Galilee Diary: You are what you eat September 7, 2010 by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Now available from URJ Books & Music Order Now! Speak to the Israelite people thus: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts. You shall not work at your occupations; and you shall bring an offering by fire to the Lord.         -Leviticus 23:23-25 The days of Elul have been inexorably ticking off, yet the weather has remained steadfastly summery, with no relief from the heat even at night. There is a mismatch here, as we know it is just a few days until Rosh Hashanah. Finally, today, there were clouds that didn't burn off in the morning, and in the evening I noticed that achatzav (squill) had shot up in our front garden. The tall stalks of tiny white flowers of the chatzav that sprout around Rosh Hashanah directly from the bulb, with no leaves, are a distinctive symbol of the season; it was comforting to see it and know that the cycle of the seasons has not been knocked totally awry. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Summer holiday II August 31, 2010 (2 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Now available from URJ Books & Music Order Now! ...Zebulun did not dispossess the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalol; so the Canaanites dwelt in their midst, but they were subjected to forced labor. Asher did not dispossess the inhabitants of Acco or the inhabitants of Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, and Rehob. So the Asherites dwelt in the midst of the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not dispossess them...         -Judges 1:30-32 Prague:  We're not really into goulash, dumplings, and beer, but the feast for our other senses was satiating: cathedrals and synagogues, castles and bridges, monuments and art exhibits; you get a stiff neck walking around looking up at all the amazing buildings.  To a layman, keeping track of all those dynasties and their machinations - and trying to keep straight all the different architectural styles in their chronology - can be quite daunting. read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Jewish History

Galilee Diary: Summer holiday August 24, 2010 (5 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Now available from URJ Books & Music Order Now! It was forbidden to allow the posthumous destruction of Man, God, and - this even for the most secularist of Jews - that hope without which a Jew cannot live, the hope which is the gift of Judaism to all humanity. To deny Hitler the posthumous victory of destroying this faith was a moral-religious commandment. I no longer hesitated to call it the 614th commandment. -Emil Fackenheim, To Mend the World (preface) It was supposed to be simply a vacation, fairly last minute: we really didn't have the time or budget to plan a vacation this summer, so we found four days between obligations, added up our frequent flier miles, and booked a trip to Prague. We were looking for "escape," without email or cell phones, a different climate, different culture, pleasures of the senses. We had resigned ourselves to being surrounded by Israelis, as Prague is a hugely popular destination for 3- and 4-day packages from Israel. But apparently we were the last Israelis who hadn't been there, as we heard almost no Hebrew. And indeed, Prague is a breathtakingly beautiful city, where we walked our feet off, tried to keep straight the fascinating history, attended concerts, marveled at the architecture, shopped for souvenirs, managed to find decent food, and had a lovely time. read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Jewish History

Galilee Diary: Red hot chile peppers August 17, 2010 (5 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Now available from URJ Books & Music Order Now! ...We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. Now our gullets are shriveled. There is nothing at all! Nothing but this manna...         -Numbers 11:4-6 Since my travel back to Shorashim from HUC is usually over the dinner hour, I often stop at the Jerusalem bus station and buy a falafel or shwarma (gyros) to eat on the bus.  Last week, as usual, I placed my order for shwarma in a pita, and barely paid attention as the teenager behind the counter did his work, asking me mechanically, "Humus?" "Yes." "Hot sauce?" "Yes."  "Salad?" "Yes."  "Sauerkraut?"  "Yes."  "Pickle?" "Yes."  "Fries?"  "Yes."  "Techina?"  "Yes."  I had him bag it, paid, and boarded the bus.  I was pretty hungry, and was enjoying my feast as we rolled down the mountains toward the coastal plain.  But as I got near the bottom of the pita (shortly before Sha'ar Hagai interchange), I discovered that instead of the timid half-teaspoon of hot sauce that is usually smeared on the humus layer, my "chef" had dumped in a healthy dollop, so much that the red juice was soaking through the pita, and my mouth was in distress, with no uncontaminated pita and little of my bottle of drink left to dilute the sensation.  I was nearly half way home to the Galilee before the discomfort faded and I could think about topics other than my mouth. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Pilgrims August 11, 2010 (3 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Now available from URJ Books & Music Order Now! And the Lord said to Abram... "Up, walk about the land, through its length and its breadth, for I give it to you."         -Genesis 13:14, 17 One thing that I remember about myself on my first visit to Israel as an EIE exchange student in high school is that I adopted a conscious policy of trying not to sleep on buses, but to look out the window, because I felt it was wrong to miss an opportunity to see the landscape as it went by, to learn the geography and the feel of the country. I think I succeeded pretty well in sticking with that resolve on subsequent visits, until my travel here became more routine and repetitive. But often, still today, even on routes I feel I know by heart, I really like to look out the window of the train or bus. As a tour leader for high school Israel Experience programs, one of the common behaviors that drove me nuts was the way the kids would get on the bus, close the shades, put in their earphones, and disconnect from their surroundings as soon as they could.  I learned to give up on trying to wake them up to look at the interesting or important or beautiful views we drove past. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: An evening in Levinsky Park August 3, 2010 by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Now available from URJ Books & Music Order Now! "Peace plaza," "Peace market," "Peace square"... are found in every city large and small, and villages and settlements are named for peace, because peace is the "stamp" of our people, peace outside and peace within.  For the Jews are a people who love peace in the world, and that is its desire and purpose - just to live in peace and brotherhood, each person with his brother and with the other peoples....  And since they came into their land they have lived in true peace with all the peoples and have dwelt in peace each person under his vine and under his fig tree in the land, with none to make him afraid... - Elchanan Levinsky, A Trip to the Land of Israel in 2040, 1892 Elchanan Levinsky was active in the pre-Herzlian Zionist movement "The Lovers of Zion," and was a friend of Achad Ha'am.  Ten years before Herzl's utopian novel Altneuland, Levinsky wrote a science fiction account of a visit to the Jewish state in 2040, envisioning a high-tech land with a rich Hebrew culture, in which various institutions of social justice have been re-created (e.g. the Jubilee year redistribution of land).  Shortly after Levinsky's death in 1911, a teachers' seminary named for him was opened in the new Hebrew city of Tel Aviv.  Levinsky College remains a respected institution to this day.  Then came Levinsky Street, and Levinsky Park, located across the street from the Tel Aviv central bus station. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Fringes July 27, 2010 (2 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Now available from URJ Books & Music Order Now! That shall be your fringe, look at it and recall all the commandments of the Lord and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge.         -Numbers 15:39 Three stories, no comment: On Rosh Chodesh Tevet of this year (in December), the Women of the Wall held their monthly morning service at the Western Wall plaza. This service, ostensibly religious, also has obvious overtones of political protest, seeking to draw attention to the unequal status of women dictated by Orthodox control of an area which seems like it ought to belong to everyone. One young woman put on a tallit, which aroused the ire of some bystanders who called over the police (of whom there are always plenty at the Wall), who arrested the offender and held her for several hours "for questioning" at the local station before releasing her. This past week on Rosh Chodesh Av, Anat Hoffman of the Center for Religious Pluralism was arrested for carrying a Torah. Later this month I will be leading a group of visitors around the Old City of Jerusalem, and want to include the Temple Mount in our route. Not having been there for years, I decided I should make an advance review visit. So on a recent day when I was staying over in Jerusalem, I got up early and, on the way from my hotel to HUC, walked through the awakening alleyways of the Old City. This is a lovely time to walk there: the streets are mostly empty, the fragrance of fresh-baked bread wafts from the bakeries, shopkeepers are sweeping the pavement, kids are hurrying home with breakfast purchases from the local grocery, and religious Christians, Moslems, and Jews are on their way to and from morning prayers. I was first in line at the security gate to the Temple Mount, which opens for Jews at 7:30. After convincing the guard that this was an innocent visit and not a right-wing provocation, he waved me through with the warning: "Remember, no praying, and no entering the mosques; you walk around and you leave!" But the guy manning the x-ray machine studied the image of my backpack carefully, opened it, and pulled out a plastic bag. "What's this?" "A tallit." "Sorry, you have to leave it outside." "But I'm not going to pray." "Doesn't matter, you can't take it in." I tried to suggest I leave it with him until I finished my visit, but no way. So I missed my opportunity, on that morning, to tread on holy ground. read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Social Action

Galilee Diary: Shopping July 20, 2010 (4 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Now available from URJ Books & Music Order Now! They reached Wadi Eshcol and there they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes - it had to be borne on a carrying frame by two of them - and some pomegranates and figs... At the end of forty days... they made their report to the whole community, as they showed them the fruit of the land.             -Numbers 13:23, 25, 26 Since 1992, our seminar center has provided educational tours for many North American tour groups, to various sites around the Galilee. One of the "must-sees" of course, is Safed, the city perched in the mountains, which was, for barely a century, a major center of Jewish religious creativity: refugees from the Spanish expulsion of 1492 settled there and made it a hub of kabbalistic thought and literature. Among the well-known products of 16th century Safed are the Kabbalat Shabbat service and the hymn L'chah Dodi, and the major law code, the Shulchan Aruch. Later, Safed's economic and political fortunes declined, and it was destroyed by earthquakes in 1759 and 1837; in 1948 it was an Arab town with a small Jewish community, mostly ultra-Orthodox. The Arabs fled in the War of Independence, and new neighborhoods were built for new immigrants. For years Safed was a summer resort destination because of its mountainous location, but with the spread of air conditioning it was eclipsed by Tiberias, which, while hot and sticky, offers a waterfront.  An artists' colony developed in the old city, which helped keep the town on the tourism map, but it has remained a "must see" that almost no one stays in for more than the two hours it takes to do a standard tour. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Accidental Hero July 13, 2010 (3 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Now available from URJ Books & Music Order Now! ...There is no mitzvah greater than the redemption of captives...  However, we do not redeem captives beyond their fair price... so that our enemies will not be motivated to pursue and capture hostages; and we do not try to rescue them... so that our enemies will not be cruel to them and guard them harshly.             -Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Gifts to the Poor 8:10, 8:12 I am writing this on an Egged bus crawling along on a usually fast route, as traffic patterns around the center of the country have been disrupted lately by the march dedicated to the release of Gilad Shalit. This poor kid and the public discussion of what can and should be done about his fate have been a kind of national obsession off and on through the past four years, and have come back to center stage in the past week. Captured by Hamas near the Gaza border (two other soldiers who were with him at his post were killed), he has been held hostage in Gaza with no Red Cross or any other access.  Negotiations have dragged on, with periodic reports of breakthroughs followed by accusations by each side that the other was upping the ante or negotiating in bad faith. The Shalits, a quiet, middle class family from a small community in the Western Galilee, have been at the center of an often noisy campaign that seems mainly to be aimed at the Israeli government, urging that greater efforts be made to "bring Gilad home now!"  There have been demonstrations and yellow ribbons, a children's book based on Gilad's childhood writings, concerts, vigils outside the prime minister's residence, weekly special prayers in synagogues of every denomination, and constant emotional front page coverage of all of this in all the media. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Israel Revisited July 8, 2010 (3 Comments) by Larry Kaufman Almost two years ago, I asked the readers of this blog to advise me on what to see on a fifth trip to Israel. As it happened, the trip we were then planning didn't happen until just now, and turned out to be built around the World Zionist Congress instead of around the World Union for Progressive Judaism's Connections 2009 biennial.  (Side note:  we - and you - have another crack at a WUPJ Connections this coming February in San Francisco.)  As I explained in that earlier post, on our four previous trips we had seen the obligatory tourist sites along with enjoying a variety of off-the-beaten track adventures. I asked what was worth going back to because it had changed since last we were there (for example, we've seen three different incarnations of Yad VaShem) or what had materialized since our 2007 visit (when, for example, the very worthwhile Menachem Begin Museum was relatively new).  Although we got some very good advice at that time, we ended up on this trip doing different things from those suggested then or that were on our tentative 2009 itinerary.  Some of those things - like shopping on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem or in the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv - had been available on previous trips, we just hadn't done them. Some, like the indoor playground built by the Jewish National Fund to give the children of Sderot a safe place to play away from Gazan rockets, had come into being since 2007. And some were things we couldn't have done on our own, but were privileged to do because we were part of the Reform Leadership Mission that followed the Congress.    read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: What might have been... July 6, 2010 (5 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) The bare fact...that simple and unsophisticated peoples have unbounded faith in education does not mean that the faith is untenable. -George Counts, "Dare the School Build a New Social Order?" (1932) Last week I accompanied a group of HUC students (Mandel Fellows) on a visit to the Galilee School, located a few miles from Shorashim; a number of my neighbors send their children there.  The Galilee School is one of five integrated, bilingual (Jewish/Arab) schools in the country, one of the four that were initiated and are supported by the Hand in Hand Foundation.  In other words, of a million or so students in Israel, a few hundred attend mixed schools; the vast majority attend schools that are formally designated as: state (culturally Jewish), state religious (Orthodox-zionist), state Arab, independent (Ultra-orthodox), or private (usually Christian).  The educators who founded the Jewish education system in pre-state Palestine (even before the British Mandate began after WWI) began with a vision of a universal system (for the Jews, at least) based on Jewish culture (without religion); if you wanted to teach your child a particular religious or ideological approach, you would do so in the afternoon or on weekends.  The public school system of the US was the model for many of these educators.  But already by the early 20s, the universal vision had collapsed, and separate "streams" developed, "general Zionist," "religious Zionist," "socialist Zionist," Arab and Ultra-orthodox.  And from the beginning, it had been taken for granted that the Jews would educate their children - and the Arabs theirs.  The British tried to operate truly "separate but equal" systems, but the Jews brought in their own resources and expertise - and demanded autonomy; there was frequent conflict between the Zionist educators and the British education authority.  With the creation of the state, the "streams" were adopted by the new ministry of education, and that structure continues to this day. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: A New Song June 30, 2010 by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Now available from URJ Books & Music Order Now! ...How goodly, goodly are our tents; We will yet return to an ancient melody. -"Ancient melody," popular folk-song (and dance) by Michael Kashten and Amitai Ne'eman Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth. -Psalm 96:1 Three pop music experiences in one week: On Saturday, at the biennial convention of the Israeli Reform Movement, one of the study sessions was devoted to the text of a song by the popular singer Ehud Banai, which strings together a collection of expressions from the lingo of telephone talk (perhaps it's a wrong number; no reception here; I hear you broken up; I'm waiting on the line; etc.); each verse ends with "Are you still with me? / Answer me." While it might be a song about love or friendship, it is hard to avoid the impression that it is a prayer, and that at the other end of the bad connection is God. read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Jewish Living | Torah

