Eretz Yisrael: Our Home, Our Haven, Our Heritage

Parshat Emor 5765

One of the often-heard criticisms of Conservative Judaism is that we’re “wishy-washy;” that we don’t represent anything in particular; and that people who join Conservative synagogues don’t do so because they’re committed to the ideology or beliefs of our movement but because they don’t consider themselves either Orthodox or Reform. Conservative Judaism is a convenient place in-between; it’s neither here nor there; it is neither meat nor dairy. People complain, Conservative Judaism is parve – and therefore it’s boring.

And while that may explain why some people join our synagogues, it does not characterize who we are as a movement. There’s nothing empty or unchallenging about Conservative Judaism. In fact I’d suggest that just the opposite is true: our movement demands more of us, and is more challenging than the other branches of Judaism today. It demands both faith and intellectual honesty. I’m proud to be a Conservative Jew because more so than Reform or Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism challenges me to find a meaningful synthesis of modernity and tradition which does not compromise either.

Having said that, I’d like to spend a few moments this morning talking to you about what didn’t happen at the Oceanside Jewish Center this week. Thursday morning a hand full of our members gathered in synagogue for Minyan as they do every day. This time, however, they came together to celebrate an important Jewish holiday that apparently fell beneath the radar of most of our members. I’m referring to Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel Independence Day. While we gather every morning for Minyan, this one was special: we recited the Hallel service (as we do on Passover and other religious holidays), we read a special portion from the Torah (not the regular weekday reading), and we even chanted a Haftorah. We also recited a prayer for the welfare of the state of Israel and as our Minyan ended we wished one another a gut yuntif.

For most of our members, however, Thursday was just a regular day. Even those who are somewhat observant do not have Yom Ha’atzmaut on their spiritual radar. And if they do, they probably think of this day as an important historical occasion and no more.

One of the unique decisions of the Conservative movement in 1948 was to recognize Israel Independence day not as a secular occasion but a deeply religious occasion. The founding of the State of Israel was momentous not only nationalistically and culturally for the Jewish people but spiritually and theologically as well.

From the early part of the twentieth century on, when Reform Jews rejected the idea of Jewish national aspirations and much of the Orthodox world refused to promote the idea of a Jewish national entity without the coming of the Messiah, Conservative Jewish leaders like Solomon Schechter, Mordechai Kaplan, Israel Goldstein and Simon Greenberg were outspoken Zionists in the American Jewish community. From the very beginning, Conservative Jews have been passionately committed to the building of a homeland for the Jewish people. We were the ones responsible for the growth of federations around the country, and we were the people who overwhelmingly supported Israel bonds, the JNF and a plethora of other Zionist organizations. It’s no accident that Hadassah was founded by Henrietta Szold, a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary!

In the early years of Medinat Yisrael, the Conservative movement began to formulate a unique theological approach to the state of Israel that set us apart from our neighbors. While they eventually came around to recognizing the significance of Israel, we Conservative Jews actually incorporated this idea into our liturgical life in new and powerful ways.

If you look in our Conservative Prayer book, Sim Shalom, you’ll find something very interesting and important in this regard. In the daily Amida, the central prayer of our service, there is actually a special passage celebrating the founding of Israel. It begins with the words Al Hanisim v’al hapurkan, “We thank you for the miraculous deliverances and for the heroism…” and it goes on to describe how, in the aftermath of World War Two, the Jewish people returned to their land despite the fact that “the gates to the land were closed.” We read, “When enemies from within the land together with seven neighboring nations sought to annihilate Your people, You, in Your great mercy, stood by them in time of trouble. You defended them and vindicated them. You gave them the courage to meet their foes, to open the gates for those seeking refuge, and to free the land of its armed invaders…”

There are two things that are significant about this passage which we read on Yom Ha’atzmaut. First we are making a theological statement acknowledging that miracles happen in our modern world; that the founding of Israel is a contemporary sign of God’s intervention in history. And second we are placing it in the context of the matbeah shel tefillah, the traditional framework of the liturgy, thus acknowledging that the prayer book must change to reflect our contemporary experiences as Jews and as a community. This is something our neighbors would not do: Orthodox Jews would not change the traditional liturgy and Reform Jews simply are not concerned with Halachah, Jewish law, so would not be concerned with this issue.

I don’t say this to be critical of our neighbors. They each have an important contribution to make to Jewish life. What I am suggesting is that we as Conservative Jews have a unique insight into the presence of God in history that we have incorporated into our daily lives.

