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When’s the right time for a rite of passage?

It’s generally accepted that the Israeli perspective on the bar/bat mitzvah ceremony is different from its counterpart in the US.
I remember when Susie and three of her closest friends decided to celebrate their bat mitzvahs together – they were all around 40-years-old at the time.
They had been studying Torah as a group in Jerusalem for a year and a half. It all started when Boston-born Susie, who had already been in Israel for more than 20 years, started to feel that while her Jewish identity was her primary identity, which is why she had moved here, it was time for her to confront her “awe of the Torah.”
Sally, Ruti and Janet had also been in Israel for a couple of decades and for various reasons, none of the four had had a bat mitzvah back in the States. In fact, the first bat mitzvah was held by American rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, a major figure in Jewish thought and the founder of the Reconstructionist movement, for his daughter Judith in 1922.
So the culmination of 18 months of study and learning to read from the holy book was a ceremony at Jerusalem’s Kol Haneshama .
Now the idea didn’t resonate with everybody, but at that June ceremony 12 years ago no one could fail to be moved by the four women’s obvious quiet joy and pride in their achievements.
The bat mitzvahs of those forty-somethings inevitably came to mind when I received an e-mail recently, telling me about another group of delayed bar/bat mitzvah celebrants, en route to Israel.
Some of the participants at the upcoming celebration will be using walkers. Oxygen and wheelchairs will be available for emergencies. Five nurses will be traveling with the group. The average age of the participants in this particular version of the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony? Eighty-five.
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Foto Friday – Sukkot in Jerusalem

The awe-ful part of the Days of Awe are behind us and now it’s time to party! Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is the holiday when Jerusalem gets itself all decked out…

© RomKri

…and small wooden sukkot, or tabernacles, spring up overnight…

© monti_clif

…dotting the urban landscape.

© Pes & Lev

The Municipality of Jerusalem gets into the act too, with a large public sukka – the perfect opener to this month’s Autumn Nights Festival…

© RomKri

…as well as the annual Jerusalem March, attended by walkers from all over the country…

© monti_clif

…and from all over the world!

© monti_clif

Another event taking place at this time: the International Christian Embassy’s Feast of Tabernacles festival, this year celebrating its 30th anniversary. The festivities begin today with a worship concert at Ein Gedi, continue with a week of prayer and Bible teachings, and conclude with the Jerusalem March on October 6th.

Below is a montage of photos from last year’s Feast of Tabernacles. The photos above are courtesy of the wonderful Jerusalem Shots website – always worth a visit. And here’s wishing a Chag Sameach (happy holiday) to us all!

Feast of Tabernacles 2008 Photo Montage from ICEJ on Vimeo.

The white holiday

Shavuot is approaching, and what I like about this holiday in Israel is that you can celebrate it from a variety of approaches. If you’re observant, there’s the standard ‘yontif‘ handling of the holiday, which means food, prayers, something white to wear, and heading to a tikkun on Shavuot eve to learn all or part of the night.

But as one of the three pilgrimage festivals — Sukkot and Passover are the other two — Shavuot ranks up there in Israel, with all kinds of alternative and traditional festivities that appeal to even the most secular of Israeli Jews. There are the kibbutz celebrations, which include small children dressed in white, arms akimbo in order to hold baskets of recently picked fruit and vegetables to mark Shavuot’s stance as an agricultural festival. There are the usual family gatherings, as Israelis so love to do, including tables groaning with all kinds of homemade dairy fare, since this is considered to be the ‘dairy’ holiday. (See this great JTA article about alternatives to dairy on Shavuot.)

And since Israelis also love their dairy — we have more types of yogurt drinks per capita than any other country — one of the local dairy companies, Tnuva, puts out a Shavuot magazine each year, as an insert in the local newspapers, with dairy recipes from the kitchens of their employees. Nicely done, and, I have to say, it has been the source of more than one good recipe that’s come out of my kitchen.

There are also the learning celebrations, given Shavuot’s source as the holiday celebrating the giving of the Torah, and that has led to the traditional tikkun, all-night learning that takes place on the night of the holiday. In my city of Jerusalem, a city of much learning, there are hundreds of tikkunim to choose from, held at every synagogue, yeshiva, school and place of learning. But what I’ve loved in years past is to head to Tel Aviv, where the streets are full of people dressed in white heading to all-night lectures of the more alternative type. Those can include poetry readings, yoga and Torah, discussions about the place of Torah in a secular society, or, for the more party-oriented, all-night clubbing in honor of Shavuot. For that matter, since Tel Aviv is considered the white city for its collection of Bauhaus architecture, you could celebrate Shavuot by doing a midnight tour of Bauhaus structures.

