The autumn flower of sun flare.
Lee Diamond – A Nation at Risk & The Perfect Fit- Israel and Masorti Judaism
A Nation at Risk
The signs are visible everywhere
It takes courage
to stare them in the face.
Israel still surrounded
By hostile forces ever since
It’s birth.
Anti semitism—at our doorstep—
Once again, blatant and perfuse
In the power centers of Europe
In mid America
Among leading politicians world
Over.
American Jewry empty
Of pride
Empty of knowledge
Even illiterate
And prideful of their
Jewish ignorance
American Jewish Renegades
Attacking their own hope
Gleefully becoming
Traitors to their own I.D.
Respecting their detractors
Degrading their benefactors
Synagogues closing
In Europe, Central and South
America
Once thriving Jewish communities
Dwindling to 500 or less
Intermarriage the rule
Not the exception
Synagogues with more
Non Jews than Jews.
Israel at 70 has just turned 18
More alive
More youthful
More aware
Of Itself than ever
Before.
It’s own guardian
And the guardian
Of its dwindling diaspora
Self critical
Wildly self critical
A pilot refusing to fire
On Innocents
Ex soldiers breaking holy
Silence
Demonstrations right and left
A nation divided on
Values. Jewish values!
All claiming to speak
In the name of God
And speaking as Jews
In Hebrew, the tongue
Of the prophets
Strong Israel
Controlling its fire
Strong Israelis
Struggling against
It’s own leadership
The Strong fighting the Strong
It’s not politically correct
To negate the diaspora
But today it’s Israel
Preserving the wheel
Of Diaspora and no longer
The reverse.
It’s not the Haredim
Who will keep the flame
Burning. They will
Disappear soon Into their own irrelevance and oblivion .
Nor the assimilating diaspora
Declining into self destruction.
It is Jewish Israel
Unconsciously natural Jewish Israel
That keeps the flame burning.
The natural Jew
In her/his own surroundings
Despite Israel’s enemies
From without
It Is made of the stuff of
Inner Jewish Strength
That is muscular from without and
Sweet as the flesh of the Sabra within.
The Perfect Fit- Israel and Masorti Judaism
The Jewish Agency supports the Masorti Movement in Israel as part of its commitment to Arvut Hadadit (mutual, reciprocal responsibility of one Jew to another) and the unity of the Jewish people.T
A tradition in search
Of Its people
A people in search of
A living tradition
A nation struggling
for meaning
Still enticed by tradition
But a tradition steeped
In Today.
Not blind acceptance
But no longer blind rejection
Once the baby was thrown out
With the wash water
Today the baby wears
New clothes
Haredism is — in its name—
Not God fearing
But bullet fearing
“Let the state protect me “
“I fear protecting the state”
Israelis think!
Israelis are creatures
Of generations made
Israelis are of this world
But shaped by idealism
And relevance
Israeli society
Is like clay
In the hands
of the potter
Making new shapes
With local clay.
We are both Masorti
Yet humans of this age.
We stretch our minds
In new directions
But build on a rich past.
Israelis need Judaism
As much as Judaism
Needs Israel.
Girls need Bat Mitzvah
Just as boys do.
LGBT Jews need a home
Just as “hetero” Jews do.
Emancipation needs Jews
Just as Jews need emancipation.
Women need to pray
Perhaps more than men
Men need to learn to be
“Spiritual” from God’s
Chosen gender
Who see higher and feel more
Deeply.
Gender separation is odious
And the creation of male power
needs. Nobody is distracted
From God worship
by another gender.
A woman’s voice in prayer
Is enticing
no less than a mans cantillation.
And prayer needs the sound
Of the God Within .
So come In your minions
Israeli Jews!
Judaism has caught up with
You
Now you must catch up too.
