While I have always felt Jewishly inspired right here in the United States, Israel has shined a special light on my Jewish identity ever since my first visit in 1993. I arrived at the beginning of rabbinic school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, located at 13 King David Street in Jerusalem.
I remember my reluctance to go so far away from home. I was 25 and the farthest I had been from home (Los Angeles) was Palo Alto for graduate school. And Israel, at the time, was simply a place I had to go to because HUC-JIR required my presence. But upon arrival, I bent low to kiss the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport (a sabra, a native Israeli, challenged and encouraged me to do so). I then saw the Israeli flag, and I felt magically transformed. During those intial weeks in Eretz Yisrael, I touched the Kotel. I saw the Kinneret. I climbed Metzada. I swam in the Red Sea. I witnessed kibbutz life, an evolving Reform Judaism, religious diversity in the Old City, the reality of peace among Jews and Arabs, the potential for greater peace. When I see the Israeli flag, I feel a depth of identity. When I see the Israeli flag, I feel pangs of Jewishness that link me deep into history. I feel a connection to Israel as a homeland, a bond that I could not have shaped simply as a Jew in America, which has been incredibly rich and transformative in its own right. I feel connection to the entirety of the Jewish people, across the generations. I walk down Israeli streets, and I feel linked to Israeli’s vibrant modern history and its ancientness. I feel at home.
When you see an Israeli flag, what do you feel?
Shabbat shalom!
Rabbi C.
April 14, 2008 at 12:03 am |
Testing!
April 14, 2008 at 9:33 pm |
There are times when I hear, and sing, Hatikva (The Hope), Israel’s National Anthem, that I feel choked up with emotion. It might be at a High Holiday service, or at an Israel Event…. but Hatikva seems to get me. It is so beautiful, and full of hope.
Have you ever heard Rick Recht’s song, “The Hope”. It is truly wonderful and fun. Check out http://www.rickrecht.com. I think you can download it there.
here is a sample.. http://www.rickrecht.com/audio/hope3.mp3
Stu
September 14, 2008 at 1:42 am |
Traveling to Israel certainly does have a profound affect on Jews, regardless of the depth to which they practice their religion. Many years after my brother and I visited in high school, it was the turn of my two younger brothers. Now, I must preface this by saying that neither of them were remotely religious. Neither completed hebrew school or had a bar mitzvah – suffice it to say, they had bigger fish to fry at the time. But it was important to my parents, and especially my grandmother, that they make the trip, which they did as part of a group coordinated by our synagogue. The flight to Israel set the stage for the transformational experience that would ensue. Some rabbis on the plane overheard that they had not been bar mitzvahed and took it upon themselves to coordinate an impromptu ceremony on the plane; they felt it would add meaning and context to their experience. And it surely did. They returned with a sense of their Jewish identity that they had never experienced previously. And while I can’t say that it has maintained at that level, they are certainly more connected than they ever might have been.