Last Night, I participated in a Tiqqun Layl Hoshana Rabbah that was sponsored, inter alia, by Ma'ale and Bar Ilan's Makhon Ha-Gavoha le-Torah and held at Hekhal Shlomo. My topic was: A Vision for Our Times: Rav Soloveitchik on Zionism, Torah and the Redemption of Man's Soul (in Hebrew). I was gratified that over 250 people attended the session, which went from Midnight to 1AM. I am sure that most of the people there had never been exposed to the Rav's thinking on the relationship between Law and Spirituality and the place of a broad education in that context. Given the audience, using על אהבת התורה וגאולת נפש הדור as my text, I made a point of highlighting the problems that inhere both in religious subjectivism and in pan-Halakhism. (Unfortunately, I never got to Zionism. Maybe, next time.)
The leitmotif of the talk was the Rav's assertion that Judaism does not accept the Law of the Excluded Middle. We live our lives as Jews on a spectrum that vacillates between obedience and surrender, and individual striving and spirituo-intellectual self-realization and self-expression. There is no necessary resolution to the dynamic tension between these two poles. On the contrary, it allows us to best develop ourselves as servants of God and as those created in Imago Dei. There are no instant resolutions, and it's time we gave up waiting for them.
In a shiur he gave on Erev Hoshanah Rabbah in 1969, the Rav noted that it is highly significant that the aravot with which the Temple altar was circled were then set up around the altar, and the people would exclaim(Sukkah 45a): Yofi lekha Mizbe'ah! You are beautiful, O Altar! The Rav observed that the emphasis on the altar is indicative of the sacrificial nature of Jewish existence, of the struggle to offer our lives and desires to Him, and to thereby realize ourselves most fully.
I expanded upon this by saying that the aravot are placed upright around the altar. Each stands on its own. However, it also bends over toward the altar. Thus, each individual must strive to develop his own individual relationship with God, striving to climb ever higher. At the same time, however, he must be ready to surrender to God, to admit the limits of his ability and comprehension. The dialectical movement of individual striving and acceptance of God's ultimate Truth, even if we do not understand that Truth, is at the heart of Judaism's inner beauty.
יופי לך מזבח!
Gut Kvitl! פתקא טבא.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Qohelet for Our Times
Ben Chorin, in his inimitable style, has issued a clarion warning as to the possible outcome of the present situation in Eretz Yisrael. Briefly stated, the fading Ashkenazic, Leftist elite is bent on Jewish and National self-destruction; ready and willing to sacrifice us all on the Moloch of their Peace fantasies. [How ironic that so many of us who want to be here have what these people want most? An American Passport.]
I share his angst. No matter what we seem to do; no matter how much we protest or vote, we can't seem to rid ourselves of this group of people who have a lock on academia, the media and the courts. They corrupt the democratic process. They have created an Orwellian world of disinformation, where Jews and Judaism, or Israel's very right to exist have a place. The public discourse is awash with self-incrimination and, yes, out and out antisemitism, masquerading as sophistication.
As we read last Shabbat, הבל הבלים אמר קוהלת הבל הבלים הכל הבל.
הבל, which is usually translated as vanity, really means something lacking in substance. The trouble is that הבל can appear quite real. It sucks you in and corrupts you. As the prophet Jeremiah observed (2, 5): 'Thus says the Lord: What wrong have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone so far from Me, and have followed הבל, and became הבל themselves?'
So it is with the arrogant intellectual and cultural narcissism of Israel's so-called leaders and elite. They follow הבל. They have become totally insubstantial. When the first wind comes, they buckle under and run. How very pathetic. How very tragic. How very deadly.
I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet. Like most people I know, who acknowledge the existence and power of God, I believe that He will show us the way to survive and to thrive in His Land. History, God's record of running the world, bears out this belief. No one, after all, ever thought that the great and powerful Soviet Union, the 'Evil Empire', would fall and that millions of Russian Jews would come to live here (or seek out their Yiddishkeit there). Who is A. B. Yehoshua and Gidon Levy, compared to Mikhail Suslov? Who is Ehud Olmert, or Tzippi Spitzer, compared to
Leonid Brezhnev? If the latter have been reduced to a footnote, so will the former.
סוֹף דָּבָר הַכֹּל נִשְׁמָע אֶת הָאֱלֹהִים יְרָא וְאֶת מִצְוֹתָיו שְׁמוֹר כִּי זֶה כָּל הָאָדָם:The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear G-d, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole man. (Eccles. 12, 13)
A Gut Kvittel!
