Gordis’ guide to loving Israel
A few weeks back we flagged Jay Michaelson's "How I'm losing my love for Israel" essay in the Forward.
Now Daniel Gordis, a U.S.-born Conservative rabbi who made aliyah several years ago, responds with a powerful post on his blog:
So, yes, we’re exhausted. And, if you’ll forgive me, I suspect that those of here are more exhausted than are those of you over there. Life here is conducted under a pervasive cloud of exhaustion that my most of American friends simply don’t comprehend. ...
The real question, I think, is not whether we’re exhausted, but rather what we do with our exhaustion. What makes all the difference is not our fatigue, but what keeps us going when our tank feels empty, when it feels like all that’s left is fumes. ...
Like you, Jay, I am concerned about some of the injustices that Israel commits. But unlike you, I could never be “more relaxed [in Berlin] than in Jerusalem.” You wrote very compellingly that you felt relieved that though there was political baggage in Berlin, “none of it was mine.”
But you know what I love about this place, Jay? I love that all the political baggage is mine. The Palestinians. The Israeli Arabs. (Some of) the Haredim. A collapsing educational system. Murders on the streets with a constancy we never used to have. A nation of roads and drivers that kills many more Israelis than our enemies do. That’s all my baggage. ...
loving Israel isn’t like an affair. It’s a totally different thing. In a relationship, the person I love and I both matter – more or less equally, I guess. But not here. In this, I don’t matter. You don’t matter. Only justice matters. Only the future matters. Only the Jewish people’s survival matters. And without this place, there is no future, no Jewish people.
Given that, what’s the alternative to a deep and abiding love? I can’t think of one. So tonight, I’m going to roll up my sleeves and head off to shul. I’m going to put the news out of my mind, and for a few hours, I’m going to forget about the equivocation, about the fatigue. I’m going to hold on to my son, the one kid still left at home – and when the singing starts, I’m going to dance.
Gordis' response will certainly provide a boost to those who were angered by Michaelson's essay, to those who haven't lost that loving feeling. But is it an argument that will sway Diaspora Jews experiencing the same sort of alienation described by Michaelson. After all, Gordis is really writing from another vanatge point -- from the perspective of an American who has chosen to live in Israel. Yes, it's true, Gordis' Israel-related exhaustion is probably greater, but so is his incentive for pressing forward. And, of course, one could convincingly argue that by making alyah, Gordis has already demonstrated that he is committed to a degree that Michaelson and the rest of us in the United States are not. As Gordis himself notes, a "clarity of purpose" is often a vital ingredient for overcoming exhaustion -- and in Michaelson's case (and in the case of many liberal Jews like him) that's what's increasingly lacking as they see the Israel that they fell in love with drift away.
UPDATE: More importantly, what happens when you start losing your love for the bagel?
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During the Holocaust too many Jews in high places were unwilling to go too far in fear of angering Roosevelt and his cadre. When the facts came to light, some of these same Jews felt great shame; others tried to rationalize their tepid warnings. With a few exceptions, America’s Jews were thrilled when Israel became a state - not because they had any intention of making aliyah, but because it gave them a vicarious sense of strength to buttress the image of Jewish powerlessness in the face of the Nazi monstrocity. America’s relationship with Israel has always been a bit strange. A lot of money was donated; a lot of political clout was expended; but most American Jews were (are) too comfortable in their safety and success in the US. Israel is for Jews who survived the Holocaust, for Jews from the former Soviet Union, for Jews kicked out of other Middle Eastern countries. Sure, we’ll give them money. But when Israeli action appears to challenge the misguided liberalism of American Jews, we get the Michaelsons. They love Israel when it acts the way they want it to act; and they take solace in Berlin when it doesn’t. Irving Kristol was right, it is the very safety of America that threatens the future of its Jews as a distinct group. If that’s not important to you, then it doesn’t matter where you stand on intermarriage and Israel. If it is important, then you cannot afford to disown your child because he/she doesn’t act the way you’d like him/her to act.
Is it the nation state of Israel wending it’s way through the politics of a hostile world and existing in an area of the world where intolerance is the norm or was it the ideal of Israel with whom many have fallen in love.
Over the top worship of Israel now serves the function of the golden cow in replacing G-d as the object of one’s veneration. Gordis’ essay is just another example of this.
Danny Gordis writes:
“So you get into bed each night knowing that you’ve sacrificed a part of her innocence and her youth on the altar of your beliefs and ideology, and you wonder, each and every day, if what you once thought was a noble life choice might have been the most unfair thing you ever did. “
What he did NOT write:
“Despite this recurrent, even omnipresent sense, I know as I know few things that raising a child to believe in a hopeful way of life, to embrace a vision of the world of humanity of oneself to fulfill God’s image, to advance a communal act of faith in the future of humankind through the State of Israel IS A MEANINGFUL WAY TO MEET ONE’S DAYS.”
Forget about the altar of beliefs and even leave youth aside. Does not the vision he seeks include – by definition – a sense of the joy in existence, the play in human interplay, the pleasures of love? Do we not believe in the manifold depth of a meaningful life to offer the individual – old and young – wealth beyond imagination?
These aren’t just words. Words, words, words. Gordis has seated himself astraddle a bucking horse. But this horse treads hallowed ground for the simple reason that the Farmer gave him that land as home. And, as for the particular tiny pinprick of earth this horse’s hooves limn, it’s as good as any to get on with living. We might believe, even, a little better. And, one step further, maybe, let’s say, let’s not just get on with it. Rather, let’s do our best with it.
Isn’t that what he’s doing? Is there a greater gift for one’s child?
You tell me.
Post Script: a Cornell University classmate and a dear friend of a dear friend – IDF Captain Alex Singer – died on his 25th birthday in southern Lebanon in 1987. In his highly dimensioned diaries and expressive letters which have since become widely disseminated, he prepared himself and his family for the ultimate sacrifice for the simple reason that he was protecting his home. He didn’t enjoy the army, he didn’t believe in fighting, and Israelis drove him nearly bananas sometimes. But, what do you do if your family’s a little nutty? You get on with it. He got on with it. And died retrieving a fallen comrade. How many times has this story been relived? How long will Israel stand? Israelis answer that question daily.
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Alan
10/12/09 02:15 PM
The vapid and self-indulgent perspective of this Michaelson shouldn’t anger anyone. The very notion of his being gratified by the fact that Berlin’s “baggage” isn’t his own, reveals an cynical effort at “moral equivalence” that the anti-Israel forces in the world have been making all along. Suicide killings of civilians are no worse than a checkpoint...so goes the argument. Berlin’s legacy of the Holocaust is no worse than forcing the inconvenience of waiting at border crossings or the ridiculously small comparable number of Arabs killed in Israel’s Gaza operation in its self-defense against years and years of rockets on civilian targets. Michaelson was never really a lover of Israel..he was just a wanna-be. There are no countries that are perfect. But when someone isn’t happy with the country their from, they either try to make a difference or leave. They shouldn’t try to make themselves into soap-box moral arbiters with the ability to define terms for everyone. That’s self-indulgence to a pathetic degree.