Pardes

My second study program in Israel is through the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. I have heard great things about Pardes for years (really ever since I was a rabbinic student) and promised myself that if I ever had the chance to go sit and study in Israel, Pardes would be one of the places that I would go. Pardes is a place to go and immerse yourself in the study of classical Jewish texts, like Torah, Talmud, TaNaCH (Bible), Midrash, and Halakha. They welcome both men and women, from across the Jewish spectrum, and this is still pretty unusual in the world of Jewish text study - men and women studying together, and welcoming people of diverse backgrounds.

Both Pardes and Hartman are orthodox institutions, but they are welcoming to Jews from across the spectrum. I learned on the first day that Pardes does not consider itself a pluralistic institution, they will follow halacha, but you are free to do what you want. Of course, then you might decide to become more observant as a result of your experiences there. I really appreciate the opportunity to study here with very knowledgeable teachers and to look at things from a different perspective, and again to be learning with students from diverse backgrounds. It is taking me out of my comfort zone and challenging all of us to look at things in new ways and from new perspectives. And, I’m learning text and backgrounds to text in ways that are very different from my Reform rabbinical school training. Sometimes that is a bit unsettling, and in some cases continues to be so (particularly from my feminist perspective), and other times it was like a whole new window opening on something I thought I had understood before, and now have an additional understanding. That’s what it means to truly wrestle with the text. For my part, although other Reform rabbinic colleagues have studied at Pardes before me, I had a bit of trepidation about announcing myself as a Reform rabbi, but found that people accepted me pretty much without issue.

Most of the students at Pardes tend to be younger - college students or post-college studying in the year program, but during the summer programs there are more older students. In my group there are about 1/3 my age or older, and 2/3 are twenty-somethings. This group is a mix from the US, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, and Israel. Interestingly, there are more women than men (or maybe not so much since it’s harder for women to find programs that welcome them). Many come from day school backgrounds, but there are some beginners as well. I am really energized by the fact that there are both young and older people who take their Judaism seriously enough to devote their time and money to coming to sit and study text over their summer break - it gives me hope for the future of the Jewish people. Sometimes I get very depressed over the lack of interest or knowledge within the Jewish community of North America.

The theme for this summer session is “Israel is Real”. I’m finding the approach here to be very different from Hartman, which is good, considering that the themes are very similar. Classes are also yeshiva-style, meaning that we spend some time with the teacher giving introductions and instructions for the materials, and then we sit in the bet midrash in chevruta (traditionally Jewish texts are learned aloud with a partner) and learn the texts together. During this time our teacher is in the bet midrash to offer help and assistance. My Talmud class is “Eretz Yisrael in Halacha and Aggada, through the lens of the last chapter of Ketubot; My TaNaCH class is “The Ideal State”, a view of Israel during the time of King Shlomo’s reign, and the attempt to build an ideal state, (maybe it will give us some insights about modern attempts) as we read the book of Melachim.

Oud

Many people asked “What is that musical instrument that you are going to be learning in Israel on your sabbatical journey?” So, if you’re wondering what an oud is, you’re not alone. The oud is popular in the middle east, but not so much in the midwestern United States. In fact, my oud teacher was a bit surprised to hear from a woman in Indiana who wanted to learn the oud. I became interested in the oud from hearing middle eastern musicians over the years and Israel is a good place to learn. The oud is a stringed instrument that is one of the most popular instruments in middle eastern music. There are two types of ouds, Arab-style and Turkish-style. The oud is played with a plectrum or risha, and the neck of the instrument is bent back at at 90 degree angle, is much shorter than the body and has no frets. This allows the player to use microtones which are common in Arabic maqams (melodic modes), and to increase musical expression with vibrato and slides. The most common series of strings are a double course of five strongs plus a sixth single course or drone string. The bowl of the instrument is shaped like half of a watermelon and is made up of small staves that are glued together. Structurally this makes it very resonant and also an extremely lightweight instrument and therefore more fragile, much more so than the guitar. The European lute is a descendant of the oud.