It is significant that the leaders of the Conservative movement have chosen to place this prayer both in style and in location, next to the prayers we recite for Purim and Chanukah. These are both post-biblical holidays in which something miraculous happened that saved the Jewish people from annihilation. On both of these holidays we thank God Sh’asa nissim lavotaynu “for performing miracles for our ancestors.” I am sure you all know this blessing and how it ends. What’s interesting is that we have changed the end of the blessing very slightly but most significantly: Sh’asa nissim lavotaynu Bayamim hayamim hahaym u’vazaman hazeh. “We thank You God for performing miracles for our ancestors in those days and in these times.” By adding the Hebrew letter Vav, the meaning of this berachah has changed: God not only performed miracles in those times at this season; He performs miracles long ago and He has done so in our time as well.

I would suggest that this is a powerful and unique theological statement. Israel is not just a political state; it is a miracle. It is a product of God’s contemporary intervention in history. And while it is not a miracle of the caliber of the splitting of the Red Sea or the Revelation at Sinai, it is a miracle similar to the Maccabean victory in 165 BCE or Esther and Mordechai’s actions in ancient Persia.

We did not have a major celebration of Yom Ha’atzmaut in our congregation this past Thursday. But that is not the failure of the Conservative Movement. That is our failure as a congregation. We need, as a synagogue and as a movement, to promote the religious observance of Israel Independence Day – because it is a statement of our basic and fundamental faith in God’s presence in history.

There is one other thing that we should note. What is it about Chanukah and Purim that led our movement to equate the founding of Israel with these occasions? I would suggest that what makes Purim and Chanukah significant is that the miracle on each of these occasions resulted not just from God’s intervention in history but our partnership with God. In each case we met God halfway; it was the strength, faith and fortitude that God gave us that allowed the Jewish people to persevere.

Yom Ha’atzmaut is behind us, but it’s not too soon for us to begin planning a major celebration of this holiday next year. Like many communities we get together to observe Yom Hashoah and to mourn the annihilation of six million of our people. How can we do any less in celebrating the single greatest event in modern history?

More than that, we need to support Israel because it is part of the spiritual definition of who we are as Conservative Jews. Wherever we may stand on the political spectrum, left or right, Israel is part of the spiritual definition of contemporary Judaism. To ignore the state of Israel is as much a sin as eating triefe or ignoring Shabbat. I’d like to end this morning with a something that Rabbi Rafi Rank, International president of the Rabbinical Assembly, wrote a few years ago. While Passover is behind us, I think this reading is just as relevant for us today. It is entitled, “Lo Dayeinu - When it comes to Israel we cannot do enough:”
How many acts of kindness can we perform for our Israeli brothers and sisters to show our support and admiration of them:

If we only feel depressed about the situation, without writing letters of support for Israel to the editor, lo daYEInu-it would not be enough!

If we only wrote letters of support for Israel to the editor, without communicating our admiration of Israelis directly to them, lo daYEInu-it would not be enough!

If we only communicated our admiration of Israelis directly to them, without inviting Israelis to our homes to become closer as an international family, lo daYEInu-it would not be enough!

If we only invited Israelis to our homes to become closer as an international family, without purchasing Israeli products in the markets, lo daYEInu-it would not be enough!

If we only purchased Israeli products in the markets, without purchasing Israel Bonds to buttress the entire economy, lo daYEInu-it would not be enough!

If we only purchased State of Israel Bonds to buttress the entire economy, without urging our congressional representatives to continue support of Israel, lo daYEInu-it would not be enough!

If we only urged our congressional representatives to continue support of Israel,
without showing up at public demonstrations in support of Israel, lo daYEInu-it would not be enough!

If we only showed up at public demonstrations in support of Israel without making that trip to Israel ourselves, lo daYEInu-it would not be enough!

If we only made that trip to Israel ourselves, without returning to our homes with the spirit of Israel firmly in our hearts, lo daYEInu-it would not be enough!

If we only returned to our homes with the spirit of Israel firmly in our hearts, without treating Israel's Independence Day, Yom Ha-Atzma'ut, as a sacred day, lo daYEInu-it would not be enough!

If we only treated Israel's Independence Day, Yom Ha-Atzma'ut, as a sacred day, without attempting to learn Hebrew as the official language of the Jewish people, lo daYEInu-it would not be enough!

If we only attempted to learn Hebrew as the official language of the Jewish people, without translating the cherished values of Jewish life to our children, lo daYEInu-it would not be enough!

If we only translated the cherished values of Jewish life to our children without imbuing in them the same love for Israel that we ourselves feel, lo daYEInu-it would not be enough!

Founding the state was a challenge. Maintaining the state is a greater challenge. Assuring its future is the greatest challenge of all. When it comes to Israel, lo daYEInu - we can never do enough.