Donniel Hartman: Israeli Army commanders struggling with religious challenges
In a lecture this week to rabbis at Shalom Hartman Institute for the annual summertime Rabbinical Torah Study Seminar, Donniel Hartman mentioned that he had just finished a session with senior IDF commanders attending an ongoing program at Shalom Hartman Institute, the Lev Aharon program.
This program teaches Judaism, Jewish moral philosophy, and other related matters to senior officers of the IDF (majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels), in an effort to help them better understand their roles as defenders of the Jewish nation, and to explain the same to their soldiers, some of whom have rudimentary Jewish knowledge. The program is not about teaching kashrut, Shabbat observance, or ritual, but the historical, cultural, and moral underpinnings of the Jewish nation.
So, Donniel was saying how the officers were complaining that some religious soldiers are taking extreme stands on matters and, for example, are not willing to listen to a female singer during Army celebrations or ceremonies. Or, the commanders asked, what do we do when we go away for a unit retreat and some soldiers want single-sex swimming hours in the pool. Donniel said the commanders are struggling with such real, “tachlis” (detailed) conundrums.
It seemed to me that some of the rabbis in the room were skeptical that the situation was so complicated, or at least found it difficult to believe that such internal problems could occur in a Jewish army. I’ll admit, I thought so, too, to a degree.
So, imagine my surprise when I saw this article today on Ynetnews: Rabbi Eliyahu warns of rabbis who ‘kowtow to women’:
Former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu warned this week of the rising prominence of the liberal stream in religious Zionism and slammed rabbis who “kowtow to women.”
During a Torah lesson he delivered on Monday, the prominent national religious leader spoke in length about the importance of observing chastity codes. He advised soldiers to cover their ears during military ceremonies that include women singing. “It’s better to go to jail than to obey the commander and hear a woman sing or play.”
….Eliyahu’s son, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, also referred to the issue of women performing in military events. He commented on a recent statement by the chief education officer, who said religious soldiers must stay put during such ceremonies, despite the halachic problem.
“This order is clearly illegal,” said Eliyahu. “A person cannot be forced to go against the Torah. Today it’s singing, tomorrow it’s singing plus half naked women… a breach in such a question is like fire – you don’t know where it’s going to end.”
Just when you thought you had heard it all: “Today it’s singing…you don’t know where it’s going to end.” I don’t mean to make light: this is an important matter. Donniel did not say what he counseled the officers to do. But it is clearly a matter in which the Shalom Hartman Institute can play an important role in helping the jewish army of the State of israel remain both Jewish and democratic.
Hattip to the excellent blog, Religion and State in Israel.
David Hartman: Morality Confronts the Halakhic Tradition: Rethinking Traditional Perspectives on Wom
Haaretz reports on a conference on Judaism at Israel’s far north Kfar Blum, in which Shalom Hartman Institute scholar Rabbi Dr. Ariel Picard, director of the Institute’s Be’eri program of Judaic studies for secular Israeli high schools, offered an innovative way to break the deadlock for those Israelis who cannot marry under current rabbinical law and standards:
Picard proposed having marriages be carried out according to traditions associated with Noah in halakhic texts. Such partnerships, he says, would offer an alternative to partners who aren’t recognized as Jews.
Summertime programs at Shalom Hartman Institute are well under way. We have hundreds of rabbis, community leaders, and others here for seminars, havruta study, lectures, tours, and more. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat is on tap tonight for a private appearance. Israeli Education Minister Gidon Sa’ar was here the other night.
So, with visitors, we also have bloggers, of course. So far, I’ve found two three:
David Suissa, a writer for the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles is attending the Lay Leadership Summer Retreat. The column he is writing about his visit is entitle Jerusalem View. He seemed to enjoy his first day:
I have no idea where Plato and Socrates engaged in their famous dialogues and ruminations, but if they were around today, I’m guessing they would love the physical space on a hill at The Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem….
