Report from Israel

Dear Friends,

I arrived at Tel Aviv on Monday afternoon and took a shuttle to Jerusalem. I love the new airport, especially the crisscrossing ramp which divides the those arriving and departing. Who will arrive and who will depart? Is this a traveler's unetaneh tokef-that prayer of contrasting fates we chant during the Day of Awe.

Israel is always stories, encounters with people coming and going. I am on a shuttle going to Jerusalem reading a book called the End of Faith by Sam Harris. I have been slowly absorbing this devastating critique of religion and faith for a couple of months and I happened to be finishing it on my way to Jerusalem. The young woman sitting next to me in the shuttle asked me a question about Jerusalem which began a conversation about religion. She told me that she was coming for two months to study with Aish Hatorah, an orthodox Jewish outreach group which is based in Jerusalem. I asked her what brought her to Aish. She said she attended a seminar in her city about the nature of the soul which touched her deeply. She grew up a secular Jew and had never heard God or the soul mentioned growing up. Now she was on her way to discover Judaism, God, and faith, in Jerusalem. She did not ask me about the book I was reading. I did not have the inclination to discuss my book with her. She was reading the 'beginning of faith' and did not want to hear the end of it.

People are arrivng and departing in Israel. Going up to God, going away from God. Going up to Jerusalem, going down from Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem gay pride parade is coming on August 10th. The orthodox rabbinate, the Greek orthodox, and the Muslim sheiks are banding together to block the parade and the rhetoric in the media is too odious to repeat. In this climate my brother and his life partner came to visit Israel for the first time in 18 years. My ultra orthodox sister originally arranged to see them both, but then disinvited my brother's partner. She agreed to see my brother, but refused to acknowledge or socialize with them as a couple. The liberal side of my family was in shock over the rejection. The orthodox of my family hastily set up fences, fearing the exposure to the alien and the forbidden.

People are arriving and departing. This is a place of opposite directions, splitting roads, crisscrossing ramps. Families careening into different orbits. Last night I heard Ami Ayalon at the Hartman Institute giving a vision of hope and peace even amidst a sober assessment. Israel's security is tied to Palestinian hope. As he was speaking a Qassam hit an empty school in Ashkelon. In the morning papers the commentators predicted war. Hope and Despair.

Crisscrossing ramps of people going different ways. The topic of my studies at the Hartman Institute is "Standing before God". In Israel people think they are running toward God or away from Him. I see few standing before Him. People are either angry at Him or are falling in love with Him. And everyone is trying to sort out what He/She demands of us or if we have to figure this out on our own. At the very least it leads to great conversations in the taxis, in the synagogues, and in the cafes. July 5, 2006. As for God, more about that later.

Rabbi Dov Gartenberg