This morning we went shopping for Shabbat. Wow! Friday early morning at Mahane Yeduah – the outdoor market in Jerusalem also known as the shuk –it is like no other experience in the world! (Be prepared for a lot of exclamation points in this entry!)
How does one describe the shuk ? To experience the shuk is to truly experience Israel. It is so full – full with fresh foods, full with lively colors, full of shoppers pushing and maneuvering for position, full of store keepers hawking their wares.
There is so much intensity, so much vibrancy in the shuk – colors, noises, smells, -- everything is heightened and intensified. The foods are fresh and abundant and so in your face – not wrapped in plastic or hidden on a shelf – they are right there – to taste, to smell to touch.
“Try this!” – shouts one spice dealer as he shoves a spoonful of a mixture for salads with raisins and herbs and nuts in your face. “Carrot salad, please.” “Which one?” – the seller shouts? “Which do you have?” “Spicy, sweet, with lemons, with raisins – here try them, in fact why not take them all?” Next to me a man is buying his fish – fresh for Shabbat – feeling each one, judging their perfection.
So much noise, so many colors, so much movement and activity – so full of life. That is what I love about the shuk – it is life lived intensely. In the span of a minute the shopkeeper will yell at you, laugh with you and educate you. Transactions are not the passive exchange of goods for money but the passionate exchange of opinions and experience and life!
Why purchase fruit from this vendor when right across the way is the same fruit but no line?? “What do you mean the same fruit? How dare you compare my fruit to his fruit!”
“I would like some halava please.” The seller laughs at me – what kind of halava? Coffee halava? Pistachio halava? Chocolate halava? And the list goes on and on – “Here try them all – and then decide!”
The packages get heavier, the crowds get more insistent. It is not easy to live life this way – always on the edge, always at the top of the register – always shouting and pushing for space, for air for the best, the freshest – but it is so alive, it is so irresistible - almost hypnotic. Who would not want to be a part of such a life? Who would not rather shop this way, live this way? Do I prefer to wander in a stupor down the air conditioned aisles of a supermarket – lulled by the sweet sounds of soft music – everything organized and properly placed for optimum convenience and for your shopping pleasure? Here it is all chaos, all choices, everything vying for your attention, your approval. Indifference is not an option in the shuk . Boredom is not an option. Passivity is not one of the alternatives Choices must be made. Decisions must be rendered. Life must be lived.
I love this place! This is how the story of life is told when Jews are the authors. This is how life is lived when Jews do the living. I need a break! And then back out to finish our shopping!
Shabbat Shalom
Alan
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When our kids didn’t write often from camp Edy and I told each other that as much as we would like to hear from them – it was something to be happy about, because it probably meant they were having such a good time they didn’t have time to write! I hope you will extend to me the same benefit of the doubt. I have not been as conscientious about my blog entries as I might have intended, but my excuse is not that I don’t love you (as my kids might have said) but, we are literally on the go from early in the morning until late at night and it is hard to find the requisite quiet time to compose my thoughts.
Our program is now at its halfway point. It has been everything I could have hoped for and more – challenging, inspiring, thoughtful and filled with fellowship and the joy of learning. Each morning we begin with a hevruta study period – reviewing the sources prepared for us and then followed by the scholar of the day’s lecture.
I told you about some of the luminaries we studied with at the beginning – allow me to bring you up to date. Over the past few days we have studied with Noam Zion, David Ellenson, Arnie Eisen, Israel Knoll and Donniel and David Hartman.
Noam Zion is a wonderful teacher and the author of the popular Haggadah that I have recommended for years: A Different Night- The Family Participation Haggadah. Rabbi Friedman and I have been speaking to him about the possibility of his coming in as a scholar in residence at TBS in the next year or so – he is a marvelous teacher.
David Ellenson is the president of the Hebrew Union College and of course Arnie Eisen is the new Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary. They had a wonderful evening of dialogue on the challenges that confront our Movements in North America. Arnie made us all proud – he was a true visionary, dynamic and profound. He laid out a very exciting program for the revitalization of Conservative Judaism and I am proud as a member of his Rabbinic Cabinet that we at TBS are going to be right at the heart of that revitalization.
Israel Knoll is the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of bible at Hebrew University and his presentation was a fascinating analysis of the First Biblical Story on Tikkun Olom. It is always amazing when you can take a story you have read and studied dozens of times before and in the hands of a skilled and talented scholar see it anew and from a totally different perspective.