Galilee Diary: Different lenses III June 22, 2010 (7 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Now available from URJ Books & Music Order Now! If you will it, it will not remain a fantasy. -Theodore Herzl, Altneuland In addition to The Jewish State, the manifesto that sort of kicked off the Zionist movement, Theodore Herzl also wrote a novel, Altneuland ("old-new land") describing a fictitious tour of the future state of Israel in the 1920s (Herzl died in 1904).  The Hebrew translation of the book was titled Tel Aviv ("ancient mound of springtime"), and the city was named after it.  Herzl's Zionist utopia was a peaceful, liberal, democratic, pluralistic European welfare state, with freedom of religion.  It was inhabited by smart, cultured, self-reliant, generous, Jews, and cosmopolitan, well-integrated, respectable Arabs.  He didn't seem to have struggled too much with the definition of the Jewishness of the state - in 1902, the idea of a world made up of peacefully-coexisting, gently ethnic nation states had not yet crashed and burned.  A sort of vaguely Jewish national identity was enough for him. This semester I was assigned to teach a course in the Israel Rabbinic Program at HUC, and decided to revisit Herzl's vision; the assignment for the semester was for each student to write his/her own Altneuland.  A novel was not required, just an outline of the main points of the writer's own vision of the ideal Jewish state.  It occurred to me that we complain a lot about the reality of the state, but we rarely articulate what it would look like if we could get it right.  And it turns out, when you sit down to spell out your vision, that you suddenly develop more respect for Herzl's efforts, unsatisfying as they may have been.  At least he took on the challenge, and tried to sketch the outlines of the Jewish state as he envisioned it, attending to politics, culture, industry, and economics.  But in a way, those are the easy questions.  The topic Herzl fudged is the one we struggle with - and all of my students who have made their presentations so far have really struggled with it - the Jewishness of the state.  read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Different lenses II June 15, 2010 (1 Comment) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) The country that we traversed and scouted is one that devours its inhabitants. All the people that we saw in it are men of great size...; we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them. -Numbers 13:32-33 (the report of the spies) Now available from URJ Books & Music Order Now! For twenty years, the "flagship" project of our educational center has been setting up encounters between Diaspora Jews and Israeli Arabs. While the visiting groups include adult synagogue and community tours, the vast majority of the guests are teenagers or birthright participants. There have been years when we have hosted over 3,000 people in July alone; in recent years the numbers have been in the range of 1,500-2,000. The standard program consists of a 45-60 minute background presentation surveying the history of Jewish-Arab relations in the land of Israel, and trying to explain the current reality and the dilemmas we face here - both the Jewish majority and the Arab minority - as we try to live together in the democratic Jewish state. Then, either the group reboards their bus for a 15-minute drive to a nearby village, where they meet Arab teens in the school; or, if the group's tour operator forbids entry into Arab villages (there are still some who do), we send a bus to bring the Arab kids to Shorashim. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Different lenses I June 8, 2010 (2 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Now available from URJ Books & Music Order Now! But the people would not listen to Samuel's warning.  "No," they said.  "We must have a king over us, that we may be like all the other nations: Let our king rule over us and go out at our head and fight our battles."             -I Samuel 8:19-20 I have been asked by a few readers to write about the flotilla incident, and even though I generally refrain from commenting on "national" topics, this seems a good case study for examining the dilemma of Israel-Diaspora relations. There is of course no unanimity in Israel regarding the incident; the various positions more or less fall where you might expect along the left-right spectrum. Here is a schematic catalog: 1.      The Gazans elected a government that declares itself Israel's enemy and refuses to recognize or make peace with Israel. When in war, as in war.  Israel is justified in blockading Gaza and enforcing that blockade by force if necessary. The ship carried terrorists who attacked the soldiers attempting peaceably to enforce the blockade.  a. The condemnations and calls for an inquiry - internal or external - are unjustified and hypocritical. b. The decision of how to respond to the challenge was faulty, and a less risky approach should have been chosen. There should be an internal inquiry and/or the minister of defense should resign. c. The operation was appropriate, but the implementation (intelligence, planning) was faulty. There should be an internal inquiry and/or the relevant official(s) should resign. d. The operation was appropriate and successful; the failure was in the area of public relations and diplomacy - we won the war but lost the propaganda battle. There should be an internal inquiry and/or the relevant official(s) should resign. 2.      The policy of siege on Gaza has proven over the years to be ineffective in changing either policy or public opinion, and it only leads to continued and escalated enmity on the part of the Gazans, and condemnation in the world.  This operation is only proof that the policy is counterproductive and bankrupt. It is time to rethink our entire approach to the use of force in defining our relationship with the Palestinians. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Conflicting Memories June 1, 2010 (8 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) ...By virtue of our natural and historic right and on the strength of the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, [we] hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the state of Israel.             -from the Israel Declaration of Independence, 1948 We recently engaged a new Arabic editor for our foundation's Hebrew-Arabic web newspaper www.dugrinet.co.il.  While only in her early 30s, Samach has been working in Israeli Arab media since high school and has accumulated impressive experience, and we are excited finally to have found someone who can help us build the Arabic component of the website.  I first met with her in early May, and in discussing what topics might be of interest to both populations, the Nakba came up.  Nakba, or "disaster" in Arabic, is the word that has come to be commonly used to describe the experience of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel's War of Independence in 1948.  For years, public discussion of that experience was pretty much non-existent in Israel.  If the Arabs thought about it or talked about it, it remained below the radar.  There were even years when the government checked to make sure that Israeli Arab schools were properly celebrating Independence Day.  But the country has grown up a bit, and so have the Arabs, and in the past decade or so, the word has come to be a common part of public discourse.  Loaded, emotionally charged, arousing powerful feelings, but out there. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Standing at Sinai? May 25, 2010 (7 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) On the day of the first fruits, your Feast of Weeks, when you bring an offering of new grain to the Lord, you shall observe a sacred occasion; you shall not work at your occupations.             -Numbers 28:26 Of the three pilgrimage festivals, Shavuot seems to have been the most difficult to translate into a meaningful holiday for Diaspora Jews.  Pesach, with the seder, with its symbolic foods and powerful story; Sukkot, with its colorful symbols and observance - and both of these also have strong seasonal resonances of spring and fall (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) - while they may not be as central in Jewish consciousness as the High Holy Days, are nevertheless easy to relate to and remember.  Poor Shavuot has been a harder sell.  It doesn't have a clearly defined date in the Torah; it is only one day; it was, according to the Torah, completely tied to agriculture and to the Temple cult; thus, once the Temple was destroyed and our lives were not directly linked to the agriculture of Israel, Shavuot was orphaned.  Fortunately, the rabbis figured out that the timing of the day fit with the timing of the revelation at Sinai, and, post-biblically, Shavuot took on the additional meaning of the Festival of the Giving of the Torah.  This in turn led to the development, in the middle ages, of the "tikkun layl Shavuot," the custom of staying up into the night to engage in intensive study of Torah, as a kind of reliving of the revelation.  And, since the prescribed texts for study in the tikkun represented the whole historical spectrum of traditional text, the tikkun was also a reaffirmation that all Torah learning, in all generations, originated at Sinai. read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Israel