I will be making cheesecake, but I won’t be heading out for some all-night (not that I ever did) learning this year. But if you’re in J-town, I did notice some great options for the Tikkun, including an Israeli singdown and a 12:30 am walk around the Old City, hosted by the Tower of David Museum.

Happy learning and eating.

Foto Friday – Papal Visit

I’m in London this week and so can vouch for the fact that Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Israel did not go unnoticed by the international press. As always though, the message got muddled. For example, this meeting with the chief Asheknazi and Sephardi rabbis of Israel — see the sharp shadow on the wall? A British paper here ran a photo from the same session. But their photo showed His Holiness sitting all lonely and overshadowed by a giant black hat.

In fact, the true message of the Pope’s visit — interfaith and tolerance — was better represented by this photo, a meeting in the Galilee between the Pope and leaders of different religious communities in Israel, including Christians, Muslims, Jews, Druze and others…

…the visit to Yad VaShem…

…and a prayer at the Western Wall.

And yes, he left a note…

…and drove around in a Pope-mobile.

For the faithful, the visit was an important one. The itinerary included several outdoor masses, such as the afternoon Mass at the Garden of Gethsemane.

This week’s photos courtesy of the Government Press Office. Visit the Ministry of Tourism website for more information about about Christian holy sites and pilgrimage itineraries.

Foto Friday – Menachem Kahana lifts the haredi veil

The haredi world is one that secular Israelis find alternately fascinating and disturbing, filled with rituals and mystery. Photographer Menahem Kahana, who works for French news agency AFP, has been documenting the ultra-Orthodox community for years.

In a new exhibit, now on at Tel Aviv’s Eretz Israel Museum, Kahana presents a body of work begun in 1995, when he happened upon a spring where some young haredi men were swimming.

Over the years, as he continued his documentation, the community opened up to him: synagogues, celebrations, and rituals both usual, such as weddings…

… and unusual, such as the pidyon ha-ben in which first-born sons are redeemed by their families from service to the High Priests of the Temple…

…and the peter hamor, which which first born donkeys are as well.

And everyday life, too.

Click on this link to learn more about Kahana’s work.

Iran’s New Year “Nowruz” An Ecological Bridge To Make Peace With Israel?

Jews in Israel and the world over are busy now celebrating Passover, while Christians ready themselves for Easter. Iranians, we learn had their own celebrations this time of the year, coinciding with the vernal equinox on March 21.

Iran’s political makeup and leadership may not be making many friends these days, but its annual festival Nowruz, or the Persian New Year festival, is being celebrated in a number of countries, and by several different religions as well.

Nowruz spelled also Nowrouz or Nouruz, which means “New Day” in Persian, officially marks the first day of Spring in the Persian calendar and corresponds to the Spring Equinox which is marked on Western calendars as March 21.

The holiday is not only celebrated by the Iranians, but also by countries in Central Asia, South Asia, Western China, The Crimea, and by a number of ethnic groups in Balkan countries such as Albania, Kosovo, and Macedonia. The holiday marks the period when the sun crosses the celestial equator and creates equal day and night.

The sun and fire are important elements in the ancient Persian religion of Zoroaster and the festival is observed by this ancient monotheistic faith. In fact, Nowruz is one of the seven most important Zoroastrian festivals the festival is also observed by the much newer Bahai faith which also has its origins in Iran.

The founder of the Bahai religion, Bahalulah, placed much importance on the observance of this annual change of seasons and Bahai faith members the world over eagerly await this event.

Legend has it that this festival, which has it origins in ancient Persia around 600 BCE, is the basis for the Jewish festival of Purim which also comes around this time and is based on the lunar calendar. The festival is celebrated by a number of Muslim communities, including among the Alewite and Alevi sects.

Signifying rebirth, some of the main customs of the holiday includes spring cleaning and inter-family visitation.

As in other holidays that celebrate the New Year, it is believed that what people do on Nowruz will affect them for the remainder of the year. Certain flowers such as tulips and hycinths are placed in the home. Like before Jewish holidays, new clothing is also purchased. Another nice custom involves something sweet being hidden somewhere outside the home, and whoever finds its and brings it inside will have a better year. Families also visit the graves of loved ones on the last Thursday or Friday of the old year proceeding festival.

