Eretz Hemdah, 9 Av, Anat Hoffman, and Rotem Bill

I am sorry it has been over a week since I posted an update.

Last week, I spent the week learning at Eretz Hemdah (www.eretzhemdah.org). Eretz Hemdah is a post-ordination kollel where the students learn for over 7 years in training to be Dayanim (Rabbinical Judges). A small group of 5 American Rabbis spent the week learning there with the current students and attending specific lectures on Jewish law related to Batei Din (religious courts). The learning was on a very high level and the classes were excellent.

Eretz Hemdah is unique for a Dayanut kollel in that almost all the students there have served in the army. Furthermore, they also have opportunities to study material that other dayanim would never typically learn. For example, while we were there, there were 2 guest lectures by Shalom Rosenberg, a philosophy professor at Hebrew University. Most dayanut kollels would never present a university professor to teach there and likely not philosophy.

Eretz Hemdah is also unique in that they publish a tremendous amount of material on halachic issues that are really contemporary and practical -- including several volumes in English.

It was really a pleasure and honor to learn there for a week (I also forgot how exhausting learning full time is).

Today is Tisha B'Av. It is a difficult day to be here and one with conflicting emotions. I had never been in Israel for Tisha B'Av before and it is a very powerful experience. It is a day of mixed emotions. On the one hand mourning the destruction of Jerusalem is very real when you can see so many remnants of ancient Jerusalem around you. It is also really powerful to be in a state of sadness with so many thousands of other people around you. Yet, it is somewhat difficult to be sad when you have the ability to mourn the destruction and exile as you walk freely in the streets of a rebuilt Jerusalem.

There is, however, something that I am seeing that has been bringing me great sadness. Our sages teach us that the second temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred. This week has been one of the most divisive in recent history for the different streams in Judaism here in Israel.

Beginning last week, Anat Hoffman, the head of Women of the Wall, was arrested at the Kotel for carrying a Sefer Torah. However one feels about whether a woman should carry a sefer Torah at the kotel (there is no halachic prohibition), I think as my colleague Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld pointed out -- if any Jew man or woman were arrested by another foreign government for worshiping Judaism was s/he saw fit, there would be tremendous outrage.

I also witnessed the harassment of Progressive Jews at the kotel last night by a large group of Hareidim and Yeshivish people. What was more frightening is how much some of them seemed to enjoy harassing the Reform group and were yelling how Reform Jews need to be kicked out the country altogether.

This is against the backdrop of a fierce debate in the Knesset over a bill sponsored by Yisrael Beiteinu MK David Rotem. The bill is intended to ease the process for conversion for more than 300,000 Russian Jews living in Israel that are not halachically Jewish. As such, the bill is tremendously important for their integration into Israeli society. However, the bill contains several provisions that are insulting to the more liberal denominations in the US and abroad and they have been in Israel lobbying hard for its defeat.

Through the International Rabbinic Fellowship, which I have the pleasure of serving as its Executive Director, I and several colleagues have been working hard to bridge the gap between the 2 sides and come up with a solution that will help these 300,000 Russians while not harming the unity of the Jewish people. It is only with God's help that a compromise can be reached.

All of this, however, sends the message that the sins we committed that led us to Tisha B'Av -- we are still doing.

I only pray that this Tisha B'Av, we learn our lesson.

May God comfort all who mourn for Zion and Jerusalem and merit them to see its rebuilding and the reuniting of Klal Yisrael with true Ahavat Chinam (free flowing love)

Tzohar, Rav Amital, z"l, Rabbi Moshe Weiss, shlit"a, and the Shalits

This is has been quite a week and a quite a day mixed with sadness and inspiration.

Earlier this week, I attended an international conference of Rabbis sponsored by Tzohar, an organization seeking to develop a true Religious Zionist Rabbinate. The conference was an amazing opportunity to meet and share ideas with my Israeli colleagues as we explored the challenges facing religious zionism and modern orthodoxy both here in Israel and outside. We even explored the similarities and differences of those 2 philosophies: religious zionism and mod. orthodoxy. While I won't go into specifics of what was said, we brushed on important topics such as women in communal roles, issues of Jewish identity, attitudes toward kiruv/outreach, the concept of community, abuse and the Jewish future --- and yes that was all in a day and a half.

