Thursday, July 11 – Hartman Day 3
The learning is becoming emotional, moving from the head to the heart. Melila Hellner-Eshed, a master teacher of Torah and especially Zohar, explored responses to a world destroyed. In her introduction she affirmed the reality of experiencing multiple, discrete, sometimes opposing, feelings and thoughts simultaneously, such as not just being victims, but also being the victimizers.
She offered a variety of responses to devastation from the Jewish textual tradition. One approach is to refuse to be comforted, to seek to be alone, to even want to die. Similarly, we may deny ourselves pleasure or joy, which raises the question: how can we transform the feeling that we are drowning in sorrow into something we can live with. There is weeping, says Melila, weeping for all who are dying, Palestinians and Jews. Melila as a peace worker talked about fighting against hard-heartedness and weeping for both sides – Israeli and Palestinian – in this war.
In the afternoon Yossi Klein Halevi lectured on antisemitism, anti-Zionism and anti-Zionist Jews. He defined antisemitism as ascribing to Jews whatever is most loathsome in society. In his articulation, anti-Zionism is worse than antisemitism.
That evening I met a new friend from the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition, Rabbi Ariel Boxman, for dinner. Later that night, Ariel took me to the Shuk, Machane Yehuda. It was alive. People young and old were sampling the foods and filled the bars scene. When I was in Israel 2005-06 there was concern about the departure of young secular Israelis from Jerusalem. Nightlife at the market was an attempt to correct that. It’s working.
The Shuk on Thursday Night