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AND THEY ALL PRAYED TOGETHER
by Yair Sheleg, Haaretz, March 28, 2005
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CIRCLE OF FRIENDS:
The group's meeting in
Jerusalem last week.
The human encounter
was more important
than ideological dia-
logue, they all said.
(Tomer Appelbaum / Ba)
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About two months ago, an unusual event took place
in the religious Kibbutz Shluhot: A group of young leaders — Orthodox, Conservative,
Reform and secular — met for the first time to spend Shabbat together. It
wasn't a simple matter, since as we know, the prayer customs in the various denominations
do not coincide. The participants faced many dilemmas, with not only the Orthodox
finding it difficult to give up their principles.
Hila Tuchmacher Mishali, the coordinator of the communities division (activity
for special sectors, such as new immigrants) at the Midrasha for Jewish studies
at Oranim College, which belongs to the kibbutz movement, is proud to say: "If
it is always clear in a meeting between religious and secular Jews that the secular
Jew is the one who has to compromise because the religious Jew cannot, there it
was clear that the Orthodox were also compromising in order to be with us."
The Orthodox members of the group, from the hesder yeshiva (which combines
Torah study and army service) at the religious Kibbutz Ma'aleh Gilboa, explain
that they did not compromise in terms of formal halakha (Jewish religious law),
but boundaries were definitely stretched in a manner going beyond what is common
in Orthodox society.
For example, women participated in the prayer as cantors, after the Orthodox participants
explained that from their point of view the prayer would not be considered a minyan
(a prayer quorum, which requires at least 10 males over the age of 13), but as
individual prayer (another reason being that there were not 10 men present). The
Orthodox participants were not called up for the Torah reading at this "minyan,"
but they did serve as Torah readers.
What is interesting is that in conversation with them, the Orthodox contingent
does not feel a need to emphasize their doubts regarding the details of the Shabbat,
and the "concession" they made. They made it clear that even during
their participation in the regular meetings of the group (which do not take place
on Shabbat), did not involve any prolonged suffering.
That in itself is evidence of the changes taking place in the liberal wing of
religious Zionism (of which the yeshiva in Ma'aleh Gilboa is one of the prominent
institutions), in which meetings with other denominations are today considered
entirely natural, and there is even a rapprochement concerning content, at least
when it comes to the Conservative movement.
Type of game
Matan Rivkin, a graduate of the yeshiva in Ma'aleh Gilboa, who today is studying
at the Siah Yitzhak yeshiva in the settlement of Efrat, says, "My main dilemmas
with regard to Shabbat were not halakhic, but more spiritual-emotional. For me,
women are not part of the minyan, but I have no problem praying with
women. The more significant problem was that I am used to considering prayer as
standing before God, and it was difficult for me to turn the prayer into a social
experiment. It seemed to me like a type of game."
On the other hand, Ofer Shabbat Beit Halachmi, a rabbinical student at the Reform
Hebrew Union College, does see a need for emphasizing the profound concession
made by him and his friends for the sake of having the Shabbat: "From our
point of view, it was a major concession to accept the fact that things that we
consider fundamental, such as counting the women as part of the minyan, are not
taken seriously by them."
Michel Schlesinger, who is studying in the rabbinical program of the Conservative
movement, believes on the other hand that "the fact that we moved toward
each other, and created an `average,' is not a compromise. On the contrary, the
success in doing so is an achievement."
Tuchmacher emphasizes that she even feels enriched from the Shabbat. "For
me, it's an expansion of my identity. I participate in the Kabbalat Shabbat ("welcoming
Shabbat") services at the Nigun Halev congregation [a secular congregation,
which conducts Kabbalat Shabbat services in Moshav Nahalal] but there it's only
an hour and a half, once every two weeks. Here there's an option of expanding
this spiritual experience for more time during the course of Shabbat. So as a
secular woman, I take advantage of my right to choose that not all my Shabbats
will be like that, but the very opportunity to experience such a Shabbat is strong."
True colleagues
The Shabbat in Kibbutz Shluhot was the high point of a project called Amitay Emet
(True colleagues), which has existed for almost six years. In the context of the
project, 12 people who are defined as "young leaders" of the four denominations
that exist in the land of Jewish identity (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and
secular) meet once a month to study together and to discuss issues in the fields
of Judaism.
In effect, the present group is already the third session of the project - since
each group operated for two years - and the first to spend a Shabbat together.