Galilee Diary: Being Green May 17, 2010 (1 Comment) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them.  You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down.             -Deuteronomy 20:19 Living out here among the green valleys of the Galilee, it is interesting to consider our footprint: Our county considers itself pretty advanced regarding recycling.  Here on Shorashim (population - 80 households) there are separate bins in our parking lot for plastic bottles and bags, newspaper, white paper, cardboard, glass, and garden waste.  While we pay deposits on wine bottles and beverage cans, the stores have made it so inconvenient to actually return the containers and retrieve the deposit that almost no one does, at best separating the materials in the recycling bins and forfeiting the deposit.  Food cans go into the regular landfill garbage.  The county offers plastic backyard composters at a subsidized cost, and they are quite popular here. In addition, everyone has a solar hot water heater, and three neighbors have installed solar panel arrays, selling power back to the electric company. I know of a handful of others who, like me, have set up modest gray water systems (from the shower to the trees).  A neighbor who wanted to put in a rain water cistern was deterred when he learned that the area of the cistern would be counted in the area of his home for calculating the monthly property tax. I've noticed a couple of hybrids, a few green diesels (that get better mileage than hybrids), and about half a dozen SUVs. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Reform Zionism May 11, 2010 (16 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you.             -Deuteronomy 16:20 Among the programs operating at the Hebrew Union College Jerusalem campus are two different rabbinical training courses: since August, I have been directing the Israel Rabbinic Program, a four-year course of study designed to ordain Israelis to serve as Reform rabbis here. There are currently 22 students at various stages of completion. They tend to be in their 30s and 40s, often already experienced educators, from varied religious and cultural backgrounds. They study two days a week intensively, while also working on an MA in Jewish studies from an Israeli university. Meanwhile, we share the campus with another 50 or so full-time rabbinical (and cantorial and education) students spending their required first year in Israel before beginning their studies at New York, Cincinnati, or Los Angeles. They tend to be recent college graduates, from Reform backgrounds; their focus here is Hebrew language and Israel studies - and the experience of Jewish peoplehood. People often wonder why we operate two separate programs - after all, they're all learning to be Reform professional leaders.  However, it is obviously not so simple - the gaps in age, experience, language, life-stage, and program structure make it quite challenging for the faculty to design even limited joint programs and shared experiences.  Having decided to try harder, Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback (director of the program for the North Americans) and I have managed to pull off a couple of interesting experiments this year. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Letting Go May 4, 2010 (5 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Leaning on the lessons of the past in order to build a future, using the suffering of the past as a political argument, are like inviting the dead to participate in the democratic process of the living.             -Professor Judah Elkanah, 1988 In the middle of the counting of the Omer, the seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot, the fields of the Jezreel valley are golden with ripening grain, the carob trees are heavy with bright green pods, there are peaches in the market, and hollyhocks are blooming along the roadsides.  A friend once commented that hollyhocks make her sad, as they are the last in the sequence of spring wildflowers to bloom; they mark the end of spring, and once they appear, the dry season is about to begin.  In northern climates, spring is a time of promise that leads into the lushness of summer; here in the Middle East, the joy of spring gets us only as far as the sadness of the hollyhocks, and then we have to lie low for six months and long for the relief of the first showers of fall. The tradition defines the period of the counting of the Omer as a time of mourning, for reasons that remain unclear (a plague?  the catastrophe of the Bar Kochba revolt?  concern for the vulnerable ripening grain?).  And modern Israel has placed within this period Yom Hashoah - and a week later Yom Hazikaron, the memorial day for fallen soldiers and for civilians killed by enemy action.  Interesting how nature, religious tradition, and nationalist symbols, all seem to come together during this time.  As the world dries out around us, and the landscape fades from lush green to thorny brown in what seems like just a few days, we find ourselves looking back, preoccupied with sad memories and with the attempt of find meaning in them.  In this dry time when nature's face is bleak, we mourn those who suffered and perished in the confrontations with evil in the past century; we remember those who were cut off and weep for the lost potential, for what might have been. And we express our feelings with traditional expressions of memorialization like reciting Kaddish, lighting candles, visiting graves. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Right and Responsibility April 27, 2010 (3 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) The official shall go on addressing the troops and say, "Is there anyone afraid and disheartened?  Let him go back to his home, lest the courage of his comrades flag like his."             -Deuteronomy 20:8 Dugrinet (www.dugrinet.co.il), our Hebrew-Arabic internet magazine, has begun to sponsor public events as a way of creating a relationship between the site and the community.  Last week, we held a panel discussion on the topic of national service by Arab youth.  This is part of a larger, ongoing discussion (sometimes rational, sometimes not) in Israeli society about conscription. It is a pillar of mainstream Israeli ideology that army service is a sacred obligation, a key Zionist mitzvah that has made possible "the Jewish emergence from powerlessness."  It is considered heretical to question this value.  And indeed, about 75% of Jewish 18-year olds are drafted.  Among girls, about another 20% do alternative national service in hospitals, schools, etc.  These are primarily Orthodox girls whose religious commitments make it impractical for them to serve in the army.  Among boys, around 15% are exempted for medical, psychological, and other reasons, and over 10% are exempted as they are full-time yeshivah students.  This category is hotly controversial, and is a major source of the antagonism felt by the general population toward the Ultra-Orthodox.  It is also a contributing factor to the widespread poverty among the Ultra-Orthodox, because in order to receive a yeshivah-study deferment you must be a full-time student and thus may not be employed. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Definitions VI April 20, 2010 (7 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Rabbi Abba said in the name of Samuel: for three years the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel were in disagreement, each insisting that the halachah was according to its view.  A heavenly voice was heard, saying "Both views are the words of the living God, and the halachah is according to the School of Hillel."  But if both are the words of the living God, why did the School of Hillel merit that the halachah followed its view?  Because they were soft-spoken and humble, and taught both their view and the view of the School of Shammai - and even mentioned the opinion of the School of Shammai first. -Babylonian Talmud, Eruvin 13b A couple of months ago I began a series of entries trying to explain the fine points of difference among the religious "streams" in Israel.  Before moving on, herewith a scorecard, to help keep track of the players (in rough order of numbers): 1.  Cultural, non-religious Zionism: The "mainstream" of Israeli culture that has dominated the education system and public life for a century.  Sees Judaism as a national culture (like Frenchness for French people, or Polishness for Poles), in which the symbols of the Jewish tradition are secular, cultural symbols, no longer necessarily connected to religious belief.  The prime exponent of this approach, Achad Ha'am, was a strong influence on Mordecai Kaplan, founder of Reconstructionism in North America. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: And now for something completely different April 12, 2010 (10 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart.  Reprove your kinsman but incur no guilt because of him.  You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen.  Love your fellow as yourself: I am the Lord.             -Leviticus 19:17-18 Herewith a translation of a piece I recently published in www.dugrinet.co.il, the Hebrew-Arabic internet magazine sponsored by our foundation. Once the Chilazoner Rebbe was sitting with his Hasidim around the holiday table, and he told the following parable: Once I was driving along the highway and a car passed me and cut in quickly in front of me, cutting me off.  "Damn Arab kids," I said.  "They have no respect for the laws of the land, not even for the traffic laws.  They whine about having no rights, but they refuse to accept responsibility!"  A few minutes later I found myself stopped at a red light next to the car that had passed me.  The driver was Ultra-Orthodox. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Definitions V April 7, 2010 (6 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) May it by Your will, our God and God of our ancestors, that You lead us and guide our steps in peace...and bring us safely to our desired destination - in life, in joy, and in peace...             -From the traditional travelers' prayer On a recent Friday afternoon Tami went up to bring a cake to a new young family who had just bought a house here in Shorashim.  The woman was wearing jeans.  The man was wearing a large, knitted kipah.  Tami mentioned that kabbalat Shabbat services would be at 6:00.  The man said that our synagogue was not appropriate for him.  Turns out that he is from a non-religious (yes, non-religious: not Orthodox, not Reform, not Conservative, not Reconstructionist, not Renewal...) Jewish background, and has begun a process of what is called in common parlance here "strengthening," meaning, moving toward Orthodoxy.  Therefore, our egalitarian synagogue is not a place where he feels comfortable praying.  Presumably, his wife will not attend because she remains non-religious, and so doesn't feel comfortable praying in any synagogue.  They are the second family here to represent this process and this mix.  And they are among thousands like them throughout Israeli society.   The commonly held view of the polarized division between Orthodox and non-Orthodox is in fact far from accurate.  While there are all sorts of examples of opposition and active conflict, of mutual fear, there is also heavy traffic along the paths leading in both directions - from Orthodoxy to other definitions, and from other positions toward Orthodoxy.  I have not seen statistics, but anecdotal evidence suggests that flow in both directions is deep and wide.  Just as we have several examples of "born-again" Orthodox here in our little community, we also have at least as many who would fit the slang definition of "datlash," (an acronym for "formerly religious").   These personal religious journeys, as well as marriages across the lines of religious definition, lead to a reality in which it seems like every extended family contains a variety of disparate positions.  One sees these especially at life cycle observances and Passover sedarim, when the families gather and you can tell from the headgear and the skirt length that the whole spectrum is represented. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Definitions IV April 1, 2010 by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Esther did not reveal her people or her kindred, for Mordecai had told her not to reveal it. -Esther 2:10 At a recent in-service day for coordinators and facilitators in the ORT "Jewish roots" program, one of the guest speakers was Hannah Azulai, one of the most popular and busy actresses in Israel today (stage, screen, and TV). She told her life story - and it was interesting and moving (needless to say, she knows how to tell a story). Her parents were immigrants from Morocco in the 50s - her father a blind Torah scholar who worked here as a janitor, her mother illiterate, she was raised in Beersheba's tough "Neighborhood D." Interestingly, Tami and I spent a year in Neighborhood D, when Hannah Azulai was about ten years old; she was probably one of the kids we used to see around the shopping center. She spent a couple of decades of her life trying to suppress and hide her Moroccan origins, and to "pass for white" in order to make it in elite Ashkenazi society - and there were plenty of well-meaning educators and mentors who were only too eager to help her with this project. Only as a successful adult was she able (with the help of her husband, playwright Samuel Hasfari) to confront this cover-up and reclaim her identity, with sympathy for and pride in her family and what they had experienced in the transition of aliyah. Awareness of her not atypical experience is important for understanding another dimension of the complex religious tapestry of Israel. read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Jewish History

Galilee Diary: Definitions III March 23, 2010 (1 Comment) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is present in this place, and I did not know it!" Shaken, he said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven." -Genesis 28:16-17 Recently I led a day trip for the Avshalom Institute, one of a number of organizations around the country providing adult education programming on "Israel studies," including lectures, courses, and field trips. The clientele are mostly active senior citizens, and many of the programs are quite rich, with prominent academic lecturers. Our topic was "the 'streams' of Judaism in the Galilee." After an introductory lecture on the development of the denominations, especially Reform, we went on to four encounters: At the Conservative kibbutz, Hannaton, we met the new young rabbi, Yoav Ende, who explained both the philosophy of the movement and the story of the community - a kibbutz that failed (socially and economically) in the past, but is now going through a rebirth. The participants, who were pretty much all from the sector that defines itself as "secular," found it difficult to place the boundaries - between Reform and Conservative - and between Conservative and Orthodox: "So, if you follow halachah, how are you different from Orthodox? But if you apply your own reasoning to change the halachah, how are you different from Reform?" read MORE Filed Under: Defining Reform | Israel

Definitions II March 16, 2010 (2 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) One should never occupy oneself with the legends and midrashim relating to the messianic age, and should not consider them as central beliefs, as they foster neither love of nor obedience to God; likewise one must not calculate the end - as our sages said, "accursed be those who calculate the end." One must simply wait and believe... -Rambam (Maimonides) Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 12:2 Because of its commitment to the state of Israel, and to having that state function as a modern, democratic, Jewish state, Orthodox Zionism was from the beginning viewed positively by many "secular" Israelis. While these Orthodox aroused opposition and resentment sometimes by their insistence on public observance of religious strictures (no El Al planes on Shabbat, no pork...), they were also respected as loyal, constructive citizens who were generally moderate in their Orthodoxy (witness the Orthodox kibbutz movement), and who shouldered their full share and even more than their share of the sacrifices needed to build the country. Indeed, since the beginning of Zionism, the stridency of the polemic between the different strands of Orthodoxy (pro- and anti-Zionist) has been greater than that between the Orthodox and secular wings of Zionism. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Definitions I March 9, 2010 by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Sound the great shofar for our freedom, raise the ensign to gather our exiles, and gather us from the four corners of the earth. Blessed are you, O Lord, Who gathers the dispersed of His people Israel.      -from the traditional Amidah prayer About ten years ago the local Orthodox community turned to our seminar center at Shorashim and asked us to organize programs that would bring them together with the other, non-Orthodox communities around the county, as they were feeling as though they lived in a ghetto.  We began with some joint study evenings, and ever since we have been producing programs of different types, with that original goal of bringing people together across the denominational lines: film evenings, lectures, holiday observances, etc.  At the end of one of the first evenings, at which the discussion had been very open and lively, I asked a "secular" friend, who had been somewhat cynical about the project, what she got out of the evening.  "Well," she said, "I learned one thing: they are not all the same!"  From the occasional reader comments, directly or on the blog, I have the impression that, as is so often the case, people find it hard to recognize differences among those who are "the other" to us.  Therefore, as a public service, over the next few entries I will present a guide for those who might be interested in some nuance: read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Jewish History

