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Divrei
Rabbi Jerry
Rabbi
Jerry Seidler
TempleSinai
Hanukkah in Israel
Our older daughter, Arielle, has been in Israel since September 3. She is one of almost 450 recent high school graduates from the United States, Canada and Great Britain participating in the Young Judaea Year Course program. Young Judaea, Hadassah's pluralistic, Zionist youth organization, has been offering the Year Course since 1956, and this year's group of teens is its largest. The Young Judaea Year Course provides teens the opportunity to study, volunteer, experience and explore Israel for nine months. Students can receive substantial college credit for participating in the program as well. The Year Course is the best Israel post-secondary school adventure out there, and I recommend it unequivocally.
Arielle is having a terrific time, and being in Israel is wonderful. She is learning so much about herself, her heritage, the land and its peoples. Whether in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Negev or the Galil, it has been quite amazing. I am delighted for her, and I am very proud of her for choosing to go despite last summer's war and the ever-present threat.
In the middle of Hanukkah, I, together with my wife, Kathy, and younger daughter, Lydia, will join Arielle in Israel. We will travel throughout the country in what I hope is a time of joy and peace. As we connect with each other as a family, we will also be reconnecting as an American Jewish family in relationship with Israel the Land, with Israel the People, and with Israel the Religious Civilization. It is this spiritual rededication as Jews, which is the essential foundation of Hanukkah, that will make our journey especially powerful and marvelous.
Our Reconstructionist Judaism has always been a Zionist Judaism. Zionism, as a religious endeavor, is about nurturing and strengthening individual and collective Jewish identity so that Jews can be vibrant, real and active in living up to our covenantal ideals. We Jews are a diverse yet united amalgam, and it is our distinctive unity that Zionism seeks to preserve. Zionism is not a passive enterprise, but one that demands our attention, creativity and courage. Today's Zionism requires our mindfulness to the call of "Hear O Israel, YHVH is our God, YHVH is ONE."
We have much to learn from our brother and sister Israelis, who have transformed Israel once again into the center of world Jewry. The State of Israel is no doubt the maximalist Jewish experience, where Jewish culture defines, enlivens and permeates all of national life. Especially because ours is a multi-cultural secular society, we Diaspora Jews need to rededicate ourselves this Hanukkah season to our Jewish selves, Jewish community and Jewish values. I believe that going to Israel helps to give us positive reasons and energy for doing so. Wouldn't it be great if Temple Sinai could once again organize a congregational trip to Israel in the not too distant future?
I look forward to being in Israel with my family, and to returning back home to Amherst rejuvenated in a Jewish afterglow. May we go in peace, visit in peace and return in peace.
Reconstructionist Judaism Makes the Heart Joyful, Sharpens the Mind, Brings
Peace to the World
A Teaching from Rabbi Jerry
Blessings,
Rabbi
Jerry
Rabbi
Jerry H. Seidler
(716) 834-0708
www.jrf.org/templesinai
Updated:
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
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