Rabbi's Messages

Connecting With Israel

on Sunday, 25 September 2016.

Favourite Jewish activities:

1. Eating matzah ball soup.
2. Incurring guilt.
3. Feeling conflicted about Israel.

Having a complicated relationship with the land of Israel is one of the oldest Jewish pastimes. From the moment our people left slavery in Egypt, they knew that the Promised Land was “flowing with milk and honey” and that at the same time it would never be an easy place to live.

And yet, the land of Israel holds an eternal place of honour in our Jewish soul. The Torah is basically the story of our people leaving Egypt and trying to get there. The traditional prayer book refers repeatedly to the restoration of Zion. And, for well over 100 years, the Zionist movement has taught and written and worked for the establishment and strengthening of the Jewish state. We are extraordinarily fortunate to live in a time – nearly the only time in history – when it is a reality.

The State of Israel is perhaps the greatest Jewish project of the modern era. It is, in a sense, a 68-year experiment; an answer to the question, “What would happen if the Jews got the opportunity to build a country?” The response to that question has been extraordinary: We have revived our language, built national institutions, and revitalized our people and our way of life. Imagine: Of the millions of Jews who have ever lived, we are among the tiny fraction who know a country whose language is Hebrew, whose statutory holidays are Pesach and Yom Kippur, whose national institutions draw their names from the Mishnah and Talmud.

But at the same time, Israel is a source of angst for us. We worry about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, about what it means for Israel to govern another people. We agonize over whether a country can be both a Jewish state and a democratic country at the same time. We lament the status of non-Orthodox Judaism and the treatment of women at the Western Wall. And we commit ourselves to be part of the solution – part of building the Israel that should be.

Having a complicated relationship with the land of Israel is one of the oldest Jewish pastimes. It is an important Jewish responsibility to engage in meaningful ways with our homeland, to wrestle with what Eretz Yisrael means for us.

This year, we have three exciting opportunities to engage with Israel - two of them through study and one through firsthand experience!

• Our congregational trip to Israel – March 12-23, 2017. It’s our first opportunity in many years to visit the Promised Land as a congregation. I am looking forward to traveling with you, exploring our homeland together. Contact me (soon!) if you’re interested in joining us!
•  iEngage - Thursday mornings (once a month) – Rabbi Noam Katz (Leo Baeck Day School) and I will offer this course together one morning a month. It addresses “tough questions” – How do we engage with Israel in the 21st century? Can a country be both Jewish and Democratic? What do war and peoplehood and pluralism mean for the Jewish state? 
• Israel Today: Where Have We Been and Where are We Going – Wednesday evenings – This weekly discussion will incorporate the writings of philosophers, academics, public intellectuals, media, political leaders, Hebrew poets and ancient Jewish sources, in an exploration of Israel’s culture and its meaning for Diaspora Jews.

More information is available about all three of these opportunities in this month’s Voice, or email me at rabbistreiffer@kolami.ca.

As 5777 begins, I look forward to a year of learning and growth, of engaging with Israel and with one another. May it be a good and sweet new year for us all.

L’shalom,
Rabbi Micah Streiffer