fatalblow to the hopes of Benjamin, and the last attempt by this tribe to returnitself to its status is linked to the rebellion of Sheva Ben Bichri, a man ofBenjamin. Solomon took a series of steps to mitigate the tension and tostrengthen the kingdom - because he understood the delegations and thebuilt-in weakness of David’s empire, and he knew the how angry the other