February 2006
Monthly Archive
Posted by Josh on Tue 28 Feb 2006
I just came back from a rally/conference about the current situation in Israel with religious divorce courts. The event was organized by really young people, maybe 18-21 in age, but it got me good a fired up, and in fact the whole thing had the quality of a high school pep rally. I half expected the crowd to rise up as one and go off to torch the existing courts.
To summarize the general feeling from the conference:
1. There is a problem with corrupt, non-Torah abiding Rabbi/Judges serving on the existing religious divorce courts in Israel
2. Halacha has many, many solutions to the problem, and it is only because of the corrupt nature of the courts that these solutions are not being implemented
3. The solution is to close said courts and open up new religious divorce courts manned by just rabbis with law training and who are more moderate.
This was done with conversion courts, with mild success.
What can I say, I think I agree.
Posted by aharon on Tue 28 Feb 2006
I heard a masterful talk by Melvin Granatstein this week on the topic of “The Future of Zionism: Normalization or “Exceptionalism.” The talk covered a huge amount of material and hopefully I’ll blog about other parts of the speech in future posts.
One fascinating discussion was whether the Jewish religion promotes or inhibits Zionism.
The first source Rabbi G cited was AB Yehoshua, who noticed that over the years, despite a declared desire to return to Israel, most Jews never did. Yehoshua explains that the structure of the Jewish religion makes coming to Israel far too burdensome. In the religious conscience of the Jews the standard for obedience is more stringent and the punishment for disobedience far greater in the Holyland than it is in Exile, where Jews are already living the punishment of an earlier generation. Thus, a neurosis developed, as the Jews subconsciously resisted the return to Israel with all their strength while out loud pining for it three times a day. The way to cure this dissonance and save the Jews as a people is to weaken the traditional authority centers (the main guilt mongers) in Judaism.
Rabbi G brought a number of critiques to this approach, while at the same time recognizing some of its points. The most interesting was Aviezer Ravitzky’s complication of AB Yehoshua. Ravitzky finds evidence of Jewish thought that reflects Yehoshua’s neurosis. These thinkers, such as the Shnei Luchot Habrit (the shlah), Rav Bardugo, and the Maharam MiRotenberg, felt that Israel was far too holy for the average Jew and that to live there one must be a person who has reached religious heights. For these rabbis religion was a force separating the people from the Land of Israel.
On the other hand, Ravitsky points out, there was the opposite tug as well, people who were driven to Israel because of religion. Some examples of this position are the 1211 c.e. Aliyah of the 300 Rabbis, the Kuzari, the Ramban, and Rabbi Akiva Schlessinger. For them Judaism pulled toward Israel.
Indeed, in the 1800’s he pointed to a changing religious consciousness that viewed “normalization of life in Israel as the complement of holiness.” This was to a large part driven by Schlessinger’s disgust at the sight of male Olim who had left their families behind in Exile to live an almost monastic life in Jerusalem. To him, this was an abomination of Judaism, and he came to the conclusion that a holy Jewish life in Israel required “normality.” (More on this in a later post)
Today the question has shifted its center, but it is clear how religion, and this very conflict, is still in play. Over the past ten years we’ve seen Jews on the religious right distance themselves from the State (though they still physically live in the Land of Israel) because of Judaism, and at the same time we’ve seen the persistence of a core of religious Jews who justify compromise with the “normal” day to day of the State, including its most difficult decisions about land, peace, and security, on religious grounds.
Rabbi G pointed out that in political manners, in general, the Talmudic sages were moderates. They consistently tried to figure out how to save as much as they could, not how to take as much as they could. For example, in the rebellion of the 60’s against Rome, Chazal disdained the Jewish rebels who forced Jerusalem to fight until the end (they call them Biryonim, or gangsters, and their leader was known as Abba Sikkari, or, as Rabbi G called him, “Daddy Dagger”). They stood with those leaders who wished to sue for peace. They were for compromise and cooperation.
In this sense the loudest camp of religious Zionism has moved away from normative Judaism. The question religious Zionists need to answer is whether or not Judaism is going to save, or are they going to ride it over the edge.
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The answer to this question is not in heaven, but in the streets of Jerusalem.
Posted by Zev on Tue 28 Feb 2006
Authorities in Tajikistan (a country whose population is 85% Muslim) have started demolishing the country’s only synagogue in order to make way for a new presidential residence, an official said Friday.
The century-old synagogue on government land in the ex-Soviet republic’s capital Dushanbe will be completely torn down by June “as part of the plans to build a new presidential palace,” said city administration spokesman Shavkat Saidov.
Last month, city authorities demolished the synagogue’s ritual bathhouse, classroom and kosher butchery, the Norway-based international Forum 18 religious rights group said.
Tajikistan’s Jewish community, mainly made up of Bukharan Jews, is mostly elderly and poor and cannot afford to build a new synagogue. About 280 Jews live in Dushanbe, of about 480 across the country.
One might have expected the government of the State of Israel to try and intervene in the matter, and save this century old synagogue from being destroyed, yet the government of the State of Israel has been strangely silent.
Could it be that the government of the State of Israel, ever since it carried out the expulsion of thousands of Jews from Gush Katif - leaving behind the synagogues (and other Jewish holy sites) to the Palestinians (thus welcoming their desecration and destruction - as is the accepted behavior of the “Palestinians” towards any Jewish holy site they come into contact with) - has lost the moral authority to speak out against the persecution of Jews and the destruction of Jewish holy sites around the world?