Galilee Diary: Shabbat shalom March 2, 2010 (6 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) You shall destroy all the peoples that the Lord your God delivers to you, showing them no pity. And you shall not worship their gods, for that would be a snare to you. --Deuteronomy 7:16 Six months ago, our daughter Ilana, seeking a non-urban, inexpensive apartment near Haifa, moved to the Druze Arab village of Usfiya. This town is just beyond the outskirts of Haifa as you go south along the top of the Carmel ridge, less than ten minutes from Haifa University. Because of its location it has been considered as a sort of suburb of Haifa for decades - and yet, for all its development and its economic interdependence with Haifa, it retains many features of a rural Arab village. The Druze constitute about 10% of Israel's million Arab citizens. They believe that the founder of their religion was Moses' father-in-law Jethro, and thus it antedates Islam (the shrine of Jethro's tomb, in the mountains above Tiberias, called Nebi Shuaib, is a major pilgrimage site); on the other hand, historians argue that the religion was founded in Egypt in the 11 th century as a split-off from Islam; persecuted by the Muslims, the Druze ultimately concentrated their communities in the mountains of what later became Lebanon and Syria (where the vast majority live today) and northern Israel. The two southernmost Druze villages in Israel are Usfiya and its neighbor, Daliyat el-Carmel. After 1948 the Druze leadership agreed that Druze men would be subject to the Israeli military draft, and indeed, they have served with distinction in all branches of the army since then. That is perhaps the reason that many Jewish Israelis don't define them as Arabs. It is quite common for Arab villages in Israel to be of mixed religion, and indeed, Usfiya is home to some Moslem and Christian Arab families, as well as quite a few Jews, especially university students. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Perspective February 23, 2010 (5 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) ...Even a poor person who is supported by tzedakah is obligated to contribute tzedakah to others. -Rambam (Maimonides), Mishneh Torah, Laws of gifts to the poor 7:5 Recently the Masorti (Conservative) congregation in Kfar Vradim (a rural town with a sort of suburban life style, located about 30 minutes north of Shorashim) celebrated the ground-breaking for their new synagogue. It marked an important milestone, as the little community there has struggled for years against the opposition of the Orthodox minority and against the apathy of the "secular" majority who couldn't quite understand what all the to-do was about. As has happened in many places, the liberal community finally managed to win the support of local government, which has the power to allocate land for public use. Thus, there are a number of Reform and Conservative synagogues on land allocated by local municipalities, throughout the country. This is of course still a long way from equality with Orthodoxy, whose rabbis are government employees and whose synagogues are often built partly or completely by tax dollars. But on the local political level the liberal movements have made great strides in the past couple of decades. In general, I think it is important to keep the "persecution" or "disenfranchisement" of liberal Jews in perspective. On the individual level there are issues - primarily in the areas of recognition of marriage and conversion; and of course it is not uncommon for nominally neutral institutions like the army or the schools to hew to an Orthodox line when inviting holiday speakers, or performing public ceremonies (especially galling when it involves the status of women), so it does happen that liberal Jews find themselves feeling like outsiders. On the other hand, they can live where they want, and work where they want (unlike, say, Arabs or Ethiopian Jews, who are persona non grata in various settings). read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Saturday night February 16, 2010 (1 Comment) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Who is the mightiest of the mighty? He who conquers his urges... Some say: He who turns his enemy into a friend. -Avot d'Rabbi Nathan, version A chapter 23 Since leaving the United States we have been living on the edge of Asia - and Africa is just next door. I have developed somewhat of a fascination with this near neighbor and the experiences and cultures of some of its many nations. In particular, the transition from Apartheid to democracy in South Africa in the 90s has been a subject that I find most interesting and inspiring. Therefore, as soon as it opened here, we went to see Invictus, Clint Eastwood's new film on Nelson Mandela's use of rugby as a force for creating a shared identity and culture among the disparate populations of his newly liberated nation. It was sort of schmaltzy, but then, the reality was pretty schmaltzy. And there is no question that Nelson Mandela was a rare example of a leader who truly had vision, and who led his people away from their natural instincts of revenge and domination, presiding over a process of reconciliation from which perhaps we could learn. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Whose wall? February 9, 2010 (8 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) The Council of Progressive (Reform) Rabbis in Israel views the Western Wall as an area that does not represent the Jewish attachment to God, the experience of prayer, or modern Jewish thought... For the Reform Jew the Wall may be a place of historical connection, but it does not have any place in a Reform theology. -Responsum of the Council of Progressive Rabbis in Israel It takes me about four hours to get to Jerusalem by public transportation; not a great distance as distances go in the world - and merely a fraction of the distance to the North American Diaspora. And Jerusalem is very familiar to me from living there and visiting frequently over the years. I even remember it before the unification of the city in 1967. Yet sometimes it looks, in my "peripheral" vision, like another world. And since it is the "center of the world," and the capital of Israel (depending on whom you ask), it represents Israel in the eyes of the world. Thus, sometimes it seems that the Jews of Boston and Omaha and Phoenix are more involved in the symbolic events occurring in Jerusalem than are we Galileans. You might say that Jerusalem looks to us like Washington DC looks to a Montanan: What's all the fuss? This mismatch comes to mind in the wake of the most recent installment in the ongoing jousting match between the ultra-Orthodox and the liberal movements in Jerusalem: violating a court order, the Women of the Wall, a group of women who pray every Rosh Chodesh at the Western Wall, took their prayer out of the Robinson's Arch area that had been designated for them, and held it in the open plaza behind the "official" prayer areas at the wall. One of them even put on a tallit - and was promptly arrested (and released after a few hours "interrogation"). The repercussions have been continuing for weeks, almost entirely among liberal Jewish organizations here and abroad. Most Israelis, who are not affiliated with these movements, are not very interested in what seems to us to be a test-case for religious rights of a significance equivalent to Rosa Parks' historic bus ride. Indeed, they can't imagine why a woman would want to put on a tallit anyway. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Galilee encounters February 2, 2010 (2 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Do not uproot what has been planted Do not forget the hope Return me and I shall return To that goodly land. -Naomi Shemer So, rabbi, what do you do all day anyway? Wednesday I spent the day with 50 students from HUC, spending their first year in Israel before beginning their studies at the stateside campuses. The day included three encounters: Iman is a 21 year old religious Muslim woman studying to be an English teacher. She has been working with us for a few years, speaking to groups, organizing encounters with her classmates. She is bright, thoughtful, poised, extremely articulate in English, and honestly ambivalent about her relations with her Palestinian - and Israeli - identity and culture. One of 17 children in a working-class family, recently married to a Technion graduate, she is a fascinating case study in the transitions that the Israeli Arab community is experiencing. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Rainy day January 26, 2010 (3 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Moving from the Midwest to the Mideast involved looking at rainy days in a new way. It took me a number of years to internalize the concept that rainy days are not an inconvenience, but rather a blessing. For a long time I knew how to say the words, but I didn't feel the feeling. But after a while I noticed that awakening to the sound of rain actually feels good; the overcast sky, the drumming of the drops, the smell on the air - all are actually - and counterintuitively - cheering and invigorating. I guess it takes years for one's body to attune to the seasonal rhythms of a place. We are having a stormy week. The headlines are the weather - yesterday two rain tourists were killed in the Negev. There are different Hebrew terms for two types of streams: "nachal eitan," a "strong stream," refers to streams in which water flows all year around; "nachal achzav," a "disappointing stream," refers to streams that exist only in the rainy season. All of the rivers in the desert are in the latter category, indeed, they may flow for only a few days a year - but after a few stormy days, they gush with overwhelming force, and the rapids and waterfalls that suddenly appear in the dry environment are beautiful and impressive (and often destructive) sights, which every year claim casualties - either macho drivers undaunted by some water on the road, or sightseers who get too close. Here in the Galilee we also have "disappointing streams," like the Hilazon, whose course passes just below Shorashim. For years it flowed constantly - with raw sewage from the area; however, that was solved, and it has gone back to its natural dry state except for a few days after a really heavy rain, like today, when the runoff gushing down the mountains turns it into a real river flowing west into the sea. Meanwhile, it's not only the brave and the foolish who are affected by the rain - roads and train tracks all over the country are flooded out today, and my neighbors and I are watching our ceilings for signs of the usual dampness from the sensitive spots on our flat roofs. But when the sun comes out tomorrow the landscape will be lush and green and ablaze with wildflowers. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Values collide January 19, 2010 (4 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) We hold that the State of Israel was not permitted, by law, to allocate State land to the Jewish Agency for the purpose of establishing the communal settlement of Katzir on the basis of discrimination between Jews and non-Jews. -Israel Supreme Court decision, March 8, 2000 The issue of "admissions committees" in rural communities, which has been simmering for over a decade, came to a boil in recent months and has now sort of boiled over. For decades, kibbutzim and most other gated rural communities had rather draconian admissions procedures. For example, when we came to Shorashim in 1990 there was a preliminary interview, psychological testing, a weekend visit, a weeklong trial residency, a vote for acceptance to a year of probationary membership, and, at the end of the year, a final vote for membership. It was taken for granted that small communities had the right to choose their members, to perpetuate their values. We got in; some other families didn't. While troubled on one level by this exclusivity, on another level Tami and I believed in it, as it seemed obvious that without it, our little Camelot would be overrun by city-dwellers looking for suburban life, with no interest in preserving and supporting Shorashim's liberal Jewish life style. Of course, we tended to think keeping out those who might undermine the comfortable homogeneity that had so attracted us to the community meant selecting for people like us in our Jewish and liberal values. The flip side of that selection, which we didn't really think about, was that non-Jews would certainly not fit the criteria. And since around here, non-Jews are mostly Arabs, we were essentially adopting a policy that was ethnically/religiously exclusive, something that we had railed against whenever we encountered it in the United States, growing up in the 50s and 60s. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Torah for the masses January 12, 2010 (3 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Ben Bag-Bag says: Turn [the Torah] over and turn it over, for everything is in it. -Mishnah, Avot 5:22 I just returned from Limmud Galil, where I had the misfortune to be teaching a class in the first period of the morning (8:00) on the second day of the event, after the participants had all stayed up singing until 2:00 am. And my class was in the same slot as several big name speakers - and a Pilates workshop. So it was intimate. Limmud ("learning") got its start in England 25 years ago, and has since spread all over the world. The idea is to make Torah study accessible to the masses by creating a sort of festival that brings together learners and teachers of every background and interest for a brief, intensive experience of learning and socializing and crossing ideological and institutional boundaries. The idea is that everyone volunteers - to teach, to organize, so it really becomes a learning community. The "costs" are that there is a certain amount of chaos (my class was small; a few years ago a friend had no learners at all at her session; it's nice to let people learn what they want when they want, but to volunteer to teach, spend time preparing and end up not teaching is rather annoying); and that the quality of instruction can be uneven. And by definition, just about anything goes (a woman stuck her head in the door of my class on halachic controversies, to ask where the class on spirit communication was taking place). read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Torah

Galilee Diary: Health care January 5, 2010 (8 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, the Lord your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant He made on oath with your fathers...The Lord will ward off from you all sickness; He will not bring upon you any of the dreadful diseases of Egypt, about which you know, but will inflict them upon all your enemies. -Deuteronomy 7:12, 15 A recent trip to the regional specialty clinic in Haifa reminded me that for all the criticisms that it is possible to level at Israel for the gap between rich and poor, and for the inequalities in opportunities for different ethnic groups, one area in which we really have the right to be proud of our achievements is the health care system. First of all, it is important to point out that Israel has universal basic health care coverage. In return for a small monthly payroll deduction (waived for those who don't have a paycheck), every citizen can choose to enroll in one of several national HMOs. All normal, routine care and preventive care are covered, and there is a large "basket" of more expensive treatments, diagnostic tests, hospitalization, and medications that are included. Of course, the system is not infinite, and there is always controversy about what conditions or treatments are excluded from the "basket." Moreover, the limitations and inefficiencies that are probably inherent in any such system lead to class-based inequalities: those who can afford it buy supplemental insurance to cover what the system doesn't - and bypass the bureaucracy and waiting periods by paying for surgery privately. And at any given time there is a least one campaign being waged in the media to raise money for someone needing a hugely expensive treatment (e.g., organ transplant). The system clearly has its deficiencies. But it is a system that works. Everyone, regardless of religion or social class or ethnic group, can go to the doctor, can get a prescription for an expensive antibiotic, can have a CT scan, can see a top specialist - without stopping to wonder how to pay for it. Is the equality absolute? No, if you live in the periphery you'll have to spend time and money travelling to that regional specialty clinic; if you live in an unrecognized Bedouin village your local clinic may be limited in equipment (and in the hours it has electricity). If you are a foreign worker, you may be at the mercy of your labor contractor. We still have plenty to do; but it seems that the glass is way more than half full. read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Social Action

Galilee Diary: Round and round December 29, 2009 (1 Comment) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die... -Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 Last Thursday, after a long struggle with cancer, Tsippy Oren, a veteran member of Shorashim, passed away, at home, at the age of 58. She was a remarkable member of a remarkable family. Classically "secular" Israelis deeply sympathetic to the liberal religious orientation of Shorashim, devout Zionists, strong advocates for social justice and civil society, open minded and open hearted - a sort of embodiment of the mythical Israeli. Tsippy was an occupational therapist, but beyond her professional commitments she was always quietly finding ways to help others - bereaved families, Arab women, families in trouble - and who knows who else. One son helped found a new kibbutz dedicated to education and social activism without great prospects for prosperity; a daughter became ultra-orthodox. The Orens didn't miss a beat and remained a model of a close and loving and inclusive family. Tsippy was our liaison when we were first visiting and considering joining Shorashim, and was our advocate when our candidacy was questioned because of our advanced age (44). I think part of what drew us here was the prospect of living in a community made up of people like her. Her loss is a very sad moment for all of us at Shorashim - all the more so because it represents a sort of actuarial turning point for us; in the early days of the community a young mother died of cancer, but that was an anomaly, a tragedy. In this death, on the other hand, we all hear the clock ticking. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Israel | Lifecycle