Hartman Institute classes are not for people with a short attention span. They take an idea and dive deeply into the texts. In this first class (with Donniel Hartman), I felt like I was at a baseball game—stretches of slow, scholarly build punctuated by short bursts of intensity, such as:
“Moral failing is not the failure to see good and bad, but failure to see the other face.”
“When Hillel says, ‘What is hateful to you don’t do unto others’, he is telling you that you already know the deepest and most important knowledge you will need to live an ethical life: How you like to be treated.”
“Jewish ethics are not exclusive to Judaism. Beware of anything that claims to be unique.”
This was not a sermon. It was a class, interrupted by moments of passion—a passion that sought to empower us.
“We are not empty vessels, just waiting to be filled”, the rabbi told us.
Hartman was taking a mushy message—do good and be good—and teaching it with an intellectual and emotional edge, one that valued human dignity and the innate Godliness of each individual.
So, after years of hearing so much about the Hartman Institute, I had finally attended my first class. It was a lot to mull over. Luckily, when you leave a Hartman class, you get to walk out onto “Plato’s Courtyard” (my phrase), where there are plenty of opportunities to sit on Jerusalem stones and mull over the teachings with students and teachers.
Maybe they should have everyone wear white robes and sandals. That would really get us in the mood to ponder the big ideas of life and Judaism, and apply them to real life—which is what the Institute aspires to do.
His follow-up column the next day was about a lecture by David Hartman:
If I had come to Israel just for the two hours I spent on Friday morning listening to Rabbi David Hartman, founder of the Institute, it would have been worth the trip….
So these were the three motifs that made Shabbat a transcending moment: I am God your Creator, I am God your liberator, and I am your God forever.
But here was the kicker: by creating and liberating us, and being there forever, God gives us the strength to do our own creating and liberating.
It was as if the rabbi was saying to each of us: We are both Jewish, we both love our tradition, but I am not you and you are not me.
Also blogging about the Institute and his visit here is Rabbi Dan Fink, who is attending the Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar along with more than 90 colleagues:
The highlight today was Rabbi Hartman’s evening talk. He is a genuinely wise elder statesman, and an iconoclast who is observantly Orthodox but has real respect for the contributions of the other, liberal movements in Judaism. He is cantankerous, brilliant, brutally honest, funny, charming and, above all, heimish.
I found another one, blogger B.G.S. Magarik, although it seems he was just a one-time visitor. He also saw David Hartman’s lecture (soon available online) and wrote about it on his blog Loisaida Times:
I spent the evening at the Shalom Hartman Center, and heard Rabbi David Hartman lecture, in a rare and brilliant appearance. He spoke on Contingency in Jewish texts, focusing on the Joseph story, with frequent and wonderful detours into his life, personal and intellectual relationships, contemporary jewish practice, and current Israeli politics.It was a very moving lecture; he told wonderful stories about his mother, shared his pluralistic and progressive vision for the Jewish people (defending egalitarianism, the Reform movement, and taking a page from Obama’s book in speaking of the need for realistic hope), and confronted his mortality and physical pain.
Brian Blum, a Jerusalem-based writer, blogger, editor, and web entrepreneur, writes lyrically about his son’s graduation from Charles E. Smith High School for Boys at Shalom Hartman Institute, gives us a little bit of Rabbi David Hartman’s talk to the graduates and a brief video, as well.
Robert P. Kogod Lecture, June 30, 2009: Role of Religion in Public Space
The Robert P. Kogod Annual Lecture will be given Tuesday, June 30, 2009, at 8 pm, at Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem on the subject of “The Role of Religion in the Public Space: Israeli and American Perspectives.” Speakers are Prof. William Galston, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, and Prof. Ruth Gavison, the Hebrew University. Moderator is Prof. Jonathan Malino, Guilford College.
The lecture, the capstone event to the Hartman Institute’s biannual Philosophy Conference, is free and open to the public.
The theme of the conference, the 23rd Philosophy Conference held at the Institute, is: The Public/Private Distinction. Click here to see a list of participants.