We then spent an afternoon at the Knesset meeting with various ministers and knesset members about the current and future state of religion in Israel. This included Minister of Science and Chairman of Bayit Hayehudi (the religious Zionist party) Daniel Hershkowitz (Minister Hershkowitz is also the father in law of one of my dear Israeli colleagues Rabbi Ronen Neuwirth in Raanana -- Rav Ronen visited my shul last year with Rav Yuval Cherlow and is the Overseas Director of Tzohar), Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Public Relations Yuli Edelstein, and MKs Anastasia Michaeli and Zevulun Orlev. MK Michaeli has a fascinating history having been born in St. Petersberg and hadn't met a Jew until meeting her husband an unaffiliated Latvian Jew. They decided to come to Israel in 1999 and she worked as an anchorwoman for an Israeli television station. She decided to eventually convert along with her children (they now have 8) and finally converted 3.5 years ago and is now a member of the Knesset.

Yesterday, I spent the day with my colleague Rabbi Barry Gelman, who is also my boss as he is the president of the IRF. We spent the day in the old city visiting Rav Shlomo Aviner at Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim, davening at the Kotel, and learning together at the newly reopened Hurva Synagogue which had been destroyed in 1948. The Hurva had been once before in the 18th century and the Vilna Gaon had said that its reconstruction would come just before the reconstruction of the Temple -- hopefully signs of things to come. I even got to practice my Arabic with a vendor in the Shuk as Rav Barry bought a chess set for his son.

Today was a sad but somewhat inspirational day as well. I attended the funeral of HaRav Yehuda Amital, z"l. Rav Amital was the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion (affectionately known as Gush) where many of my own Rebbeim had studied. He was also the Chairman of the Rabbinic Advisory committee of my own Yeshiva, Chovevei Torah.

Rav Amital survived the Shoah losing both his parents and all his siblings in Auschwitz and then came to Israel and fought with the Hagannah in the War of Independence. Rav Amital taught at Yeshivat Darom alongside his colleague Rav Shach, who went on to be the Rosh Yeshiva of Ponovitch and the head of Hareidi Judaism. But Rav Amital took a different path -- he was pained at seeing the friction in klal yisrael caused by yeshiva students being exempted from the army and therefore worked to start the hesder movement where students would split time between yeshiva and the army. He founded in his own yeshiva just after the 6 Day War and a few years later brought Rav Aharon Lichtenstein from the US to be his co-Rosh Yeshiva.

Rav Amital took some unpopular positions for his world -- particularly aligning with Labor and the peace process in the 80s and 90s but always tolerated and respected those who disagreed with him and they were even present in his own yeshiva -- many of his political opponents were the funeral today.

Two aspects of the funeral I would like to share -- one of the eulogizers commented that Rav Amital used to teach that every Jew was like a sefer Torah and when a Jew dies it's like seeing a sefer Torah burned. Rav Amital meant this in part reflecting on the lives lost in the Shoah as seeing Torah scrolls burned, but in life he also greeted and treated every Jew -- no matter who they here as if they possessed the sanctity of a Torah scroll.

Rav Amital was actually born Yehuda Klein and took the name Amital when coming to Israel. His son Rav Yoel Amital hypothesized in his eulogy that the reason was as follows: the name means My nation of dew. Rav Yoel said this was a reference to the dew that would fall and regrow a nation, also the dew that would cause the resurrection of dead. Rav Amital saw his nation come back alive after the horrors of the holocaust and even had the pain of seeing many of his own students fall in battle. I like to think that Rav Amital himself was also that dew bringing a nation back to life.

I think my own teacher Rabbi Avi Weiss summed it up best as we were walking behind Rav Amital's hearse and he turned to me and said, "I need a new Rebbe."

After the funeral, I went with Rabbi Weiss to visit his father, Rabbi Moshe Weiss) who is now 91 and a half. His father is in remarkable health for his age and offered very insightful wisdom -- a thought on the parsha and on soccer (who apparently in his youth was a professional soccer player). On the parsha he said that Moshe asks the tribes of Gad and Reuven would it be fair that their brothers fight while they remain on the east side of the Jordan. They answered that they would go and fight and wouldn't return till Israel is conquered. But Moshe is upset with that answer and then seems to repeat their condition -- but Moshe adds one thing -- that God would go and fight. Having an army and the ability to fight is important, but we must also remember that is with God on our side we do the fighting.

The second thought the elder Rabbi Weiss offered was on soccer. I personally always found soccer boring. Rabbi Avi Weiss asked his father if it was boring to watch World Cup when there is so little scoring (compared to the games we Americans we typically watch). His father replied -- no it is all the more exciting to watch how much they can hang on and hold off the other team's goals. I couldn't help but thinking that's a great metaphor for Jewish history.

