The last time I was at the Kotel there was a group of guys from the Bat Ayin Yeshiva there and they were all singing and dancing and generally carousing in the name of Hashem. There were all these tourists crowding around in the general vicinity of the Bat Ayin minyan taking pictures and watching as if it was some kind of staged event. And I don’t know, maybe it was staged, but the sense I get about Bat Ayin is that they're just like that. And hey, I think enthusiastic davening is great, but I think being a davening spectator, taking video of yeshiva boys saying hallel to show to all your friends back home is kind of creepy.
Whirling Dervishes: Exhibitionists or Cultural Ambassadors?
I was thinking about that experience at the Kotel yesterday because I went to go see the Whirling Dervishes of Konya Turkey, who were performing in Nashville courtesy of a nonprofit organization called the Society of Universal Dialogue. SUD says its mission is to “facilitate spread and ultimately progress interfaith and intercultural dialogue among all faiths and cultures.” That’s great, but I have to question the whirling dervishes choice. Essentially you had five hundred people in the theater watching five guys pray. Granted, they were wearing skirts, camel-hair hats and twirling for fifteen minutes at a time, but still. The management kept making announcements about how we shouldn’t applaud because Sema (that’s the act of whirling) is a spiritual act, a kind of prayer.

Religious voyeurism creeps me out. I mean, do you really have to watch me lay tefillin to appreciate my religion or my spiritual connection? I’m sure there’s a fine line between appreciating someone else’s religious practice and eating popcorn while you watch them “perform” their prayers for you, but if the line is so fine, why not just skip it? I knew all about the dervishes before I saw them, and though I wish I appreciated them more now that I’ve seen them in person, I really don’t. I trust that for them it’s really meaningful, but just watching seems kind of smarmy. And it’s hard not to question their spirituality when they’re being paid to pray.

I also think it’s kind of silly to bring in the whirling dervishes in the name of interfaith and intercultural dialogue. Of all the sects of Islam, do we really need to make peace with Sufiists? Aren’t they the only ones we already get along with? Have there been tons of cases of American violence against dervishes? I’m not saying there’s no cultural value to a whirling dervish’s performance, but if we’re going to watch people pray why not just invite the local mosque? Actually, I know why not. I bet local Muslims would be offended by a request to put on a praying show for other Nashvillians. Which is exactly my point.