Daring to be holy in the Holy Land |
More than 60 years ago, at a seminar held at the Jewish Public Library of Montreal in June 1964, the celebrated singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen cried out, “We no longer believe we are holy. This is the declaration I wait to hear going out from the synagogues and from the lips of cultural Jews and ethical Jews. This is the confession without which we cannot begin to raise our eyes — the absence of God in our midst.”
Of all Cohen’s prescient, immortal words, these reverberate most strongly for me at the present moment – his rebuke of his fellow Jews for their abandonment of God. Like all prophets, Cohen needed the passage of time in order for humanity to fully realize the potency of his message.
Here we stand at this critical moment for Israel and world Jewry, when the legitimacy of our homeland is challenged, our heritage demeaned and libeled, our very existence the catalyst for protests worldwide, the pretext for moral purity tests.
The Jews are famous, but not for a good reason.
Against this backdrop, I find myself deep in contemplation of the best and most useful gift I can bring my American family and friends when I visit next month for a teaching tour.
I ponder specialty Israeli food items, Judaica, jewelry, crafts. I walk leisurely through Machane Yehuda and along Emek Refaim in Jerusalem looking for inspiration, only to realize that the gift I can bring, as an Israel-dwelling Jew, is that which is intangible.
Yes, I will stuff my suitcase with all of the above, but my best “made in Israel” house-gift is my God-consciousness and authentic Jewish identity forged in the daily reality of life in this beautiful and wondrous place I call home.
Despite alarming headlines, I maintain that if ever there........