I share his angst. No matter what we seem to do; no matter how much we protest or vote, we can't seem to rid ourselves of this group of people who have a lock on academia, the media and the courts. They corrupt the democratic process. They have created an Orwellian world of disinformation, where Jews and Judaism, or Israel's very right to exist have a place. The public discourse is awash with self-incrimination and, yes, out and out antisemitism, masquerading as sophistication.
As we read last Shabbat, הבל הבלים אמר קוהלת הבל הבלים הכל הבל.
הבל, which is usually translated as vanity, really means something lacking in substance. The trouble is that הבל can appear quite real. It sucks you in and corrupts you. As the prophet Jeremiah observed (2, 5): 'Thus says the Lord: What wrong have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone so far from Me, and have followed הבל, and became הבל themselves?'
So it is with the arrogant intellectual and cultural narcissism of Israel's so-called leaders and elite. They follow הבל. They have become totally insubstantial. When the first wind comes, they buckle under and run. How very pathetic. How very tragic. How very deadly.
I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet. Like most people I know, who acknowledge the existence and power of God, I believe that He will show us the way to survive and to thrive in His Land. History, God's record of running the world, bears out this belief. No one, after all, ever thought that the great and powerful Soviet Union, the 'Evil Empire', would fall and that millions of Russian Jews would come to live here (or seek out their Yiddishkeit there). Who is A. B. Yehoshua and Gidon Levy, compared to Mikhail Suslov? Who is Ehud Olmert, or Tzippi Spitzer, compared to
Leonid Brezhnev? If the latter have been reduced to a footnote, so will the former.
Meanwhile,
סוֹף דָּבָר הַכֹּל נִשְׁמָע אֶת הָאֱלֹהִים יְרָא וְאֶת מִצְוֹתָיו שְׁמוֹר כִּי זֶה כָּל הָאָדָם:
A Gut Kvittel!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
An Agenda for Tzohar
Rabbi Elli Fischer, who I don't know but whose writing I've often admired, has thrown down the gauntlet at Tzohar. Basically, he sees them as well-intentioned but lacking both the guts and the vision to do what needs to be done in re-forming a/the rabbinate. Most of what he says has merit. One paragraph, though, was particularly jarring. Fischer writes:
Ultimately, they suffer from no small amount of hubris; they feel that they have a better finger on the pulse of ‘the people’ than today’s local official rabbis. Indeed, there are segments of the population – the urban Religious-Zionists and religious kibbutzniks, for example, and perhaps even the pro-Jewish but anti-religious cosmopolitan secular Ashkenazim- that they understand better than today’s empowered rabbis. ‘The people’ also live in Afula, though, not just Ra’anana.
To begin with, any and all would-be reformers require a heavy dose of hubris. To think otherwise would be naive. Indeed, Hazal were more than willing to countenance a positive self-image in the advancement of Torah.
I don't think that's the issue. I fear that Rabbi Fischer is accusing Tzohar of racism, anti-Sephardic, paternalist racism. Otherwise, what does he mean by contrasting the well-heeled of Ra'anana with the downtrodden of Afula?
This is a cheap shot, unworthy of its source. True, Tzohar derives much of its support from Ashkenazim, and especially westernized Israelis. However, it is specifically the sympathy that it elicits among this popoulation that will facilitate the success of its efforts. However, it is unfair to ignore the important impact that Tzohar has had among non-Ashkenazi Jews, helping to staunch the secularization that has been spreading there among.
Besides, this is not about Tzohar. this is about cleaning the Augean Stables of religion in Israel. Many, many rabbis (who, like myself, are not members of Tzohar) will hopefully join together to support their efforts. Our community has produced more than enough talented, God-fearing rabbanim and dayyanim to man alternative rabbinic structures, which can be made largely venality-free. (There are no total guarantees.)
The real challenge lies in simultaneously creating a community/shul rabbinate that will serve the people while not being dependent thereupon financially. (Here, I agree with Fischer.) That means: a) Mandatory general education for rabbis b) Mandatory pastoral training c) Mandatory management training.
A two pronged effort to create a rabbinic network and a parallel rabbinate for kashrut would go a long way to saving this country's soul. Yes, there are dangers (like Reform and Conservative tremping). However, the alternative is worse.
So, if Rabbi Fischer has ideas, let him please spell them out...without the nasty edge.
