French without tears

In honor of the visit of President and Madame Sarkozy to Israel, it's time for all good citizens to dust off their arsenal of French phrases. One or two of them seem particularly germane (although not German).

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Reform Judaism should not enter Israeli politics

Elections are in the air. The Israeli public is reeling from the bad odor emanating from the Prime Minister's good cigars, and we are all wondering how he will manage to conduct his defense while conducting affairs of state. His key political opponents, perhaps incensed at the thought that Olmert will reserve the best first-class seat on the next flight, are working on their impersonation of righteous indignation. Observers of the geopolitical scene from Left and Right are wondering how Israel's interests can be well served when a negotiation on territorial compromise is taking place in between plea bargains and legal consultations.

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Study night near Gaza

One of the many blessings of living in Israel is that text can interact with context in remarkable ways. For one thing, of course, you can actually walk the Bible and the literature of the Rabbis, stumbling upon sites and sights recorded in the Jewish classics. There is a special resonance to following the exploits of kings and prophets, or to counting the steps leading up to the Temple entrance and comparing the number of verses in a Psalm designed to be read while ascending. Sometimes, if you sit up on the roof of our spectacular campus in the heart of Jerusalem and read of David and Bathsheba, you can almost catch a glimpse of them (which should encourage our neighbors to keep their curtains drawn).

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Inspiration from the Haredi community

Although they will not thank me for the endorsement, I have decided to come out in favor of the Haredi community in Jerusalem. Many in the Ultra-Orthodox world are disgusted by the decision of the courts, supported by the Attorney General, not to force businesses in Jerusalem to refrain from selling chametz during the festival of Passover this year. Following the decision of the court, representatives of the edah charedit  have sent letters to some sixty businesses and outlets pleading with them not to sell leavened products during Pessach in the City of Gold.

I like this response. By turning to these fellow Jerusalemites and asking them to reconsider their decision, these Haredi representatives are playing according to the rules of a modern liberal democracy. It remains to be seen if some within the community escalate their opposition to the dreaded chametz, and move from words to sticks and stones. But so long as the opposition is reasoned, respectful and peaceful, it should be supported.

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Remembering and forgetting

Last Shabbat I was in Vienna. The Shabbat before I was in New York. It is a great relief and a great distress to be back home in Jerusalem. The relief is understandable: this is where the people I love most in the world live, and in any case I regard it as a rare privilege to be part of this city and this country. The distress, of course, is a direct result of the horrific events Jerusalem has witnessed in the last few days.

In New York there were only two subjects on everyone's lips, and between them they managed to push Obama/Clinton into a distant third place. The first issue is the state of the American economy, the sense of an impending recession, perhaps even a crash. The second is of a quite different nature. It relates to the spectacular decline of the Governor of the State of New York, a man who until a few days was a paragon of virtue, a fearless legislator devoted to rooting out corruption and prostitution.

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Shas - all shook up

Members of the Shas Party have contributed much to understanding and tolerance over the last few weeks in Israel. Two weeks ago it was Nissim Ze'ev, who likened the prevalence of homosexuality in Israel to the phenomenon of Avian Flu, and suggested that only radical action similar to the mass culling of chickens could help root out this abomination.

Last week it was Shlomo Benizri, who has suggested that the most efficient way for the government to protect against the threat of earthquakes would be to abolish homosexual practices, since it is a well-known scientific fact that homosexuality causes earthquakes.

Now there is an important difference between these two learned contributions to the public debate on sexual orientation and public health. The reference to bird flu is certainly an original insight of MK Zeev, who certainly deserves all the credit for this breakthrough in immunology. This is not the case with regards to MK Benizri, who has not been slow to point out that he has done nothing more than quote our sacred sources.

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Israel suffers from ADHD

Israel suffers from Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We are so overloaded with events bearing heavy cargoes of moral complexity; so stunned by sensory overload; that we often can give nothing more than perfunctory attention to issues demanding profound engagement.

In the days since my last blog was penned (or keyboarded), so much has happened: I am writing this with the radio on in the background - Dimona, Gaza, Sderot, Winograd, Olmert, Barak, Egypt, and more.

What is an appropriate religious response to this ADHD reality? A common strategy is to claim that what we see on the surface is only a mask for some concealed Truth. There is a code, a secret means of unlocking a door leading to harmony and coherence. Often, this is presented as the essence of Jewish belief. It may appear as though everything is an unholy mess, but a True Believer knows that all is part of a holy master plan. To doubt the plan is to doubt the Master.

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Sportsmanship and cooperation

I love sports, but they are not so crazy about me. Highlights of my sporting career would have to include the indescribable sensation of the stud of a rugby boot being swiveled deliberately and attentively in my ear as I lay at the bottom of a scrummage (readers puzzled by these words were probably not born in a place ruled by the British after the 1770s), and the resonant crunch of my left ankle as it buckled under my considerable heft during an unwise foray into the world of middle-age soccer. But my love for sports remains undimmed by my obvious shortcomings.

This last week may seem like an inappropriate time in Israel's life to dwell on athletic prowess. Our brothers and sisters in Sderot and its surroundings have been paralyzed by a ceaseless rain of missiles; Gaza has been in flames; the relatives of hostages and fallen soldiers from the Second Lebanon War have been subjected to the most tortuous and perverse treatment at the hands of the great humanitarians at the head of Hizbullah. The integrity of the legal system is under threat; the roads continue to take their toll; the higher education system hangs by the flimsiest of threads. With all this going on, why talk about sports?

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To be a Jerusalemite

My municipal tax bill arrived this week, and on its envelope an unforgettable slogan: it pays to be a Jerusalemite.

My first response was to laugh out loud: the contents of the envelope made it abundantly clear that one has to pay a significant amount of cash in order to be a Jerusalemite - or at least one of that increasingly besieged species: Jerusalemites who pay any taxes at all.

The City of Jerusalem can be a demanding hostess. Only one thing could be more concerning than taking a brief look at its economic prospects - namely, taking a long look at those prospects. Destruction and construction are to be found strewn across the city in equal measure. The ultra-rich are displacing the working poor and also just regular folks from certain neighborhoods. To put the icing on the cake, this week I find myself banished from my own office due to the presence in this city of George W. Bush and the 8000 police personnel on duty here.

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Impressionists and Realists

Earlier last week history was made in Jerusalem. In a city in which history has been a cottage industry for three millennia, this is in itself not too much of a surprise. But the kind of history I am referring to is worthy of note in any case.

The first ever serious academic conference on Reform Judaism in Israel took place. The Van Leer Institute, a highly prestigious center of research and public debate, initiated and hosted the conference, which attracted leading scholars from around the world - or at least from Israel and from the United States (the next conference of this kind will need to spend more time on the local varieties of this species to be found in South America, South Africa, Australasia, and Europe. And by the end of the century, we will no doubt be holding interplanetary seminars).

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