This morning Donniel Hartman tied a lot of what we had been exploring together in his lecture on NIMBY – Jewish Sources on Not In My Back Yard syndrome. Using everything from the Talmud, the Rambam’s Mishne Torah , The Book of Esther and so forth he set forth a fascinating dialectic between a life that promotes your own legitimate needs and one that is concerned for the welfare of others beyond yourself. In fact, I was thinking these sources might make the basis of a wonderful Adult Ed Course – I know that Florence Meyers is waiting for my summary for my course for this Fall's Herbert Tarr Institute – I think I might have something for you, Florence!
On Tuesday we took a break from our studies – a tuches can take only so much – and we were able to choose from a number of tiyulim or trips to various parts of the country. I chose a tiyul to Har Gilboa up near Beit Shean in the Galil. The Gilboa was the sight of the Biblical battle where Saul and his three sons’ were killed in the fight with the Philistines. The views from the top are breathtaking, the walk was challenging and we also studied the relevant chapters of the Bible during our breaks!
Your intrepid Rabbi with Rabbi Neil Cooper of Wynewood, Pa. -- an old and dear friend.
The Hartman Tiyul Group
At the end we took an unforgettable walk through Nahal Kibbutzim which is about a half hour walk in a small river where the entire time the water is up to your neck!
Thirty rabbis, walking through water up to their neck -- that was a sight to behold. After the very hot hike the cold water was truly a mehiyah (even if the cleanliness was not exactly up to Roslyn standards.)
We have also found time to take in the Jerusalem Film Festival – tonight we are meeting friends for dinner at a hot new steak restaurant located, in of all places, Mahaneh Yehuda(!) and then to see a Spanish Movie titled: The Other (with English subtitles I hope!) If you are interested in knowing more about the movie, you can check it out at: http://www.jff.org.il/?CategoryID=255&ArticleID=23. Last week we saw a movie called Persipolis http://www.jff.org.il/?CategoryID=257&ArticleID=167 an animated French feature that dealt with a young girls journey in Iran from before the fall of the Shah until she flees to France as a young woman.
I must say Israel is a very different place this summer than it was last summer! Last summer we were in the midst of a war! We were all riveted to our television screens watching the daily bombardment of missiles in the North. This summer, it is life – back to normal. Israelis are nothing if not resilient.
Today was the end of the RTS – the Hartman program that invites hundreds of rabbis each year without any commitment. Now, we are left with the hard core 30 of us in the RLI – the Rabbinic Leadership Institute that makes up the Hartman Fellows program I explained below. It will be a little lonelier without all the others – but now the focus will be wholly on us and I expect things to ratchet up a notch (as if it were possible to get any more intense that it already was.)
There are no classes tomorrow (Friday) but Professor Lee Levine is giving a lecture on the Second Temple Period and taking a group on a trip to the Second Temple Model which is now located at the Hebrew Museum. I studied this material with Prof. Levine 30 years ago when I was a student at the Hebrew University and I am curious to see if the field has changed much since then!
I have spoken to Susan and Alan Zelman who are here as part of a JTSA Study Mission that is being led by Chancellor Eisen. I hope to connect with them on Motzei Shabbat and hear all about their experiences.
So, all continues to go more than well here in Israel and I hope the same is true of you back home. Until next time!
Alan
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July 6, 2007
It is hard to believe we are getting ready for our second Shabbat – but so it is!
It has been a wonderful, exciting, stimulating, and exhausting week. So much to do, so much to study, so many people to speak to – and so little time in a day. And even with that we find that we have waking up early and going to sleep very late. We are looking forward to some welcome Shabbat rest!
While the essence of the Hartman program is learning at the highest levels with some of the finest contemporary Jewish scholars – the subject matter is not incidental. This year the theme is Foundations for a Thoughtful Judaism - Tikun Olam : Judaism and the Global Reality.
Much is now being made of the focus on environmental themes like Global warming and conservation. The question we are confronting in our studies here, is, how do we as Jews speak about this subject? As rabbis do we merely parrot what we read in the pages of the New York Times? Or is there an authentic Jewish vocabulary for discussing environmental concerns and are there historical Jewish sources that give us a unique perspective and a Jewish way to frame this discussion?