Ultimately, they suffer from no small amount of hubris; they feel that they have a better finger on the pulse of ‘the people’ than today’s local official rabbis. Indeed, there are segments of the population – the urban Religious-Zionists and religious kibbutzniks, for example, and perhaps even the pro-Jewish but anti-religious cosmopolitan secular Ashkenazim- that they understand better than today’s empowered rabbis. ‘The people’ also live in Afula, though, not just Ra’anana.
To begin with, any and all would-be reformers require a heavy dose of hubris. To think otherwise would be naive. Indeed, Hazal were more than willing to countenance a positive self-image in the advancement of Torah.
I don't think that's the issue. I fear that Rabbi Fischer is accusing Tzohar of racism, anti-Sephardic, paternalist racism. Otherwise, what does he mean by contrasting the well-heeled of Ra'anana with the downtrodden of Afula?
This is a cheap shot, unworthy of its source. True, Tzohar derives much of its support from Ashkenazim, and especially westernized Israelis. However, it is specifically the sympathy that it elicits among this popoulation that will facilitate the success of its efforts. However, it is unfair to ignore the important impact that Tzohar has had among non-Ashkenazi Jews, helping to staunch the secularization that has been spreading there among.
Besides, this is not about Tzohar. this is about cleaning the Augean Stables of religion in Israel. Many, many rabbis (who, like myself, are not members of Tzohar) will hopefully join together to support their efforts. Our community has produced more than enough talented, God-fearing rabbanim and dayyanim to man alternative rabbinic structures, which can be made largely venality-free. (There are no total guarantees.)
The real challenge lies in simultaneously creating a community/shul rabbinate that will serve the people while not being dependent thereupon financially. (Here, I agree with Fischer.) That means: a) Mandatory general education for rabbis b) Mandatory pastoral training c) Mandatory management training.
A two pronged effort to create a rabbinic network and a parallel rabbinate for kashrut would go a long way to saving this country's soul. Yes, there are dangers (like Reform and Conservative tremping). However, the alternative is worse.
So, if Rabbi Fischer has ideas, let him please spell them out...without the nasty edge.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Mi La-Shem...La-Tzohar
The Rabbis of Tzohar have announced the creation of an alternative kashrut framework, in the wake of the impossible situation set up by the present denizens of the Rabbanut and their handlers.
I unequivocally applaud the initiative by Tzohar.
1) No one has ever said that one MUST use the Heter Mekhira. If one wishes to use Otzar Bes Din or buy Arab produce, that is his right. Indeed, I strongly encourage anyone seeking a higher level of observance (though, on principle, I refuse to subject Jews to bankruptcy buying from Palestinians - whose money funds the murder of other Jews. My late, beloved friend, Rabbi Dr. David Ha-Levi Applebaum, HT'D, did not rely on the Heter Mekhira, and bought all of his vegetables from areas outside the area held by Olei Bavel. After Zman ha-Bi'ur he told me with a smile that he can live without tomatoes. Buying from Sonei Yisroel, however, was out of the question).
However, as Reb Yisroel Salanter once said, no one has a right to do mitzvos 'oyf yenems playtzes.' The Haredim have no right to impose their view on the entire Jewish population, and try to bring the Israeli economy to its knees. Never mind the outrageous and incalculably horrible Hillul HaShem that the rabbinate and its Haredi handlers are causing; just as the rest of the Jews in this country want to be more Jewish. The Heter Mekhira, especially the way it is presently implemented, is absolutely valid. [Though, once the majority of the Jewish People live here (in a decade or less), all bets will be off.] Therefore, הנח להם לישראל. אם אינם נביאים בני נביאים הם
2) The RZ rabbanim of Tzohar are, overwhelmingly, Rashe Yeshiva and Rabbanim with impeccable credentials in learning, psak and (more importantly) Yiras Shamayim. The canard that they are somehow not up to snuff reminds me of the same type of idiocy that was directed at RY at RIETS. (Indeed, a very prominent member of the Rabbanut recently offered that it is absolutely impossible that there are Gedole Torah in America. When the name of mori ve-rabbi Rav Schechter was raised he begrudgingly was willing to give him a 'maybe.')
Et La-Asot La_shem, Qiyyemu at Toratekha...
(The above is an edited version of a comment posted at Hirhurim.)
I unequivocally applaud the initiative by Tzohar.
1) No one has ever said that one MUST use the Heter Mekhira. If one wishes to use Otzar Bes Din or buy Arab produce, that is his right. Indeed, I strongly encourage anyone seeking a higher level of observance (though, on principle, I refuse to subject Jews to bankruptcy buying from Palestinians - whose money funds the murder of other Jews. My late, beloved friend, Rabbi Dr. David Ha-Levi Applebaum, HT'D, did not rely on the Heter Mekhira, and bought all of his vegetables from areas outside the area held by Olei Bavel. After Zman ha-Bi'ur he told me with a smile that he can live without tomatoes. Buying from Sonei Yisroel, however, was out of the question).
However, as Reb Yisroel Salanter once said, no one has a right to do mitzvos 'oyf yenems playtzes.' The Haredim have no right to impose their view on the entire Jewish population, and try to bring the Israeli economy to its knees. Never mind the outrageous and incalculably horrible Hillul HaShem that the rabbinate and its Haredi handlers are causing; just as the rest of the Jews in this country want to be more Jewish. The Heter Mekhira, especially the way it is presently implemented, is absolutely valid. [Though, once the majority of the Jewish People live here (in a decade or less), all bets will be off.] Therefore, הנח להם לישראל. אם אינם נביאים בני נביאים הם
2) The RZ rabbanim of Tzohar are, overwhelmingly, Rashe Yeshiva and Rabbanim with impeccable credentials in learning, psak and (more importantly) Yiras Shamayim. The canard that they are somehow not up to snuff reminds me of the same type of idiocy that was directed at RY at RIETS. (Indeed, a very prominent member of the Rabbanut recently offered that it is absolutely impossible that there are Gedole Torah in America. When the name of mori ve-rabbi Rav Schechter was raised he begrudgingly was willing to give him a 'maybe.')
Et La-Asot La_shem, Qiyyemu at Toratekha...
(The above is an edited version of a comment posted at Hirhurim.)
Sunday, September 23, 2007
After Yom Kippur
A quick glance at my dates and my sitemeter tells me that it's been too long since I posted. So much to write and so little time....
In the interim, as I collect my thoughts, I want to send everyone to a very insightful posting at QED, about a long lost (and sore needed) rabbinic voice: Rav Shlomo Goren זצ"ל. Too many people think of him in political terms, unaware that he was a great Talmid Hakham, who possessed a quality unknown in the contemporary rabbinate: Fearless Courage.
Absolutely Required Reading.
In the interim, as I collect my thoughts, I want to send everyone to a very insightful posting at QED, about a long lost (and sore needed) rabbinic voice: Rav Shlomo Goren זצ"ל. Too many people think of him in political terms, unaware that he was a great Talmid Hakham, who possessed a quality unknown in the contemporary rabbinate: Fearless Courage.
Absolutely Required Reading.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
On the Cusp of 5768
In just a couple of hours we will intone the perennial wish:
תכל שנה וקללותיה, תחל שנה וברכותיה.
Oh God, let the year and its curses end. Let the New Year and its blessings commence.
I feel a bit mixed about the sentiment, because there is a lot that happened this year for which I have to thank God. Everyone is healthy, and home for the Hagim. I got tenure, was picked for a lot of really great projects and my book is steaming along. My wife was graduated from Beit Berl and is working as an Art Therapist. Number one son finished his BA and is finishing his MA proposal. Number two son finished Hesder and the army. Daughter Number 1 is starting universitt. Daughter number two is doing wonderfully in High School. Daughter number three went into fourth grade and gets up early so as not to be late for school. Barukh HaShem!
Nationally, though, next year lookks more ominous than this past one. Olmert is running a liquidation sale, and both God's house and (le-havdil) my house may be on the block as he does everything to stay out of jail, and the all-knowing Left cheers the sounds of self-destruction. The Bet haVaad is a Bet Zenut (M. Sotah, end). The Syrians may have nuclear missiles and there are Neo-Nazis in the Shfelah. And what is our biggest problem?Shemittah.
And yet, Rosh Hashanah brings comfort. It is, as we know, the day of God's coronation. He is the King. He is the Judge. He decides. Ultimately, the sense of helplessness we feel about the world around us, brings us back to that fact. Modern man, as the Rav zt'l said, confuses 'What' with 'Why'. We know how things work. We don't know why, and Science can't tell us. Only God can, because only He knows.
So, at the end of the day, as we crown our King tonite and for the next two days, המלך הקדוש, it's a reaffirmation of our utter dependence upon Him, and Him alone.
תכל שנה וקללותיה, תחל שנה וברכותיה.
Oh God, let the year and its curses end. Let the New Year and its blessings commence.
