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as a minority amongst a non-
Jewish majority. And, however
much you stretch Halacha—
and it can be stretched because,
the Lord be thanked, it’s very
flexible—it was meant to be. It
does not fit the daily life of the
Jewish majority in a Jewish
country and an industrial soci
ety during the second half of
the twentieth century.
Worse than that, the rabbini
cal Halacha, (and I’m an ob
servant Jew) too, has ossified
over the centuries, to the point
that when young rabbinical
students came to the rabbis of
the Chief Rabbinate in Jeru
salem and asked whether you
could say shechyani on the eve
of Israel Independence Day, it
took them three years to admit
that a kind of shechyani might
be in order. And only when one
young rabbi pointed out that
it is perfectly all right for a
Jew to recite shechyanu when
he buys a new pair of pants,
did they consider it rather
ludicrous that what is right for
a new pair of pants should bp
in the slightest way dubious
about the day of Jewish nation
al revival.
It took the Chief Rabbinate
eleven years from 1948 to 1959
to make the first addition to
t h e Jewish calendar since
Hanuka. The latest addition
was Hanuka, which happened,
as you know, something like
2,160 years ago, when the Mac
cabees freed the Temple and
re-dedicated it. The first addi
tion to our calendar since then
was made in 1959 by the Chief
Rabbinate which recognized
Israel’s day of Independence as
a feast, not only to be celebrat
ed but to be prayed on, and we
have prayers now for Indepen
dence day.
Eleven years to adopt this
kind of decision is far too slow
' for our young hot heads, be
cause no one in Israel has
eleven years to wait. We ve
been wasting so much time
these last eighteen centuries as
far as nation building is con
cerned, who in Israel can
waste ten years or eleyen for
new bracha to enter the ritual.
Hence, some friction between
the youngsters, even those who
do believe, and the rabbis who
are .slow to de-ossifv perhaps
the Yules of 15 centuries.
But, there’s more to it than
that. You see, we still have
atheists in Israel today but the
phase where anti-theism and
atheism was the vogue is al-
-most over. In 1965, the last
figures we have, Israel built
462 new synagogues. Since in
Israel, synagogues are almost
only a matter of local initiative,
we feel that this is a fair yard
stick to jddge trends by, be
cause 462 synagogues is more
than all other types of public
The Southern Israelite
buildings together. In other
words, there were more syna
gogues went up last year than
movie houses, theaters, amphi
theaters, football stadiums and
what-have-you.
There’s something more to
that. The 462 synagogues in
clude eight synagogues built by
Kibbutzim, some of which pre
date the Russian revolution,
and which have been built by
people who have espoused
atheism and historical materi
alism as their creed. In other
words, Orthodox Atheists. I
know two or three of the places
well known all over, and they
have to use pretexts to build
the synagogue—it’s for their
parents—75 pushing 80 who
like to pray, “and of course we
can’t leave them to pray in the
dining hall after dinner, they
have to have a place of their
own.” But I visited one of two
of these synagogues and it’s
amazing how many of the
youngsters born amidst athe
ism are creeping in out of curi
osity ‘and maybe something
else. Who knows?
Kadish Luz is a founder-
member of the Kibbutz Deg-
ania. He’s a speaker of our
Knesset. He helped found a
thoroughly atheistic Kibbutz,
the first one we had. His son is
studying at Bar-Ilan University
and ’ majors in Talmud. He
never knew about religion,
neither in the home of his
parents nor in the society he
frequented, until he was eigh
teen. There are a number of
this type of cases now, shocking
Israeli society. I think it’s a
healthy shock.
Today in Jerusalem, since
January 1965 we had 13 new
synagogues go up, and what is
perhaps even more interesting,
four new types of houses of
worship, one a small group
calling themselves very poetic
ally the Seekers of the Way.
Another one who chose, for
lack of a better name, an appel
lation of neo-orthodox. The
third group call themselves
New Judaism. I’ll tell you what
they are all looking for. They
are looking for new ways back
to the old religion.
Now what do I mean new
ways? Well, in Jerusalem
where we live, we have the
ultra-Orthodox Neturev Kart a
who live in that quarter called
Meah She’arim you may have
heard of. They are so Orthodox
they don’t recognize the state
of Israel because Israel was a
man-made state and only the
Messiah could bring about new
Jewish statehood, they feel. So
they do not touch Israeli
money, they do not serve in the
Israeli army, they ignore all
the laws of our Knesset and
what is even more interesting.
Gracious Greetings
to gll our brothers
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