A normal day of study begins with a shiur – a study session where we are all gathered around tables in the beautiful and majestic Beit Hamidrash. The lecturer for that day outlines his or her goals and points us to the materials that he or she has prepared for us. For the next several hours we study in hevruta – in twos and threes in the traditional style of Jewish textual learning – we study the traditional sources that have been selected – translating them and arguing over their possible meanings and implications. At around 11:00 AM the professor comes back and gives an almost two hour presentation on the subject using his or her sources to build his or her case.
For example on the very first day we studied with Dr. Moshe Halbertal, the Hartman Institute’s most senior fellow, who has a PhD in Jewish thought from the Hebrew University where he is currently teaching. (photo at left) He also serves as the Gruss Professor at NYU Law School having previously served as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Moshe explored with us some very fundamental questions of what does Tikun Olam mean. We studied the sources from its very earliest appearance in the mishna and Talmud through the Middle Ages and how it was used by Maimonides and other early rabbinic sources. The next day the lecturer was Menachem Lorberbaum who has a PhD in philosophy from the Hebrew University and chairs Tel Aviv University’s Department of Hebrew Culture Studies. He is author of many significant works on the subject of Jewish Political Thought. With him we explored the meaning of universalism and particularism in Judaism.
On Wednesday, the Shiur was conducted by David Hartman himself. (photo at right) David is a leading contemporary Jewish philosopher and he explored the problematic history of some difficult Jewish texts that run counter to a concern for the world. There were many periods when Jews where literally more concerned about their own survival than any more ambitious broad worldly concerns. These texts present us with unique challenges because there are Jewish communities today (mostly in the ultra-Orthodox world) that prefer to quote these sources rather than embracing a more open and outward expression of their Judaism. Knowing these sources and wrestling with them is an important aspect for those of us who wish to orient Judaism in a more open and outward posture.
On Thursday we studied with Melila Hellner-Eshed who has a PhD in Jewish mysticism from the Hebrew University. Melila teaches Jewish mysticism at the Hebrew University and she is a central figure in the Israeli renaissance of Jewish textual study. She presented us with some wonderful medieval mystical texts from the Zohar and elsewhere that are a delightful way that Jews looked at their world as being a place that needs to contstantly be in balance and that contstantlu needs human correction becasue it is forever being placed in vrious forms of imbalance due to human neglect or worse.
The challenge in each generation is to restore the balance. It is a wonderful and exciting Jewish vocabulary that enables us to embrace contemporary discussions of environmentalism in uniquely Jewish ways.
These brief capsules of what I have been doing do not do justice to the richness of the studies, the joy of the companionship formed in study with colleagues and the level of genius and insight offered by this collection of scholars.
Each day we think it cannot get better or more inspiring – and somehow it does. Interspersed are other lectures by the likes of Steve Cohen -- one of the leading sociologists of American Jewry – whom we hosted at TBS last year and David Hartman and Donniel Hartman (photo at right) and roundtable sessions where this wonderful collection of rabbis from around the world get a chance to share and learn from each other.Edy and I still found time last night to go to the opening of the Jerusalem Film Festival which was held outdoors at Sultan’s Pool and topped off with fire works!
Opening night at the Jerusalem Film Festival
Tonight our group of 27 Hartman Fellows and their spouses are invited for Shabbat dinner at Donniel and Adina Hartman’s home.
It has been a most wonderful week – filled with sweet Jerusalem air, the wonderful joy of study with friends and colleagues and the inspiration of some of contemporary Judaism’s finest minds.
Did I hear some of you say that this is not your idea of fun?
Reminds me of the story the Moshe Halbertal shared with us – which he said that his grandfather once told him. His grandfather – a very pious Jew – once remarked that the idea that when you die people go to different places depending on whether they were righteous or wicked is nonsense!
Little Moshele was surprised – because this was indeed what he had been taught in heder !
“No!” said his zayde, “everyone goes to the same place – it is a large Beit Midrash (Study Hall) filled with every kind of Jew – and they hand out Talmuds to everyone – and they all study from morning to night.
For the righteous it is heaven and for the wicked it is hell!
While clearly laying no claims to righteousness – I will say that this is a little piece of heaven right here on earth!
To each and every one of you – Shabbat Shalom and I look forward to sharing our continuing experiences in Jerusalem after Shabbat.
With warmest regards
Alan
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Wednesday July 4, 2007
Well, happy July 4 everyone! It is always strange being in Israel for an American holiday. To be in Israel is to share a rhythm of Jewish life and Israeli life that you miss by living in the States – but, it also means missing the rhythm of life we have come to be framiliar with – and that is certainly the case on days like July 4!