I feel a bit mixed about the sentiment, because there is a lot that happened this year for which I have to thank God. Everyone is healthy, and home for the Hagim. I got tenure, was picked for a lot of really great projects and my book is steaming along. My wife was graduated from Beit Berl and is working as an Art Therapist. Number one son finished his BA and is finishing his MA proposal. Number two son finished Hesder and the army. Daughter Number 1 is starting universitt. Daughter number two is doing wonderfully in High School. Daughter number three went into fourth grade and gets up early so as not to be late for school. Barukh HaShem!
Nationally, though, next year lookks more ominous than this past one. Olmert is running a liquidation sale, and both God's house and (le-havdil) my house may be on the block as he does everything to stay out of jail, and the all-knowing Left cheers the sounds of self-destruction. The Bet haVaad is a Bet Zenut (M. Sotah, end). The Syrians may have nuclear missiles and there are Neo-Nazis in the Shfelah. And what is our biggest problem?Shemittah.
And yet, Rosh Hashanah brings comfort. It is, as we know, the day of God's coronation. He is the King. He is the Judge. He decides. Ultimately, the sense of helplessness we feel about the world around us, brings us back to that fact. Modern man, as the Rav zt'l said, confuses 'What' with 'Why'. We know how things work. We don't know why, and Science can't tell us. Only God can, because only He knows.
So, at the end of the day, as we crown our King tonite and for the next two days, המלך הקדוש, it's a reaffirmation of our utter dependence upon Him, and Him alone.
אנו לי-ה ועינינו לי-ה.
והיה ד' למלך על כל הארץ ביום ההוא יהיה ד' אחד ושמו אחד.
כתיבה וחתימה טובה לכל בית ישראל.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Told You so...
As a number of readers have pointed out, the ever reliable Pavlovian pit bull of the Haredi world, Jonathan Rosenblum, has published an attack on Modern Orthodoxy using Noah Feldman as his point of departure. I have already written my response, here.
No, as a few asked, I am not a prophet. As I sit here in St Petersburg, where Dr. Pavlov did his pioneering work, I can say with full confidence that it was expected. Feldman rang the bell and Rosenblum barked.
Quod erat demonstrandum.
No, as a few asked, I am not a prophet. As I sit here in St Petersburg, where Dr. Pavlov did his pioneering work, I can say with full confidence that it was expected. Feldman rang the bell and Rosenblum barked.
Quod erat demonstrandum.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
This is a Real Estate Lawyer
I'm presently sitting in Moscow, where Jews were not allowed to live until the late 19th century, and watching two, related dramas unfold before my eyes at home.
Our soldiers are throwing Jews out of their homes, in buildings purchased by Jews over two centuries ago (and documented as such), in order to appease Abu Mazen. They are doing so with the type of brutality that makes me ashamed I ever wore the blue uniform. If Olmert had been their lawyer, i.e. if they were not some religious shnooks but rich clients who could line his pockets, he'd be out there stopping it.
At the same time, Olmert is offering a chunk of pre-1967 Israel, the size OF THE ENTIRE WEST BANK if only Abu Mazen (who has no power anyway) will make peace (Pretty Please). Any why do we tolerate this? Because the harlots in the Knesset would rather retain their seats than their country.
Chronologically, we're in the period of post-Tisha B'Av consoltation. In reality, we're stuck in Isaiah I:
How is the faithful city become a harlot! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water. Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth bribes, and followeth after rewards; they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
Our soldiers are throwing Jews out of their homes, in buildings purchased by Jews over two centuries ago (and documented as such), in order to appease Abu Mazen. They are doing so with the type of brutality that makes me ashamed I ever wore the blue uniform. If Olmert had been their lawyer, i.e. if they were not some religious shnooks but rich clients who could line his pockets, he'd be out there stopping it.
At the same time, Olmert is offering a chunk of pre-1967 Israel, the size OF THE ENTIRE WEST BANK if only Abu Mazen (who has no power anyway) will make peace (Pretty Please). Any why do we tolerate this? Because the harlots in the Knesset would rather retain their seats than their country.
Chronologically, we're in the period of post-Tisha B'Av consoltation. In reality, we're stuck in Isaiah I:
How is the faithful city become a harlot! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water. Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth bribes, and followeth after rewards; they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
Monday, August 06, 2007
Memory and Territory+ survival
This just arrived on YNET. It should be must reading.
