Secular Israelis Seek Jewish Tradition, Belief in God Not Required

A friend of mine recently started a group called Renew New Haven. Urban renewal has been around a while. But what does it really mean to renew a place? or a thing? 

I was just at a conference these last couple days called "Renewing Hope:
Pathways of Religious Environmentalism." Though all major religions were represented, the conference was dominated by Christian Theologians. Renewal is obviously a big issue in Christianity. Think of Easter. 

Now Jewish Renewal? I'm perplexed. What does it want to go back to, ergo where is it trying to go? Does it want to make something new again? To make it fresh, original? Or re-establishment? I'm not sure it's as secular as you suggest, Maya. When Arthur Waskow,  a leader of the ALEPH renewal project, talked at the conference this morning, he talked about struggling with Gd. In fact, everyone associated with Jewish renewal is highly religious. But I still don't know what it's really all about. Whatever makes community in these alienated days, though, sounds good, I guess.

Belief in God is black, non-belief is white--ok, interesting.

So let's blend the two and what do we get?--perhaps God exists and perhaps he gave the Torah to the Jewish people.  How might we live based on a maybe?

Sorry, Belief in God is for beginners and non-Jews.  Knowing that there is God is the foundational premise of Judaism--all flows from that premise.  A movement without God cannot be Jewish by definition.

you identify some sort of quasi-religious, spiritual group burgeoning in israel, but they (and you) declare it has nothing to do with God.  Fine, that's their issue.

However, to make broad sweeping comparisons at the end of your piece, bringing this phenomenon in line with Kehilat Romemu, simply because they share the name "Renewal" in their identification, is sloppy.  Especially since in the JPost article they make sure to note that israeli Renewal has nothing to do with its American name-sharer.  Romemu, form my experience there, has a lot to do with God, though they would not define that for attendees.

In addition, tying Israeli Renewal to all independent minyanim is similarly sloppy, because there is simply no connexion to display.  the indie minyanim i have been part of are attempting to articulate a religion that makes sense to "us."  The secularist thing just doesn't play into it, if only because Israeli and American religious cultures are so vastly different.

In North America (and for some groups in South America, Europe, Australia, and even Israel) "Jewish renewal" has meant the practice of redefining Judaism in the light of the world transformations of the past 50 years. This has happened before -- rabbinic Judaism, born from the transformations of the world wrought by the Roman Empire, remade/ renewed the Judaism of the Bible into something quite different by doing a macro-midrash (reniterpretation) of the previous tradition. We already see many elements of the renewed Judaism --  Women and gay/ lesbian/ bisexual/  transgender people fully equal,  deep respect for the truth-value of other traditions, responsibility to heal the earth from the wounding imposed on it by the last two or three generations of Modernity, working out a Jewish ethic for using the unpredented power and wealth now held by the American Jewish community and by the State of Israel, creating Jewishly rooted celebrations of many life-cycle markers that were ignored by the previous generations of Judaism, the exploration of new metaphors for God (like "Ruach ha'olam, Breathing-spirit of the universe," and Eyn ha'chayyim, Wellspring of life," instead of "King, Lord");  the renewal of old versions of Jewish meditation and creation of new ones; the use of Jewish festival celebrations as political acts, like Tu B'Shvat to protect the redwood forests from corporate logging and Pesach to challenge the Pharaohs of the world today.

 One way I describe "Jewish renewal" is "Feminist hassidism." For more information see The Shalom Center's Website, www.shalomctr.org  and the Website of ALEPH Alliance for Jewish Renewal, alephajr.org   and read my books GODWRESTLING -- ROUND 2;  SEASONS OF OUR JOY;  DOWN-TO-EARTH JUDAISM: FOOD, MONEY, SEX, & THE REST OF LIFE; and  A TIME FOR EVERY PURPOSE UNDER HEAVEN.  See also a book by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, PARADIGM SHIFT,  and  Judith Plaskow's STANDING AGAIN AT SINAI.

 Shalom,  (Rabbi) Arthur  Waskow  awaskow@shalomctr.org

Arthur Waskow distorts Jewish history by stating on a public forum that Rabbinic Judaism was a "reinterpretation" of the "previous tradition" when this is not at all the case.  The fact that the Jewish world in the land of Israel was dramatically changed by Roman war and dispersion is not the same as saying that Judaism itself in its core traditions was reinterpreted.  It was saved and preserved not reformulated, reinterpreted or twisted inside-out.

It is all well and good if Arthur Waskow has a desired fetish to make gay/lesbian/transgendered/and bisexual people comfortable.  Alas, I am not to be included in his tiny clientele.  However, if I was, I would surely wonder why he needs to disturb a 3500 year-old tradition that has helped transform the world into something civilized and more perfect.

The Almighty does not require "new metaphors" so that people who do not acknowledge the reality of God in the world can be given a veneer of respectability.

Judaism remains open to all Jews interested in embracing its traditions and teachings. Concerning the disaffected, the invitation is especially open. Concerning the radicals that seek to destroy it, they will answer to a higher authority when the time comes.

 I don't know that I believe in God or that I truly don't.  I know that being Jewish is different than being Catholic or Baptist or French or Italian.  When people ask what I am, I say Jewish.  Being Jewish is a way of life, a continuation of my ancestors, of my customs and traditions and does not in any way center around the synagogue.  It is hoping that my children and grandchildren continue in that tradition.  It is the theater, it is song, it is love of education and learning.  It is more than any other religous movement.  When I see those people with the black coats, silly hats and long beards or strange dresses, they are not Jewish to me.  They are a cult.  Being Jewish is inside of you and personal.  Everytime a Chasidic rabbi makes headlines for committing a crime, I cringe because they say it is Jewish.....I think those people are anything but Jewish and shame the name.

Judaism is a religion, and thus, is meant to bind. In my opinion, Judaism is particularly effective at bringing community together. One may argue that Jews are 'tight' with one another merely because we have had to band together, out of necessity. But this is not the only reasons Judaism binds better than other religions.

It is because by nature, a Jew questions. Questions bring discussion, and through the dialectic pure reason can be attained. The use of dialogue is divine. Thus, to transcend to a higher level, to be closer to the image of Gd, one must engage in dialectic with another person. Community springs forth. This discussion should not be about defining and drawing distinction, but rather about celebrating the theological and ideological differences that make us all unique.