No, I’m not abandoning Judaism or my Jewish identity. But in the spirit of Michael Stipe’s seminal REM song of the same title, I thought a provocative statement would dramatize my ambivalent feelings about key aspects of contemporary Jewish identity.
I spent a few hours today in shul pondering the prayer liturgy and Torah reading. There is always a tension there between the strict ritual aspects of Judaism embodied by the Holy Temple and the rites associated with it; and the spiritual-social justice aspects of Judaism embodied by the Prophets. The tension is as old as the religion itself. But since the last Temple was destroyed during the Roman era, the priestly cult was subsumed by a strongly decentralized rabbinic-synagogue model which emphasized spirituality and tikun olam. Though the Temple rite remained deeply embedded in the liturgy, it was seen as an symbolic element of the distant past, rather than as a project that demanded urgent realization.
Since Israel’s victory in the 1967 War though, a new trend has emerged, which I call settler Judaism. Frankly, I don’t consider it Judaism at all. Sometimes I call it a Judean cult, sometimes idolatry, or the worship of false gods, a sin deeply excoriated in the Torah. That’s because rabbinic Judaism has largely rejected territory or buildings as embodiments of the sacred. This new settler cult has adopted a form of Jewish racial purity as a core tenet of its theology. Jews only. Arabs-Raus! It is a cult built on blood and suffering. Hatred of the Other. Remind you of something?
These cultists also worship saints. Not a very Jewish thing to do. We don’t have formal saints. But they do: St. Kahane, St. Goldstein. They make pilgrimages to their graves where they dance to honor their blessed memory. And promise they will follow in their footsteps. Kill more Arabs. Spill more blood.
To me, it’s little different than those pre-Israelite cults of Astarte (Ishtar) and Ashera, which the Israelites were commanded to root out when they first conquered the land.
Returning to what defined the sacred in Judaism over the centuries–yes, Israel was always on the lips of praying Jews for millenia. But Israel was a vision like William Blake’s New Jerusalem, as much as a real place. And there was never any movement in post-Temple Judaism which defined the borders of Israel or demanded specific territory and named it as inviolably Jewish. Until 1967, there never was the equivalent of a Jewish Crusade to liberate such lands from the heathen as there was during the Christian Middle Ages.
Rabbinic Judaism saw the sacred in ideas, values and performance of everyday mitzvot. While it always valued what was unique in the Jewish contribution to civilization, it appreciated other religious traditions. It embraced a universalist vision as espoused by the Prophets.
It is true that it always prayed for the rebuilding of the Temple. But there was always the realization that this was a task for the distant future and that Jews had far more urgent tasks in the present.
Now settler Jews have turned all this on its head. Every single inch of Israel is sacred ground. And all those inches belong only to Jews, not to anyone else, no matter how long they lived there. Besides the land, the Temple is real to them. It must be rebuilt. The smart ones among the idolaters don’t say when it must be rebuilt, and of course they aren’t personally going to rebuild it (wink-wink). That way, they can absolve themselves of any personal responsibility for the religious war that will happen when the Temple is built. They say it will be built when people are ready to do it. It will not be built by a tiny minority of settlers, but by the entire Jewish people.
Of course this ignores the fact that only the “Judeans” are engaging in concrete action and activism to rebuild the Temple. Only they have created a Temple Institute to train a new generation of priests who will perform the sacrificial rituals. Only they have actually named a High Priest to run this show. Only they are agitating and provoking violence by making pilgrimage to the Haram al Sharif to pray there for the destruction of the Muslim holy sites.
In today’s Yom Kippur ritual, we read of animal sacrifices in the Temple. We read of goats assuming the sins of the Jewish people and being sent to die in the wilderness. Everywhere you turned in the prayer book there were longing references to the ancient rites, those glorious days of yesteryear. It left me not just cold, but frigid.
Another aspect of liturgy that I found maddening is the Prayer for Israel. In it, most Diaspora Jews call it, “the beginning of our redemption.” Really? How is Israel going to redeem anyone or anything? What sort of moral example is it? Further, I’m not so sure I want the messiah to come if he’s going to lead us all to a tidy villa in Gush Etzion. Now, if the messiah represented a moral triumph of good and justice over evil, that might be something else.
But settler Judeanism is not my Judaism. I do not want a Temple run by these mafiosi dressed in priestly garb. How can I continue to pray for these things when I know if they ever happened they will be dominated by those who preach Jewish racial purity and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian Other? Back in the day, when racial tensions flared, we talked of ‘race wars.’ Luckily, they never happened. But the Israeli equivalent of the race war is not just possible, it’s already happening. If the settlerists have their way, there will be a religious holy war between Jews and Muslims. It will be bloody. Many will die.
