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Published: March 23rd 2010
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The Knesset
Israel's congress One Passover tradition is the reading of the Song of Songs, exquisite love poetry of the Bible, celebrating the blossoming of spring and of young love. Allegories aside (and there are plenty of them!), it is so lovely to see the Biblical verses coming alive all around me: "The winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its green figs, and the vines in blossom give forth their fragrance."
And indeed: we may get one more rain, but I am packing up all my winter clothes. Fruit trees are blooming all over the city; there are expanses of yellow flowers in every vacant lot and overnight the bare fig trees are suddenly covered by huge fresh leaves and small green figs! Right outside my window is a tiny, iridescent Orange-Tufted Sunbird (which is blue, not orange), singing his little heart out. (My camera isn't good enough to photograph it, but here's a professional image: http://www.birdfinders.co.uk/images/palestine-sunbird-male-israel-spring-2009.jpg) And a poor couple of doves tried to build their nest on the window sill
where I keep the window open to let the dryer exhaust vent out. I had to shoo them away several times and finally closed the window, feeling quite guilty. It is indeed Passover time!
Passover is vacation time, so things feel like they are winding down. School is already out for many people (not for us!) and the roads are full of vacationers, heading north to the mountains or south to the desert. I too am getting ready to head to Los Angeles for Passover (I know, I know, it's supposed to be "Next year in Jerusalem," not "Next year in LA." But seder isn't seder without the family!) So this will be a short report and I will resume at greater length when I return to Israel after Passover.
One of the highlights of this week was a visit to the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, with the Round Table on Jewish values and Israeli policy that I've mentioned in the past. It was very exciting to go into the Knesset - this is where so many different perspectives are voiced and decisions are made that affect so many people all over the world! We had the opportunity to
meet with three Members of Parliament and to hear their very different views on the topic. We heard from Zevulun Orlev, from the Jewish Home party, a right wing religious party, who bemoaned the fact that most graduates of the Israeli educational system don't know very much about Judaism, but believes that people are in fact hungry to learn more. Shelly Yachimovich, from the Labor Party, told us that she defines herself as a Zionist, socialist, Jewish feminist and that she finds Judaism to be a deep source of wisdom in thinking about how to better serve working people. She gave Shabbat as an example and said that with the increasing move towards people working seven days a week, we are returning to slavery. We also heard from Einat Wilf, also from the Labor Party, who just wrote a book about returning to basics (meaning structure and order) in the classroom. For her, Jewish values are expressed through Jews living out their every day lives, making decisions and going about their business. Judaism is not "out there." It's here every day.
One thing that fascinated me about the discussion is that it reminded me of conversations that we sometimes have about Jewish values in the Hillel world. Are Jewish values found only in the traditional canon? Do we begin with those values and move outward or do we legitimatize our western viewpoints with verses from the Torah? When Jewish values coincide with "universal" or "western" values, can we still count them as a Jewish perspective? Is a group of Jews doing something together automatically an expression of Jewish values? We don't have much consensus, either in the Knesset or in the Hillel world. But the questions are interesting.
To all of you who are celebrating Passover next week, chag sameach! May we experience greater freedom so we can extend it to those who are still enslaved! And for those Easter celebrators among you, Happy Easter! Wishing you hope, joy and blessings! And for those of you not interested in either holiday, enjoy the beautiful springtime (or autumn - depending on your hemisphere!)! 😊
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Marjory Kaplan
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Happy Passover
Hi Lisa, JJ and I are in Washington DC which always makes me appreciate the freedom that we all enjoy. While you were at the Knesset, I was listing to Prime Minister Netanyahu (as well as Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair and many others at the AIPAC conference. ) Thank you for your beautiful message! Love, Marjory