Tag Archives: politics

Yevgenia Baron Probst

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YI shared the following words at Pardes, wishing my friend Yevgenia and her family chizuk (encouragement, support) and Hashem’s rachamim (mercy).

She was born with a congenital heart defect, which has always impacted the quality of her life. Last Sunday, a week ago, I was not entirely surprised to learn that she had been hospitalized.

Yevgenia inspires me to believe that we can all achieve more than we may believe possible if only we push ourselves to succeed and live our lives to the fullest. She has certainly done so herself. Continue reading →

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Why I am Making Aliyah

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April 15th, 2013

It’s Erev Yom HaAtzma’ut and just a few days ago I had my first meeting with Nefesh b’Nefesh, an agency that works for North American Jews intending on immigrating to Israel. My application is in, and a few more papers are needed, but the decision has been made. I am making Aliyah to the State of Israel.

I have been grappling with this decision for a long time. My family lives very far away, but even farther away from following any sort of path that vaguely resembles my own. My decision feels like signing a contract of fate: to always being distant from them. It doesn’t mean that I will literally be cut off, nor are they disavowing their filial connection or love for me. But I am ensuring that my parents will never have a close relationship with their grandchildren, my brother’s children will never be regular playmates of mine and I may not always be able to afford to come and see them every year. I am hurting us both. I take it all very seriously. Even the concept of this sacrifice has quite frankly been too much for me to bare in the last few months I have been chewing on the decision. In order to become part of my greater Jewish family, I must Continue reading →

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Toxic Davening

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From my blog:

When you are praying the words “Shema Yisrael”, “Listen Israel”, but instead you hear the sound of people yelling at you.

When there are more photographers and journalists than people praying.

After months of hesitation and apprehension I visit the kotel for Rosh Chodesh. I go to finally see what it is like to be a part of Women of the Wall, an organization that some of my friends have been very active in all year. I have come up with every excuse in the book to not go: “I’m too tired, I really need to sleep”, or “I don’t want to get arrested for being there when I don’t even know how I feel about it”. But after realizing I have successfully not gone for 9 months, and I only have 1 or 2 more opportunities before I leave Israel this time, I pushed my self to wake up and go.

I was waiting on line with this huge group of Argentinian Jews who, from overhearing their conversation, had just come from Poland. And they looked like it, exhausted, drained, and happy to be in Eretz Yisrael. With the look in their eyes, like they know the last week of their lives changed them forever, even if some haven’t realized it yet. Continue reading →

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Time to Stir Up Some Controversy…

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From my blog:

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I’d like to use this post to respond to a sentiment that I have frequently heard in recent years among Israelis with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The sentiment goes something like this: “I’m in favor of peace with the Palestinians, including a two-state solution in which the Palestinians would have a state in most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. I supported it back in the ’90s when it seemed about to become a reality, and in theory I would support it today. However, Israel has tried and tried to create this sort of deal with the Palestinians, and it has failed because there is no serious partner on the Palestinian side. Therefore, I do not support efforts to reach a deal with the Palestinians at the present time.” Continue reading →

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D’var Torah: Parashat Tzav (Rishon)

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Alum Daniel Shibley (Yr. '11, Fellows '12) writes about his
official beginning of being drafted into the Israel Defense
Forces in the context of Parshat Tzav:
IDF Soldiers at the Western Wall (Photo credit: Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Soldiers at the Western Wall (Photo credit: Israel Defense Forces)

With great power comes great responsibility. Now that the Tabernacle has been completed and we have received the instructions on how to make the appropriate offerings, the next piece of the sacrificial puzzle must be put into place. Who will be commanded with the proper administration and sacrifice of the offerings brought to the alter? Aaron and his sons. The priests are given certain rights which are detailed early in the parasha, but are also expected to be responsible for this critical element in the Israelite’s relationship with God. Similarly, army service in the State of Israel is a responsibility that accompanies the privilege and rights of living in the Middle-East’s only democracy. This week I completed my tzav rishon (first order or first command) which is the official beginning of the army’s draft process.

Tzav rishon consists of multiple stations on different floors of the local draft office. An interview to verify personal information, psychological aptitude, and a Hebrew exam, even for native speakers. A complete medical evaluation, including walking through the hall with the sample cup, two 19 year old girls with an extremely tight blood-pressure cuff, and a bunch of waiting. Finally, a test Continue reading →

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Singing and Kol Shofar at Women of the Wall

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Singing and dancing at the Kotel

Singing and dancing at the Kotel

This Rosh Hodesh was my second time attending Rosh Hodesh davenning at WoW. Last month, I was glad to check it out and feel like I was part of something important but between the cameras and security, I struggled to feel like I was davenning.