I want a religion shorn of sacred temples, smoky animal sacrifices, and powerful priests entrusted with a sacred rite. I want a Judaism embracing love, justice, peace; performing acts of lovingkindness for Jews and non-Jews. A Judaism that embraces debate rather than stifling it. A religion open to the world rather than fenced off from it.
I would feel more hopeful if there was a strong, concerted effort by other Jews to push back against this appropriation of our traditions by the settler right. But Jews in Israel and the Diaspora have completely misunderstood the power of this settler vision. They didn’t appreciate how strong and well-organized it was. They thought they could marginalize it by ignoring it. They did such a good job that they ignored it as it grew into the uncontrollable Golem it has become.
Frankly, I have little hope in the future. American Jewry has no strong leadership, no vision for the future. It offers nothing exciting or appealing to the next generation. Here in Seattle, we have a new Jewish federation president. In an interview in Jewish in Seattle, when asked how she would realize the federation’s “new mission” of “creating Jewish connections for life,” she said:
“…I like the phrase ‘creating Jewish on-ramps,’ because wherever individuals are in the Jewish journeys, it begins with an on-ramp. Our research tells us that Jews in our region want to connect to Jewish life, but have different ideas about the roads they want to take. The Federation’s goal is to build on-ramps to those roads…”
When I read this I scratched my head incredulously. Really, being a Jew is like a ride on the freeway? And this is the best one of the leaders of a major American Jewish community has to offer?
At another High Holiday service at the same synagogue a few years ago, I was so annoyed by a rabbinic sermon that I wrote a blog post critiquing it. Later, I spoke at a conference devoted to Islamophobia about the same rabbi’s retreat from her commitment to engage with a local mosque. The response of the then-president was to call me and tell me that my public criticism was inappropriate, that rabbis should not be disrespected in public as I had done, and that if I disagreed so strongly with her I should consider whether this synagogue was the right one for me. Frankly, I was astonished. In this day and age when many synagogues face aging membership and declining numbers, to have a president invite someone to leave the synagogue seemed a breach of reason, if not civility. I told her I didn’t think it was her responsibility to determine whether I should be a member of the synagogue. Nor did I feel rabbis were above public critique.
A few years before this, a board member of this synagogue wrote me an email telling me he thought I should be publicly spanked for my views. Former synagogue member, Rob Jacobs, the regional director of StandWithUs, said that I needed mental health treatment. These are perfect examples of the closing of the wagons in American Jewish life. The exclusion of ideas that threaten. The shaming of dissenting voices. They cannot engage with the ideas, so they attempt to put them beyond the Pale of serious discourse. This only hurts them and the American Jewish life they claim to champion.
Back in my youth, when I developed a passion for Jewish thought and prayer, it came through the authentic joy of the campus Havurah movement. That was a movement which offered a Judaism of song, dance, and passionate debate over ideas. But that has been lost somewhere along the way. Now Jewish communal life seems to exist on the fumes of any authentic Jewish experience.
We are offered substitutes for Judaism instead of the real thing. Birthright offers an identity shorn of religion. The cult of Zion replaces Judaism. The cult is funded not by rabbis or those who want to preserve Judaism, but by Sheldon Adelson and Michael Steinhardt. Ironically, the hundreds of millions for this project come from someone who earns it by preying on addicts and greedy fools. For Adelson, nationalism has replaced religion. Judaism has become hollowed out and the vacuum is filled by Masada, kosher sex, and tales of yesteryear.
What form of identity will we pass on to our children? What will excite them? What would draw out the passion in them for, and motivate them to live a Jewish life? A Third Temple built over rivers of blood? Jewish freeways? Is this all we have to offer?
How will allowing ritual sacrifice, on a small scale without disturbing any existing buildings, on the temple mount (on a ramshackle altar) harm any Muslim interest on the temple mount?
וְעָשׂוּ לִי, מִקְדָּשׁ; וְשָׁכַנְתִּי, בְּתוֹכָם. 8 And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
ט כְּכֹל, אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי מַרְאֶה אוֹתְךָ, אֵת תַּבְנִית הַמִּשְׁכָּן, וְאֵת תַּבְנִית כָּל-כֵּלָיו; וְכֵן, תַּעֲשׂוּ. {ס} 9 According to all that I show thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it. {S}
Can’t a peaceful solution, agreeable to all 3 religions, be found regarding the temple mount? Why shouldn’t Jews be allowed to practice the basic tenant of their religion?
@ lepxii: NO! There is no “basic tenet” of Judaism that says you should sacrifice animals now in the midst of Haram al Sharif.
You might have something to chat with Robert Cohen about;
https://micahsparadigmshift.blogspot.co.uk/
Andy.
@ Andy: Robert is a good man.
There are some sparks of light in the dark. There is some interesting work going on that’s offering new thinking around a kind of Judaism that doesn’t just belong to the orthodox, settler, right-wing community. The Hartmann Institute (https://hartman.org.il/pillar_JDI.asp) is doing good work in this area, as is Hevruta (http://hevrutagapyear.org/en/community-service-and-leadership/), and NGOs like Tag Meir (https://www.facebook.com/notes/%D7%97%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%90-hevruta/shiva-call-at-har-nof-by-zach-narin/532890570146587).
@ Rain: Hartmann Institute? Really? You’re offering it as an exemplar of tolerant Judaism? Tolerant Orthodox Judaism perhaps. But the Hartmann dynasty is no paragon of what Judaism should or could be. They’re at best liberal Zionists offering Orthodoxy with a pleasant face as opposed to the stern rebbes with long white beards. Not to mention its collaboration with ex-Kahanist Yossi Klein Halevi to Zio-wash American Muslims via the Muslim Leadership Institute, which Hartmann sponsors.
Tag Meir again is a good NGO for what it does. But it too is liberal Zionist. I don’t know that any of them reject the aspects of the liturgy/theology/settlerism which disturb me so much. I don’t know that any of them would exclude settlers from proper Judaic discourse as I would.
You need to switch synagogues. If you went to Ikar, or any other pulpitted by a rabbi in it’s new “Jewish Emergent Network” which is changing the face of Judaism as we know it, this would’ve been a different article. Or one not written at all. You’re in Seattle, right? Time to go to Kavana, dude. https://www.ikar-la.org/jen/
@ Laurel: It’s sometimes astonishing how much people think they know & the assumptions they make about how little others know. Like you, for example. Ikar’s LA rabbi, Sharon Brous, taught Muslims the glories of Zion in the Hartmann hasbara Institute. When I asked her for the curriculum she used & what she taught she offered me a 1 line bit of gobbledy gook that told me nothing. So no, I don’t think Ikar is for me.
As for Kavana, it’s located across the city from where I live.
But what makes you think that this movement has any different views of Israel, Zionism, Temple cult worship, or settlerism than more conventional Judaic practice? I strongly doubt it’s much different & I know for a fact that Sharon Brous isn’t.
And call me “dude” one more time & you’re outa here.
There is a death-wish among Israeli Jews of the settler-approving type (a majority today?). It is certainly a wish for the death of amny Palestinians, and we see this played out by “civilian” Israeli-Jews in the OPTs (“price-tag” and other violence). We see it in the acts of the police and army. we see it in the policies and practices of discrimination within Israel-48 and more abundantly in the policies and practices of the occupations, the “policing” of the Mediterranean (shooting up Palestinian fishing boats and, in internatuional waters, of internationals). death surrounds Israeli Jews, who seem made up of fire, water, earth, air, and death.
Given the possibility that the worm may turn (UNSC might someday impose sanctions), the Israeli Jewish-settler society seems death-seeking also ibn deliberatekly seeking to enrage the rest of humankind to the point that it overcomes its long reluctance to act humanely and punishes Israel. (I find it hard to imagine that such a turn-around would or could be carried out without a lot of killing, a lot of death, of Jews and of others.)
‘appropriation of our traditions’:
if you read Jossef Flavius ‘war of the jews’, you feel a tickling of familiarity,
when he talks about rabbi’s using religious talk as a political stance king Herod and then rolling their eyes to heaven
(eg https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%94_%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%91%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%99%D7%AA
) or the clashes between the non jews and jews in the land.
Traditionally, something about the jews in the holy land has explosive potential.
Lets hope it ends differently this time.
UNESCO decides the Temple Mount has no Jewish connection.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4866113,00.html
What a repellent, arbitrary and capricious thing to do.
I’m sickened.
@ Lotta: You make a grievous error in trusting what’s published in some Israeli newspapers, especially on topics like this. The actual text of the resolution says nothing like what the Israeli media have been claiming, & that’s the topic of tonight’s post.
@Richard: I will avoid off topic political rants, and focus on your existential angst about Judaism. Permit me to share my personal experience.
