When released hostage Agam Berger stepped off the helicopter, amid the deafening roar of its blades, she held up a whiteboard bearing a single line from Psalm 119: “I have chosen the way of faith” – derech emunah bacharti.
Recently, a major Haredi political party chose those same words as its central election slogan.
The phrase is far more than a slogan. It expresses something fundamental about Haredi society, that is often missed by those observing it from outside.
Political parties ordinarily build their campaigns around promises, policies, and personalities. In the Haredi world, politics rests upon something deeper and far more enduring: a way of life shaped by faith.
I came to understand the political significance of that difference during my years as chief of staff to the president of Israel. I sat in the most confidential rooms of the President’s Residence as party leaders arrived to recommend whom the president should entrust with forming a government. I watched alliances take shape, promises dissolve, and political calculations change almost overnight.