A state of exile
A methodical exile is taking place; the exile of location and exile of the mind
Yishai Fleisher
We all know what exile is. Exile is when you get kicked off your land. But that's not the worst exile. A nation may be forcibly exiled from its land, but if the nation longs to return, sets days to mourn the eviction, remembers every inch of the land, remembers its history there, reveres the holy places and burial sites of their forefathers, and teaches every successive generation to remember - in such a scenario, the exile is never complete because the relationship between the people and their land is never fully severed.
Memory, education, and yearning – these are all methods of warding off the full effects of exile, and they can sustain a nation until the time comes when the exile can be reversed and a return can commence.
But what then is a full exile? A full exile is when the connection between the land and the people is forgotten. If there is no memory of prior ownership, no longing to return, no stories told to children, then the exile brought about by an enemy nation which wished to impose a disconnect between the people and its land comes into full effect. If the very fact that the nation has been exiled is forgotten, then that is true exile.
The idea that the loss of collective national memory brings true exile has a surprising corollary: a nation can be in a state of exile even while living on its original soil! Like a person suffering from amnesia while sitting in his own house – a nation may be so utterly without memory that it has no idea that it is at home.
Rachel's Tomb
Such is the case in Israel today. The memory that has been carried in our collective conscience for two thousand years has steadily worn away and no longer serves to keep the exile at bay. Take, for example, the case of the Tomb of Rachel.
In terms of emotional connection, Rachel's Tomb is unequaled for the Jewish people. From the biblical narrative of Rachel's life, to Jeremiah's account of her crying for her children going to exile and God's promise of their return, to the generations who visited her grave, to the beautiful mausoleum constructed by Moshe Montefiore in 1841, the memory of Rachel's Tomb in the olive orchards of Bethlehem has kept us connected to this place through out the long exile. In 1919, Louis Brandies stood next to Rachel's Tomb at sunset and said "I know now why all the world wanted this land and why all peoples loved it."
Go to Rachel's Tomb today – if you can. A monstrosity of walls, pillboxes, gates, and chains has been erected to ostensibly keep the would-be intruder away. The place is downright ugly, and if you did manage to get in to the compound, soldiers do not allow you to walk around freely, because, they claim, danger is everywhere, even inside the labyrinth of high walls.
Take your children there. As you pass into the prison-like fortress try to teach your children about the Matriarch Rachel, our mother Rachel. You will not succeed because you will not be able to communicate a sense of the value of the place. It is too ugly, too military, too filled with fear, it is simply unattractive both physically and emotionally.
Only those who remember Rachel's Tomb the way it used to be can still have an emotional connection to the place. If the current state of affairs continues, the next generation will not remember Rachel's Tomb and the exile from this place will be stronger then it has been in two thousand years. Just as we are exiled from the physical Rachel's Tomb, Rachel's Tomb is being exiled from our minds.
This phenomenon of exile is not only at Rachel's Tomb – it's everywhere. The Tomb of Joseph in Nablus is gone, destroyed by Arabs, abandoned by Israel. Hebron, home and burial place of the patriarchs is constantly in the crosshairs of destruction. The Temple Mount, the place of two Jewish temples, is being systematically neutered of its history (let alone its future value). Judea and Samaria, the biblical heartland, is now being cut off by a snaking wall, which scars the land and cuts us off from our history and heritage. The exiling forces seem to attack the very places where our collective memory was strongest.
Cerebral exile
As we have noted, physical exile is one thing, but cerebral exile, the cutting off of memory is the final guillotine of exile. Here, the groundwork for forced forgetting has been in the works for decades. On the one hand, the Jewish people's historical connection to the land has been systematically un-taught. In schools, many Jewish children learn to hate the Bible, learn a revisionist anti-Zionist history, and are simply never taught the stories and the emotional connection to places like Rachel's Tomb. On the other hand, a new milieu and accompanying lingo fill the void left in the young mind: Occupation, Palestine, Peace, and Post-Zionism. Our history and with it, our emotional connection to our land, is being erased.
This is not the first time when an attempt to sever the Jewish memory of the land of Israel has been made. Of course, there were the two great exiles when the Babylonians and the Romans sacked Jerusalem and dispossessed the nation.
Yet there is another case that is a clearer reflection of what is happening today: Yerovam Ben Navat was a wicked Jewish king of the Northern tribes during the period of the divided kingdom (10th century BCE). He wanted his vassals to forget about the Davidic dynasty that still reigned in Jerusalem and therefore built two idolatrous temples as an alternative to the one that stood in Jerusalem and bade his people to worship in these shrines.
