Ma Hadash Blog from CSH

--- In early December 2023, Rabbi Michael participated in a service trip to Israel - this is part Three of a series of blog posts recounting his experience. ---

Shalom again,

The next morning, Rabbi Dalia Marx led us in a conversation about the Mitzvah to redeem captives. Redeeming captives? What a specific and obscure mitzvah! But it turns out for the majority of Jewish history, the taking of captives from Jewish communities has been an unfortunately more frequent occurrence. Together, we read the great Jewish rationalist Maimonides on the issue - and saw how his normally dispassionate language becomes unobjective, emotional as he speaks about the importance of freeing those taken from their communities. There is no higher mitzvah in Jewish tradition, he says.

Above: Group Discussions lead by Rabbi Dalia Marx, not pictured.

Later, we went to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament to speak to member of the Knesset (Israeli Senator) Reform Rabbi Gilad Kariv of the Labor Party, who took the time to walk us through some of the issues politically facing Israel (and there are many). But he especially highlighted the way that more extreme right wing factions of the government have seized upon the moment as an opportunity to advance their agenda. Examples include discussion of re-settlement of Gaza, or the recently passed budget with an incredible amount of coalition spending - what we could call in America ‘pork barrel’ spending.

We spoke as well with Knesset member Idan Roll of the Yesh Atid party. He added onto what Rabbi Kariv shared - that there needs to be a strong plan for governance in Gaza soon, but rejected the notion that it needed to be a coalition led by the Palestinian Authority, which is extremely weak (and corrupt) after years of being marginalized and weakened by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Rabbi Kariv acknowledged the current living conditions of Palestinians in Gaza, and stressed the need to address it when Israel has dealt with Hamas and the captives. Both politicians stressed the urgency of the moment, but their divisions on the ‘what next’ question reflect the uncertainty of the wider Israeli society at large.

Above: Member of Knesset Idan Roll, as he explained the difficulties facing Israel in the future, and his efforts to push back on more extreme ideologies within Israel trying to seize the moment.

The one area with no uncertainty though remains the efforts to seek the return of hostages. There were people I spoke to who know the names and story of every missing person. The country is gripped by the story. We had the opportunity to sit down with Lee and Shelley Siegel, whose brother and wife (Keith and Aviva) were captured by Hamas on October 7th. Aviva has been returned, but Keith has not. It was extremely difficult to hear Lee speaking about his brother; one moment he would be fine, in another he was shaking and unable to speak. The stories of the kidnapped citizens about their captivity - forced to watch videos of the atrocities of October 7th, drugged, and malnourished - haunt the families with relatives still in captivity.

Above: Lee Seigel, after speaking about his brother Keith, still captive in Gaza, who asked that I help share the situation.

Finally we went to Kikar Hahatufim (“Hostage Square”) in the center of Tel Aviv, a semi-permanent vigil for those awaiting the return of the hostages. An astounding cross-section of Israeli society was there, waiting, talking in low voices, trying to comfort each other. As a group, we went and sang Israeli songs of hope, including the words of Naomi Shemer “לו יהי – May it be your will” and “השיבנו ואשובה אל הארץ הטובה” – (roughly) Return them and we will be returned to the good Land.” Israelis are deeply unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable with Reform Judaism, but on that night it did not matter and many sang with us. I still struggle to describe that night. Though Tel Aviv has not been touched by any attack yet, it was as if a psychic bomb went off over the city, and everyone was affected.

Above: One of the central parts of the square is a display of a Shabbat table set for every person kidnapped from their families. Several of the seats are high-chairs for infants.

Above: Israelis gathered in the square to come together and sing.

Above: Reform leaders, Rabbi Joe Black and Rabbi Sergio Bergman, leading the entire square in song.

Above: The square stands in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

Above: I stand in front of the clock in hostage square, counting every second that the kidnapped remain in captivity.

The clear bright spot in that day was the conversation I had just before with the young members of the Reform movement in Israel’s mechina program in Yaffo. A mechina program, or pre-army program, is a program where students take a year after high school and before joining the army to learn, volunteer, get into shape, and grow before joining the IDF. The program run by the Reform movement is popular, even though many of the people who go to it are not Reform Jews (or have even never heard of it), because it is one of the mechina programs with the most volunteer efforts in Israel. These young adults have spent the past month and a half going all over the country and volunteering cleaning bomb shelters, moving supplies, and stepping up as civil society where the government has not been.

Above: The young leaders of Israel’s Reform mechina program.

There was a constant outpouring of support and thanks from every person we met. “Thank you for coming to us.” “Thank you for letting us know you care,” was the first thing we often heard. When they heard we were not there as individuals but as representatives of entire communities, they were astounded and so, so grateful.

-Michael
Rabbi Michael, rabbimichael@shirhadash.org

Above: Myself and Head of ARZA, Rabbi Joshua Weinberg, at the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament.