Tonight is Kol Nidre, one of the holiest nights of the Jewish year, and beginning of the Yom Kippur holy day. Jews congregate in shuls and synagogues to hear the cantor sing the resonant prayer in which God relieves us of our sins of the past year. Though I belong to a synagogue, I will not be there.
I once was an observant Jew. I kept kosher, davened every Shabbat in shul. Celebrated all the holidays. I studied Judaica for two years at the Hebrew University and earned a Bachelor of Hebrew Literature.
I will not be in shul tonight. Or likely any other night, though I would return for family events such as weddings, bar mitzvah or funerals. I love the Jewish family. I do not love Jewish communal institutions. I do not love what Israel has become–or what it has always been.
To be clear, I am not alienated from Judaism or its values. Those I hold close to my heart–always. I respect those who do worship on Yom Kippur and hope their prayers are heard in heaven.
The following Biblical passage resonates with me. Here, Isaiah rails aganist the hypocrisy of a fast shorn of moral commitment: (58:5):
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
“Is not rather the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter– when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”
As Israel has betrayed these values, becoming an apartheid, Judeo-supremacist terror state, the organized Jewish community has stood back and murmured dissent only in the few instances when it was directly insulted or attacked by Israeli officials. Otherwise, it maintains ominous silence in the face of Israeli terror and genocide. It has been captured by the siren song of Israeli hyper-nationalism. It is powerless to act. Or lack any will to do so.
I cannot associate myself with a community which maintains a bankrupt moral position in the face of this betrayal of the Jewish values I know 80% of American Jews profess. As Israel descends into a moral maelstrom, we have become accomplices in its crimes against humanity. We have lost our Jewish souls.
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Well said and reflects the views of many people.
🙌 You express much of my feelings about hypocrisy of the orthodox observant Judaism I was required to practice for love and acceptance. That observance soothed a lot, too much, and falsely. I would not wish to be anything other than Jewish, ethnically but in a secular and seeking way, my own . Seeking is Jewish for me. Learning is too. Rejection of the immoral is too. I am distanced from hypocritical observances and allegiances. This was and still is painful. On this holiday you arrive with your integrity in tact in my opinion from a long journey. May you feel no guilt now.
Richard
TY for articulating & sharing what I have long felt about the Organized Jewish religion that have loost its SOUL!
I like 58: 8 in particular
…אז יבקע כשחר אורך וארכתך מהרה תצמח”
URI
Isn’t most of American Jewry reform? Don’t they hold similar views to yours?
Surely you can find a suitable community in Seattle?
@Shmuel: yes the majority are Reform. But Reform Judaism is largely liberal Zionist. Not my cup of tea.
I have lived in five US cities. Each one had a single synagogue I would consider somewhat progressive liturgically and usually less so politically. But that is simply not enough to keep me engaged in institutional Judaism.
What does davening in shul and wrapping tefillin daily and keeping kosher and shabbos have to do with the State of Israel?
Nothing really.
So why are blaming Israel for you’re having decided to forego all of the above.
@ Q: What does Judaism have to do with Israel? “Nothing really” you said. Quite an interesting perspective, I should think.
I’m blaming American Jewish communal cowardice in the face of Israeli apartheid and fascism for my alienation from communal institutions. Apparently the nuance is too complex for you to understand.
I said, “What does davening in shul and wrapping tefillin daily and keeping kosher and shabbos have to do with the State of Israel?”
I would add that wearing a kippah and tallit and reading daily the parasha and daf yomi, also have nothing to do with the State of Israel insofar as our observant grandfathers did all of the above before the State of Israel even existed.
If your honest, Richard, you’d admit that forty or fifty or sixty years ago, Israel was just as fascistic and racist as it is today, yet, those were precisely the times when you were more observant.
You can even be totally honest with yourself and admit that you forego the strictures of halakhic Judaism because they are too restrictive or cumbersome or old fashioned or embarrassing.
Stop blaming Israel or the Jewish community for your decisions to lead a secular life.
@ Q: One comment per thread if you choose to comment in other threads.
Israel is a theocracy and you have the chutzpah to say that this desecration of Judaism has nothing to do with Israel??
I am honest. But you will not tell me what I have to admit. 50 or 60 years ago there was hope that Israel could be something different. Something liberal, enlightened. Despite the sins of its founding. So no, it wasn’t as racist or fascistic as it is now. You do know that every media report on its current government declares it is the most extreme, most racist government in the country’s history. So no, not as racist by any means.
Don’t you dare presume to know the thoughts in my head and don’t you dare tell me what I should do or think or say “to be totally honest with myself.” Don’t you dare. I am not alienated from Judaism. I said that and you choose to ignore it. I have not abandoned anything in Judaism. I have abandoned the Jewish communal leadership and its institutions. There is a difference. ONly someone arguing in bad faith as you are would delibaretly misconstrue my argument.
Zionism murdered Judaism by transforming Judaism into a program of genocide.
@ Jonathan: Zionism can pervert Judaism and exploit it. But it cannot murder Judaism because it is better and larger than Zionism. Nor is “Judaism” a “program of genocide. Israel may be. But Judaism is not. I do not permit Judeo-thugs to define Judaism. They are not Jews and what they practice is not Judaism. It is pagan idolatry.