Galilee Diary: Laughter December 15, 2009 (8 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Thus said the Lord: Again there shall be heard in this place, which you say is ruined, without man or beast - in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man, without inhabitants, without beast - the sound of mirth and gladness... -Jeremiah 33:10-11 So there I was on the train from Tel Aviv, coming home to the Galilee, on a Tuesday evening after rush hour. The train was nevertheless full - I had to walk through two cars to find a seat. The passengers on these late trains seem to be characterized by their tiredness - it has been a long day. Many people doze and/or listen to their ipods, some read books (they read the tabloid on the way to work - there's nothing left to read in it by evening), more and more work on their laptops. There are always a few passengers travelling with a friend or acquaintance or coworker, who actually converse during the ride; a much larger number are conversing with someone far away, by cell phone - you can hear them all - the soldier breaking up with her boyfriend, the teenager arguing with his mother, the foreman barking work instructions, the mother guiding her kid through dinner preparations. Conversations in Hebrew and Russian and Arabic and English and occasionally Amharic. Seems like the harder you try not to listen, the more you hear. I've noticed, too, that many who are not talking on their cell phones are nevertheless busy with them, texting or playing games or exploring "features." read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Rabbis II December 8, 2009 (1 Comment) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) I have indeed removed them far among nations and have scattered them among the countries and I have become to them a diminished sanctity [or small sanctuary] in the countries whither they have gone... -Ezekiel 11:16 Rabbi Isaac says "a small sanctuary" refers to synagogues and houses of study... -Babylonian Talmud Tractate Megilah 29a One of the most interesting challenges facing us as we think about the recruitment and training of Reform rabbis in Israel is the difference between the synagogue in the Diaspora and the synagogue in Israel. Consider: read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Rabbis December 1, 2009 (5 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Joshua ben Perachiah says: Make yourself a teacher (rabbi) and get yourself a colleague (friend) and judge every person leniently. -Mishnah, Avot 1:6 Last week was the ordination ceremony for the new crop of rabbis in the Israeli program of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, in Jerusalem. Although I am new on the faculty, I had the privilege of calling up the six ordinees to receive their semichah from Rabbi David Ellenson, president of HUC-JIR. There was a large, enthusiastic crowd of family, friends, rabbis, teachers, and community leaders present in the Blaustein auditorium, whose stage backs up to a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows affording a magnificent view of Jerusalem. It was a moving ceremony for the ordinees and their families - and for the Reform Movement in Israel in general. Slowly but surely, year by year, we are building a cadre of professional leaders for Israeli society with a liberal vision of Judaism for a Jewish state. Most of the graduates are already placed in congregations - from the Galilee to the Aravah. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: The Long Arm of the Law November 24, 2009 (4 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Judges and officers [shotrim, the word used in modern Hebrew for police] shall you set up in the gates that the Lord your God shall give you for your tribes, and they shall judge the people justly. -Deuteronomy 16:18 The other day I was driving through Karmiel when my cell phone rang. I answered it and navigated off the road to a bus stop bay where I could stop out of the flow of traffic. I ended the call quickly and continued my journey, when I noticed a police flasher in my mirror. Sure enough, the cop had seen me talking on my phone while driving. He asked me if I had anything to say for myself, and I protested feebly that I had pulled off as soon as I answered the phone, but he was not impressed; after all, I had been driving and talking, even if it was just for a few seconds. The law is the law - and the cost of violating it was 1,000 shekels (about $250). I really do think that the law makes sense (it has been on the books, and enforced, since cell phones first became popular), and rarely speak on the phone while driving - generally only long enough to tell the caller that I can't talk now since I'm driving. And while there was the temptation to say something nasty (and unhelpful) like "Why are you spending your time nailing minor offenders in town when you could be preventing fatal accidents by lying in wait for speeders and illegal passers who abound on the rural highway just a mile away?" I resisted that temptation and accepted my fate, if somewhat sullenly, and really have resolved simply to ignore my phone if it rings while I'm driving. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Jewish identity/Israeli identity November 17, 2009 by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Take your son," - "Which son?" "Your only son," - "Each is the only son of his mother." "The one you love," - "I love them both." "Isaac." -Midrash Genesis Rabbah 39, on Genesis 22:2 The other day I observed a Bible class in the regional high school at Kibbutz Sasa, in a gorgeous setting in the mountains of the Upper Galilee. This is a relatively small high school (about 350) and serves a number of non-Orthodox communities in the region. The classes tend to be small; there were only about 15 ninth graders in the lesson I visited, but the levels of interest and knowledge were pretty heterogeneous: there were some kids (mostly boys) who sat slumped in their seats and seemed to be working at demonstrating how uninvolved they were (one boy either fell asleep or pretended to do so, forcing the teacher to wake him up), while others participated actively, answering and asking questions as the teacher reviewed with them the dramatic narrative of Abraham's almost-sacrifice of Isaac. The teacher was dynamic and energetic, and worked at trying to get the students to think about the problematic nature of this story. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Free Will November 10, 2009 (6 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Proclaim: "This is the truth from your Lord," then whoever wills let him believe, and whoever wills let him disbelieve. -Quran 18:29 All is foreseen - and freedom is granted... -Mishnah, Avot 3:15 A few years ago our foundation facilitated, for the Interreligious Coordinating Council of Israel, a course on Judaism for local village imams (Moslem religious leaders). The group of about a dozen imams met monthly with various rabbis, and were a congenial and curious group. A question that was asked more than once was, "How come this is one-way? Where are the Jews who are curious about Islam?" We decided to find out the answer, and invited, a couple of times over the past year, a local imam to speak on Islam, publicizing the event through our usual local channels of advertising. The attendance both times was about 15 people. Unfortunately, the speakers were not really successful at conveying a coherent and intellectually satisfying account of Islamic customs or beliefs, in Hebrew, and the audience went home frustrated. The training that these clergy receive in Islamic seminaries does not include much in the way of pedagogy or critical inquiry - or comparative religion. Meanwhile, a friend referred me to an imam from a village a little farther away, near Nazareth, whom he recommended for such settings. I called Khaled Abu Ras and we arranged to meet at his home, and he turned out to be a charming and articulate 30-something doctoral candidate in religious thought at Bar Ilan University, a teacher in his local high school, and a Sufi (devotee of Islamic "Kabalah"). We talked for a long time - and looked at all the photos of him and his wife on their recent pilgrimage to Mecca, and I invited him to speak. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Sound the Horn November 3, 2009 (5 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) If ...[one was walking] with a barrel ahead of one with a beam, and the barrel is broken by the beam, the one with the beam is responsible; and if the one with the barrel stopped [suddenly] then the one with the beam is free of responsibility; but if he said to the one with the beam "Stop!" then the one with the beam is responsible. -Mishnah Baba Kamma 3:5 The other day I had occasion to take a cab across town in Tel Aviv. The driver, who appeared to be in his fifties, tossed that morning's tabloid paper to me as I sat down, apparently so that our conversation could be text-based. The headline had to do with the current basketball scandal: the manager of the Maccabi Tel Aviv team committed suicide after sinking into huge debts generated by black-market investments he had been making on behalf of officials, players, and even referees. And the inside pages were still processing the grisly murder of an entire family a few days earlier, apparently related to a protection racket. The commentary wasn't long in coming... read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Living on the Edge October 27, 2009 (7 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Three times a year - on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the Feast of Weeks, and on the Feast of Booths - all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place that He will choose. -Deuteronomy 16:16 I am writing this entry while sitting on the mostly empty train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, my first ride on this route since it was reopened four years ago. Originally laid by a French contractor for the Ottomans in 1892, this line winds through beautiful vistas of the Judean hills for over 90 minutes. It was shut down in 1998 as inefficient and little-used; recently it was refurbished at great cost, for reasons that are not clear, as it is still inefficient and little-used. A high-speed alternative is under construction. Now that I have started working at HUC in Jerusalem two days a week, and have to be there by 9:00 am on Mondays, I have been exploring the various alternative ways to get from the Galilee to the capital: read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Sound reflections October 20, 2009 (1 Comment) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Blow the shofar on the new moon, on the full moon for our feast day, For it is a law for Israel, a ruling of the God of Jacob. -Psalms 81:4-5 Shorashim is located on the west-facing slope of a shoulder of Mt. Gilon, overlooking the Hilazon Valley. Across the valley, less than a mile away, is the Moslem village of Sha'ab. We don't have that much contact with the villagers, but we hear from them all the time. Weddings are held outdoors, and the amplification system for the dance music is quite robust, so we "participate" in every wedding - which means, during the summer, just about every night. Fortunately, they usually end by midnight. And the muezzin's call to prayer in the mosque is also amplified, and carries clearly across the valley, five times a day. Within our first year here we had already "stopped hearing" these sounds, in the sense that they had just become a normal part of the environment, often blotted out of our consciousness by other stimuli - not waking us up or disturbing us. The other day I happened to be awake at 4:00 in the morning. It was a clear, cool morning, a few days before Rosh Hodesh, so there was a bright sliver of a moon in the eastern sky, and the nasal, mournful chant of the muezzin drifted across the valley, and it occurred to me that this was a beautiful moment, and that actually I like hearing the muezzin; it has become part of what defines home for me - a part of the landscape like the olive trees that carpet the valley. During the day or early evening, I guess I really have stopped hearing it; and if I happen to be in a village at prayer time, it is often rather a nuisance, like a low flying jet - you have to stop conversation for a minute or two until the noise subsides. But in the pre-dawn silence, attenuated by distance, it seemed somehow comforting. Often, the muezzin's call wakes up the jackals that live down the mountainside, and they add a backup chorus of howling that seems just right. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Sukkah season October 13, 2009 (4 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I the Lord you God. -Leviticus 23:42-43 The day before Sukkot I was walking down the street in Jerusalem, and kept having to make detours around the "construction sites" of sidewalk sukkot being erected by restaurant workers. In general, Sukkot offers a wonderful case study in the successful Zionist transformation of Judaism from religion to culture. Sukkot are ubiquitous - on roofs, balconies, courtyards, and parking lots. There are huge institutional ones at hotels and kibbutzim and yeshivot, modest family models, and tiny ones built by falafel stand owners to allow their customers to perform the mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah (usually interpreted as eating there). Indeed, the sidewalk sukkot of Jerusalem are a classic case of the interface of religion and capitalism: if you operate a kosher restaurant and want to keep your religiously observant clientele during the week of Sukkot, you need to provide a sukkah or they'll patronize the competition. read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Israel

Galilee Diary: Gedaliah October 6, 2009 (3 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, who was of royal descent and one of the king's commanders, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah; and they ate together there at Mizpah. Then Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him arose and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan with the sword and killed him, because the king of Babylon had put him in charge of the land. -Jeremiah 41:1-2 There are four traditional fast days associated with the fall of Judah to the Babylonians: the 10th of Tevet (beginning of the siege of Jerusalem), the 17th of Tammuz (breaching of the walls), the 9th of Av (fall of the Temple), 3rd of Tishrei (murder of Gedaliah). Only the 9th of Av is a full 25 hour fast like Yom Kippur; the others are only from sunup to sundown. With the re-establishment of a sovereign Jewish state these fasts have become less significant for many people; indeed, most Israelis pretty much ignore them, and except for the 9th of Av are generally not even aware that they are occurring. Personally I have never been able to find much meaning in the three minor ones and haven't observed them. I do feel that it is important to clarify that however wonderful the state of Israel is, it is not yet the messianic state: we still have a lot of work to do before redemption; therefore, I do try to observe the 9th of Av as a symbol and a reminder of that belief. read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Israel

