THE theme of Limmud South Africa was "take your mind on a Jewish journey". Being a Jerusalemite, I had to take both my mind and body on the journey to SA to join Limmudnicks in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg.
The Limmud conference reminded me of Israel's national food, the "pita-falafel" - vegetables, pickles, and falafel balls all combined in one pita bread and drenched with tahina sauce. Limmud is the quintessential Jewish pita bread. It allows Jews of all colors and flavors to mix together and enjoy the ultimate Jewish endeavor - limmud (learning).
The wise Dr. David Bilchitz, the chair of Limmud, and his super-committed colleagues, opened a supermarket of Jewish experiences. There was food for every aspect of our body and soul on the menu. I was as impressed with the method of Limmud as with the content, which was varied and challenging.
However, it was the making of Limmud that inspired me. I have immense admiration for the men and women who volunteered for many months and then around the clock at the conference to make Limmud such a success. The organizers were not only a model of selfless volunteering, they also dared to fail. They invited some presenters who were totally unknown to them and ended up to be the shining jewels of the conference.
I went to hear Dr. Simonne Horwitz's talk on "the Frozen Chosen" about the Jewish communities of Alaska and Northern Canada. This delightful presentation way out from north field clarified for me that in -40degrees Jews certainly chill out. Many of the conflicts that typically characterize Jewish communities disappear when shul is the local freezer.
In Alaska, they don't buy challah for Shabbat at the store, but they must bake their own challah. There is no beit-din, no mikve, no Jewish burial society; therefore, they are forced to provide all of these services for themselves. As a result, they are often more proficient, knowledgeable, and caring about these services than congregants in big communities who can rely on professionals.
I was amazed that the warmest Jewish communal atmosphere is created in a sub-zero climate. Here in Israel, Jewish religious services are an industry that employs thousands of professionals, financed by billions of New Israeli shekels provided by the state; yet, we seem to be completely cold to the radical notion that there is more than one way to be Jewish.
Dr. Simonne Horwitz is South African and teaches African Studies at the North Pole (Saskatchewan, Canada). It saddened me to hear from her that while she was abroad, her father passed away and was buried in the Orthodox section of the Joburg Jewish cemetery. Subsequently, she was not allowed to say Kaddish at his gravesite on his shloshim.
My visit to SA allowed me to experience religion in a new way, as a healing anchor that can bind South Africans in their effort to rebuild their nation after apartheid. Jerusalem is a city where "every occasional brush fire may be the beginning of a new religion" (Yehuda Amichai).
Having been there all my life, I am a seismograph to the religious rhetoric, from the lips of religious figures or not. In South Africa, I sensed that religious sentiments permeated every text, speech or poem. When South Africans talk about hope, they borrow and lean on religious texts.
Here in Israel, by contrast, religion is not a source of healing or hope. In fact, ever since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has taken on a religious bent, it has only aggravated and increased the flames of hate and distrust.
In our region Judaism and Islam have not led to a new track for dialogue. Sadly we here in the Middle East have not been able to produce leadership of the stature of Mandela (Madiba) and Desmond Tutu. My hope is that we will one day develop such inspiring leaders. It may happen "just now" (which means anytime between now and one hundred years from now.
I suggest that Limmud 2010 take place at Robben Island where there is a conference centre. In the exact quarry where Mandela's greatest ideas were formed, we can sit ourselves on the dusty limestone, break rocks and learn Torah. Perhaps we too will be able to reach a more profound understanding of human nature.
I would love to experience the "Robben Island Campus" where Mandela and his colleagues came to see both themselves and the white prison guards as victims of apartheid. That is where we could study archeology of hate, mathematics of racism, architecture of the future of the Jewish people, and the ecology of Judaism.
One of the striking presentations in Limmud Joburg was precisely about the ecology of Judaism. Justice Dennis Davis quoted Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of Israel) who believed that Judaism rests on three pillars: the orthodox, the secular, and the reform. Remove one of the pillars, and the whole ecology is disturbed.
I had to go to South Africa to learn this profound teaching of an Israeli rabbi from a South African Jewish judge. I have no doubt that Rabbi Kook could never have been elected to the post of Chief Rabbi with Israel's current political landscape. To say that Judaism is incomplete without Progressive Jews is a blasphemy and heresy in today's Rabbinate, and yet, Progressive Judaism is precisely what I believe is most needed in modern Israel.
This brings me to one of my finest moments in South Africa, my meeting Steve Lurie. Disguised as a farmer, Steve Lurie is a leader who deals simultaneously with all aspects of the Progressive Jewish community of South Africa.
He struggles with the decision of where and what must be planted in the hard soil of the Jewish community. He is willing to get his hands dirty and break his back dealing with all of the inner workings of congregational life, rabbis, and lay leadership. Like all farmers, he has faith that with proper care, hard work and sufficient rain, something good and healthy will grow.
When he watched the multitudes in Limmud, particularly the many youngsters that came, he had the same look of bliss as the prophet Balaam, when he said "How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, Israel, like long rows of palms, like gardens by a river." Numbers 24 (5-6)
