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Thursday, June 29, 2017

There’s more to the story: Look beyond the wall

choose not to wallow today. I identify with Rabbi Akiva in the story in which his rabbinic peers tore their garments upon seeing the ruins of Jerusalem. They see a destruction prophesied by a particular biblical verse. Rabbi Akiva smiles, reminding them that the end of that verse prophesies redemption. Now that the nadir envisioned by the verse has transpired, the eventual aliyah also is inevitable.

So I celebrate today. Even though the Charedi hold on Israeli politics is at times corrupt, as the Kotel fiasco attests, for me redemption is not tied to a particular wall. I am bemused by the fact that so much focus is put on prayer at the ruin of the Temple by the Jews who least ache for that spot to re-emerge as the center of Jewish spirituality.

For the progressive traditional Jew, what transpires at the Kotel may be important symbolically, but it pales in comparison to the evolutions transpiring throughout the land — the mashup of secular seekers and traditional liturgy at various kabbalat Shabbat phenomena that are growing; the vitality of Masorti and Progressive communities despite the infrastructural challenges that inhibit them; the will exhibited by myriad Israelis to reject the monopoly of the rabbanut by making decisions to marry creatively rather than under near-theocratic conditions.

Last summer, I attended a cousin’s wedding on an Orthodox kibbutz, where the officiant was female, and at which the hordes of tzitzit-flying, tichl-wearing celebrants saw no conflict between traditional Jewish rituals and practice along with female religious leadership and party-style mixed dancing. This same cousin, who helped found an Orthodox/egalitarian minyan in Jerusalem, recently posted on Facebook wishing a “Mazel tov” on the recent wedding … of Moshe and Eran, two of his closest male friends.

I’d tear a tiny thread in my clothes, as I wish that on my next visit to the Kotel I, and my daughters, can pray in the manner we find sacred. But this symbolic setback is dwarfed by the successes we see playing out in spots that are more important to the Jewish future even than those venerable stones. I know we will not win every engagement. And the perfect is the enemy of the good. And Robinson’s Arch is a beautiful place to hold egalitarian prayer. And if we scope out beyond those square meters, and if we are witness to (and financially contribute to) the efforts to egalitarian-ize and modernize and evolution-ize the many Judaisms of modern Israel, then we can stand with Rabbi Akiva, and celebrate the burgeoning redemptions. 


Rabbi Adam Kligfeld is senior rabbi of Temple Beth Am.

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