Could it be that the government of the State of Israel now finds itself unable to carry out one of the most fundamental obligations that it has as the leaders of the Jewish State - namely to defend the rights of Jews throughout the world (and even within Israel) to live proudly and freely as Jews?
I guess that’s the price one must be willing to pay for peace err… security umm… international support well… having a Jewish State… hmmm… being the only democracy in the Middle East…
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Posted by ArielBeery on Sun 26 Feb 2006
Is Israel really a Jewish State–or is it a Jewish city-state? I’ve been thinking about the implications of that question for the past two years, since I first read the argument for the later in Futurizing the Jews by Tzvi Bisk and Moshe Dror.
Personally, I’m growing more and more attracted to the notion of Israel as a Jewish city-state–a polis floating amongst the peoples–although I realize that the paradigm shift has its drawbacks too.
One way or another, this video below (found due to my new obsession with Google Video) does a good job of explaining the Israel-as-a-City school of thought’s justifications. It’s in Hebrew, and of poor quality, so be warned.
So…is Israel a city?
Posted by ArielBeery on Fri 24 Feb 2006
I meant the last post to be our Shabbat Shalom post, but this video is too cool not to be posted:
Google-video rocks. Shabbat Shalom.
Posted by ArielBeery on Fri 24 Feb 2006
A bit cheesy, yes. Music isn’t much to listen to. But it’s fun. And the first scene is classic.
Shabbat Shalom
Posted by Josh on Thu 23 Feb 2006
Even though this is a blog about Religious Zionism, I still feel the need to mention how sad it was for me to wake up this morning to the reality of no medal for Team Canada in mens hockey. Is it wrong for a good, Religious Zionist to feel really affiliated with (one of) his former countries? To cheer myself up I went online and watched the Molson Canadian I Am Canadian commercial from a few years back. All that good stuff about peacekeepers and not eating blubber. But the problem is that the crescendo of the whole speech is that Canada is the first nation of hockey, which at least on this morning, we aren’t.
So that leads me to my point about Religious Zionism (yes, there is one.) In that Canadian commercial, they lay out a lot of the things that make us Canadians proud. But whenever you do that, you run a risk, because that comes to define you. When suddenly you come up way short losing to the Russians in the quarterfinals of the Olympics, it hurts even more. It leaves you feeling lessened.
Now, hockey may be a fairly superficial example. But let’s take another one. We Religious Zionists have a few things that make us very proud. When Zionism first started, it was all about making new communities. We didn’t jump right in, but once we started we built great towns that filled us with pride. We felt like we were doing our part for the Zionist enterprise. Then along came Disengagement, and part of this thing we took pride in was negated.
But I’d say that communities were only our second pride. Our first, what we have been most proud of, is Hesder. We built institutions to serve in the army and stay true to our balance of Torah V’Avoda. Now it seems like this too is going to be negated. Doesn’t the government get it? You don’t just take all the things that an important part of your population prides over almost everything and tell them its worthless. What does that do to your identity? It lessens you much more than any Olympic loss can.
And meanwhile, us Canadians can at least take heart that Friday we have a rink competing for the curling gold medal. Needless to say, school has been cancelled in Newfoundland.
Posted by Zack Katowitz on Wed 22 Feb 2006
I was reading Leslie Bunder’s article about how the divisions in the Jewish community need to stop on account of much bigger problems from external issues and it really got me thinking. She’s absolutely right. There are so many issues that are facing the Jewish community today, from Anti-Semitism around the world, attacks around the world on very right to the existence of a Jewish state (which I see in some ways being linked to my first example), as well as many other issues which are of vital importance to every Jew.
Every Jewish community around the world is very different. They have different practices, different rituals, etc, but we are all the same. Nothing good can come out of infighting between differing groups of Jews. I understand that we all have different opinions and outlooks, but in no way does that mean that we can’t respect each other because we are all God’s children. We all recieved the Torah at Har Sinai.
A few months ago, I was talking to Ofer Gutman, the Shaliach for the Hagshama department of the WZO in the USA about participation of youth in the World Zionist Congress. I told him that I don’t care what party you are in, who you vote for, who you represent, what you stand for, all that I care about is that you are involved. Getting people to the table is the hardest part, once you are there, the exchange of ideas can start.
To me, Blogs of Zion is that table. We all come from different backgrounds, have different politcal leanings, opinions, beliefs, but we are all one people uniting under one roof exchanging ideas and opinions and debating them with each other.
Posted by ArielBeery on Wed 22 Feb 2006
One of the things I miss the most about Israel is the election cycle–Israel’s elections law has it that each party has to have equal access to propaganda, and this makes for an incredibly engaging half-hour of propaganda films every evening before Israel’s national sport (the news) goes on the air.
Here’s the party list. With parties such as the Green Leaf and Halev, it’s going to be a fun one.
[HT - BZ @ Jewschool]
Posted by ArielBeery on Wed 22 Feb 2006
A number of doomsday scenarios have been thrown around lately regarding the fact that Iran has indicated that it will fund Hamas. I say: go for it Iran.
Why? Well, because, first, Iran’s population is already pissed at the fact that the government isn’t doing more to solve domestic issues, and if more money starts flowing out of Iran I don’t think the Persian people will be very happy.
Second, because the Palestinians expect the Palestinian Authority take care of their domestic needs too. I do not doubt that there exists high support for suicide attacks and other terrors–but there exists much stronger support for food and jobs, and any government that provides violence instead of bread will find itself hated in a flash. So, Hamas will be put in a bind: keep doing what they’ve been doing and destroy their credibility, or start putting domestic issues (and, thereby, life) first.
On the other hand, Iran could send the whole region to hell. Interesting times.
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