Finally, we went to the tent outside the Prime Minister's house, where Noam and Aviva Shalit are holding vigil for their son Gilad, who is still held captive by Hamas. The Shalits come from the left of Israeli politics and seemed suspicious of people with kippot coming to visit them, especially with those on the right protesting across the street that they want Gilad home but not at any price (the Shalit's have been lobbying for Israel to acquiesce to Hamas's demands and free all prisoners so their son can come home. Many of those Hamas want released are killers and could very easily kill again. But Gilad is still alive and as parents they want their son home -- it is no easy decision). Nevertheless, they seemed grateful for our support and our brief words of blessing.

I'll close with this -- we are coming up on Rosh Chodesh Av on Sunday night -- beginning the saddest month of the Jewish year. As we begin the month with reduced simcha -- especially after the loss of a giant like Rav Amital and seeing Gilad still in captivity -- we hope and pray that the dew of Torah will bring about our own regrowth where parents no longer have to bargain for their children's lives, where Israel shall dwell securely, and where we like Rav Amital see human being with the same sanctity of the Torah itself.

Shabbat Shalom

Welcome, Tour Guides and Hartmann

Welcome all to my first serious attempt at blogging. I am using this starting with a blog on my current trip to Israel.

I arrived yesterday morning (Monday July 5) and spent most of the day getting acclimated to the time zone and being in Israel again.

Yesterday evening, while grabbing dinner at Burgers Bar, I ran into a former colleague, Rabbi Aryeh Leifert, formerly assistant Rabbi in San Antonio, Texas and Director of Jewish Studies at the Eleanor Kolitz Academy there. Rabbi Leifert is now in Israel studying to be a tour guide in Israel. For those perhaps not aware, tour guides in Israel go through a very extensive training course. The course is 2 years long, and not only has exams, but also requires those who successfully complete it to write several papers as well. It is much more akin to a masters degree. In speaking with one of Rabbi Leifert's co-participants in the course, a former teacher from Ottawa -- it has become clear to me that Israeli tour guides are not just people who can spew out random trivia about places but are serious educators who just happen to be teaching in the greatest classroom ever.

Later in the evening, I ran into several other colleagues on Emek Refaim including RabbiMenashe East (Mt. Freedom, NJ), Rabbi Etan Mintz (Charlottesville, VA) and Rabbi Yonatan Cohen (Berkeley, CA) and their spouses. They are here as part of the Hartman RLI program. For those not familiar the program is part of the Shalom Hartman Institute (www.hartmaninstitute.com). The Hartman Institute was founded by Rabbi David Hartman, one of the leading Jewish thinkers of our era (I recommend his books, "A Living Covenant" and "A Heart of Many Rooms"). The Hartman Institute is a think tank working to pull together some of the leading thinkers and educators to develop innovative ideas and programs to shape and change the face of Jewish life in Israel and around the world.

The RLI (Rabbinic Leadership Initiative) program at Hartman (http://www.hartman.org.il/Center_Leader/Program_View.asp?Program_Id=13) takes a group of leading North American Rabbis from across the denominations to learn together over a period of three years spending 1 month each summer together in Israel and 1 week each winter in Israel, as well as various occasions over the internet. Together, they learn and discuss ethics, theology, philosophy and politics to better address the issues that Jews are facing in North America and in Israel. Feel free to look at the link above for more info and yasher koach to my colleagues for participating in such a great program.

I've been davening at Ramban Synagogue (not the one in the old city) which is led by one of the most up and coming and promising modern Orthodox leaders in Israel, Rabbi Benny Lau (nephew of the former chief Rabbi). (www.ramban.org.il) Rav Lau is also the Rosh Beit Midrah and Beit Morasha, another phenomenal institution in Israel (www.bmj.org.il). He was also previously the Rabbi on Kibbutz Saad, where I spent a week back in 1995 when I was a senior in high school. Rav Lau also learned at Yeshivat Kibbutz HaDati in Ein Tzurim (now closed), where I also learned for 2 weeks back in 2003 and felt a close connection to the Rosh Yeshiva, HaRav Yoel Bin Nun. I've also had the good fortune to spend some time with Rav Lau in the past and took a plan back to the US with him once back in January 2009, where Rav Lau was headed to speak for a regional conference in Chicago for the International Rabbinic Fellowship, the new rabbinic organization that I have the privilege of serving as Executive Director. (www.internationalrabbinicfellowhsip.org).

Lastly, I have the good fortune of staying in Devorah Harris's apartment. Devorah is the daughter of congregants Dr. Abe and Shelley Pollack, and I'd like to wish a mazel tov to Devorah and her family on the birth of baby boy, Benzion Zev, 2 weeks ago.

I'm off to the Tzohar conference later and will hopefully post again from the conference. (www.tzohar.org.il).

Till then, ברב ברכות מארצנו הקדושה (With many blessings from our Holy Land)

Rabbi J Herman