How the State Deconstructs the Spirit
Thursday, October 30, 2003
For many who don’t live in Israel it’s difficult explaining the religious issues that are tearing Israel apart. For those of you who are Orthodox and Zionist you often look to the Chief Rabbinate as the embodiment of Religious Zionism and the return to what must have been during the previous times of Jewish sovereignty. For those who are Conservative, Reform or unaffiliated, you may see the whole religious apparatus as an attempt by the Orthodox residents of the country to hoard money and exclude others from the political process.
Both arguments have elements of truth in them, but both miss the mark. The state-sponsored and controlled religious services in Israel are exclusionary, but in more ways than you might think. The present system has a cheapening effect on the religious practices of all Jews as well as a lessening of the spiritual and halakhic importance on many of what have come to be called “life-cycle events”.
One only has to go to a wedding or a funeral in Israel in order to understand the damage that state-sponsored religion has done to the Jewish psyche. The impersonal nature of both these “life-cycle” events as practiced in Israel is enough to depress both the most ardent religious statist or committed atheist. Joy and uplift at a wedding and grief and mourning at a funeral are exchanged for anger and lightness at these two most important of religious moments. They are treated much like getting a driver’s license or taking out a passport.
The basic Israeli funeral is an affront to all those Jews who volunteered for the Chevra Kadisha (society that prepares the dead for burial) over the last 2000 years. In most Jewish communities throughout the world, the Chevra Kadisha (CK) works modestly, quietly and with dedication to a job that is not the envy of anyone. For the most part, in large communities, no one even knows who is on the CK. Once a year, on the Shabbat of or following the 7th of Adar a special kiddush or seuda shlishit (third meal eaten on Shabbat, usually after afternoon-mincha services) is given by the CK itself commemorating what tradition states is the yarzeit (anniversary) of the death of Moses. Besides that, the members of the CK (and it always includes men and women) work with dedication and without recognition or compensation.
Here in Israel, the CK is a government-run organization of highly paid civil servants. They strike like other civil servants and hold communities and individuals hostage like other Israeli employee unions. In the cemetery in Kfar Saba there is even a warning sign telling people not to solicit charity because it is against the prohibition of “hasagat gevul”. Now, this prohibition (an anti-capitalist one for mercantilists) is in place to prevent the opening of competing businesses in the same location. In other words – the CK of Kfar Saba is saying: “Hey, the cemetery is our territory – only donations to the CK are allowed”.
At the funeral, the CK lead the family through the “Service” – Kaddish is said, Keriya (ritual tearing of the garment by close family members) is done and the funeral is over. If there is a eulogy, it is mumbled quickly by the civil servant as the attendees stand around.
And what of weddings? If you are not an orthodox Jew, you of course cannot get married by your rabbi (on the odd chance that you have one). If you are an Orthodox Jew, you may also not be able to get married by the rabbi of your choice. It could be that your rabbi does not have permission from the rabbi of the city or town in which your wedding hall is located. It may be (as is the case of a prominent rabbi in Ra’anana) that the Chief Rabbi of your town does not approve of your (Orthodox) rabbi and won’t give him permission to officiate at a wedding in his own town.
The wedding itself, with rare exceptions, is performed by a local civil servant who may or may not come on time. He may say a few words – sometimes a joke about marriage, sometimes a joke about the ceremony itself. The guests will stand around with drinks in their hands and food in their mouths. (I once attended a wedding performed by then Chief Rabbi Lau and he had to turn around in the middle and ask for quiet.) It is all according to halacha and the bride probably went (against her will?) to the mikva (ritual bath), but the emptiness of the moment permeates the hall along with the loud music.
Why has this happened in the Jewish state? How have the Jewish traditions of eastern Europe and the middle-east turned into dry effortless attempts to fill the checklist that is religious life here. Read the Ketuba? check; said the 7 blessings? check; stepped on the glass? check – Ok you’re married.
The Orthodox are used to getting things for free and so won’t donate money to build shuls and mikvas or pay their rabbis. The non-orthodox are so used to seeing bearded civil servants lead them through religious events that the wedding and funeral have become the religious equivalent of filling out your tax forms.
Israelis themselves are, like Americans, a very practical people. The US though has a tradition of religion being a complement to other aspects of civil society and so it is judged beyond its utilitarian aspects. Here in Israel religion has become just another government agency that provides services that the general public needs. Religion is judged by the efficiency in which the tasks (in this case halakhot) are accomplished.
A religious event or ceremony ought to be more than a “service”. A wedding isn’t simply a contract with obligations. A funeral is more than putting a body in the ground and covering it up.
The privatization of these “religious” services might give the average Jew (Orthodox or not) the ability to reconnect with his traditions. If they could actually choose to belong to a specific synagogue it might force the secular to turn to religion at important moments in their lives.
But in an odd sort of way it would have the greatest effect on the Orthodox world. It would revitalize religious practice by giving the Orthodox world in Israel the opportunity to take responsibility for their own religious lives. It would give them the opportunity to volunteer to bodies like the chevra kaddisha.
If the essence of the funeral is really the burial of the body and the essence of the wedding ceremony is merely the formalization of a relationship then state-sponsored religion serves its purpose.
But that cannot be the basis of two of the most important of our religious events. By taking control of our religious lives the state is deconstructing the spiritual life of the individual by turning the spiritual into an emotionless action whose only goal is to get it done.
We are not speaking about turning Israel into a “secular” state. Israel ought to remain a Jewish state and use Jewish traditions to form the basis of its civil society. Yet it must be a civil society if the traditions are to become more than the technicality of providing a service.
From Out of Step Jew, here.