But the people persisted in going up to the real Temple, so Yerovam then constructed manned roadblocks that barred aliyah to Jerusalem. He hoped that by forcibly stopping people from going to Jerusalem he would make people forget all about it. It took two centuries for this "security barrier" to be removed, but by then it was too late, the people had indeed forgotten.
Today, those who still teach and preach a connection with these places are branded extremists, so their message makes little sense to our people. Say the word "Hebron" to a young disconnected Israeli and he will only conjure up an occupied Arab city with a few cantankerous crazy Jews who cause all the problems. The majesty of Hebron's history from Abraham to King David to the first Hasidic settlement of 18th century, to the murderous Arab riots of 1929, to the valiant return in 1967, is completely lost on him. It is no wonder then that for him it makes sense to "give it back" since nothing seems to tie us to these places in the first place.
Today's post–Zionist leaders have made Israel into a State of Exile, exiling our people from their homes, exiling our land by cutting it off and giving it away, and exiling the minds and hearts of the Jewish people by teaching them to forget. After waiting for two thousand years to return, Jews are being taught that Hebron isn't Jewish, that Bethlehem isn't Jewish, that Nablus isn't Jewish, that the Temple Mount isn't Jewish. A methodical exile is taking place, the exile of place and the exile of mind.
Yishai Fleisher is the founder of Kumah, a grassroots pro-aliyah organization, and a broadcaster at Israel National Radio
A state of exile
A methodical exile is taking place; the exile of location and exile of the mind
Yishai Fleisher
We all know what exile is. Exile is when you get kicked off your land. But that's not the worst exile. A nation may be forcibly exiled from its land, but if the nation longs to return, sets days to mourn the eviction, remembers every inch of the land, remembers its history there, reveres the holy places and burial sites of their forefathers, and teaches every successive generation to remember - in such a scenario, the exile is never complete because the relationship between the people and their land is never fully severed.
Memory, education, and yearning – these are all methods of warding off the full effects of exile, and they can sustain a nation until the time comes when the exile can be reversed and a return can commence.
But what then is a full exile? A full exile is when the connection between the land and the people is forgotten. If there is no memory of prior ownership, no longing to return, no stories told to children, then the exile brought about by an enemy nation which wished to impose a disconnect between the people and its land comes into full effect. If the very fact that the nation has been exiled is forgotten, then that is true exile.
The idea that the loss of collective national memory brings true exile has a surprising corollary: a nation can be in a state of exile even while living on its original soil! Like a person suffering from amnesia while sitting in his own house – a nation may be so utterly without memory that it has no idea that it is at home.
Rachel's Tomb
Such is the case in Israel today. The memory that has been carried in our collective conscience for two thousand years has steadily worn away and no longer serves to keep the exile at bay. Take, for example, the case of the Tomb of Rachel.
In terms of emotional connection, Rachel's Tomb is unequaled for the Jewish people. From the biblical narrative of Rachel's life, to Jeremiah's account of her crying for her children going to exile and God's promise of their return, to the generations who visited her grave, to the beautiful mausoleum constructed by Moshe Montefiore in 1841, the memory of Rachel's Tomb in the olive orchards of Bethlehem has kept us connected to this place through out the long exile. In 1919, Louis Brandies stood next to Rachel's Tomb at sunset and said "I know now why all the world wanted this land and why all peoples loved it."
Go to Rachel's Tomb today – if you can. A monstrosity of walls, pillboxes, gates, and chains has been erected to ostensibly keep the would-be intruder away. The place is downright ugly, and if you did manage to get in to the compound, soldiers do not allow you to walk around freely, because, they claim, danger is everywhere, even inside the labyrinth of high walls.
Take your children there. As you pass into the prison-like fortress try to teach your children about the Matriarch Rachel, our mother Rachel. You will not succeed because you will not be able to communicate a sense of the value of the place. It is too ugly, too military, too filled with fear, it is simply unattractive both physically and emotionally.
Only those who remember Rachel's Tomb the way it used to be can still have an emotional connection to the place. If the current state of affairs continues, the next generation will not remember Rachel's Tomb and the exile from this place will be stronger then it has been in two thousand years. Just as we are exiled from the physical Rachel's Tomb, Rachel's Tomb is being exiled from our minds.
