Up Date From Jerusalem

"What A Difference A Year Makes"

Dear Kol Ami members and friends,

As many of you know I am on sabbatical in Ir HaKodesh, the holy city of Jerusalem! Shalom u'vracha-- Greetings of Peace and Blessing! I have been studying once again at the Shalom Hartman Institute at the Rabbinic Training Seminar. This year more than 130 rabbis from across the denominational spectrum and from the world over are studying the topic of Tikkun Olam: Globalism and Judaism. There are Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative and Orthodox rabbis from North America, South America, Europe, Israel and even as far away as Hong Kong! We have been delving into the topic of Tikkun Olam, repair of the world, from many different angles. While this is an important concept that Reform Judaism long ago embraced flowing from the justice and compassion and challenges of our ancient prophets, the many texts we have looked at have brought me a deepened sense of this ideal as a spiritual practice and as a religious imperative of the Jew. We have explored whether or not this ideal is rooted in only the particularism of Judaism or in the voice of universalism or some combination of the two. We have studied texts as varied as Genesis, Isaiah, the Talmud, Maimonides, Abraham Joshua Heschel and the chief Sephardic rabbi of Israel, Ovadiah Yosef!

Last year I wrote to you from Jerusalem as from a country in panic as war broke out in Lebanon. This year it is a very different reality here. Last summer as the war broke out the city of Jerusalem emptied overnight. This summer Jews from all over the world crowd this sacred city filling it with a special bustle. Hotels and restaurants are filled to overflowing and traffic is a challenge! People are still remembering and praying fervently for the return of Israel's soldiers, Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev captured during last summers conflicts. The citizens of the city of S'derot near the Gaza strip live with the constant threat and bombardment of rockets from Hamas. But mostly Israel is at peace this summer, even as the changing events in the West Bank and Gaza keep everyone guessing.

One sign that life is moving toward the every day is the advent of Israeli Major League Baseball (www.israelbaseballleague.com)! Six teams playing on three fields brings America's favorite past time to Israel. The Modiin Miracle, the Petach Tikvah Pioneers, the Tel Aviv Lightening, Ra'annana Express, the Netanyah Tigers and the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox have initiated a wonderful new experience here. It truly is like the1989 movie "Field of Dreams." You remember the movie and short story "Shoeless Joe", where Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella hears a voice in his corn field tell him, "If you build it, he will come." Ray gets a prophetic vision to build a baseball diamond in the middle of an Iowa corn field so the ghosts of the banned 1928 Chicago White Soxs can play to their hearts delight while Ray examines the meaning of his life.!

At Kibbutz Gezer halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem the Modiin Miracles and Bet Shemesh Blue Sox play in a ball park literally built amidst a sun flower field! Field of dreams indeed!

It is a wonderful metaphor however for the whole Israeli experience. This wonderful, complex Jewish place is a field of dreams where many people have made their home. Israel most recently has been dealing with an influx of refugees from the horrors of Sudan and Darfur, trying to welcome them and comfort them and figure out what to do for them. In an article in the Jerusalem Post several refugees noted their difficult and traumatic secret passage through the Sinai desert and illegally climbing the border fence from Egypt to Israel while being shot at by the Egyptian border patrol. As Israeli soldiers met them, they brought them food and clothes and a kind word. Many are working now in the hotels of Eilat even as the Israeli government tries to figure out the next steps in their journey in this society.

Israel will celebrate next May its 60th anniversary of Independence. I hope that many of you will want to see the real Israel. Not just the conflicts and foreign policy concerns that nightly make their way to you via CNN. But the real, vibrant, complex, bittersweet Israel of people, history, and a vibrant future. Being here brings you more in touch with the Jewish self and the Jewish psyche and allow one the permission to imagine the fully realized Jewish neshamah! For some this will be only fulfilled by making aliyah, moving to Israel while for others of us, visiting here and building our connection to this magical place of our souls will uplift us even as we make our lives in Los Angeles. I hope you can experience the magic of Israel and this wonderful field of dreams!

Shalom from Jerusalem,

Rabbi Denise L. Eger

Shalom,

Denise L. Eger