I faced a crisis of faith long ago, for some and other reasons similar to what you describe. Although I am not comparing myself to you politically, I share your frustration with various Jewish movements. This has brought me to view my Judaism as a cultural belonging, nothing else. The cultural part also has moral dimensions, but it is purely a secular, human endeavor. The faith part is feel-good gobbledygook and good for social cohesion. It’s also good for raising kids. Now that they are grown I have no need for it any more. This is a change in comparison to my motivations when I actually made Aliyah 20 years ago.
I am in Israel now because I culturally belong and I wish to take part in this great experiment of the Jewish people, with all its flaws. Also, “belonging” to a faith community is good for you, physically and mentally. But I don’t lie to any of my friends, they all know what I think.
I don’t think that these problems are unique to Judaism, it’s just the one we experience as Jews. I’m sure there are Christians and Muslims who feel something similar.
What IS unique is that Jews straddle the east and the west. The Christian western world (as well as eastern Asian countries) continues to become more secular, progressive, liberal– as shown by almost every survey. On the other hand, the east, including much of the Muslim world, is becoming more religious and conservative.
Jews (particularly in Israel but not only)– are torn between these 2 competing, and somewhat incompatible, impulses. I think that this results in what you are describing.
Israel is the only “westernized” country (I know that you would dispute that description) that has been becoming more religious, and it has a high birth rate (even secular people). I say it is westernized because it is basically a secular modern country with a democratic system of government. You can say and write what you want. (In comparison, just writing what I wrote above could get me arrested or harassed in some of the neighboring countries) You walk around, and people can freely do whatever they want on Shabbat, girls can dress as they please (did you know that many orthodox women here wear mini skirts, even to school or synagogue, nary a condemnation from the rabbis?). I have a giant non-Kosher supermarket that is open on Shabbat 5 minutes away from me. A Chasidic neighborhood is right next to mine, where cars drive through on Shabbat and girls walk by in shorts and sleeveless shirts and are not harassed. Young couples embrace in public parks with hardly a stare. Muslims and Christians Israelis can certainly worship as they please. Nobody goes to jail for “immodesty”, “adultery”, saying curses against god or the prophet, or collecting firewood on the Sabbath. I know you can bring examples of the opposite but they are the exception, the feeling is one of freedom.
Yet unquestionably the proportion of religious Jews is increasing (because of birthrate) . They are becoming more influential, both the Zionist and “non-Zionist” (relatively speaking) streams. This concerns me.
I say all of this NOT for hasbarah or as a political statement but to emphasize the issue of the tension that I am referring to. Israel and Jews straddle east and west.
If in the future, if this place becomes too religious and oppressive– well maybe my kids will leave, but I will be dead by then so I don’t worry about it too much.
@ Yehuda:
First, I would dispute that. While I’m certain there are pockets of Muslims and Christians who have crises of faith and either seek new innovative approaches to them or else leave them entirely, what is happening in the Jewish community is far more evident. ONe of the main reasons is that there are so many fewer of us. When 10 Jews give up on their religion it’s the same as 100 or 1000 times that number doing so within those other religions. Plus, there are many more Jews who are frustrated with their religions enough to either try to forge a new path or give up entirely–than there are Muslims or CHristians similarly inclined.
NOt only is this wrong, it’s racist. The west is no more secular, progressive or liberal than anywhere else in the world. Are U.S. attacks on the Muslim world which have killed millions “liberal” or “progressive?” Are U.S. evangelicals, who make up 30% of the U.S. population liberal, secular or progressive?
Not true at all. There are intense campaigns in the west that correspond to this brewing religious zealotry. It’s not just an eastern or Muslim pheonomenon. Not to mention that Israel is a part of this. So if the religious revivalism is eastern or Muslim, then Israel is much closer to that than it is to the so-called secularism of the west (a claim I reject).
This too is patently false. It’s been completely devastated here as an argument. I’m not going to repeat myself ad nauseam. So stop with this hasbara nonsense. I have no more stomach for it.
In wide swaths of Orthodox communities all over the country this is absolutely false. In fact, an Israeli TV presenter was physically assaulted in Mea Shearim, while wearing modest garb.
Except when Lehava & its pogromists assault them, try to burn down their churches. While Muslim cannot worship as they please because Israel controls who is designated as a Muslim imam & rejects candidates it disapproves us. That is NOT religious freedom.
I would add some wisdom from our Buddhist friends, that nothing is permanent and the source of our suffering is our attachments. History waxes and wanes, nothing stays the same, and we never know whether anything in particular will lead to good or bad. There are events– and how we interpret them as “good” or “bad” — is in our heads.
