Knesset Speaker's Welcome

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Knesset Speaker's Welcome

On March 30, 2009, MK Reuven (Ruby) Rivlin was elected by the Eighteenth Knesset to serve as its speaker. He had also served as the Knesset Speaker of the Sixteenth Knesset. The following is his acceptance speech following his election on that day:

"I shall put my hope in the Lord, I shall beseech his countenance, I shall request from him eloquent speech… It is up to man to organize his feelings, but eloquent speech comes from God… May the articulations of my mouth and the reflections of my heart find favor before you, God, my rock and my redeemer" (from the Rosh Hashana Mussaf prayer).

Mr. Prime Minister, Head of the Opposition and designated Prime Minister, my fellow Speaker of the Seventeenth Knesset, present and future ministers, members of the Eighteenth Knesset, and distinguished guests. Six years ago I had gained your trust for the first time, when you elected me to serve as speaker of the Sixteenth Knesset. I have returned to the words I have said on that occasion, with great, true excitement and with awe. I have returned to the hope, to the prayer I carried that no harm shall come through me, to the saying that Knesset is like a glass house, that its occupants are standing each and every day before the judging eyes of the public, to the call for a distinguished and respectable, yet strong dialogue with the judicial system, and to the words of Ze'ev Jabotinsky in his article "On Majoritization," that "It should always be taken care that the minority will feel that the home is being shared, that it is its own home too, and not a fort of its enemies."

And I have returned, my fellows, to the awful days of summer 2005, when I thought that the circumstances required me to express, in this place and from this place, the ache of the tear, despite my position and possibly because of it, when in my ears I had heard the warning and oath of Menahem Begin, from the days that this land was threatened by a civil war, and my conscience required me to do all that I could so that the situation will not come to that.

I believed then, as I believe with all my heart to this day, that when I come and accept from you, with great awe, this trust – the trust of sitting at the head of this house – that the Knesset is not only a ceremonial stage, but it is an arena for arguments and decisiveness.

The Mishna, Tractate Tamid, tells us that the priests did not clear away the ashes from the altar in the Temple during the pilgrimage holidays, for the ashes served as ornamentation for the altar. In other words, specifically at that time when the hordes of people would make their way to Jerusalem and bring their sacrifices, when substantial piles of ash - black and dirty - would accumulate on the altar, it was all left there to symbolize the whole essence of the altar, the unifying purpose of the pilgrimage holiday, and the essence of the Temple in its entirety.

Indeed, I believed six years ago, as I believe today, that the differences of opinion, fierce arguments, and even the cries of despair and frustration made by the minority - these are all good for this arena, this plenum, and are more beneficial to this Knesset than precious stones.

I believe that we were not elected to stand as extras, but to take an active and central part in the act of democracy. What is the act of democracy? What is the essence of our sitting here? The Talmud (Berachot 4) talks about the verse in Psalms (86;2) that says "Protect my soul for I am devout": "So said David before God: God, am I not a follower? For all the kings in the east and the west are sitting honorably amongst themselves, and I, my hands are covered with blood, amnion and placenta so that I could determine the status of purity between husband and wife."

Well, my fellow Members of the Knesset, we were not elected to be sitting amongst ourselves praising our honor; we were elected to get our hands dirty with the troubles, difficulties, cries and pains of the public that sent us. It may not always be aesthetic nor pleasant, and some may not find it nationally reverential, but it is the truth. This house is the house of the people, not of the people's representatives, and if this glorious house will not have the voice of the people heard in it, what is it good for? What good do we have in our spacious halls – is it only to show our wealth and glory? This house is aimed at hard work and for representatives who do not forget their electors and mission for a single moment.

If it shall be our aspiration, as previous Knessets aspired, than we will return this house to the glory it had in the past. We will then return this house to its stability and power in the eyes of the people; we will return to become the people's representatives, worthy for making decisions of great importance to the people and to the state.

With your permission, my fellow Members of the Knesset, I would like to thank on my and your behalf my friend, Speaker of the Seventeenth Knesset, MK Dalia Itzik, who succeeded in glorifying the Knesset as the house of democracy it is worthy to be. With great dignity, she lifted the Knesset before the eyes of the people and restored it to its old days.

Special thanks goes to our special friend MK Michael Eitan, who in the past six weeks managed the Knesset's work. He had proven to us that we still have amongst us capable and outstanding parliamentarians and we take pride in that.

I shall end with a prayer that is said during Mussaf of Rosh Hashanah:

"Our God and God of our forefathers, be with the mouths of the envoys of your nation Israel... Teach them what to say, make them understand how to speak, respond to what they request, inform them how to glorify,… that they may not blunder through their tongues, nor be stricken in their iterations, nor be embarrassed by those who rely on them, may they not be shamed by those who rely on them and may their congregation not be disgraced by them, and may their mouths not say anything not according to Your will," and so, may it be Your will.