My program has begun in earnest and the challenge now is to find the time to update this blog. The first couple of days have begun at 8:30 AM and continued till late at night. We are bombarded with great thinkers, fascinating topics and challenging issues. Here is the schedule for the first couple of weeks:
Rabbinic Leadership Initiative – RLI III
July 2 – 12, 2007
Theme:
Tikkun Olam – Judaism and the Global Reality
Monday, July 2
11:00 - 12:00 Registration
12:00 - 12:20 Welcome Bill Berk, Sharon Laufer
12:20 - 13:00 Introduction Donniel Hartman
13:00 - 14:00 Opening Lunch
14:00 - 16:00 Opening Lecture: What Does Tikkun Olam Mean? Moshe Halbertal
14:00 – 15:00 Welcome for spouses Sharon Laufer
Please choose one elective for the entire week
16:00 – 17:30 Shlomo Naeh
16:00 – 17:30 'Black sun:' Moshe and Iyyov - Avivah Zornberg
16:00 – 17:30 1943: From the Jew-Zone to the New Zone - David Roskies
16:00 – 17:30 - Ariel Picard
16:00 – 17:30 - Melila Hellner
17:30 – 19:00 A New Tikkun for Israeli Policy - Gidi Grinstein
19:00 - 20:00 Dinner
20:00 An Evening with David Hartman David Hartman
21:00 Dessert Reception – Meet your colleagues
Tuesday, July 3 (17th of Tammuz)
08:30 - 10:15 Hevruta Introduction Menachem Lorberbaum
10:30 - 11:15 Havurot
11:15 - 13:00 Shiur: The Problematics of Tikkun Olam - Election -Menachem Lorberbaum
13:00 - 14:00 Break, Mincha & optional Lunch
14:00 - 15:45 Electives
18:30 – 20:00 Lecture & Response: The Realities of North American Jewry: The “Inconvenient Truth” - Steven M. Cohen - Respondent: Donniel Hartman
20:15 – 20:45 Dinner (fast ends at 8:15 pm)
20:45 Evening Lecture: The Tribes of Israel Society - Donniel Hartman
Wednesday, July 4
08:30 - 10:30 Hevruta: Introduction - David Hartman
11:00 - 13:00 Shiur: The Problematics of Tikkun Olam: Jews and Non-Jews - David Hartman
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
14:00 - 15:30 Electives
16:00 – 18:00 CENTER FOR RABBINIC ENRICHMENT - GRADUATION CEREMONY FOR RLI II
Free evening
Thursday, July 5
08:30 - 10:15 Hevruta: Introduction - Melila Hellner
10:30 - 11:15 Havurot
11:15 - 13:00 Shiur: Tikkun Olam in Kabbalah Melila Hellner
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
14:00 - 15:30 Electives
16:00 Round Table I: “Getting to know you”
Opening event of the Jerusalem Film Festival
Friday, July 6
Free Day
20:30 Shabbat dinner at the home of Donniel & Adina Hartman, Shimshon Street
Saturday, July 7
Free Day
Sunday, July 8
08:30 - 10:30 Hevruta: Introduction - Noam Zion
10:30 - 11:15 Havurot
11:15 - 13:00 Shiur: Tzedek vs. Tzedakah: Economic Justice and Social Honor - Noam Zion
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
Please choose one elective for the entire week
14:00 - 15:45 Nehama Verbin
14:00 - 15:45 Tending the World – The environment in Mussar Yoni Garb
14:00 - 15:45 Transformations in Liberal Jewish thought - Rachel Shabbat
14:00 - 15:45 - Moshe Halbertal
14:00 - 15:45 Economic Justice in the context of Isaiah's thought - Ben Sommer
Monday, July 9
08:30 - 10:30 Hevruta Introduction - David Ellenson
11:00 - 13:00 Shiur: Tikkun Olam in Modern Jewish Thought - David Ellenson
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
14:00 - 15:30 Electives
16:00 Wine and Cheese followed by Author’s Tisch: 5 authors from the Machon talk about their books in small groups - Avi Sagi, Ariel Picard, Zvi Mark, Adiel Schremer, Yair Lorberbaum
Tuesday, July 10
Differing times depending on tiyul chosen return to Jerusalem no later than 17:00
Four tiyulim – choose one
1) Social justice in Tel Aviv
2) Hike – Har Gilboa with biblical commentary
3) Israel’s minorities
4) Are We in the Bible? Contemporary Archeological Debates: Tour of the brand new excavation at Safrit (Goliath’s home town) with archeologist, Aharon Meir
20:00 – 21:30 "Sacred Envy & North American Jewry:
What Tikkunim Still Need to be Made?” - David Ellenson, Arnie Eisen
Wednesday, July 11
08:30 - 10:15 Hevruta: Introduction - Israel Knohl
10:30 - 11:15 Havurot
11:15 - 13:00 Shiur: Jewish Obligations to the Physical World —exploring the Tanach and Talmud - Israel Knohl
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
14:00 - 15:30 Electives - Nehama Verbin
16:00 Round Table: Three Years at Machon Hartman
