Israel’s News Blog Magazine: Daily Stories Video and Photos

by David Levy

I watched a surfer stop at a Habad stand to lay tefillin. He slowly wrapped the phylacteries around his tattooed arm, as the ultra-Orthodox attendant adjusted the tefillin box to the center of his head. The Habad guy led him in the initial prayer, patiently reciting lines to be repeated, and then motioned to the correct starting point in the prayer book. After completion of the prayers, the Habad guy and the surfer shook hands, wished each other Shabbat Shalom (Good Sabbath), and the surfer continued on his way. Soon after, the Habad guy hurriedly gathered together his belongings, as the setting sun ushered in the Sabbath. Something like this can only be seen in Israel.

I was struck by the surfer’s reverence for the ceremony. It was obvious that he was not religious, but he felt he was engaged in something holy, something tied fundamentally to his identity. I notice little things like this all the time. Teenagers kiss the mezuzah, cab drivers wish you Shabbat Shalom on the Sabbath, and hag sameach (happy holiday) on Purim. “How are you?” I ask a cute bartender at Helena. “Baruch Hashem (blessed be God),” she smiles back.

Ask a Jewish kid on the street about Lag B’Omer. He won’t be able to explain its religious significance, but for weeks in advance he will gather every scrap of wood he comes across in order to build his holy bonfire on the holiday. Rosh Hashanah? One of the best bar nights of the year—after, of course, the bars and clubs are reopened. Many children won’t be in synagogue on Yom Kippur, but they won’t be watching television or turning on lights either, and if they are old enough, they will be fasting. This is Israel’s secular Judaism, or Tel Aviv Judaism. It usually doesn’t involve synagogue, but it permeates everyday life and constitutes a fundamental part of the national ethos.

And I think this brand of Judaism has made a definite impact on the Orthodox - Tel Aviv’s Orthodox in particular. How could it not? Next to Tel Aviv’s enclosed, gender-separated ultra-Orthodox beach, lies Hof Hametztitzim (Peeping Toms’ Beach); on the other side, the predominantly gay beach. It is not uncommon to see an ultra-Orthodox man, in full suit and black hat, walking on the beachfront next to a bikini-clad, Pamela Andersonesque beauty. Breslau Hasids, in their Nachman vans, pull onto Jerusalem Beach blasting techno from loudspeakers, and start a male only dance party, as numerous women form a circle, clapping to the beat. At other times, to celebrate little known holidays, cookies and vodka shots are offered to passersby, if only one will stop to dance the hora. Israel is a place of extremes, but the extremes coexist in relative harmony.

I think this is a result of a mutual appreciation between secular and sectarian. Deep down, ultra-Orthodox Jews know that the yeshivas (religious academies) are not capable of running a modern state, and it is the state that provides them the security and freedom necessary to preoccupy themselves with the otherworldly. I am a non-religious Jew, but I like the fact that everything closes down on the Sabbath (although I hate the fact that the buses don’t run) because it preserves Israel’s unique, Jewish character.

The disengagement and Amona have come to symbolize the fraying ties between secular and sectarian in Israel. It is easy to think, reading of some rabbi issuing the equivalent of a Jewish fatwa against this or that politician or officer, that religious relations are spiraling out of control. I don’t want to minimize the severity of the problem. Indeed, the thought of religious soldiers taking orders from their rabbi instead of their commander is more of a threat to Israel than the suicide bomber. But this is fringe stuff. Granted, I live in the Tel Aviv bubble, but when I think of secular-sectarian relations in Israel, I think of the surfer and the Habad guy.

The Habad (sometimes spelled Chabad) movement has a website here.

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