Galilee Diary: Uncertainty September 29, 2009 (6 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) These are the festivals of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their proper time. -Leviticus 23:4 One of the things that many immigrants from traditional backgrounds learn to appreciate about living in Israel is the fact that the "second day of the holiday for the Diaspora" is not observed here. So, for example in the Diaspora, the eighth day of Sukkot, Shmini Atzeret, a full holiday, is doubled, and its second day (i.e., the 9th day of Sukkot) observed as Simchat Torah. In Israel, it is only one day, also observed as Simchat Torah, so Israel and the Diaspora celebrate Simchat Torah a day apart. Pesach is only seven days in Israel instead of eight, and there is only one seder. Most people find this a great relief (liberation!), but it causes havoc with in-law relations: instead of tonight at our place and tomorrow at yours, we have to alternate years. This is not so simple. read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Israel

Galilee Diary: On the Waterfront September 22, 2009 (1 Comment) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) He will take us back in love; He will cover up our iniquities, You will hurl all our sins into the depths of the sea. -Micah 7:19 One of our main early sources regarding customs among Ashkenazic Jewry is a book by the Maharil, (Rabbi Jacob Moellin) who lived in Germany around 1400. His book is the first documented source we have for the custom of Tashlich on Rosh Hashanah, which is now widespread throughout the Jewish world (though mainly in Ashkenazic communities). He describes walking down to a river after lunch on Rosh Hashanah in order to fulfill the above verse, "to hurl our sins into the depths..." He makes a point of saying that one should not take food along to throw to the fishes for the fun of it, as this might lead to the violation of the restrictions of the holiday. It would seem that the custom was not a new invention by him, and that indeed, he felt constrained to warn people against what probably was common behavior - taking a walk along the riverbank after lunch with the kids, tossing challah crumbs to the fish - perhaps a way to relax between many hours spent in synagogue. Beyond the verse from Micah (which is basically the only "liturgy" for the ceremony), he suggests further justification for the practice: the Torah reading for the second day of Rosh Hashanah is Genesis 22, the binding of Isaac. (It is the reading for the first day in most North American Reform Congregations.) There is a midrash that Satan tried various methods to prevent Abraham from trying to obey God's command; among these was to take the form of a river blocking Abraham's path. Abraham and Isaac continued walking, until the water was up to their necks, at which point God intervened. Hence, a connection between the Rosh Hashanah Torah reading and bodies of water. read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Israel

Galilee Diary: Cats September 15, 2009 (7 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) Therefore the lion will strike them from the forest, the wolf will attack them from the plains, the leopard watches over their cities - and will devour anyone who comes out, on account of their many sins, their overwhelming iniquity. -Jeremiah 5:6 In most communities and cities in Israel, one takes one's household garbage out to the street and dumps it into a covered dumpster - usually green, usually steel with plastic doors in a lid that slides back when the truck comes to lift and dump the container. These containers are treated roughly, especially by the lift mechanisms of the collecting trucks, so their plastic doors are often broken off, or the seals and/or bearings on their sliding lids are non-functional. Hence, they are usually open for the easy entrance and exit of the feral cats that live around them. I was reminded of this particular ecosystem recently when I noticed one of Shorashim's feral felines watching over two new kittens. Tourists who have the chance to leave the tourist routes and hotels and visit a home, anywhere in the country, often comment on the ubiquitous cats. In suburban America we had raccoons who rummaged in the garbage; in New York city I knew there were rats and mice, though I rarely encountered them. In Israel, there is no place without cats. And despite a sporadic effort by the county to bait and sterilize them (killing is not allowed), they are a constant (and I think constantly increasing) presence here on Shorashim. I do not know if they are as prevalent in other warm countries or if their presence is related to the degree of development. But for those of us whose world of experience is primarily North America and Israel, the association of alley cats with Israel is quite strong. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Fitting in II September 8, 2009 (10 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) Since its earliest days, Reform Judaism has asserted that a Judaism frozen in time is an heirloom, not a living fountain. Changes must be thoughtful, of course, and must be rooted in the history and traditions of our people. But we assert Judaism's innovative character, and we assert, too, that a stubborn failure to change will make Judaism an irrelevance. -Rabbi Eric Yoffie When we first moved to Israel, our 10th grade son came back from an overnight at a new friend's home - a family who explicitly defined themselves as "secular," and reported incredulously that the friend's father put on tefillin every morning. Over the years I've learned not to be surprised by such inconsistencies - our neighbor who never attends synagogue but will not cook on Saturday, the vast majority of the "secular" population who fast on Yom Kippur, light Chanukah candles, and attend a Passover seder, the thousands of Israelis who, over the past 15 years, have joined non-denominational Torah study groups, or who attend neo-chassidic and/or new-agey Kabbalat Shabbat services in community centers, private homes - even on the boardwalk in Tel Aviv. There are many families who light candles and recite Kiddush on Friday nights but see no inconsistency in going to the mall or a soccer game on Saturday morning. There are a thousand variations - but one thing most of these people have in common is that if you asked them if they were Reform Jews they would emphatically deny it. read MORE Filed Under: Defining Reform | Israel

Galilee Diary: Fitting In September 1, 2009 (10 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) Rabbi Abba said in the name of Samuel: for three years the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel were in disagreement, each insisting that the halachah was according to its view. A heavenly voice was heard, saying "Both views are the words of the living God, and the halachah is according to the School of Hillel." But if both are the words of the living God, why did the School of Hillel merit that the halachah followed its view? Because they were soft-spoken and humble, and taught both their view and the view of the School of Shammai - and even mentioned the opinion of the School of Shammai first. -Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Eruvin 13b A friend recently asked me to officiate at her wedding here on Shorashim. I explained to her that Reform and Conservative rabbis are not considered agents of the state like they are in the US, and therefore, a ceremony performed by me could not be registered as an official marriage. The policy of both movements is to request that couples desiring a Reform or Conservative wedding ceremony travel outside of Israel before or after the religious ceremony, in order to obtain a certificate of civil marriage. Cyprus, for example is only an hour's flight away - and has lovely beaches; there are travel agents offering combination wedding/honeymoon packages for Israelis. Civil marriages in other countries may be registered with the Ministry of Interior, even though there is no mechanism for performing civil marriage within Israel's borders. The bride was uncomfortable with this solution, so I turned to our regional rabbi (Orthodox, employed by the government). He said he would be happy to co-officiate with me. That way I can be responsible for the more personal aspects of the wedding ceremony, while the marriage will be registered as a wedding performed by the government rabbinate. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Fish Stories August 25, 2009 (11 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally posted in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) These you may eat of all that live in water: anything in water,, whether in the seas or in the streams, that has fins and scales - these you may eat. -Leviticus 11:9 Last week I hosted a couple of guests from the US who happen to be in the gourmet food business. In planning an itinerary in the Galilee, they told me they had heard there is a caviar farm in the region, and that they'd be interested in seeing it. I had no idea what they were talking about, but did a little research and discovered that sure enough, Kibbutz Dan, at the very northern tip of the country, in the shadow of Mt. Hermon, does indeed produce caviar. We made an appointment, and spent a fascinating hour being shown around by the manager. Here is some of what I learned: read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Roots August 18, 2009 (4 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them.  You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down.  Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city?  -Deuteronomy 20:19 While we don't have a lot of time to devote to our modest yard, we do get pleasure out of it.  Tami has managed to create some lovely different corners - everything from a cactus terrace to a sort of tropical jungle with a waterfall.  It is in a constant state of "needing work," but there is always something interesting blooming.  And over the years, we have planted a number of fruit trees, some of which have really been successful - a hugely prolific blood-orange tree; a sabra plant that has grown to monstrous proportions, yielding more fruit than we can possibly use or even give away; a pecan tree that produces enough for a couple of pies; a little clementina heavy with perfect fruit - and others more modest, like the peeling orange, mulberry, fig and grapevine.  And then there have been failures, like the guava, cherry, apple, plum, and grapefruit.  Our yard, indeed, is so small that we planted a number of the trees in the open space behind our lot, that borders on several neighbors' lots and the brushy undeveloped area leading down to the road.  Some of the trees were a joint project of a few families. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Tradition, tradition August 11, 2009 (5 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) Rabbi Johanan said in the name of Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai: If Israel were to keep two Sabbaths according to the laws thereof, they would be redeemed immediately. -Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat, page 118b When Shorashim was founded by about a dozen young families in the early 1980s, the group decided that while they were not (yet) affiliated with any particular denomination of Judaism, they wanted Shabbat to be an important part of the life of the community. They decided to hold services Friday evening and Saturday morning. Shorashim did not have a rabbi or other professional religious leadership, so the tasks of conducting services, preaching, and reading Torah were divided up among those with the requisite skills and willingness. Alas, there was only one competent Torah reader in the community, and he, like everyone else, wanted occasionally to spend Shabbat with friends or relatives elsewhere in the country - or even to go abroad. A problem: what would we do in his absence? A solution: commit to Shabbat morning services every other week. On "off" weeks, the Torah reader - and everyone else, would be free to travel (or sleep late) without letting the community down. Friday evening services could still be held weekly. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Israel | Shabbat

Galilee Diary: Moving rocks August 4, 2009 (5 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. -Psalms 118:22 Every morning I take my "constitutional" (yes, even now that the dog has died) up the Shorashim hill and along the road where our newest neighborhood is under construction, and enjoy watching the progress of the new homes through the various phases of construction. And occasionally, I find myself wondering about the logic of the process. Shorashim is built on a shoulder of Mt. Gilon, mostly sitting on exposed limestone bedrock. When the founders settled here in the early 80s, they brought with them from California the well-known, somewhat iconoclastic architect from California, Chris Alexander, who helped them design a community that was integrated into the natural topography, requiring minimal bulldozing of the landscape (but, it would later turn out, requiring a long walk from the car to the house). The original houses are scattered around in clusters, each at a different elevation according to the lay of the land. Later development of the hill has been more traditional, less concerned with preservation. In order to build a row of houses on rectangular lots along a street, large amounts of rock has to be drilled out to create a flat platform at the right elevation. Then pilings have to be drilled deep into the bedrock, as this is an earthquake zone. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Bottled Up July 28, 2009 (4 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and hill. -Deuteronomy 8:7 One of the experiences of our trip to Ethiopia that left the strongest impression on us was that of not being able to take for granted basic necessities that we have never really had to think about. Electricity, for example, is provided every other day, more or less. On off days, some businesses use portable generators; people use candles and LED flashlights; the streets are really dark at night; and there are no blenderized fruit juices or French fries in the coffee shops. And generally, when there is no electricity there is also no running water. We learned not to postpone a shower till tomorrow morning, but to shower when there was water. And it is common knowledge that even when there is water in the pipes, the state of pollution of the main water sources around the country is such that the piped water is not safe to drink. So we found ourselves, for the first time in our lives, living on bottled water (from unpolluted mountain springs, in Ethiopia). This was a little hard to get used to, after so many years of making a point of avoiding bottled water here in Israel. In Israel, the water flows from the tap without interruption every day, everywhere in the country (except in those unrecognized Bedouin villages that are not connected to the grid; but that's a story for another column...). And the quality is at least as good as that of bottled spring water. Indeed, after a couple of recent bacterial contamination incidents at bottling plants, it appears that tap water may be safer. Therefore, there is something beyond absurd about the huge industry of capturing spring water (instead of letting it flow down its natural course, through the mountain valleys of the Golan or the oases of the Judean Desert), putting it in plastic bottles, and trucking it around the country, leaving dirty carbon footprints - and empty plastic bottles - all over the landscape. Aside from the issue of wasted energy and materials, this industry exists under a cloud of questions regarding private profits made at the expense of the public, as the natural streams in national parks are reduced to a trickle. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Teach them diligently... July 21, 2009 (5 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) For a while now the complaints regarding the Jewish schools in Israel are unceasing - that the children of Israel, the students in these schools, lack "the taste of Torah," a residue of Judaism - they feel no joy in their Jewish identity... -Historian Joseph Klausner, Israel, 1921 As part of the work of our center staff as facilitators and consultants for ORT high schools "Israel Roots" program, we recently conducted in-service sessions for teachers slated to participate in the program next year. These were very interesting and encouraging experiences. In Hebrew, there is a definite difference in connotation between chinuch (education) and hora'ah (instruction). Since the beginning of the 20th century, what Americans call the "homeroom" teacher is called here the mechanech, or "educator." Regardless of ability grouping, majors, etc., every student meets once a week with his/her homeroom class and educator - generally the same group and same teacher for at least two and often three years. The position has a definite "guidance" element to it, and the period is used, beyond the usual bureaucratic functions, for informal activities relating to various social and moral issues that are of concern to the school or the community. This is a universal practice in Israel, and is considered a pillar of the system. The homeroom teacher has a kind of parental responsibility for his/her charges, and many teachers take it very seriously. read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Youth and Family Life

