Tikkun Olam – Passover 5786
Jeremy Ben-David, Founder, Managing Partner
On March 1, nearly one month ago, I sent out a brief note to our clients, friends and colleagues around the World, to the effect that service continues uninterrupted, despite the nascent active hostilities with Iran.
Many of you will have seen the heat maps which illustrate the locations in Israel in which rocket and missile fire alerts pierce through the airwaves, giving millions of people 90 seconds to stop whatever they are doing and take shelter until the danger passes.
Beyond the disruption to daily (and nightly) life, and beyond the fact that many of us – all of the JMB team included – are working remotely for the duration – questions that are often asked include “how long will it last?”, “how much longer will we be expected to put up with this?” and questions of that nature.
I would like to pose a slightly different question, namely, beyond the need to survive, what is it all for? In other words, are we fighting these vital wars just so that we can be left alone and have comfortable lives, or is there something more? Having raised the question, I obviously feel that there’s something more.
I’ll explain.
I’ve been in the IP field in Israel now for over 40 years. Yes, I know, longer than it took the Children of Israel to travel from Egypt to the Promised Land, Eretz Yisrael. I’ve had the privilege of having been able to watch close up, many of the high tech developments for which Israel has become famous.
While the very first patent that I worked on, way back when, was connected to irrigation technologies, another very current invention was that of the Arrow missile interceptor system. As a young Patent Attorney, I noted that the invention in one specific patent application, was to fire an outbound missile at an inbound missile so as to detonate it outside the Earth’s atmosphere. It was, of course the sort of thing that science fiction is made of, but nonetheless, as we now know, it was not at all crazy, but an amazing concept that has spawned many such systems and has saved many lives, including in the current conflict.
In the decades that have since elapsed, we have seen how Israeli technologies have played such a major part in improving the World in which we live. A short list would include drip irrigation (Simcha Blass, Netafim), USB Flash Drive (Dov Moran, M-Systems), Waze, Mobileye, PillCam (Given Imaging), Firewall (Check Point), Intel 8088 Processor (and subsequent generations), ReWalk (exoskeleton for the human body), WaterGen (extracts drinking water from ambient air).
The above sample list, among hundreds and probably thousands of Israeli startup companies that have contributed and will continue to contribute to the well being of the World, can be encapsulated in two Words: Tikkun Olam. This is an ancient Hebrew phrase meaning “repairing the World”; essentially a concept which means that we all have an obligation to use our abilities to set the World right. Based on the idea that all human beings are created equal and each has freedom of choice, Tikkun Olam is a universal goal that ensures that all have food and other security to fulfill their potential in making the right choices for the benefit of humanity. And while everyone benefits, no one is exempt from making his or her contribution.
Last year, during the second year of the ongoing state of war in which Israel has been since the invasion by Hamas on October 7, 2023, investments in hi-tech recovered strongly, M&A deals and exits reached record levels; and both the Tel Aviv stock exchange and hi-tech exports reached record highs.
The Israeli economy grew in both size and resilience, despite both the direct economic cost of the war and the cost in manpower, in which hundreds of thousands of reserve soldiers in this small country of 10 million, were called up for extended service. Many new medical breakthroughs were announced, and the above referenced M&A deals and exits had the effect of exposing greater swathes of the population of the World to innovations born in Israel.
While Jewish innovators and thinkers have been known throughout the ages, from my own perspective, one of the major accomplishments that we, the Jewish People have attained since the restoration of our nationhood 78 years ago, has been our ability to contribute to the rest of the world as a nation, not simply as a collection of individuals.
Jewish People throughout the World, are about to greet the seven day holiday od “Pesach”, known also as “Passover”. The first evening “leil haseder” meal, spent around the dining table with family and friends, marks the Exodus from Egypt, 3,338 years ago as per Jewish tradition.
While this event specifically marked the birth of Israel as a nation, it has inspired many groups striving for freedom, possibly the best known of which was the Civil Rights movement in the United States. Its message is as powerful as ever, and surely resonates strongly with the current protest movement in Iran, as well as with many disenchanted populations around the World.
At this time, we at JMB wish our friends, colleagues and clients, wherever they may be a meaningful and happy spring, and as inscribed on the Liberty Bell, may the imperative "Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof" (Vayikra, 25:10) be realized by all.
