CyberTorah

Virtual Israel

I am a great lover of Israel. The opportunity to create our own place, to build a homeland for the Jewish people, is among the great blessings of our era. By having our own State, we are forced into the world of politics. That is, our values and ethics developed in a time of powerlessness are now tested and refined in the world of power.

While this carries many challenges, it is ultimately a great blessing. That is, I would rather wrestle with governments making difficult choices, struggling through ways to create a Jewish and democratic state with room for its Arab and other minorities, than live in exile and powerlessness. Jews have always argued over policies and leadership; now we do that from within a place of relative power and security.

Creating a state with its own inner dynamics has a great risk. American Judaism has its own inner logic that differs from the Jewish community of Israel. Israel has become more Mizrachi (Jews descended from immigrants and exiles from the Arab world). The political situation means a stronger sense of immediate risk from their surroundings that sometimes emerges into views that are hard for Americans to understand. In such a time, the divide between our two communities risks widening.

For this reason, Kol Emeth has been partnering with Congregation Beth Jacob to create the Virtual Israel program. Working with Rabbi Joshua Weisberg, we are developing a program that takes advantage of the virtual world. We have offered intimate evenings where we get to meet people representing different elements of Israeli society so that we can draw closer as people, so that we can better understand some of the inner dynamics motivating people in Israeli society. These videos and programs are now starting to be offered at synagogues around the country. Rabbi Weisberg has created something special with our creative help.

Tuesday we have one more such evening with a Christian Monk named Olivier. His journey as a Christian and as an Israeli is fascinating. He lives in a monastery outside of Jerusalem with quiet hours from 8pm to 8am every single day. Normally, it would be almost impossible to get to know him. Rabbi Weisberg has met him and created a short film about him to be followed by an interview with me and Rabbi Ezray.

If you have joined Virtual Israel before, you know how great it has been. If you haven’t joined before, please come to this event. It will be a unique chance to get to know an immigrant drawn to Israel by religion that is deeply Christian. We will hear about his spiritual journeys and his views on the State of Israel as a non-Jew.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David Booth