So right now things are not going the way you want, maybe in the future they will. Or if they were going well know that would change too, since nothing is forever.
So we focus on doing what we can do but accept what is.
@ Yehuda: What an amazing mish-mash of faux Buddhism & Zionist cynicism!!
@Richard: But in your statements you truly look only at the half empty, and make that the “ikkar”. I am not just using pop psychology. But if there is an occasional or rare “newsworthy” incident of some sort, is that the reality or every day that it does NOT happen?. It’s like news in general. News is news because it’s the exception. We don’t have screaming headlines everyday saying “Today Nobody was Murdered”, or “Today there was no civil war in Sri Lanka”, or “A Jew did not kill an Arab today”, “There was no nuclear war today”, etc. What would be the result if you counted up all of the “good” headlines that are never published vs. the “real” headlines? You would conclude that things are better than they seem. This is not Polyannish. Is your criteria for when things are good, that “bad” acts go down to zero? All you can claim when you mention something bad that has happened is that the incidence is not zero.
“there are many more Jews who are frustrated with their religions…”
Are saying this with some backing?
It may feel that way to you since you are embedded in that world. But I don’t know what the evidence is for that objectively. We also know that very small minorities have more pressure and incentive to assimilate their identity with the dominant culture of their society. But if you look at the polls below you see that Christians are leaving their identity in large numbers. That is less evident for Muslims.
As far as trends in the Christian west and elsewhere– this is absolutely true and borne out but many surveys.
http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-33256561
http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/
I object to you calling me a racist or a liar for bringing objective facts by quoting respectable polls from credible sources. You can argue with the source, but I am not lying or being a racist for mentioning it.
As far as US wrongdoings, you conflate secular liberalism with “all good”. I didn’t say that “bad” is disappearing in the west and increasing elsewhere.
They are TRENDS, it doesn’t mean that the opposite doesn’t exist. Often, the extremist movements are a reaction to the mainstream change. This is definitely happening among Heredim, who slowly have been moving towards integration, with the violent resistance of a noisy but small minority.
@ Yehuda: How is that you managed to find the Pew poll which you claim shows Christians deserting their religion when the same company, Pew, published a widely-circulated poll showing the younger generation of Jews turning away from Israel and religiosity, becoming more secular. Further, it wouldn’t matter if half of Christians left Christianity. Compared to the number of Jews in the world it would be a drop in the bucket. We can’t afford to lose Jews, they can. It’s as simple as that.
You are a racist for making false, defamatory claims (not objective at all) about Islam and the west. Your claims are based on ignorance & prejudice. You may NOT spout such nonsense here. You have not brought any polls showing that the west is liberal, democratic & progressive compared to the rest of the world. YOu have not brought any polls showing that the east or Muslim world are any more backward or religiously conservative than the west.
I do not want to continue this debate. Do not comment further in this thread.
Mr. Silverstein, your reply goes at the heart of my reply,
you cannot discuss nor debate brainwashed people
your uphill conversation is no different than trying to convert a trump follower
samo samo
I have come to the view that the State of Israel has a much stronger TOOL/ARM than any atomic or similar destructive bomb, it is called JUDAISM
The true humble and pious judaism i grew up in and learned and lived is no more, current judaism is a gun to all our heads anyone or country who DARES issue a comment against the State of Israel is bludgeoned to death with the JUDAISM mechanism.
The judaism practiced nowadays in and by the State of Israel has zero to do with our ancestors’ religion, NONE
i live it day in day out in the belly of oozing racism that the State of Israel calls Judaism, whether it is against christians, arabs or even the hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians who were brought here just for the merit of their wombs not because of their Judaism.
When Judaism is used between jews to discriminate the positions of power and the levers of money, it is hypocrisy to view judaism as a faith or religion
For ten years I have lived across from a religious elementary school until this year classes where mixed (boys with girls) THIS YEAR THE ABHORRENT RACISM WAS MADE OFFICIAL BY SEPARATING THE ONES FROM THE OTHERS. what is obvious to the plain eyesight the attendance level has dropped by more than half.
I live in ashdod not mea shearim. this is RACISM PURE AND SIMPLE NOTHING TO DO WITH JUDAISM
THIS IS WHAT SAUDI ARABIA AND IRAN DO NOT WHAT ENLIGHTENED COUNTRIES DO
My grandparents and parents are twirling in their graves at the sight of this “Judaism”