The Conservative and Reform participants are students in the rabbinical tracks
of the two movements. The Orthodox participants are students in the kollel (the
program for older and married students) at the Ma'aleh Gilboa yeshiva, and the
secular participants are leaders of the Midrasha for Jewish studies in Oranim.
The meetings take place alternately at the learning institutions of the various
groups, with the students also meeting each time with the spiritual leaders of
the host institution and sector. Last week, the group was the guests of the Schechter
Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, the home of the rabbinical seminary
of the Conservative movement.
The entire project began at the initiative of Rabbi Naamah Kelman, one of the
leaders of the Reform movement in Israel. Kelman says the idea was born from a
longstanding feeling of frustration over the fact that "there are dialogues
between the religious and the secular all the time, which totally ignore the non-Orthodox
movements."
Kelman is also the one who suggested that the meetings include rabbinical students
and young leaders, rather than veteran rabbis, "so that they can internalize
the dialogue already from the beginning of their careers." She brought in
Rabbi David Golinkin, chair of the Institute of Applied Halakha of the Conservative
movement in Israel, and Moti Zeira, head of the Midrasha at Oranim. Zeira, for
his part, enlisted the rabbis of the Ma'aleh Gilboa yeshiva, with whom the Midrasha
has a longstanding connection (including the establishment of a joint beit midrash
called "Nigun").
Those who helped to fund the project (a stipend of $3,000 a year for each of the
participants) were American Jews enthusiastic about the program. During the first
four years, these were members of the UJA-Federation of New York, and in the past
two years, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago and the United Jewish
Communities of MetroWest (one of the prominent Jewish groups in New Jersey).
Rabbi Yehuda Gilad, one of the heads of the yeshiva in Ma'aleh Gilboa, says, "From
the beginning, we have been committed in our yeshiva to the idea of `commitment
alongside openness,' out of a belief that there is no contradiction between them.
However, I won't deny that we had doubts about these meetings, because in Israel,
at least, dialogue between the religious and the secular is more common than dialogue
with the non-Orthodox denominations. In the end, we decided to go for it, just
because we are confident of the halakhic commitment of our people, and we thought
that since in any case we are dealing with adult students who are planning to
be involved in education, it would be proper to enrich their world with such meetings."
Enjoying Tel Aviv
As is usual at such meetings, cross-denominational friendships are formed. Everyone
also wants to emphasize that the human encounter was much more important for them
than the ideological dialogue. Ziv Zeliger, a graduate of Ma'aleh Gilboa who is
today serving as a counselor for the young students at the yeshiva, defines himself
as a person "who usually hates Tel Aviv." But when Rabbi Igael Gurin-Malous,
one of the Conservative rabbis in the group, hosted them in his Tel Aviv congregation,
Zeliger learned to enjoy the city.
"It was Tel Aviv hosting comme il faut: fine coffee, excellent cakes,
a visit to the portrait exhibition on the City Hall building and a very interesting
meeting with Rabbi David Lazar [a Conservative rabbi who is considered radical
even by his own movement, for example, in marrying same-sex couples]."
In the first place, the goal of the program was also to create a joint educational
project for members of all the denominations, such as the writing of a learning
program on Judaism. To date, none of the groups has succeeded in formulating such
a program — Golinkin believes this is due not only to differences in approach,
but mainly to the geographical distances and to a lack of money for an educational
project.
Kelman dreams that the dialogue will give rise to a model that already exists
in the United States, of joint programs for training rabbis as "spiritual
caregivers" in distressing situations, on the assumption that in these areas
the differences between the religious denominations is of no significance. The
members of the group themselves are talking about a joint program for Jewish studies
for the underprivileged, but admit that they are still far from this goal.
No politics
What is particularly interesting is the absence of political discourse from the
dialogue. Although the topic to which they dedicated their studies during the
first year was marriage, they testify that the political question of the status
of the non-Orthodox rabbis in this area hardly came up. Apparently this is related
to the fact that this is a dialogue between people who are interested in the spiritual
aspects, and do not deal with the political aspect of their movements, and perhaps
it is a more general characteristic of a generation that prefers personal and
spiritual issues to political ones.
Gurin-Malous: "We are not politicians. We have focused on the spiritual aspect.
In any case, those who have met with us are not relevant to the political discussion,
and anyway, I believe the question of equalizing status is relevant only after
we become familiar with each other's worlds."
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