For reasons that escape me utterly I am still in Israel, now studying Judaism, at Nishmat, a Dati Lumi (Religious Zionist) seminary. (I will tell you all about it soon. Today I must write about the Dvar Torah I heard this past Friday.)
Nishmat took all the students for Friday night to what is known as a fairly picturesque and hippie-filled Jerusalem neighborhood, Nahloat. The group went to what is supposed to be a famous area minyan – Kol Rina. And thus, I went through the alleys and down to the basement, to Kol Rina and found my spot behind the great wall of separation, behind the man’s section. This of course is the most offensive machitza ever – the women are not equal but separate, but actually behind the men, behind a wall, that thank god had curtains about four feet of the ground that could be moved away for the Dvar Torah (rabbinic homily).
This week, I decided to listen to the Dvar Torah – it must have been divine providence, because the Dvar torah was simultaneously the most honest, and most offensively hideous thing I ever heard within Orthodox Judaism – this guy, whose name I never found out, actually had the gull to say it like it is, and thus I know have language for saying Good-bye to Orthodoxy. Thank you random Dvar Torah Man.
This man, brought up a feminist classic: Daughters of Zelophehad. In brief, its an account of women who ask Moses to alter the existing law, because it screws over their right to inherit their father’s land, and when Moses goes to God with the problem, God declares these women to be correct and changes the law to accommodate them (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelophehad). This Kol Rina man went one to say that he understands that the women in today’s Judaism are also dealing with a great injustice. However, currently we do not have a way to communicate with God, the way they had back in the time of Moses, thus the women should just suck it up till messianic redemption. When we are redeemed the women will bring their injustice before God, who will fix it the way he sees fit.
Now, I have clarity, and clarity is a powerful thing – the core problem within Orthodox Judaism is the perpetuation of injustice, for fear of rocking the boat. (0nce upon a time they used to say that we cannot set up a Jewish state till Messiah comes, but for better of worse, someone had the balls to change that) Theologically, today’s rabbi’s have no balls for fear of doing the wrong thing. Thus they willfully freeze the system; and this is inherently injust. How can one simultaneously acknowledge human pain, and tell those in pain to wait…and wait…and wait, because those who can end the pain have no fait? Yes, I say faith, because to combat injustice is an act of faith – in a good God, who created good humans, who will make justice manifest. On the other hand, those who lack faith, fear for “Jewish continuity.” Their primary experience is fear: of change, of modernity, of feminism, of evolution, of God. Fear is the lack of faith, the lack of hope.
Continuity cannot be a separate goal; the goal must be to have something great, something that is striving to continue. For instance intermarriage is not a problem but a symptom of a problem….more to come.
