Hello Friends,
A warm welcome to our new readers and subscribers. Thank you for joining the journey.
This past week, back in the West Bank with Rabbis for Human Rights, I came face to face with young and violent Jewish settlers who wanted to harm me and my friends for standing in solidarity with Palestinian farmers.
The hate in their eyes, the curses uses against us, the refusal to engage - were heartbreaking.
I kept telling myself - one of these brainwashed kids could be a second cousin. Like it or not - these are my brothers.
And on some level so are the Palestinians whose village we came to protect.
We are all Abraham’s children, and our fates are interwoven in this ancient and dangerous family feud.
And family feuds like this one are not a new story.
It’s practically how the Bible begins.
(And have you watched The Odyssey yet??)
When it comes to kin, far and near, small tensions easily erupt into outright war.
The Hebrew term for “Civil War”—both in ancient history and in today’s anxious dread of growing schism—is Milchemet Achim. Literally: “War Between Brothers.”
Fighting is a skill humanity perfected long ago (as Priya Parker explores in her profound newest book, The Art of Fighting).
But learning how we navigate, investigate and repair those frictions is what actually matters most.
That is the core of our year-long exploration in Judaism Born Divided: examining the ancestral fault lines that continue to fracture our modern Jewish world, and seeking real strategies to heal across our deepest divides—especially when those divides sit right at our family tables.
In today’s post, in preparation for our next LIVE Learning session on 8/30 (you are all invited - for free), we revisit two biblical kings who chose to fix teh family, to pause decades of bloodshed, shake hands, and test a radical possibility for coexistence.
This ancient truce holds vital wisdom and hope for our own fractured present.
One of the two kings is also one of the most loathed biblical sovereigns and the only one important enough to be mentioned by other historical records of his day.
What do we really know about King Ahab of Israel?
Here’s a teaser:
In the 9th century BCE—less than a century after Solomon’s kingdom fractured into Israel in the north and Judah in the south—King Ahab and King Jehoshaphat attempted an audacious experiment.
Rather than succumbing to endless civil war, these two opposing monarchs turned to the oldest technology we have: kinship.
Though not related by blood, when Jehoshaphat pledged to stand alongside Ahab, he spoke in the intimate, shared language of heritage:
“I am as you are, my people as your people.”
(1 Kings 22:4)
They then sealed this alliance through marriage, uniting Prince Jehoram of Judah with Princess Athaliah of Israel—binding the Davidic and Omride houses together.
What makes this union so extraordinary—and so urgent for us today—is the sheer magnitude of their ideological differences. Ahab’s northern court, influenced by Queen Jezebel, embraced pluralistic Phoenician Baal worship. Jehoshaphat’s southern court remained strictly devoted to Yahweh. Their visions of God, governance, and culture were worlds apart.
Yet, for a brief moment, they declared that brotherhood could hold ideological complexity. They chose a framework of shared identity over mutual destruction.
Which brings us to the raw, uncomfortable question driving our contemporary crisis:
How far can we go when we say “family”?
When we invoke kinship across today’s political, religious, and moral chasms, is “family” an elastic vessel capable of holding radically different truths—or does it risk becoming a dangerous compromise that erases our core principles?
Can family feuds become family reunions?
Curious? Here are three ways to delve deeper:
🚩 Read: “He is My Brother” a post about Ahab’s peace project from the Below the Bible Belt Archives.
"He is My Brother"
🚩 EXPLORE the word ‘Family’ in today’s Word Watch blog - part of the Lab/Shul community’s 40 days virtual Prepent journey into the new year.
Word Watch - Prepent Blog 2026
🚩 JOIN OUR NEXT ZOOM SESSION on 8/30/26, 2pm ET
This LIVE LEARNING session welcomes ALL Subscribers - as one way of thanking you, fellow learners and supporters, for enabling me to delve into this research, and deliver this blog series.
It’s a gift ahead of the new Jewish Year.
Queen Jezebel & the Prophet Elijah: Sex, Power, and North/South Spin
The most maligned queen and most misunderstood prophet were not friendly. But did they share similar passions and goals?
Jezebel and Elijah face off as embodiments of northern pluralism vs. Judahite zeal. Reading through this tragic tale that spans generations, we unpack how gender, foreignness, and religious difference get weaponized—and how Jezebel’s “bad press” reveals whose side has been telling Judaism’s story.
SAVE THE ZOOM LINK:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89101478172?jst=2
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Can’t join on August 30th and want to watch the session?
No problem.
You’ll all get the recording and resources within the week of each LIVE LEARNING session.
More info on the rest of the course:
Judaism: Born Divided Landing Page
Wishing us all healing and consolation, a return to center, ahead of the new year.
Shabbat of Peace שלום سلام
Amichai