This phenomenon of exile is not only at Rachel's Tomb – it's everywhere. The Tomb of Joseph in Nablus is gone, destroyed by Arabs, abandoned by Israel. Hebron, home and burial place of the patriarchs is constantly in the crosshairs of destruction. The Temple Mount, the place of two Jewish temples, is being systematically neutered of its history (let alone its future value). Judea and Samaria, the biblical heartland, is now being cut off by a snaking wall, which scars the land and cuts us off from our history and heritage. The exiling forces seem to attack the very places where our collective memory was strongest.
Cerebral exile
As we have noted, physical exile is one thing, but cerebral exile, the cutting off of memory is the final guillotine of exile. Here, the groundwork for forced forgetting has been in the works for decades. On the one hand, the Jewish people's historical connection to the land has been systematically un-taught. In schools, many Jewish children learn to hate the Bible, learn a revisionist anti-Zionist history, and are simply never taught the stories and the emotional connection to places like Rachel's Tomb. On the other hand, a new milieu and accompanying lingo fill the void left in the young mind: Occupation, Palestine, Peace, and Post-Zionism. Our history and with it, our emotional connection to our land, is being erased.
This is not the first time when an attempt to sever the Jewish memory of the land of Israel has been made. Of course, there were the two great exiles when the Babylonians and the Romans sacked Jerusalem and dispossessed the nation.
Yet there is another case that is a clearer reflection of what is happening today: Yerovam Ben Navat was a wicked Jewish king of the Northern tribes during the period of the divided kingdom (10th century BCE). He wanted his vassals to forget about the Davidic dynasty that still reigned in Jerusalem and therefore built two idolatrous temples as an alternative to the one that stood in Jerusalem and bade his people to worship in these shrines.
But the people persisted in going up to the real Temple, so Yerovam then constructed manned roadblocks that barred aliyah to Jerusalem. He hoped that by forcibly stopping people from going to Jerusalem he would make people forget all about it. It took two centuries for this "security barrier" to be removed, but by then it was too late, the people had indeed forgotten.
Today, those who still teach and preach a connection with these places are branded extremists, so their message makes little sense to our people. Say the word "Hebron" to a young disconnected Israeli and he will only conjure up an occupied Arab city with a few cantankerous crazy Jews who cause all the problems. The majesty of Hebron's history from Abraham to King David to the first Hasidic settlement of 18th century, to the murderous Arab riots of 1929, to the valiant return in 1967, is completely lost on him. It is no wonder then that for him it makes sense to "give it back" since nothing seems to tie us to these places in the first place.
Today's post–Zionist leaders have made Israel into a State of Exile, exiling our people from their homes, exiling our land by cutting it off and giving it away, and exiling the minds and hearts of the Jewish people by teaching them to forget. After waiting for two thousand years to return, Jews are being taught that Hebron isn't Jewish, that Bethlehem isn't Jewish, that Nablus isn't Jewish, that the Temple Mount isn't Jewish. A methodical exile is taking place, the exile of place and the exile of mind.
Yishai Fleisher is the founder of Kumah, a grassroots pro-aliyah organization, and a broadcaster at Israel National Radio
Friday, August 03, 2007
It Will Break: A Response to Comments
My remarks about the Herem placed on the Jewish Music Concert elicited several types of comments that deserve a posting of their own.
1) I absolutely meant no disrespect to Gedole Torah. However, greatness in lehrnen was not the issue. My point is that I see the disasterous results of this policy of socio-cultural constriction and constant prohibiting the allowed. It destroys people, adumbrates the break up of families and actually contributes to people leaving Torah. So, it might be that the signatories on the herem were misled. However, as in חושן משפט so in יורה דיעה, you bear full responsibility for your signature. [I might add that if you read books like Karlinsky's, Rishon le-Shushelet Brisk, you learn that there was no lock-step Daas Torah position on most things.]
2) I agree that Ger is not dour, except in matters בינו לבינה. It was of those we were speaking.
3) Not every Litvak is dour (at least not 24/7).
1) I absolutely meant no disrespect to Gedole Torah. However, greatness in lehrnen was not the issue. My point is that I see the disasterous results of this policy of socio-cultural constriction and constant prohibiting the allowed. It destroys people, adumbrates the break up of families and actually contributes to people leaving Torah. So, it might be that the signatories on the herem were misled. However, as in חושן משפט so in יורה דיעה, you bear full responsibility for your signature. [I might add that if you read books like Karlinsky's, Rishon le-Shushelet Brisk, you learn that there was no lock-step Daas Torah position on most things.]
2) I agree that Ger is not dour, except in matters בינו לבינה. It was of those we were speaking.
3) Not every Litvak is dour (at least not 24/7).
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