Okay, but seriously! It isn't just me; if one is not completely inculcated in a mindset where the Beit Mikdash as a symbol of Jewish nationhood and connection to G-d is absolutely central, it is hard to really feel a need to spend another three weeks - after the first month of the Counting of the Omer, which has a similar status - in mourning over events that took place two millennia ago. That's why strict adherence to the mourning customs of these three weeks, are probably a sharp boundary between the Orthodox and non-Orthodox.
I'm thinking about this because I spent yesterday at the Shalom Hartman Institute, in Jerusalem. We Reform rabbis - really, all non-Orthodox rabbis - are quite familiar with Hartman and especially its summer learning program that attracts many diaspora rabbis of all streams. I've never attended the program myself, but many of my colleagues have and they all rave about the experience. What I didn't know until I came to Israel, is that Hartman has also carved itself out a role in the breaking down of barriers between the various 'camps' here in the State of Israel; it has made itself an important voice for inter-camp respect and dialogue. So when the rabbi of my congregation, Gustavo Surazski, invited me to join him in spending the say at Hartman, I jumped at the opportunity.
Probably needless to say, the recent decision by PM Netanyahu's cabinet to trash the Western Wall Agreement, was high on the agenda. But rather than spend the day fulminating about it - and believe me, the temptation was there! - the speakers who set the tone for the day urged everybody to instead consider as more important the personal communication, face-to-face, that we engage in with our more-traditional cousins. Instead of publicly decrying the double-cross, perhaps we should try to hold respectful dialogue, where we try to understand why some Jews are not exercised about the decision, while we try to make them understand, why we are.
I know...that's very Covey-ish, straight from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Habit Number Five: Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Does this tactic work? No, not as a tactic. If it's only a tactic, it will never work. But if it's a mindset and a way of life, it can effect change...if ever so slowly.
And that's, I think, the key to many aspects of Jewish observance. Some of my more traditionalist cousins like to say that immersion in traditional observance is a sort of prophylaxis against assimilation and intermarriage. As such, they reduce it to a tactic. But as a tactic it will never work, because for those not assimilated into the way of life that it demands, it's just more restrictions and constraints that most of humanity - including most of the Jews - does not feel are necessary. But when Torah becomes as mindset and a way of life, then it is possible to consider the full range of traditional practices and observances, and adopt them as a joyous program for life. Yes, perhaps even three weeks of mourning in mid-summer!
I'll keep repeating the Fifth Habit through this Shabbat, to get me past the sermons that will surely issue forth from the Chief Rabbi and others of traditionalist bent, who will liken Reform and Conservative Judaism to the Zimri and Kosbi in this week's parasha, whom Pinchas slew and was considered by G-d to be justified and even praiseworthy. While cringing about these sermons, I'll think about trying to understand, and consider what I can do to support the work of the Shalom Hartman Center. A shout of kol hakavod to the Hartman Center and the work of creating dialog between Jews!
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