Before Johannes Gutenberg’s famous invention, books were rare and precious items. Thus any given synagogue would have no more than a few holiday prayerbooks. Most literate Jews might know the daily liturgy more or less by heart, but the recital of special holiday prayers was solely the province of the cantor. Matt Austerklein, drawing on a 17th-century Yiddish text, explains how this changed:

Whereas only the cantor had access to handwritten prayerbooks in the medieval period, the age of printing now turned everyone into a cantor. Common people could finally read the words (which they could pronounce, but perhaps not understand), and this created a cacophony above which the cantor simply cannot be heard.

This change ultimately subverted the entire purpose of the cantor’s specialization, which is to express the prayers with understanding and devotion, and to relieve others of their obligation to do so. This vocal empowering of the congregation also potentially drove other musical innovations, including an observable increase in volume (particularly in Eastern Europe) and specialized musical forms which could be heard above the din of siddur-carrying Semites.

The former Israeli chief justice Aharon Barak recently warned that the country could be headed toward civil war due to Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to fire the head of the Shin Bet, and the opposition thereto. To Amichai Attali, such comments are both “out of touch with reality” and irresponsible—as are those of Barak’s political opponents:

Yes, there is tension and stress, but there is also the unique Israeli sense of solidarity. Who exactly would fight in this so-called civil war? Try finding a single battalion or military unit willing to go out and kill their own brothers and sisters—you won’t. They don’t exist. About 7 percent of the population represents the extremes of the political spectrum, making the most noise. But if we don’t come to our senses, that number might grow.

And what about you, leader of [the leftwing party] The Democrats and former deputy IDF chief, Yair Golan? You wrote that the soldiers fighting Hamas in Gaza are pawns in Netanyahu’s political survival game. Really? Is that what the tens of thousands of soldiers on the front lines need to hear? Or their mothers back home? Do you honestly believe Netanyahu would sacrifice hostages just to stay in power? Is that what the families of those hostages need right now?

Israeli democracy will not collapse if Netanyahu fires the head of the Shin Bet—so long as it’s done legally. Nor will it fall because demonstrators fill the streets to protest. They are not destroying democracy, nor are they terrorists working for Hamas.