This Rosh Hodesh, two amazing things happened. 1) I got to sing shacharit and hallel liturgy with gusto, led by Pardes alumna Lauren Henderson and Joanna Selznick Dulkin. I realized that for me, singing was important medicine in healing my relationship with the Kotel. From my very first visit, when I was 16, I have longed to sing praises to God at the Kotel. Singing is how I express myself in prayer most openly. Raising my voice in harmony with the Women of the Wall, especially singing Min HaMetzar, I felt so present with the narrowness of our situation and my prayers felt so real.

All of this is not to say that our davenning went without incident. While no one was arrested, thank God, there were Haredi women screaming at us that our prayers were an insult to God and calling us names. Some of them planted themselves in front of our group and chanted tehillim at the top of their voices, in an effort to drown us out. And when they were not chanting their prayers, they were shushing ours.

And on the men’s side… I was astounded to hear someone blowing a shofar to drown out our Shma. The thought occurred to me that it must be a sin to try to block someone’s prayers from reaching God. (I don’t believe one can succeed at such a thing.) I was upset and appalled at the ingenuity of the method. But then I got to thinking about the shofar and had my second amazing moment.

2) Kol shofar – the voice of the shofar. I remembered a teaching that on the yamim noraim, the shofar is God’s voice crying into our world. And suddenly, I recalled these shofar blasts on Rosh Hodesh not as an interruption in our prayer, but as God’s voice, either praying along with us or crying out with us.

I am still marveling at the healing of both of these experiences.

I realized Monday night that I only have a few more months here when I will have the luxury of showing up at the Kotel, wearing my kippa and tallit, singing my praise in blessing and protest. I made a commitment to myself that night that even though it makes for a really early morning for me (and I am not a morning person) I need to get up and show up to support this cause. And then, I showed up and got to sing and struggle. And now, I find myself looking forward to next month’s gathering with joy that even overshadows the sense of commitment and duty. Who knows what blessings will find me in Iyyar?

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New Government

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From my blog:

I currently live in a country with no government.

It’s an odd thought, and of course it’s only true under a particular definition of “government.” But in Israel, where “government” is often used to mean “ruling coalition,” this is an ordinary occurrence every time a new Knesset is elected.

What’s unique this time, at least as I understand it, is the difficulty that Netanyahu, the presumed Prime Minister, has had in assembling this coalition. Just recently he had to ask for a two-week extension to the four-week period of coalition building that normally follows elections here. If he fails to form a government in the period, which ends on March 16th, President Shimon Peres will have to decide whether to ask a different part to try to form a coalition, or else to give up and call new elections.

Personally, I do not think that any of this will happen. Netanyahu wants to be Prime Minister, and when push comes to shove, I have little doubt that he will make the compromises that Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett demand in return for joining the coalition and creating a governing majority. At this point, that seems very close to happening.

What’s interesting, though is how little effect this state of affairs actually has on Israel. Life goes on as usual. There is a government, even though there is no “government.”

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[Pardes from Jerusalem Podcast] Vayakhel-Pekudei 5773: Leadership

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Pardes 1000x This week, Rabbi David Levin-Kruss discusses Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei in “Leadership.”

V-P ’73

Shabbat shalom!

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[Alumni Guest Post] Who is Allowed to Study Torah?

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Ben Barer (Fall '11, Fellows '12) shares his thoughts
on MK Ruth Calderon's inaugural Knesset speech:

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I had never watched an inaugural Knesset (Israeli Parliament) speech before Dr. Calderon’s (Hebrew; English). However, I, and many in the Jewish world, watched new MK Ruth Calderon’s speech with interest. A member of the rising Yesh Atid (There Is a Future) party, Calderon had already made a name for herself as a secular Israeli who was deeply interested in — and, after receiving a PhD in Talmud from Hebrew University, qualified to teach — Jewish texts. While much of the reaction to her speech has been positive, not all segments of the Jewish world are happy about the symbol of a secular women teaching Talmud (as Calderon did during her speech) at the Kneesset. This article is quite critical, citing various halakhic sources to show that only the traditionally observant ought to have access to canonical Jewish texts.

I understand the sentiment behind this backlash, though I am harshly critical of it. In a world where halacha reigns supreme, many modern sensibilities are seen as threatening. Canonical Jewish texts, on this view, are not literature to be studied by just anyone, but sacred texts that cannot be approached merely for intellectual study, but must be approached with Continue reading →

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The election happened; now what?

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From my blog:

This post has been edited based on final election results.  I have crossed out incorrect statements rather than delete them, and put corrections in bold.

It seems like the most interesting part of American elections happens before the voting, while the most interesting part of Israeli elections happens afterwards.  In American elections, it’s the polling and the speculation over possible electoral maps that arouses my inner nerd.  But in Israel, polling is notoriously bad (case in point: this year) and there is no electoral map.  Instead, post-election speculation over the coalition is where the fun is to be found.

So, without further ado, here is what I think is going to happen: Continue reading →

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