Kesher Talk

A vanity post. The latest edition of Havel Havelim, the weekly Jewish "best of the blogs," is up at Israpundit. If you are a Jewish blog, consider offering to host. It's not that much work and can get you lots of exposure (sspecially if you email Glenn and let him know when it's up).

posted by Judith @ 3/12/2005 11:26:00 PM 0 comments links to this post  

By the rivers of Babylon. Via Dreams into Lightning, two incredible essays by Rabbi David Zaslow, a major player in the Jewish Renewal movement. These are significant because Jewish Renewal, or neo-hasidism, is at the far left of your radio dial, and Rabbi Zaslow's congregation is located in the depths of Moonbattean Oregon. Yet Rabbi Zaslow brings to bear Tanakh, midrash, history, and psychology to lead his congregants away from the dead-end zone of rigid ideology.

He warns against making an idol, a golden calf,

of our own preconceptions, but, rather, let us be open to be startled by new realities the Holy One presents to us. No one could have imagined in 1945 that the two most evil governments of their time (Germany and Japan) would be our best friends so quickly after the end of WWII; no one would have imagined after 1967 that Sadat z"l and Begin z"l could come together as they did; no one would have bet that Nelson Mandella would leave prison to lead his multi-racial nation. Miracles happen and one is happening before our eyes right now. Just as the fall of the Soviet empire surprised us in its speed, an even greater miracle is happening now - the bells of feminism, pluralism, freedom, and democracy are beginning to ring in the middle east. For sure, we need to pray for our leaders, but we also need to guard against building a golden calf of cynicism, sarcasm, and bitterness that prevents us from praying for the leaders we disagree with.

In this even more amazing essay, he talks about Babel, Babylon, Esau and Jacob, and the ancient seat of Jewish learning which last year housed a pivotal battle for hearts and minds in Iraq:

In recent weeks the battle for the Iraqi city of Falluja has been at the top of the news. More than twenty-five hundred years ago, during the rule of the Babylonian empire the city of Falluja was one of the greatest centers for Jewish learning, and was known as Pumbeditha. It was there that we learned how to analyze and interpret – intellectual skills that later became a hallmark of Judaism. It was, in fact, in Babylon that the Jewish people gained detailed secular learning in subjects ranging from music to astronomy. Most scholars agree that Torah trope was developed in Babylon. Most agree that the names of the Hebrew months, and even the names of the archangels were learned in Babylon. What a paradox! Something bad (captivity) was transforming into something good (learning) - something that would help preserve the Jewish people for the next few thousand years.

I’m sure this transformation was “confusing” to our people, just as many of us are confused today when we hear the news. Yet, I believe that the Bible teaches that something good will also come from all this “confusion.” On the spiritual plane the second war in Iraq is a world war against both confusion and arrogance, and it could be that something incredible (peace and justice) will be coming out of all the pain and fear we are now experiencing. There seems to be a Divine message that arises out of the war in Iraq: whether you are conservative or liberal; whether you were for the war or against the war – do not be arrogant! Do not be confused! Rabbi Simon Jacobson recently wrote that “The real war – which is going on now for thousands of years, tracing back to the battles between Ishmael, Isaac, Esau and Jacob – is an ideological one: between matter and spirit, between the Divine and the universe – a war to make our peace with G-d and to discover unity between our natural lives and our Divine mission statement....Saying up is down and down is up, that’s Babel. Making absurd comparisons of Sharon to Hitler or Bush to Saddam, that’s Babel regardless of who you voted for.”

Isn’t “saying up is down and down is up” what we hear from commentators and representatives from both the Left and Right today? From exaggerated claims and scandalous comments made by members of all the political parties, to the near paranoid conspiracy theories one hears – this is all part of Babel; all a part of our personal exile into Babylon; in the inner land of confusion. Babel is a description of the archetypal energy that exists in every one of us, in every culture, and in every nation. It is the force that divides people through confusion. The opposite of Babel is shalom, the Hebrew word that comes from a word root meaning “wholeness.” Shalom means that the whole, both sides of an issue, must be accounted for, and that people representing each side of an important issue actually need each other in order to fulfill G-d’s will in our world. Babel is “babble” because it divides and polarizes people in ways that are counterproductive and destructive. Shalom brings people together, even people who disagree – especially people who disagree! That is why shalom is so important in our era and why Babel must be corrected and transformed.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Judith @ 3/08/2005 10:38:00 PM 1 comments links to this post