Learning to play the oud is in some ways taking me back to my musical roots, and in some ways taking me out of my comfort zone. I have had to try and remember music theory that I learned half a lifetime ago and seems to be back there under a lot of cobwebs. Although I have played guitar for more than 30 years, I am learning how to find the notes on a fretless neck. I am learning to listen closely for the sounds of the Arabic modal system, very different from the Western scales. And, in a summer that is full - full of opportunities for growth and learning, for studying text, and exploring Jerusalem, and spending precious time with my family, all of these new skills require practice time. Thankfully, my oud teacher is very patient with me! I have had several oud lessons now and am slowly learning - I am still a beginning student, but I love it. The music of the oud has so many dimensions to it, such a depth and resonance.

Our trip to the North - Galilee and Golan

This past week we’ve been traveling in the Northern part of Israel. We’re staying on the Northwest side of the Kinneret (Sea of Galillee). The kids have especially enjoyed swimming in the warm waters of the Kinneret, which is Israel’s largest body of fresh water and is the source of drinking water for the whole country.

We visited many interesting archaeological excavations in the Galilee and the Golan Heights - the Bet Alpha synagogue, which has a beautiful mosaic tile floor depicting the Akedat Yitzchak, and the signs of the Zodiac; the Baram synagogue, one of the best preserved ancient synagogues, dating back to the third century CE. Its carved archways and columns bear witness to thriving community that was once here. The main central arch is now in the Louvre in Paris. The inscription reads “May there be peace in this place and in all the places in Israel. We also walked through the streets and alleyways of the ancient city of Tzfat and visited the beautiful synagogues, home to the 16th century kabbalists and teachers, which today is home to many wonderful artists and art galleries. Our trip also included tours of the ruins of the crusader fortresses in Acco and the magnificent ancient maritime city of Caesarea, built by Herod.

We went hiking on Mt. Meron, visited kangaroos at the Gan Garoo Australian zoo on Kibbutz Heftziba, and went swimming in the natural water park at Gan HaShlosha. In the Golan heights we saw the border fences with Lebanon and Syria and the sights of many battles that secured the borders in Israel’s all too frequent wars in her 62 years of existence. Up North in Katzrin we visited an olive oil factory and saw the process of olives being pressed into oil, soaps, and other products. We went river rafting on the Jordan. And we enjoyed delicious lunches of hummus, pita, falafel, and many different kinds of salads in the Arab village of Jish and the Druze village of Maz’ada

Muslim Triangle

The events of Women of the Wall early in the morning this past Monday were eye opening enough for one day, but following that was another challenge. The Hartman program on Monday arranged for a day of tiyulim, tours in different facets of Israeli society. So directly after the Rosh Hodesh service with Women of the Wall, I boarded a bus to visit the Muslim Triangle, or HaMeshullash, an area of Israeli Arab towns and villages adjacent to the Green Line to learn about Muslim identity within the Jewish state. It was a day that posed new challenges to our views and ways of thinking, and left more questions than answers. We began with an introduction at the Hartman Institute with Rabbi Ron Kronish, director of the Israel Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel. Rabbi Kronish explained that “Israeli Muslims have a four-part identity: they are Muslims by religion, Arab by language and culture,
Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship, and that “Each person balances these four components of his or her identity in different ways, and adds to it issues of gender and geography. In short, one can say with certainty that Israeli Muslims are a variegated and multi-faceted group.”

We began our tour in the Israeli Arab city of Baka El Gharbiyah, at the Al Qasemi college. The Al Qasemi college is mainly a teachers college, where young women (and a few men) come to learn to become educators. Founded in 1989 to teach Islamic law and religion, it is the leading Islamic educational institution in Israel and hopes to become the first Israeli Arab university in the state of Israel.Al Qasemi also seeks to foster dialogue and understanding between cultures and religions.

We also visited the village of Kfar Kassem and talked with the municipal leaders, about their community and the challenges and opportunities for Arab Israelis. We had also planned to meet with an Arab Israeli member of the Knesset, Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsour, but he was called away for an important vote that day. It was fascinating to hear their stories and to consider the statements that were made, in regards to both positive and negative feelings about being Israeli citizens - the Arab Israelis we talked with said that while they definitely face discrimination in Israel, their status as minority citizens is much better than other places in the Arab world so they also value their Israeli citizenship and do not want to leave Israel to live in Palestine; and the negative aspects of living with the current Israeli government - the towns struggle with denial of building permits and lack of building materials (yes, even within Israeli Arab towns).

