We Are Family

Two colleagues and I arrived in Israel last Thursday morning for a week with the Hartman Institute.  We were headed to Jerusalem to meet the rest of our colleagues.  There was a line of cabs waiting at the airport.  My colleague headed toward a particular cab.  As he was starting to put his suitcases in the trunk (and on the roof of the cab), I noticed what was inside the cab.  Piles of books, plates, the remains of a few peppers.  I’m not a neat freak, but the pepper rinds on the passenger seat up front were a bit much for me.  I motioned to my friend, maybe we want to take another cab.  Meanwhile, his stuff was already in the trunk and the driver, a woman named Rachel, was saying, rega, rega – wait a minute, as she picked the pepper carcasses off the passenger seat.  And we got in and away we went.

                                My colleagues and I (back right) at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem

Along the way, she’s asking us questions, where are we from, what are we doing in Israel, she’s schmoozing and schmoozing.  About her family, about her trip to New York, how she hopes to get to the pool by 10 o’clock – she doesn’t swim for pleasure but for therapeutic reasons, she’s facing some economic challenges, etc.

By the time we were on the main highway to Jerusalem I knew a whole lot about her.

The endless conversation, the sharing of good and bad, the few remaining pepper seeds that I discovered underneath me, her pointing out of the shkeydiya – you see, she said, the almond tree blossoms really do bloom on Tu Bishvat - reinforced one thing for me.  That I was with family. 

The week I spent in Israel with over 20 rabbis at the Hartman institute was devoted to Jewish identity in Israel and in the US.  We discussed lots of challenges that face both communities which are in many ways very different from each other; Israeli Judaism by and large is becoming more nationalistic, more tribal, less open; American Judaism is becoming more assimilated, more universal, more open.

But one theme which emerged for me in Israel, which has repercussions in the US, is family. 

What does it mean to be with mishpacha?  The good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly – what does it mean?

One Day with the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem

I’m writing from Jerusalem where I’m participating in the second winter portion of the Rabbinic Leadership Initiative, a program for over twenty rabbis from varying ideological perspectives sponsored by the Shalom Hartman Institute.   In the past I’ve shared teachings and insights that I gleaned from my experience and recently Temple Israel hosted two other rabbis from the program, Rabba Sara Hurwitz and Rabbi David Ingber.

In order to give a sense of the depth and breadth of the program, I’d like to present a chronology, with minor descriptions, of most of the events that transpired on a single day.  Below is an account of my experience with the Hartman Institute on Monday, February 2, 2015.

8 am.  Breakfast with several of my colleagues and Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America.  Yehuda spoke with us about the inaugural year of a new program, a Gap Year for American and Israeli students that allows them to explore Jewish topics together and to engage in dialogue about the realities of American and Israeli life.  He told us that he is thrilled by the enthusiastic engagement of North American Israeli teens that he has witnessed.

9 am.  Study and discussion of Jewish sources from Bible to Zohar that deal with the theme of universalism and particularism in Jewish thought.  Unfortunately the scheduled instructor, Dr. Melila Hellner-Eshed, Professor of Jewish mysticism and Zohar at Hebrew University, was unable to teach due to the death of her husband the night before.  Dr. Biti Roi, a Lecturer in Jewish Mysticism at Hebrew University, filled in for her colleague after offering a brief reflection about Melila’s husband and leading us in the chanting, in his memory, of a medieval poem about the soul.  We made plans to pay a shiva call to Melila. The subsequent study and discussion raised questions that we applied to contemporary Jewish life.  How is the Jewish experience of God and history unique?  What are the parameters of our loyalty to our people specifically and to humanity overall?

With my colleagues at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem