Why is there a Jewish state?

Sounds like a ridiculous question, of course, but it’s really not. Imagine for a moment that anti-Semitism disappeared, and the Jews never again had to think about refuge. Imagine, as well, that our region changed entirely, and Israel was free (think Canada) to go about its business, without worrying about neighbors. Imagine, in other words, a world in which there was a Jewish state that we didn’t “need” because of others, but just because we wanted a place for Jews and Judaism to flourish.

What, then, would we do in this Jewish state?

That’s a question we don’t ask ourselves very often, but it matters. At the end of the day, I would argue, the Jewish state is simply a means to an end. It’s a means to a place where Jews can continually rethink and reimagine Judaism, deepen and reshape it as human history evolves.

If that’s going to happen, of course, Jewish study and Jewish texts cannot be only the province of the “religious” community. In today’s world, if we are walking in a suburb in the Diaspora and see through the living room window a set of Talmud on the bookshelf, or if we’re walking in an Israeli neighborhood and see the same through the apartment window, it’s more than likely that we’re looking into the home of an Orthodox family. Not certain, but likely.

But that, of course, simply can’t remain the case. How is the rest of the Jewish world, which is most of the Jewish world, supposed to have something to say about why Jews matter and what the Jewish world should be and say, if they haven’t had a chance to access that world of traditional Jewish texts?

Which is where a secular yeshiva comes in. Yeshivot are almost always for “religious” Jews. What about those Jews who do not wish to be observant, yet do want to be Jewishly literate? Where can they study? Where can they break open the tomes that have for too long been closed to them?

Today, we hear from someone who has fashioned a place where than can happen.

In this unprecedented time, Israelis are asking themselves who they are and who they want to become. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this difficult moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.

Dr. Ariel Levinson is the founder and co-director of the Secular Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He lectures and teaches Jewish and Israeli culture and Hebrew literature.

Ariel was born and raised in Jerusalem and he is a graduate of Himmelfarb High School, the largest religious boys’ high school in Jerusalem. He completed his Ph.D at Hebrew University. His Ph.D in Hebrew literature looked at early signs of secularization in early Zionist biographies and literature.

For those interested, you can check out the Secular Yeshiva’s Facebook page here and their Instagram page here.

The link at the top of this posting will take you to the full recording of our conversation; below you will find a transcript for those who prefer to read.

One of the things that I've been thinking about a lot during these past few months of this horrible year and the agonizing time of this war, which, at least at the moment, shows no sign of being anywhere near over, is that we have to stop the doom scrolling, even though we have to follow what's going on, and we have to begin to ask ourselves the questions about why we're here. And so, yes, the war is terrible, and it's going to go on, and we don't know how it's going to end or when it's going to end. But I've tried to, at least myself, try to remind myself that there's a Jewish state for a reason. And to focus our conversation here on Israel from the inside also, on what are the reasons for having this Jewish state? A lot of times people will say, how Jewish should the Jewish state be? I'm not sure that that's a very meaningful question. I mean, I'm not sure how you measure the Jewishness of a state.

But I think you could flip that question and ask, how should the Jewish state be Jewish? And one of the things that we've tried to do in the years that we've been doing this blog/podcast is to shine a light on some of the ways that people may not know about in which Judaism thrives in the most unexpected ways or not well-known ways, at least in the Jewish state. And today is an example of that.

My guest today is Dr. Ariel Levinson, who is the founder and co-director of what's called the Secular Yeshiva in Jerusalem. That there's a lot of yeshivot in Yerushalayim, everybody knows. That there's a secular Yeshiva in Jerusalem might be much less well known to people. Ariel actually grew up with another person who's been on our podcast a couple of times, Mikhael Manekin, who's been on once about his book and once about his work in creating Breaking the Silence. That's a conversation that we did years ago, but our listeners can go find it in the archive if you'd like to listen to it. He was in the army with Mikhael. Ariel himself is a graduate and a product of the standard religious- the religious educational system in Jerusalem. He went to the Himmelfarb school, which has actually been in the news a little bit because Aner Shapira and Ben Zussman and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, three young boys back then who all were in the same class, are all three, tragically, no longer with us. Aner was killed on the seventh, Ben Zussman fell in battle, and of course, Hersh Goldberg-Polin was brutally killed by Hamas not all that long ago.

So Himmelfarb has been in the Jerusalem news, at least, and a little bit in the news beyond, just because of that very sad story. But Himmelfarb is a fabulous school in Yerushalayim, and Ariel is a product of that, and of yeshivot, and has a BA, MA, and PhD. His PhD is in Hebrew literature from Hebrew University, where he looked at early signs of secularization in early Zionist biographies and literature, fascinating in and of itself. But we're going to hear about him and the institution that he's created, a secular yeshiva, which I think, again, on this time of high holidays and renewal, to renew our own thinking about what makes up Jewish life and what are the kinds of institutions that make up the Jewish state. So, Ariel, thank you very much for being with us today.

Thanks for the invitation. It's good to be here.

Before we get going, a little bit about you, more than I did.

So I grew up in Jerusalem in a Modern Orthodox home. Studied. My father actually teaches at Hebrew as well Agada and Midrash and the Talmud, so a very Talmudic home. My mother is a psychologist. I went to the religious scouts in Jerusalem, which is also a very strong movement here, a youth movement in Jerusalem, and went to Himmelfarb High School, and then to the Maalei Gilboa Yeshiva for two years, and the army for full service. But during the army, and also even the years of the yeshiva, the questions of the presence of God in my life and also of halakhic observance challenged me. I think I felt less and less the presence of God in my life. So the kippah, it got smaller and smaller, until it dropped into my pocket and then into my bag and then into a drawer. I had very difficult questions about halakha and halakhic observance. And with a lot of limud (study) and a lot of study of basic halakhic sugiyot (issues), I also approach my rabbis at the yeshiva with the questions that bothered me, the negation between, I say, the humanistic values I grew up on, I would say also mainly the question of equality between men and women, and the lack of, I would say, movement in halakhah to progress this issue. And slowly, I felt separated from the Olam Halakhah.

The world of halakhah.

The world of halakhah. It was a very slow process. I guess the first question was even as a teenager, but I was convinced I can make it work. But I think it came to a step also after the army, when the world opens up and more options, more identity options open up, you get to know more people who didn't grow up religious and come from very secular worlds, got me very, very intrigued and interested. I started my own personal spiritual journey with the question only, I think, a yeshiva bachur (yeshiva student) can ask. If I just studied for, let's say, 10, 20 years, the classical or biblical texts that I need that are essential to my religious identity, who are the essential writings of the secular modern Jewish thinkers that I need to read if I'm going to adopt or move into, transition into this new secular Israeli identity? Back then, I was working as a teacher in high schools and elementary schools here in Jerusalem, and also in pre-army mechinot (preparatory) academies around Jerusalem.

And I approached teachers, schoolmasters with this question: "Tell me who I need to read in order to create my own Jewish but secular identity." The funny thing that is what I met was silence and embarrassment that they couldn't mention the classical writings every secular Jew needs to know in order to form his identity. And these are (people involved in) education.

You were asking for non-religious Jewish sources or just general Western sources?

Religious. No, Jewish.

Jewish and Hebrew.

They couldn't mention them because they didn't know who they were?

They knew-- they would throw out a couple of classical names...