In 1992, Israel legislated “to establish in a basic law the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state”—without suggesting what that Jewish content ought to be. Having revived Hebrew as a spoken language after 2,000 years of dormancy, it is time for Zionism to draw deeply from its Jewish sources.

One core narrative of the Jewish People is the biblical Exodus from Egypt. In the opening chapter of the book of Exodus, the midwives and birthing mothers are torn between the obligation to submit to the authority of Pharaoh —who commands them to kill all Hebrew male babies—and their commitment to enable life and creation. At that moment, the Exodus women activate their moral outrage and conceive liberation from oppression. Their bold rebellion seeds the ensuing redemption that sustains Jewish hope through thousands of years. Passover has been among the most celebrated traditions of Jewish families. Nurtured on the messages of social justice and freedom, Jews have contributed to the struggles of many oppressed groups, and ultimately waged our own —Zionism. Exodus sets out an unrelenting trajectory toward the homeland. The establishment of Israel, the airlift of far-flung Jewish communities in danger, and the opening of the former Soviet bloc all refer to the Exodus ideals.

Up until and including the Six Day War in 1967, Israel was a  favored protagonist in a modern Exodus drama. From the 1970s onward, Israel’s detractors inverted the Exodus script. Since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel has come to be viewed as a colonial power, preventing the Palestinians from achieving the self-determination that Israel enjoys. Casting the Jewish People in the Pharaoh role confounds Jewish consciousness. Once a youthful and bold adventurer, Israel has reached middle age and appears to many to have become part of a sordid and commandeering “establishment.” Yet, even as the image of the ruthless Israeli military machine projects throughout the global media, Israelis feel little of the control and security that would accompany such strength. Particularly during the sequential Palestinian uprisings, the wars in Lebanon, ongoing terror attacks, and the threats of a massively hostile region, the sense of danger and injury to the Jewish body persists. Violence and occupation discombobulate the joyous sense of achieving the long-desired return to Zion. There is profound dissonance between external perceptions of Israel as “oppressor” and Israelis’ self-perception as “oppressed.”

The establishment of Israel creates another Exodus inversion. From our earliest ancestors, Jews are rebels. Beginning with the midrash that tells of Avraham breaking the idols in his father ’s shop, iconoclasm is a feature of Jewish identity. In Egypt, the midwives disobey on the grounds of their conviction that divine authority prevails over earthly authority. Israel creates a new framework that obligates Jews to the state as members of the ruling political culture. Instead of struggling for freedom from authority, from the state, the struggle is to express Jewish yearning and freedom within and through the instruments of a modern and fiercely democratic state. Many immigrants arrive without initiation into fundaments of Israeli society —political accountability, due civic and legal process, open, tolerant and critical civil society, and entrepreneurialism.

The Exodus is not a linear story, but an aspiration toward continuously renewing liberation. Liberation is not only a struggle against the Other, but also a subversion of all oppressions. How can Israel fulfill Jewish destiny while embracing peaceful coexistence and ever-refining ethical conduct? How do we enact the sanctity of space and land without capitulating to the machismo of territorialism that fuels conquest, conflict, and draws blood? How can we further welcome the leadership of girls and women in all aspects of the Jewish public, sacred and secular? How will we liberate ourselves from our ethnocentrism? These are Exodus challenges that beckon the Jewish People to move beyond fear.

The attainment of the land summons Zionism to continue with the complex labors of liberation and not to desist from creation. The State of Israel signals not only change from oppressed to empowered, from rebel to citizen; Israel is at once a conscionable member of the global ruling establishment, and at the same time a delicate and vulnerable experiment.

In the land, we need the vigor of liberation more than ever. Now that we, the Jewish People, are the authors of our narrative, our call is no longer “Let my People go.” We exhort ourselves and each other, “Let us be a liberating People.”