Galilee Diary: Summer Vacation July 14, 2009 (4 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally posted in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) When the queen of Sheba observed all of Solomon's wisdom, and the palace he had built, the fare of his table, the seating of his courtiers, the service and attire of his attendants, and his wine service, and the burnt offerings that he offered at the House of the Lord, she was left breathless. -I Kings 10:4-5 According to the Kebra Nagast, the medieval "midrash" that has become the national epic of Ethiopia, when the queen of Sheba (Ethiopia) was visiting Solomon, he seduced her. Their offspring, Menelik, was educated at Solomon's court; but when he left to go to his own country, he took with him the Ark of the Covenant. Thus, according to this epic, the Ethiopians are the true heirs of Israel - ruled by David's grandson, possessing the original Tablets of the Law. Haile Selassie, who ruled Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, was believed to be a member of this Davidic dynasty. And the Ark resides in a church in the northern town of Axum (but only one priest has access...) read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Jewish History

Galilee Diary: Peace talk VII: A modest proposal July 7, 2009 (17 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not take up sward against nation; they shall never again know war; but every man shall sit under his grapevine or fig tree with no one to disturb him. -Micah 4:3-4 I have tried over the years to avoid pontificating on large-scale national issues, but to keep this diary focused on the Galilee and my personal experiences there. However, sometimes it is hard to remain silent on the macro questions, and my experiences with Jewish-Arab relations here in the Galilee led me to the observations about "talking peace" in the last six entries. Which led me to the questionable step of wondering, "so, what is my vision, after all?" And even though I claim no authority in political science, international relations, etc., it seems a cop-out to keep speaking in generalizations and leaving the dirty work to others. So here is my peace proposal: read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Peace talk VI: Listening June 30, 2009 (6 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) They combined against Moses and Aaron and said to them, "You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Lord is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the Lord's congregation?" When Moses heard this, he fell on his face. -Numbers 16:3-4 Last week, the local chapter of Sikkui, a moderate, non-militant non-profit organization that engages in programs of research and education to further equal rights in Israel (research reports, public lectures, seminars, etc.) held an evening panel discussion on the topic of "fear, racism, and inequality;" the focus was on discussing the reasons behind the efforts for and against residential segregation in the Galilee. The invited speakers represented a pretty wide range of views (similar to a program we offered a few months ago, about which I wrote here). And while the audience, characteristically, consisted mainly of people with more "leftist" sympathies, it was actually pretty heterogeneous, as the speakers were a draw (The moderator was Israel Prize Laureate Prof. Gabi Solomon). However, one part of the audience was a little surprising: a busload from the nearby city of Karmiel (pop. 50,000), led by a mayoral candidate from the last election, whose platform had been "keep the Arabs out of Karmiel." They seem to have come not to listen and discuss, but to heckle and disrupt and wave Israeli flags, until, largely ignored, they got bored and left. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Peace talk V - Living with the other June 23, 2009 (12 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) When she saw that [Joseph] had left [his garment] in her hand and had fled outside, she called out to her servants and said to them, "Look, he had to bring us a Hebrew to dally with us! This one came to lie with me; but I screamed loud. And when he heard me screaming at the top of my voice, he left his garment with me and got away and fled outside." -Genesis 39:13-15 In Jew Suess, the infamous Nazi propaganda feature film, a central plot element is the cruel sexual exploitation of the virgin Aryan Dorothea by the conniving Jew Suess. When I was a teenager, the real estate developer and social activist Morris Milgram tried to build an explicitly integrated development in our area. My parents were supportive. Their friends' comment was "that's because you don't have daughters." read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Peace talk III - Living with history June 9, 2009 (14 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary) Who is the mightiest of the mighty? ... Some say: he who is able to turn his enemy into a friend. -Avot d'Rabbi Nathan version A chapter 23 One of the obstacles to the creation of a political future shared by Jews and Arabs in Israel, as discussed in the last entry, is perhaps the fact that we don't share an understanding of the past. And the fact that the story told by the Other casts doubt on the truth of the story we tell about ourselves consistently makes us so angry that we can't continue the conversation. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Peace talk II: Jewish and democratic June 2, 2009 (3 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) ...We, members of the people's council, representatives of the Jewish community of Eretz-Israel and of the Zionist movement..., hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the state of Israel. -Israel Declaration of Independence As I suggested in my last entry, in thinking about what it will take for Jews and Arabs to live together in peace in Israel, there are (at least) four different dimensions to consider: the political, the historical, the cultural, and the personal. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Peace talk May 26, 2009 (5 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) ...Priest and prophet alike, they all act falsely, They offer healing offhand for the wounds of My people, Saying "Peace, peace," when there is no peace. -Jeremiah 6:13-14 (and 8:10-11) Recently I was invited to speak at a conference on "Discovering and Accepting the Other," at Nes Ammim, a Christian community tucked among the avocado and banana orchards just south of Nahariya. Nes Ammim was founded in the 1960s by European Protestants who sought to support the State of Israel and the Jewish people, and to provide opportunities for Christians to live and study in Israel. Until a recent financial downturn, this peaceful little kibbutz raised flowers, produced furniture, and offered study programs for visiting Christians; today the population has declined, and the only continuing business is their kosher hotel, which serves Israelis and tourists. Their study center presents various public events in the course of the year, most notably a Kristallnacht commemoration that generally focuses on one of their main themes - the role of the bystander and the importance of taking responsibility. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Standing guard May 19, 2009 (10 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) Asher did not dispossess the inhabitants of Acco or the inhabitants of Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, and Rehob. So the Asherites dwelt in the midst of the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not dispossess them. -Judges 1:31-32 We have been running a series of two-day seminars for participants in pluralistic pre-army preparatory programs ("leadership academies") that have become popular in recent years (a year of intensive study and service between high school and the army). The seminar consists of a day exploring and studying Yodfat, where the Jews fought to the death in the first battle of the great revolt (67 CE), and a day in Zippori, where we signed a surrender agreement before the revolt started. The focus is on understanding the values implicit in these two responses. The two days involve hiking, meetings with archaeologists, text study in situ, simulations, an encounter with an actor representing a character from the period, etc. Seeking a cheap place for groups to camp near Zippori, we found our way to the hilltop outpost of Joel Zilberman, who was happy to give us a place in return for the kids' listening to his story and helping him with shifts of guard duty over night. And it is an interesting story, which I heard along with the kids in the first of our groups to visit, last week: read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Green thoughts V: spring report May 13, 2009 (2 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) For now the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The blossoms have appeared in the land, the time of pruning has come; The song of the turtledove is heard in our land. The green figs form on the fig tree, the vines in blossom give off fragrance... -Song of Songs 2:12-13 It may be complicated, but it works: the Jewish solar-lunar calendar once again has put Pesach right where it belongs, and when we chanted Song of Songs on the Shabbat during Pesach, the text and the landscape were in sync. Here is a field report from the Western Galilee: read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Independence May 5, 2009 (3 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) Our hope is not lost, the hope of two thousand years To be a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem. -Hatikvah, Israeli national anthem This year's observance of Yom Ha'atzma'ut was particularly interesting and thought-provoking for me; here are some hightlights: At mid-day on Tuesday, Memorial Day, almost the entire population of Shorashim, a few hundred people, set forth in a bus and a caravan of cars toward the Bet Shean valley. Every year we do an educational excursion on the afternoon of Memorial Day, to a historical site connected with the creation of the state. This year, we explored the area settled by Orthodox kibbutzim in the late 30s and early 40s. A highlight of the afternoon was a meeting with Jonathan Bassi, whose parents were among the founders of one of these kibbutzim. Bassi, who was a baby in 1948, recently got interested in researching a pivotal battle from 1948 that helped set the borders in the area, in which several of his parents' close friends and comrades were killed. He discovered a fascinating history of silence, regret, and guilt - that generation didn't discuss their feelings, and when he probed, fifty years later, it all came out - the one who was passed over in making up that morning's patrol because he was needed on the farm, the one who still feels guilty that he didn't clean the machine gun - and it jammed in battle, the young widow who only knew her husband had been killed when he didn't come back with all the others (no one would tell her)... etc. It was interesting to contrast that almost pathological restraint with our present invasive media culture, which would not have let any intimate detail escape the public spotlight. We complain about that sensationalistic, prying scrutiny - but it does have its advantages. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Spring festival April 28, 2009 (6 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) As she kept on praying before the Lord, Eli watched her mouth. Now Hannah was praying in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice could not be heard. So Eli thought she was drunk. -Samuel 1:12-13 Schools are closed during Pesach, and many businesses and offices are closed for part of the week. This creates a great opportunity for family vacations - or, alternatively, a strong need for activities to entertain the children. Thus, traffic on the roads is a constant nightmare, 24 hours a day. There seems to be no major intersection that is not backed up in all directions. Part of the cause of all that traffic is a plethora of festivals - it seems that there are more every year. Sculpture, storytelling, music, juggling, beach, dance, wine, theater - you name it, there is some locality somewhere in the country holding a festival for it during Pesach. These are generally the result of a combination of local boosterism, somebody's artistic vision, and capitalism. In particular, localities in the periphery seek to capitalize on the presence of thousands of vacationers from the center of the country, luring them to buy food and drink and stuff by means of cultural events and family entertainments. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Israel

Galilee Diary: Spring countdown April 21, 2009 (8 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) And from the day on which you bring the omer offering - the day after the sabbath - you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete: you must count until the day after the seventh week - fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to the Lord. -Leviticus 23:15-16 As principal of a Jewish school in the US, I always felt that once we hit Tu Beshvat, the year is over - there is no time or energy left to do anything except cope with the succession of holidays, get ready for the end of the year, and work on the plans, hiring, etc. for next year. Any kind of continuity, of concentration, of orderly instruction is pretty much shattered by one special day after another, with their associated preparations. And if that is true in the microcosm of the Jewish school in the Diaspora, imagine what goes on in the Jewish state! read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Israel

Galilee Diary: By the Sea April 14, 2009 (2 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) The ocean sounds, O Lord, the ocean sounds its thunder, the ocean sounds its pounding. Above the thunder of the mighty waters, more majestic than the breakers of the sea is the Lord, majestic, on high. -Psalm 93:3-4 Many Israelis spend Pesach in Sinai (despite both the irony of returning to Egypt for Pesach, and the government warnings of terror attacks). That's always seemed a bit extreme to us, but this year we did repeat an adventure of several years ago, transporting our seder to a beachfront kibbutz guest house south of Haifa. Not Sinai and not the Red Sea, but plenty of sand and sea nevertheless. With two other families we prepared and brought with us all the symbols and the foods, and organized the seder in one of our rooms (after a bit of furniture-moving). The circumstances forced us to keep food and utensils simple, releasing us all from some of the "bondage" of Pesach preparation. Since no one had to leave for home afterwards, we could drink wine and sing as late as we wanted. And we could take long walks along the beach, by sunlight and by moonlight, a setting conducive to thoughts about freedom. read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Israel

Galilee Diary - Green thoughts IV: Ponzi and Heschel April 7, 2009 (5 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) The solution of mankind's most vexing problem will not be found in renouncing technical civilization, but in attaining some degree of independence of it. In regard to external gifts, to outward possessions, there is only one proper attitude - to have them and to be able to do without them. On the Sabbath we live, as it were, independent of technical civilization: we abstain primarily from any activity that aims at remaking or reshaping the things of space. Man's royal privilege to conquer nature is suspended on the seventh day.      - Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath (1951) American immigrants here always used to joke about how the new developments and cultural fads of Europe and North America generally took a decade or two to find their way into our mainstream. Often we had the sense of living in a state of delayed development. We were still carrying reusable baskets and even refillable bottles to the market when America had long changed to disposables; we were still mostly riding the buses when everyone in America had a car. Now, however, the time lag has shrunk considerably, probably to zero. Indeed, I think we were even ahead of America in the use of ATMs and later, of cell phones. So now, the world-wide fad in environmentalism has arrived here pretty much simultaneously with its flowering elsewhere. We too now recycle plastic bottles (though only the 1.5 liter ones); we too now use cloth bags instead of plastic at the supermarket; the elites are even buying hybrid cars and installing solar panels.  read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Shabbat | Social Action

