In a move that should shock no-one who understands the history of reform Judaism and its paradigm shift away from Judaism-as-a-lifestyle, the JTA is reporting that congregations have decided to stop or change their recitation of the Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel.
From a Zionist perspective, this move is further proof that a Judaism that is limited to the religious tradition of the Jews acts to tear apart our historical community. From a more objective perspective, one shouldn’t be surprised that the same ideology that pushes to marginalize Jewish identity within one’s own life — making it one of ‘many identities’ instead of the primary operating system through which other decisions are made — is extending itself to further separate the Religiously-Jewish from the Jewish People.
Not to go over old argumentation, I’ll raise a different point here: the Jewish spiritual tradition fundamentally differs from that of its daughter religions — and many other sects — in that its focus has always been on the sovereignty of the community within the Kingdom of Earth, while those other sects seek to put forward an ideal vision of a Kingdom of Heaven that humans are expected to toil and sacrifice in order to enter. Judaism’s main text deals with the nitty-gritty, with what is sacrificed in order to heal what skin-disease, and other niceties — the others speak of the rings of hell and the glories of heaven.
In this case, the unwillingness of American Jewish ’spiritual folk’ to get their hands dirty suggests, I would argue, that they’re leaving us behind - that is, the Jewish People - in their own search for purity. But since they haven’t yet accepted the principal of conversion, they’re less like the early Christians and more like the Essenes — and if history is any indication, I’m not sure it’ll turn out so well for them either.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
[…] I’m a few days late, but I must take serious issue with my good friend Ariel Beery’s recent Blogs of Zion post about the prayer for the State of Israel — and some communities that are revisiting this prayer. In a move that should shock no-one who understands the history of reform Judaism and its paradigm shift away from Judaism-as-a-lifestyle, the JTA is reporting that congregations have decided to stop or change their recitation of the Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel. […]
April 13th, 2008 at 5:14 am
I’m not sure why you focused your response on Reform Judaism. The JTA article focuses on independent minyanim. Other than the comment “Both the Reform and Conservative prayer books include [the prayer] in a truncated form”, the piece doesn’t seem to mention the Reform movement at all.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
[…] Last week, I wrote about a JTA article discussing communities that are rethinking the Prayer for the State of Israel, as well as Ariel Beery’s harsh critique of these groups. […]
April 17th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
[…] *Beery fires the opening salvo with some harsh words about how those falling out of love with the prayer (and, one assumes, with Israel generally) are moving away from identification with the Jewish people and becoming more like Protestants. […]
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:54 am
[…] 2, 2008 · No Comments I was just reading a post by ArielBeery at Blogs of Zion, and I had to stop and read it again,because at first it didn’t make sense. The thesis is that some Jews in America were becoming more like Protestant Christians because we are truncating or eliminating the prayer for Israel from our services. […]
March 14th, 2010 at 4:12 am
It’s fantastic to see fresh, fabulous ideas that have never been done before