19:00 – 20:00 Dinner and Presentation of SHI North American Initiatives
20:00 Evening with Yossi Klein Halevi, author of At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew's Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land and Father Emil Shoufani, Archimandrite Arab-born Catholic priest from Nazareth. Followed by dessert reception
Thursday, July 12
08:30 - 10:30 Hevruta and Evaluations: Introduction -Donniel Hartman
11:15 - 13:00 Shiur - “Not in My Backyard?”—Reflections on the Image of Moshe, Eliyahu, Moredechai, Esther, and Shimon bar Yochai (Closing session for RTS & RLI II) - Donniel Hartman
13:00 - 14:00 Closing Lunch
Closing remarks by David Hartman and Donniel Hartman
As you can see it is quite ambitious. I will try and share my first impressions as soon as I get a second – but for now things are more than wonderful and I have to get going so I am not late for classes. I hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing 4th.
With love,
Alan
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As I mentioned, one of my intentions this summer is to seek out “mitzvah opportunities” and be your shaliach – your agent to support worthwhile but unsung mitzvah heroes here in Israel. We all support the major causes like UJA, JTS, Israel bonds, JNF, JDC etc etc – as well we should. These are the organized face of Jewish life and these critical organizations meet the ever growing needs of a diverse Jewish community. But, here and there are good people doing important things where a little financial support goes a long way to healing a broken world. One such example is Yitz Feigenbaum whom I had the pleasure to meet yesterday. Mitzvah Man Danny Siegel called me and said, “Can you be at my apartment at 3PM – there is someone you have to meet!”
Yitz Feigenbaum is next to me, and Danny Siegel is on the left.
When Danny calls I can never say no. Yitz is a cheerful easy going 40 something who in was from his home up at Kibbut Merav in the Galil. A native of Cleveland, Ohio he and his wife made aliya a while ago. The Kibbutz was looking for ways to expand its reach and impact when they came up with the idea of opening Beit Hayeled, a home for troubled children who have been removed from their families by the court system due to neglect or abuse. Yitz together with Irit, the kibbutz rabbi’s wife, serve as the “house parents” for Beit Hayeled and for the past 13 years or so, have taken in some 18 of Israel’s toughest children (no more than 10 at any given time) in an attempt to give then a new life and a second chance. You can read more about Yitz and Beit Hayeled in Danny’s Ziv Tzedakkah Fund 2007 annual report on page 6, but this is an incredible man, who gives these kids everything a parent should give their own children: love, discipline, a good education, professional psychological counseling when needed and on and on. If the kids need bikes – Yitz finds the money to buy them bikes. If they need orthodontia he figures a way to finagle them orthodontia. The government gives them stipends for their basic needs but as all of us who are parents know – the basics do not cover what kids really need. Yitz promised these kids what every parent would promise their own kids – we will give you whatever you need to succeed. If you do well in school, we will even send you to college! Of course once he made these promises he had to figure out how he was going to make good on them. His promises came from his heart, but their fulfillment will come from our pocket books! We are the ones who can help their dreams become reality by providing the funds for art lessons, summer camp, college, in short “all the things kids need to grow up feeling loved and accepted...”
Yitz and Irit are literally redeeming lives and through our support of Ziv Tzedakkah Fund which gave them almost $40,000 last year and the additional $500 check I gave Yitz yesterday from our TBS rabbis fund which you so generously support during the year—we are able to play a small support role in Yitz and Irit’s life saving work. Sisterhood -- part of this was from the money you gave me to disperse in Israel -- I hope you will agree it was well spent! Stay tuned for more "mitzvah opportunities"!
B'yedidut
Alan
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