Our tour at K’far Kassem ended with a visit to a museum dedicated to the massacre of 1956. This was a very difficult place to visit, first to see the pain that still lingers in the community, and second, to hear of the conflicting views that continue until today over what happened on that day and the aftermath (Those leading us through the Museum repeatedly told us that the Israeli government had never apologized; our group of rabbis was profoundly disturbed by this and on the bus ride home, one of us looked up the event on Wikipedia and found that this case established a famous legal principle concerning the fact that security personnel must disobey illegal orders and that the Israeli government had made an official apology and declared that Israeli school children must learn about the massacre.)

I came away from the museum visit and our day in the Muslim triangle with an even greater understanding of how complicated the situation in Israel is, reminding me just how far things are from black and white, and how many very different shades of gray there are. Most of all, I think that this day impressed upon all of us that pain is pain, for the parents and children of both Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews; and that there is a lot of very difficult work that has to be done in order for both sides to be able to really hear the pain of the other.

Rosh Chodesh Av

This week has been a challenging one in Israel.

Monday morning was Rosh Chodesh Av, the beginning of the month of Av. I woke up even earlier than usual in order to join the Women of the Wall group for early morning prayers at the Kotel, the Western Wall, in the Old City. For more than twenty years this group has gathered at the Kotel every Rosh Chodesh to welcome the new month with prayer and song, and to read from the Torah. The Kotel is one of the most sacred sites for Jews, both men and women. For thousands of years Jews have come to pray at the Wall, to talk to God, to place small notes of prayer in the cracks and crevices of the Wall. But over the last 4 decades the Wall has been divided into separate men’s and women’s sections with a mechitza (divider) between them. The orthodox authorities who have control over the site say that women must pray quietly, inaudibly so that our voices do not disturb the men in prayer, that women cannot read from the Torah or wear tallitot (prayer shawls) or tefillin at the Kotel. Over the years the Women of the Wall group has sued for equality in the Israeli Supreme Court, and women have been harrassed, had chairs and filth thrown at them, been spit on and cursed, and have been arrested for coming to do the same thing that the men on their side of the divider have come to do - lift their voices in song and prayer to God at this most holiest of places.




This Rosh Chodesh Av a large group of more than 100 of us gathered, including a number of women rabbis, to pray, and to show our support for Women of the Wall. We were joined on the opposite side of the mechitza by supportive men, fellow liberal Jews, who came to pray in support and join us for the Torah reading, which is held away from the Kotel, at Robinson’s Arch near the Southern Wall, since the Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that we may not read Torah at the Kotel. Only this month we did not make it to Robinson’s Arch. After we chanted the prayer service and sang Hallel, we began to move in a group towards the Southern Wall for the Torah reading. We moved together, singing and following Anat Hoffman, the chairperson of WOW, who was carrying the Torah scroll. As she made her way up the stairs in front of us, I could see pushing and shoving and then we saw that it was Anat being shoved and pulled as the police tried to pull the Torah out of her arms. She was pushed into a police van as the cries rang out in the crowd “Anat has been arrested, the Torah has been arrested.” So instead of our Torah reading this month, we marched and sang our way to the Jaffa Gate Police station, where Anat and the Torah had been taken, to finish the service and to stand in support of Anat. After being fingerprinted and detained for 6 hours, she paid 5000 NIS bail and has been ordered to stay away from the Kotel for 30 days.

My feelings ranged from excitement and pride as so many gathered on this beautiful morning, to trepidation and anger as our group endured taunts, curses and jeers from both men and women at the Kotel, to an immense wave of sadness that at this holy place, there is so much sinat hinam (baseless hatred), and once again to a sense of pride and joy, as I looked at the faces and listened to the song surrounding me, that within all of it, all the mixed up and challenging parts of Jewish life here in Israel, it is our place. We cannot ever forget that or let go of the challenge that Israel is a place for all Jews - it is ours to claim, and if we do not stand up for pluralism and equal rights and claim Israel as ours too, we do so at our peril.

