There seem to be two distinct traditions in Judaism as there
are in many ancient traditions: the esoteric and the exoteric.
The traditions, among Jews, can be called the Karl Marx and the Sandy Weill strains. Karl Marx is the esoteric, the one that sees evil as the world of commerce we live in and dreams of a perfect Messianic age (disclaimer: Karl Marx’s aunt was married to my ancestor, a Phillips who was the grandfather of the Dutch Phillips Electronics company.) Sandy Weill comes from the tradition that sees evil as incomprehensible and strives to live life in the world of commerce, fully and intensely. Weill created CitiCorp, the first truly global financial giant. He did it through sheer personal drive and business genius.
Today the two strains are struggling in the secular world of
Jews. Israel is coming to recognize the
incomprehensible evil of the Palestinians and the need to build a great wall of
separation. Most Israelis now fall into
this exoteric camp and are struggling to change the Israeli government, to
appreciate
commerce, and remove the Karl Marx strains of esoteric anti-commerce
ideology.
There are opponents in Israel who still cling to anti-commercial Marxism as do the majority of American Jews, the Jews who equate Judaism and Marxism (read Lefty Fundamentalism.) The exoteric Jewish business community of America is still the minority but that is changing.