Not a Fish

Treppenwitz addresses the problematic situation of the ultra-religious owning religion (and marriage and divorce and death and…) in this country. Tell us about it. The humiliation of sinners like us in the Rabbinate when attempting to tie the knot… don’t even get me started on that. And Bish and I were both completely kosher with the documents to prove it. God help those that aren’t that lucky. Oh, sorry, I forgot, He can’t help - He’s owned by the ultra-religious.

Perhaps the fact that they’re undermining the national-religious rabbis now is a good development. Maybe something will change at long last.

Yeah. Right.

Growing up as an Olah Hadasha (new immigrant) in Israel, I looked up at my tanned, cocky, assured Sabra friends. I think I’ve told you that only recently have I realized that most of those kids were the children of Holocaust survivors.

Here is the story of the father of one of those first Sabras I met, a dear friend I am lucky enough to have known from my first day in school in Israel.

Shira’s father was aways funny and friendly. The home he built with Shira’s mother was warm and nurturing. Who was to know that when he was the same age as I was when I came to Israel, he was dealing with far bigger issues than having to learn a new language and culture?

So apparently someone sent in my whine whine whine post in to this week’s Haveil Havalim, which is a funny if somewhat quirky name for a Jewish and Israeli blog summary.

So you can pop over there and see what else they’ve got.

Oh, and thank you, whoever it was.

A comment on politics, in the event of PM Olmert’s latest scrape:

“Once the trees went to anoint a king over themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ But the olive tree replied,’Have I, through whom God and men are honored, stopped yielding my rich oil, that I should go and wave above the trees?’ So the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.’ But the fig tree replied, ‘Have I stopped yielding my sweetness, my delicious fruit, that I should go and wave above the trees?’ So the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.’ But the vine replied, ‘Have I stopped yielding my new wine, which gladdens God and men, that I should go and wave above the trees?’ Then all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘You come and reign over us.’ And the thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you are acting honorably in anointing me king over you, come and take shelter in my shade; but if not, may fire issue from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’”

Wise words from three thousand odd years ago. Apparently, nothing’s changed.

It seems it’s not a new phenomenon that our nation’s best sons and daughters aren’t the ones rushing gleefully into politics.

Unlike the those Christmas Tree Jews of the British Isles I was discussing the other day, Israeli Jews are not ashamed of being Jewish. Israeli Jews are proud, on the whole, of being Jewish. Well a few of them aren’t - usually those with strong ties with anti-Zionist ideologues outside of Israel - but still, I think, in this case, it is safe to generalize.

And I’ll go further, Israeli Jews are not only proud of being Jewish, but are deeply aware of their, our, historic connection to this land.

Sadly, the Haredim in Israel are doing an excellent job of pushing secular youngsters (and oldsters) away from what Judaism has to offer. The Haredim, if their Rabbis had any sense at all, would be out on the street, demonstrating in favor of some of the wonderful social laws we read in this passed Shabbat’s parasha (weekly Torah portion, read in the synagogue), Parashat Kdoshim (Leviticus19 - 20), and not against selling hametz in Pesach, which isn’t even so very widespread.

Isn’t “The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning” (Leviticus 19, 13) a good reason to be out on the streets? And how about “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself…” (Leviticus 19, 34)? But I’ve yet to see the Haredim out demonstrating for the ever-trampled rights of workers (not that Haredi males have much empathy with people who work - many of them have never actually done it themselves), definitely not for the rights of foreign migrant workers.

My knowledge of Jewish laws and Mitzvot may be limited, but I do remember hearing that one is required to adhere to all Mitzvot equally, big and small, for we do not know what the reward is for any of them.

Beats me how forcing people to keep Shabbat when they don’t want to will further the goal of their becoming observant Jews. Wouldn’t it be wiser of the Haredim to emphasize the stuff we secular people can relate to? Like the amazing moral laws set out in the Torah, such as in the aforementioned Parashat Kdoshim, thousands of years before anyone had even dreamt of civil rights. Mind you, I haven’t noticed the Haredim adhere to some of these social laws any more than us secular sinners. No lack of Haredi genovim (thieves). This doesn’t stop them from seeing themselves as superior to us ignoramuses.

Judaism has so much wisdom to offer, which secular people would relate to, if we ever got a chance to see it. The whole religious thing is all packaged and marketed as a zero sum game, with the emphasis put on ramming Shabbat, and Hametz laws and what-not, down the throats of people who don’t want it, and all with this derisive holier-than-thou air.

The result is that so many of us prefer to pass, and look to fulfill our spiritual needs elsewhere - mainly in the philosophies of the Far East (Not many converts to Christianity or Islam among Jewish Sabras, despite the ceaseless efforts of so-called Messianic Jews - and the hysterics of the Haredim).