For more:
Arrested Torah
Police Arrest Women of the Wall Leader for Praying with Torah Scroll
Cops Release Women of the Wall Leader
Women of Wall Head Held for Kotel March

Hartman Institute

This week has been very busy and intense as I began my first study program at the Shalom Hartman Institute, in the Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar. I’ve been hearing from colleagues about Hartman for years, and have been looking forward to spending time learning there. They are right, it is a terrific learning opportunity, a chance to sit at the feet of great teachers and engage in Jewish text. It’s also a rare opportunity to learn with rabbis from different movements- There are over 100 rabbis here from Reform, Conservative, Modern Orthodox, Reconstructionist, and Renewal. Our program is taught by some of the best scholars and thinkers in Israel, which makes me not want to miss anything, but the schedule is intense - classes begin at 8:30am and there are different classes and lectures throughout the day with a break for lunch and another short break in the afternoon. After an evening lecture, the day usually concludes around 10pm, by which point I am both exhausted and too wired to sleep because my mind is spinning with all of the material that we are learning. The theme of our learning for this year’s RTS (rabbinic seminar) is Engaging Israel: Bringing Jewish Values to the Dilemmas of Nationhood. We have been learning through the lens of Jewish text and values, about our relationship to Israel, the dilemmas facing Israel today and some of the challenges and responsibilities of being part of Klal Yisrael (the whole worldwide Jewish community).

Rabbi Donniel Hartman, the President of the Hartman Institute, gave the keynote address this Monday evening. He explained the the theme of our studies this year came out of a growing sense of crisis in the relationship between diaspora Jewry and Israel, and the question of whether the Jewish people will continue to function as one people is not self-evident anymore. He asks us to help begin a different conversation, to find common language through Jewish ideals and values for what Israel means and why it is important. He acknowledged that the basic narratives that we tell about Israel are part of the disconnect and that we need to be able to see Israel as a work in progress, which is not a justification of everything that already exists, but an understanding that we love Israel enough to want to make things even better. Our studies during the institute this summer focuses on five essential questions: 1)peoplehood; 2)the question of sovereignty; 3) the challenge of power and what is a Torah of power and Jewish values 4) what makes a Jewish state Jewish 5) the big ideas that Jews can bring to statehood and sovereignty.

Each morning after a brief introduction to the material, I sit with my chevruta (study partner, or in this case, small study group) and we prepare the textual material together, in the traditional way that Jews have studied text together for thousands of years. Then the whole seminar regroups in the bet midrash (study hall), and the teacher goes back through the material with us. We also have elective options which I have been enjoying immensely. I am also really appreciating being with friends and colleagues, and meeting new people and learning together. And, it’s good to know that although I haven’t had enough time to devote to text study over the years, the skills do come back (albeit more slowly than when I was twenty).

While I’m in classes, Phil is taking an intensive counseling course on Trauma and Resilience dealing with psychotrauma and PTSD through the Herzog Hospital’s summer institute, and has been biking Jerusalem. The boys are going to day camp at the Ramah Jerusalem Day Camp, a short Egged public bus ride away. They are having a great time with camp activities, sports, arts and crafts, Israeli dancing, Hebrew and swimming. Each week also includes a field trip. They have already met some new friends and are excited to return next week. In the mornings I have a short ten-minute walk to Hartman with Rachel in the stroller. Rachel is going to gan (daycare) with me at Hartman until 2pm when Phil picks her up and they catch a bus to pick up the boys. The work week and school week in Israel is Sunday through Thursday or early Friday. Since my classes meet Sunday through Thursday, Friday morning becomes our time to shop and clean up for Shabbat. Friday is a short day at camp, so everyone can prepare for Shabbat, and when we went to pick up Seth and Gil today we enjoyed an all camp sing-along, and performances from each shevet (group), that included Israeli dancing and a short play.