Faith plays an important role in spreading environmental awareness, and joint environmental concerns can unite faiths. Nowrouz and its many derivations means so much to so many people, it may yet be an excellent ecological “bridge” to unite peoples the world over.

This post was written by Maurice Picow and first appeared on the Middle East environment news site Green Prophet. To subscribe to the newsletter send an email to contact@greenprophet.com.

[Image via Hamed Saber]

Would-be women of the IDF busted shirking and snogging

The way the Israeli army interfaces with religion is not so straightforward, which makes sense in a land where the separation between synagogue and state is still being sorted out. The IDF’s Rabbinate came under scrutiny this winter for attempting to boost soldiers’ morale on shaky theological grounds.

And the Rabbinate is notorious for being stingy when it comes to handing out shaving exemption papers for soldiers looking to be able to wear beards based on their interpretation of Biblical commandments, sometimes telling soldiers that they’re “not religious enough” to qualify for the exemption. But if it’s a rabbi’s goal to foster observance, he ought to embrace the individual’s interests, regardless of that individual’s flaws or hypocrisies.

In a society where we are constantly being pigeonholed due to what we’re wearing on our heads and elsewhere on our bodies, I don’t know about you, but my inclination is to say, “Please don’t put me in a box. I’m a real person, not a tidy category.”

Of course, embracing the religious grey area gets trickier when we’re talking about exemption from serving in the army altogether. Ditching the draft is relatively common among Israel’s Orthodox, for better or for worse, and the mechanisms for obtaining exemptions on religious grounds are relatively straightforward, making pleading religious a tempting option even for those who might not necessarily truly have theological qualms with the experience of being a soldier.

After years of turning a blind eye, more or less, to this phenomenon, the IDF is getting smart and trying to crack down on young women who “lie” and plead religious. Sure, it’s possible that a young woman who is too observant to serve, whatever that means, might experience a lapse in faith, but in general, if the army’s detectives catch you making out with someone, you should probably suit up.

“We need those girls, Lt. Col. Gil Ben Shaoul, deputy commander of Israel’s military recruitment center,” told The Associated Press.

The Israel Defense Forces says the surveillance program began last year and has caught 520 young women, many who admitted they did not deserve the religious exemption and signed up for military service.

….Catching the draft-dodgers is fairly straightforward: It takes one weekend, said Ben Shaoul. The young women are usually caught driving on Saturday, drinking or smoking.

Many who attempt to shirk the draft justify doing so on the grounds that women aren’t given “real” opportunities in the IDF.

“I served for two years doing nothing. All the girls do nothing,” said Shiran Cohen, 24, a university student. She said she was assigned to check on ammunition stockpiles during her service, but was frequently sidelined by men in her unit.

Although being a woman in the army can’t be easy, this excuse simply doesn’t hold water. I have fond memories of my days serving in the IDF’s Shiryon (armored corps) unit, where everything I learned about tanks was taught to me by women.

On the first day of tank training, the training officers took me and my fellow conscripts out to the open field and gave us a powerful demonstration of tank maneuvering and weaponry. The audience loved it. When the demo was over, the tanks pulled around and parked by the bleachers where we sat. The hatches opened, and out came four women from each vehicle. Surprise surprise. The bleachers shook with hooting, extra applause and jumping up and down as a special reaction for the ladies. It was a bit embarrassing, and it might serve to highlight how rough it must be to get respect as a woman soldier, but the point is that the opportunities are there for those who are motivated to go after them.

Image of Israeli modern Orthodox teenage women courtesy sethfrantzman from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

Foto Friday – Yuval Nadel

The world of haredi observant Jews is one that most secular Israelis never get a chance to see – and if they do, they find it alien, even threatening. Photographer Yuval Nadel, an Israeli-born Jew with a secular up-bringing, became familiar with and learned to appreciate and respect the people who lead a religious lifestyle.

In a collection of photographs called “Custom, Prayer and Ceremony – The Jews of the Land of Israel”, he documents that meeting between secular and religious without trying to explain the lifestyle or Jewish customs. “As a photographer, it was important for me to show the religious experiences of Israeli Jews from my personal point of view,” he says.

