A little behind-the-scenes of preparing for the High Holy Days for you. On Sunday morning, as the Canadian government announced, as expected, their formal recognition of a Palestinian state, I imagined groans going up from the home of every rabbi in the country. “Really?! The day before Rosh Hashanah?!” I immediately began to reflect on how this announcement might impact our services together this week. Would it be on all of your minds? Did sermons, already completed, need to be tweaked? And what could I possibly say about this announcement that acknowledged that, “In our community as in Israel, there are diverse views on the current Israeli government, how to end this conflict, and how to create lasting peace,” to quote the CIJA statement from Sunday.
Then, I heard the words of Yossi Klein Halevi, Israeli author and journalist, on the podcast, “For Heaven’s Sake.” Speaking about the broad spectrum of how Jews relate to Israel, both within Israel and in the Diaspora, he named different groups, drawing from the writing of his interlocutor, Rabbi Donniel Hartman: the untroubled committed, the troubled committed, the untroubled uncommitted, and the troubled uncommitted. All of these groups have a place in the discussions about Israel and her future, Halevi argued. The only Jews he can’t talk to are the ones who have NO questions whatsoever, who either see Israel as a perfect country with the most moral army in the world, or only see Israel’s actions as wrongdoing. When everything is black and white, when there is no nuance, when there is absolute certitude of conviction – there can be no conversation, no learning, no relationship.
We don’t need to have all the answers. In fact, it is this spirit of curiosity, of humility, of openness to hearing voices and opinions different from our own, that our tradition calls us to bring into Yom Kippur. I hope to see you next week – I can’t promise to have all the answers, but I hope we can have some good conversations with each other and with God.
PS – If you haven’t yet, click here to share your own reflections (anonymously, if you’d like!) on what is beautiful and holy about your interfaith family – whether that is you, your partner, and your children, your adult children and their partners, your siblings, or our community as a whole. You have until Monday, September 29! And please, consider this a special invitation to the members of our community who aren’t Jewish but are part of Jewish families to come on Yom Kippur morning, to be part of this special blessing in front of the Torah.