Galilee Diary: Leaving the desert behind March 31, 2009 (3 Comments) By Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) Encamped at Gilgal, in the steppes of Jericho, the Israelites offered the Passover sacrifice on the fourteenth day of the month, toward evening. On the day after the Passover offering, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the country, unleavened bread and parched grain. On the same day, when they ate of the produce of the land, the manna ceased. The Israelites got no more manna; that year they ate of the yield of the land of Canaan. -Joshua 5:10-12 We learn in chapter 5 of Joshua that while the generation of the Exodus had been circumcised in Egypt, their children and grandchildren born in the desert had not been. And since only the circumcised may eat of the Passover sacrifice, it seems that this ritual too was not maintained during the forty years in the desert. Anyway, we couldn't have eaten matzah in the desert as we had no grain - only manna. Thus, the first Passover in the land of Israel was rather a significant event, a new experience for the people. read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Israel

Galilee Diary: Green thoughts III: humility March 24, 2009 By Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) We will dress you in a dress of cement and mortar; We will spread for you carpets of gardens; On the soil of your redeemed fields The grain will sing out like bells. Through the desert we will carve a road; The swamps - we'll dry them all up. What more we can give you, we will, What haven't we given that we still can give? -Nathan Alterman, from "Morning Song" 1934 Originally written for a Keren Hayesod (European UJA) fundraising film, this song by perhaps the most popular and prolific Israeli poet and songwriter of the pre-state and early state period was sung by generations of school children until it fell out of favor in recent years. The song's disappearance from popular culture is a striking indicator of the change in consciousness that has occurred and is occurring regarding our relationship to the land of Israel. For decades we lived on the myth that Israel had once, long ago, been a fruitful, green land - in the years when we were sovereign here and cultivated and cared for the soil. But then, when we left, the land fell into disrepair and was abused - armies cut down the trees, goats ate the new growth, silt plugged up the streams - leaving the dismal and pathetic combination of swamp and desert that the Zionist pioneers found when they returned. read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Social Action

Galilee Diary: Green thoughts II: My space March 17, 2009 (8 Comments) By Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) Once there was a man who was clearing stones from his field and throwing them into the public domain. A pious one kept nagging him: "Why are you clearing stones from what is not yours and throwing them into your own space?" The man ignored him. Later, he sold that field, and was walking past it and tripped on the stones. He said, "Now I understand what that guy meant with his nonsense." -Mishnah Ta'anit 1:5 Visitors often wonder why it often seems that in Arab villages, the insides of the homes are spotless and well maintained while the streets are littered with garbage. The answer I have received is a cultural one, regarding the perception of "my space" vs. no-one's space: what is inside my courtyard is my responsibility. What is outside is no man's land. When the population is small and the refuse is minimal and quickly biodegradable (which was the case around here until the 20th century), that approach was sustainable. It isn't any more - but cultures change slowly. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Ivory Tower March 10, 2009 (6 Comments) By Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) Yehoshua ben Perachia said, Make for yourself a teacher (master), acquire for yourself a colleague, and judge every person favorably. -Mishnah, tractate Avot 1:6 Thursday was a warm sunny winter day after a difficult couple of weeks. I welcomed the opportunity to drive myself to Jerusalem, enjoying three mindless off-peak hours as the scenery sped by. The occasion was a seminar in honor of the retirement of Prof. Emanuel Etkes from the Jewish history department of the Hebrew University. There were learned papers presented by eight of his students who are now lecturers and professors in their own right, hors d'oeuvres in the soaring lobby of the new Jewish studies building that was not even a fundraiser's dream when I was a student at Hebrew U., and a few personal reminiscences and presentations. And home in the Galilee by midnight. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Remembering Amalek March 3, 2009 (7 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) Therefore, when the Lord your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.  Do not forget.             -Deuteronomy 25:19 There were criminals in Rabbi Meir's neighborhood that so bothered him that he prayed for their death. Beruriah, his wife, said to him: "What's with you? Psalm 104:35 says, 'May sins disappear' - does it say 'may sinners disappear?' No, it says 'sins,' so you need to pray for them to repent; the Psalm continues 'and may the wicked be no more.'  So he prayed for them and they repented.             -Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 10a Haman, according to the Scroll of Esther, was a member of the tribe of Amalek. Thus, we learn the consequences of disregarding the Torah commandment to wipe out the memory of Amalek - as long as they are allowed to continue to exist, they remain a threat, the enemy who for no rational reason constantly plots our destruction. And we read the above passage on the Shabbat before Purim every year, to keep the lesson alive. The basis of this image of the Amalekites is found in the previous verse: we are told that right after we left Egypt, they attacked us cruelly and without provocation. The story of Amalek - and of Purim - posits a view of history in which there are forces of evil that can only be combated by means of violence, by destroying them physically. Their evil is inherent and immutable, and so, like some kind of virulent microbe in a horror movie, as long as even a few cells are left alive, there is the potential that they will regenerate into a monster. We may believe, in principle, that all humans are created in the Divine image, but apparently there are some who have so lost touch with that image that they are unredeemable. read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Israel

Galilee Diary: Green thoughts I: Answer us! February 24, 2009 (6 Comments) By Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them. For the Lord's anger will flare up against you and He will shut up the skies so that there will be no rain... -Deuteronomy 11:17 If the rains have not come by Rosh Chodesh Kislev, the Bet Din decrees three days of fasting for the entire public... -Mishnah Ta'anit 1:5 Here it is past mid-February and we are finally having some winter storms. But it is clearly too little too late. The disappearance of the Kinneret - like that of the Dead Sea - is already taken for granted. It used to be that the level of the Kinneret was frequently front page news. But by now, no one is really interested, as there is a feeling that there's nothing we can do about it, and it's not going to change, so why go on about it. I mean, we don't have a government, we have Hamas on the south and Hezbollah on the north, don't nag us about water conservation. Actually, as I write this, the two main spring water bottlers in the country have shut down because of mysterious contamination, so there is a looming shortage of bottled water. Now maybe people will get upset... read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Wandering Jews February 17, 2009 (5 Comments) By Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim judgment upon it; for their wickedness has come before Me. Jonah however, started out to flee to Tarshish from the Lord's service. He went down to Jaffa and found a ship going to Tarshish. -Jonah 1:1-3 Ran into a neighbor this evening, whose daughter left last week on her Big Trip - After Army Before University. She is doing fine, and has already been tubing on the Mekong River (for my generation it is still a little difficult to get our heads around the idea of floating down the Mekong River, for recreation); meanwhile, she reported that everywhere she goes in the region she hears Hebrew being spoken. We exchanged notes, as our daughter had called in yesterday from Ethiopia, just back from a trek in the Simien Mountains - having had a beer in Addis Ababa a week ago with the friend of a friend who was passing through. Which was nothing unusual - our younger son, on his Trip a few years ago, was sitting in a pub in a small town in southern Chile, on the way to Tierra del Fuego, when in walked the daughter of another neighbor. And in case you were wondering how these kids pay for all these excursions, just walk into any shopping mall in North America and say "shalom" to the first pushcart vendor you encounter. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Changing channels February 9, 2009 (3 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) Happy is the man who has not followed the counsel of the wicked, or taken the path of sinners, or joined the company of the inane. -Psalm 1:1 We do not go to the stadium because it is the "company of the inane;" Rabbi Nathan permits [attending the gladiatorial contests] in order to shout and save a life - or in order to bear witness [to the death of a Jewish gladiator] and thus release the widow to remarry. The sages taught: We don't go to theaters and circuses... If there is idol worship there, we don' t attend because of that; if not, then we don't attend because it is the "company of the inane." -Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zarah 18b Last week I was asked to teach an internet in-service session for "Jewish Roots" teachers in ORT schools, on the topic of "Reality TV and Jewish Identity." At first I thought, "Right, how about the elephant and the Jewish question?" But then I understood that the request was based on two concerns - how to make Jewish text study relevant to the students' lives - and the teachers' concern with the moral values or lack thereof in the popular culture of their students. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Hard Choices February 3, 2009 (1 Comment) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) A scheme is not a vision. -Leonard Cohen, "Isaac" Now that the latest war seems to have ended, we can get back to where we left off in the election campaign (the cynics, of course, argue that the war was actually just a phase of the campaign). The posters all show portraits of scowling candidates, with slogans like "not a buddy - a leader!" (You find yourself looking to see if the small print is an endorsement by Vladimir - or Benito. But it's not). No smiles in this campaign. Last night we went to a local parlor meeting for one of the smaller parties - not a fringe or single-issue party like senior citizens or pot-legalization - but one with a broad social vision. The young woman who spoke was extremely impressive - serious, well-spoken, convincing - and she is only a local volunteer; many of us know the leaders of the party to be similarly impressive intellectuals and leaders of social change. The obvious concern, that several people expressed, was the prospect of "wasting" a vote on a small party. If a couple of the larger parties together get close to 50% of the vote and form an alliance, then all they'll need is a few more seats to form a majority coalition. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Galilee Diary: Reality January 27, 2009 (5 Comments) by Marc Rosenstein (Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah) Altneuland = Oldnewland: Title of novel published in 1902 by Theodore Herzl, envisioning the Jewish state as a progressive, secular, German-speaking utopia. Tel Aviv: The title of the Hebrew translation of Altneuland; Tel = mound of ancient ruins; Aviv = springtime. We are producing a one-day seminar for 400 10th graders at the Reali High School in Haifa next week, and so I had to meet with the teachers the other day to go over the plans. The kids will be traveling around the Galilee visiting sites and personalities relevant to various value dilemmas facing Israeli society. It was the first time I'd been there in 25 years. The Reali (pronounced "ray-ah-li") has been for nearly a century one of the elite high schools in the country; indeed the last time I was there it was in the context of my Ph.D. research on Israeli education in the pre-state period. I had gone there to examine the archives, but alas, the principal, who was very welcoming, explained to me that some years ago they had had a very efficient buildings-and-grounds director who saw no reason to be storing boxes of musty old papers - so a historical treasure was sent to the landfill. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

Update from Or Hadash in Haifa January 8, 2009 (2 Comments) The Union has been receiving regular updates from Rabbi Edgar Nof of Or Hadash, a progressive congregation in Haifa, Israel. Here is today's update: Dear friends, Just two days ago I wrote you about the death of Yousef Maudi, the 1st Israeli soldier from Haifa to die in the war against Hamas in Gaza. I want to now commend board member Dr. Jesse Lachter, who attended Yousef's funeral, which took place outside of the city in a Druze village on behalf of the Or Hadash community. We hope that the rest of our soldiers fighting in Gaza will stay safe throughout the duration of the war. On a different note, as you may already know, the North woke up this morning to find that for the first time during this war, 5 rockets were thrown onto the North of Israel from Southern Lebanon, reaching the coastal city of Nahariyah and the Western Galilee. There, regrettably, a nursing home was hit, but no one was hurt as the residents were at that time eating their breakfast in another part of the home. The IDF retaliated by sending mortar fire into the sites from where they believe that the rockets were launched. As of now, the citizens of Israel do not know yet whether the North will become a new front in this war, therefore deeming the next 24 hours very crucial in determining this. read MORE Filed Under: Israel

The Little Town Of Sderot January 5, 2009 (1 Comment) By Paul Liptz Paul Liptz (Pbliptz@netvision.net.il) immigrated to Israel on June 4, 1967. He was on the faculty of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History, Tel Aviv University for 35 years. He is now on the staff of the Anita Saltz Center of the World Union of Progressive Judaism and the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. Sderot is a small town close to the north east border of Gaza. It's like many of Israel's peripheral areas with an undeveloped town center, monotonous buildings, lower middle class inhabitants and by and large, citizens who don't really have the money to sell their apartments and move anywhere else. However, the difference between Sderot and most other areas in Israel is that this particular town has been the object of attacks from Gaza for the last eight years. read MORE Filed Under: Israel