The photographs presented in Nadel’s book were taken over four cycles of holidays and intermittent days between 2004 and 2008. Nadel writes that his journey began at the annual festive Lag B’Omer commemoration at Mount Meron. “I was captivated. Over the next four years, I traveled around the country to the various outposts and locations where Jews perform their mitzvot (commandments), ceremonies and prayers… I arrived to these places as a photographer, as a bystander observer and yet as someone participating in the experience. It was so, because that’s how I was received…”

While most such books “fall prey to the sin of anthropology… based, at worst, on patronizing voyeurism and at best, on intellectual curiosity,” writes Israeli journalist Kobi Arieli, an observant Jew, “Yuval Nadel’s approach arises out of a positive attitude that is nurtured and grows with each image… This book is a story about love and light, which is why it is both good and enjoyable.”

For his part, Nadel says, “If these photographs can contribute even slightly to help unite Jews through exposing a beautiful side of the world of observant Jews in Israel, I will have reaped my reward.”

Drought brings three faiths together in prayer

There were three men standing beside the Kinneret, a rabbi, a priest and an imam. Sounds like the start of a joke, but you can be sure it wasn’t a laughing matter for any of the three. They were praying for rain.

And when you look at the state of the Kinneret, you can’t blame them. I was there for the round the Kinneret cycle ride just a few weeks ago, and the water had receded an alarming distance from the shore. People were sitting close to the water’s edge, next to signs hammered into the ground reading Deep Water.

Where has the water gone?

And it’s not that we’re seeing any signs of a wet winter to come. On the contrary, the weather in Israel right now resembles, well, a desert. Hot and dry during the day, cold during the night. Lips are chapped, skin is dry and itchy, and who knows what’s happening to agriculture – it’s horrible.

So that’s why Rabbi Shlomo Didi of the Jordan Valley, Ian Clark – the priest of the Scottish church, and Muhammad Dahamshe, the Imam of Kfar Kana, got together to try to ease the situation with a little combined prayer and a whole lot of artwork from the dozens of artists who came to paint the service.

“A joint prayer does not consider differences of religion,” Didi told a reporter from an Israeli newspaper. “There is one god, we are all human beings and are all praying to the same god.”

“The dismal condition of the Kinneret threatens each and every one of us,” added Shimon Kipnis, general manager of the Scots Hotel, which offered up its beach for the prayer service.

“We see how the shoreline is receding and that the water level is nearing the �black line.’ The purpose of this event was to unite all the religions and offer a joint prayer to the creator of the universe, that he bless us with a rainy season.”

Well, let’s hope their prayers are answered. It sure doesn’t seem that way right now. The forecast for the next few days according to Israel’s Meteorological Service: Warmer and drier than usual.

Flipping presence

As of today, the Jewish month of Elul has begun, which means that thousands of post-high school American yeshiva and seminary students are beginning to arrive in Jerusalem in droves. Just as the main international tourism season has wound down, and a few weeks before the autumn holidays bring a new batch of American family pilgrims, the influx of teenagers who have left their parents’ homes for the first time ever, here on a spiritual quest, can be felt everywhere. More English is spoken on buses and on streets, and the pubs are packed with young people getting sloshed in public for the first time.

The influx of yeshiva kids is a bona fide phenomenon when it comes to the Jerusalem leisure and urban atmospheric scenes, but it’s even more of an attention grabber when it comes to the sociological impact that such years of study have on the individual Jews involved as well as on the communities who spawn and send them.

Published by Yashar Books together with Yeshiva University, Modern Orthodoxy’s seminal institution, Flipping Out? Myth or Fact: The Impact of the ‘Year in Israel’ tackles these very issues. Named after a song by Blue Fringe that self-mockingly recounts the experience of becoming observant to the extreme in Jerusalem, the book meditates on the experience of yeshiva study as a rite of passage that changes the student’s outlook on religious life, and it also questions the impact of this phenomenon on American Orthodox Judaism, which is said to be moving steadily towards the Right.

In its review, The Observer, the YU student paper, asserts that “This book is a brave attempt to begin answering the plethora of questions that students, parents and observers raise about the seeming dramatic effects of the experience.”

But Miriam Shaviv over at The Forward disagrees, focusing on how the empirical backbone of the study betrays its moniker:

But you cannot properly discuss “flipping out” by looking at how many halachic stringencies students, on average, adopt. “Flipping out” is a minority sport that has as much to do with emotional and psychological factors as with halachic ones. Students who are affected may have trouble relating to their family; become obsessive and dogmatic about some aspects of religion, and shed central parts of their old personality. These are all harder to measure, but without addressing these issues substantially, the book cannot be said to be about “flipping out” at all.

So is the “year in Israel” experience essentially one of measurable spiritual acculturation or is it an ephemeral rite of passage? It doesn’t matter. They’re on their way regardless. Flipping aye.

 

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