Musing (Illustration)
צילום: סי די בנק
Musings for the New Year
Op-ed: Yoel Meltzer presents list of prayers, thoughts and questions for coming year
With the appearance of pomegranates in the shuk heralding the coming of the New Year, instinctively I feel I'm being driven to reflection. Just a week ago I saw something so beautiful, so utterly Jewish and totally human. As a blind man mistakenly started walking into a crowded Jerusalem intersection, several drivers from all directions jumped out of their cars in the middle of traffic and ran to help him. It was truly a touching moment to see such genuine concern, one that makes me feel so good about living here.
However, as anyone familiar with Israel knows, this place is full of the highest highs and the lowest lows. For someone seeking a parve Jewish lifestyle, Israel is not the place. Thus, against the backdrop of the beautiful moment described above was the recent tragic terrorist attack that claimed the lives of four people, including both the mother and father of six children. Truly, truly gut wrenching.
With these and many other personal thoughts drifting through my mind, I'd like to present here a random list of prayers, thoughts and questions for the coming year. In doing so I hope that others will also be moved to reflection, and perhaps even to action.
1. Why are demonstrations for Gilad Shalit comprised mainly of secular Jews while demonstrations for Jonathan Pollard are overwhelmingly comprised of religious Jews?
2. There is nothing more terrifying than driving 100 km/h on an Israeli highway with a car less than one meter behind you, its driver flashing the lights, impatiently wishing to pass. How can this insanity be stopped? How can such drivers be made to conform to the "cultural norms" of the highway just as they conform to the cultural norms in other settings, such as the synagogue or work place? It's a safe bet that such a driver, placed in another country with a different set of norms, would probably cease to drive like an animal.
3. Why do so many former Israeli generals turn out to be leftists in the political realm? It just doesn't make sense! As a youth in America I remember that the upper echelons of the military always had a reputation of being right-wing and conservative. What is going on here?
4. Periodically there are surveys that state “X% of Israelis support the two-state solution.” The follow-up question, one that is probably never asked, should be "Although you support the two-state solution, do you honestly believe it will work?" Somehow I think this number would be significantly lower than the first response.
5. Regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, we need to start thinking out of the box since the solutions that have been proffered for years are either not doable or too problematic.
6. Is it possible for the Jewish people to start having a shared vision, one that is agreed upon and enthusiastically strived for by everyone? Does such a thing exist?
7. In a similar vain, assuming that such a shared vision exists, how can people be made to start thinking about something other than themselves given the fact that we are part of the “me generation”? The individual aspect is important and each one of us needs to tap into our inner potential and be the real “me” for a sense of self-fulfillment, but this needs to be directed to the realization of a larger common goal.
8. Success, in a Western sense, must be removed from the top of the value pyramid in Israel. In its place must be the acquisition of knowledge, and this for the purpose of working for the common good as part of the shared vision (once again, assuming such a thing exists.)
9. I fervently pray that in the coming year Ehud Bark will follow in the footsteps of Avram Burg and go live in France. The benefit to the State of Israel from such a bold move would be immense.
10. Israel’s cultural icons need to embrace Pollard’s cause just as enthusiastically as they embrace Shalit's cause. If this were to happen then I am sure they would both be freed this year.
11. I hope that Israelis will wake up this year and realize that the phrase "Jewish Democratic State" does not make any sense. In a true democracy the minority can take over, by sheer numbers and/or via the elections process, and significantly change the nature of the state. In Israel's case this minority is the Arabs. Do the proponents, or propagandists, of the phrase "Jewish Democratic State" accept this scenario? If not, then they are not truly democratic. Therefore, I think it’s preferable that we simply call ourselves a Jewish State (which happens to have within it many aspects of democracy.)
12. Tel Avivians should get to know Jerusalem. It’s quite a unique city.
13. Jerusalemites should get to know Tel Aviv. It’s quite a lively and interesting city.
14. As Jews we need to yearn to feel God's closeness, and even need to pray that God will help us to want this closeness (rather than just wanting money, a better job, etc.) A real feeling of God’s presence in our lives and in the world, an essential in Judaism, has been all but forgotten from the Jewish world. Unfortunately without this feeling, then even for observant Jews like myself we are more or less just going through the motions.
15. For the previous problem I have found no better remedy than reading, and rereading, Aryeh Kaplan's classic “Jewish Meditation.” It's really that good.