Terem

I had the chance to experience the Israeli medical system today. While walking near downtown, and not looking where I was going (probably distracted by a child or something that needed my attention), I somehow managed to trip and fall over one of the stone pillars that are set up all over Israel to prevent cars from driving onto sidewalks or into parks. Phil tried to catch me but I ended up with a cut on my head over my left eyebrow. Since head wounds bleed a lot, soon there were people offering kleenex, one man gave us an entire brick of baby wipes, and several were asking if we wanted an ambulance. (Thank you to all who helped us!) Phil had the presence of mind to refuse that request (surely more than we needed and would mean a long wait and large expense) and go to the nearest urgent care center instead. We decided that we’d better see if it needed stitches, so several concerned bystanders flagged down a cab and we were soon on our way to Terem, the Urgent Care Clinic. We were in and out of there in a very short amount of time, and my cut was glued, not stitched. While I was being taken care of, the kids played in the play area set up for children and had snacks at the snack bar. Maybe Arnett should think about those amenities for Urgent Care centers! While I was waiting I learned more about the Terem Centers: Dr. David Applebaum, a doctor who made aliyah in 1981, worked in the emergency department of Shaarey Tzedek Hospital and with the Magen David Adom ambulance teams in Jerusalem. He noticed how overburdened the ER’s were with non-emergency cases and in 1989 established the Terem Urgent Care clinics in several locations in Jeruslem. On September 9, 2003, Dr. Applebaum was killed, along with his daughter Naava, on the eve of her wedding, in a terror attack at Cafe Hillel. “Dr. Applebaum developed his philosophy that uncompromising commitment to Torah and active participation in modern life were complementary, and not contradictory aspects of serving God. He often said that one should glorify the mitzvah of saving a life in the same manner as one glorifies the mitzvah of the four species. His example will continue to promote healing, kindness, hope and strength for the Jewish people and all of mankind.” I certainly am grateful for his vision and dedication to helping others. Zichrono Livracha - His memory is a blessing.

Israel - Week Two

Time is already going fast! We’ve already been here two weeks! On Sunday we visited the Biblical Zoo, a beautiful park that is over 250 dunams large (62 acres) and includes a lake and reservoir. The main idea of the zoo is to preserve rare and endangered animals with a special emphasis on the animals mentioned in the Bible. We enjoyed wandering down the beautiful terraced pathways and seeing the animals in very large habitats, and saw many animals that are rare and endangered, including red pandas, vultures, and ibex.

After our zoo day we hopped on a bus and spent a wonderful afternoon with Cyrelle Simon in her home in the Bayit Vagan neighborhood. Cyrelle made aliyah 3 years ago after living in West Lafayette for over 40 years, and lives in a lovely community where she and her family had spent many sabbaticals and summers over the years. Consequently, she already had a community of friends to come to when she moved here. It was wonderful to catch up with her and to hear all about what she is doing - she continues to play with music groups here in Jerusalem as she had with the Lafayette Klezmorim, and goes to an ulpan twice weekly where her group is reading Israeli authors. She also has quite a busy social schedule, with her neighbors and friends and with her children and grandchildren that live here and abroad. If you get the shul (Sons of Abraham) bulletin you can hear more in her frequent letters. I enjoyed hearing and sharing the news about the many connections we have in common - it really is a small Jewish world!

We rounded out our week with two different swimming experiences - Yam HaMelach, the Dead Sea; and Breichat Yerushalayim - the Jerusalem Pool. About a 45 minute ride from our apartment, that quickly descends down to the lowest point on earth, and not far from where the scrolls of Qumran were discovered, we spent the day on a quiet beach at the Dead Sea. The beach was beautiful! The kids loved floating in the calm, warm, salty water and then standing in a freshwater shower that Rachel called the tree water since it was piped in next to a palm. Our fellow beachgoers showed us how to dig in the shallows for the mud and soon we were covered in the stuff! We enjoyed a delicous beachside meal overlooking the sea. It was a great day!!

On a not so side note, since my experience of Israel is that it’s where people come together, and a frequent experience is running into friends you didn’t expect to see, it truly is a small world. A little over two years ago, as part of a program through Purdue - the Indiana Center for Cultural Exchange - our congregation hosted a group of Muslim leaders from the Southeast Asia - Thailand and the Phillipines, who came to see our synagogue and meet with a small group of us to learn more about Jews and Judaism. For most of them, this was their first experience meeting Jews, and I was the first rabbi they had ever met. We exchanged contact info and email addresses. On the morning that we woke up to go to the Dead Sea, I checked my Facebook page and saw that one of my friends from this group, Musa, was also going to the Dead Sea that day and that he was on a tour of the Holy Land and had been in the Old City the day before! We didn’t meet up at the Dead Sea since his tour went floating at a different spot than the quiet beach we went to.

The Jerusalem Pool was also great fun! Located off of Emek Refaim, about a 20 minute walk from our apartment, the entrance is hidden - you have to enter through the supermarket entrance. Once inside, it has a great kids pool, a very shallow baby pool, and a great water slide that the boys went down too many times to count. There is also a lap pool for serious swimming. Even though our kids don’t speak much Hebrew and the kids their age didn’t speak much English, they still had a great time together in the water. It was a wonderful way to cool off on a hot day!