Luckily, because we live in Israel, and our language is Hebrew, we have the ability to enjoy what Judaism has to offer, without having to go through the Orthodox filters - the other option for the non-Hebrew speaker perhaps being over-PC-ized Reform interpretations.

These days, it seems, more and more of us are circumventing that bunch all together (I apologize to Orthodox Jews who will be offended by my ‘bunching’ them with ‘reform’) and checking it out for ourselves. Jewish wisdom is our national heritage too. It doesn’t belong just to the dossim.

Yom HaShoah 5768

Yair Lapid explains why things are not nearly as bad as some would have it. He does this in Ynet, online edition of Israel’s main newspaper, Yediot Aharonot.

[For your information, Haaretz is definitely not Israel’s main newspaper, although I read it was on a certain foreign site recently, as it quoted a Haaretz editorial - which was probably the only positive comment (besides jokes) made here about former US president Carter’s latest idiotic meddling.

No, even its heyday, Haaretz only catered to about 10% of the population. Today, although it is still read by much of the political, academic, judicial and business elites (the sort of people who depend on more than one newspaper for their news input anyway), it is hardly representative of any widespread views.]

Our Sis introduced me to Guardian Limited’s token Jewish podcast. Nu, with Jews like this, the Jewish people aren’t going to last long. With Jews like this, Moshe Rabeinu (sadly missed at the Seder table, this year and every year) is turning in his unknown grave!

The first episode has token British Jews describing the Christmas trees which apparently traditionally adorn their homes come December (huh?). One woman said she grew up with a Christmas tree, but she got more Jewish in university so now they have a Hannuka bush (A Hannuka bush???!).

Later on they interview a Haredi stand-up comedian from the US, complete with long black coat, who was born as a Catholic. The verdict? Not so Jewish, chuckle chuckle, ha snooty ha. Ya see, these Christmas tree Jews know what Judaism really is about. They know they’ll always be far more Jewish than some goy dressed up in a long black coat. He just doesn’t get the Jewish humor thing. “He hasn’t suffered enough,” they snicker knowingly among themselves. Grrrrrr.

I’m forcing myself to listen to all the following episodes of this aggravating production, if only for its anthropological merits, and to remind myself, once again, of my gratitude to The Dah, for removing me from that toxic atmosphere of shame and embarrassment sadly prevalent among Jews in the British Isles - the fertile soil for these Christmas tree Jews. There, but for the good sense of The Dah…

I have been reading the Bible quite a lot lately, enjoying myself immensely. I’m currently in the book of Judges. Very exciting. All those warriors and battles. Riveting stuff.

It crosses my mind that we secular Israeli Jews have a serious leg up on “Christmas tree” diaspora Jews if we wish to brush up on our traditional Jewish knowledge, for the simple reason that many of the traditional books of Jewish learning and wisdom are available to us, as written, in all their beauty and richness (well, at least those written in Hebrew and not in Aramaic). We are not handicapped by the language barrier. We don’t have to be rabbinical scholars, or even religious, to enjoy them and benefit from them. We understand the language of the Siddur, the ancient Jewish prayerbook - compiled by the wise men of old, thousands of years ago - even if we don’t make use of it. We can. We have a real choice. It’s not a matter of just parrotting words. We can understand them.

Secular study groups of Jewish wisdom and learning are very popular in Israel these days, and I’m not talking about Kabbalah. People are really taking an interest in their roots. Maybe they see it is a matter of learning their national heritage, our national heritage, as a people. I must say I’m pretty blown away with the fact that the Bible was written so long ago, and it’s so rich and intricate and complex. And the Hebrew is so beautiful.

In Friday’s Maariv, Rino Tzror talked of what he calls people with the transparent yarmulkas - a growing movement of Jewish Israelis who take on parts of Jewish wisdom, if not all, without becoming overtly religious. Some keep the Shabbat, others pray the morning prayers, some just do the Friday night kiddush. I guess that’s more or less where I am right now - a transparent yarmulka Jew (or the female version thereof).

Now I know a lot of diaspora Jews have always been like that. I grew up in such a family. But in Israel we have the ability, because of the language leg up, to better understand the words we are uttering in the morning brochas or as we make kiddush on Friday night. If we feel our knowlege is limited, and we wish to remedy that, it’s easier for us, should we decide to do so. As I said, we have a real choice. And it’s easier for us to remain Jewish and open to Jewish wisdom and life, even if we choose not to live a religious life. (Somehow I don’t see Christmas trees catching on in a big way in Israel.)

Nowhere is all this more noticable than at the Seder table at Pesach. As a secular Israeli Jew, I am very grateful.