Ep. 46 // Nitzavim ... feat. a sweet anecdote about my Birthright tour guide

A few weeks after I graduated college in 2019, I staffed a Hillel International Birthright trip. If you have had the immense privilege to be a participant on a Birthright trip, you know there are 2 very important Israeli cogs in the machine that is an individual Birthright trip - the Israeli bus driver and the Israeli tour guide.

Our tour guide, who we will call Ron, was your typical non-religious Israeli. Every time I would commandeer the bus microphone to give some Torah context for a location we were going or share some “fun” Jewish facts, he would roll his eyes good naturedly. By the end of our 10 days he had given me the title “Rabbanit.” (Which I give him credit for - whether he knew it or not, he was being pretty progressive. What we call young women in Jewish contexts — I.e. - Rabbanit vs Rebbetzin, is a whole conversation that I welcome. Write to me.)

Ron was very averse to the religious aspects of Judaism. (Alert - I’m going to make a grand over-simplification about Israeli culture!!) This wasn’t surprising — there is a very deep cultural divide between religious Israelis and non-religious Israelis.

Ron, like 50% of the Israeli population, served in the army and viewed such service as the citizens’ responsibility as an Israeli. Haredi Jews do not serve in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), under religious exemption, and because 53% of Haredim live below the poverty line, they receive government funding. Haredim view themselves as the last protector of the Jewish nature of the state, and that on the merit of their full-time learning does the state of Israel stand.

I hope you believe that none of this info has been sharing my personal opinion — I am trying to simply give context. Basically — there is lots of tension between these two groups. Obviously there’s even more nuance within other religious groups… but we will leave it here.

I didn’t think much of Ron’s aversion to Judaism. It seemed typical to me. On the last day of our trip, though he shared something really beautiful. So after his army service, like many Israelis, Ron traveled. In India specifically, he was fascinated by Buddhism and the deep, ancient connection that those he met in India felt to their ancestors. He found himself wishing that he, too, had an ancient connection to an ancient people. Interestingly enough, Jews account for as many as a third of all non-Asian Buddhists in North America, so there’s definitely something there between Judaism and Buddhism. Ron wanted to be connected to ancient people until he realized… he was. Ron was a Jew! A Jew whose ancestors stood at Har Sinai (Mount Sinai) and heard Hashem speak the first 2 Aseret HaDibrot (Ten Commandments), he was a Jew that had actualized the hope of thousands of years to return to the Land of Israel to be a free people. Ron had spent his whole life living in the ancient Jewish homeland, but didn’t appreciate it till leaving the nest.

Ron saw us silly Americans as being more connected to our Judaism from 7,000 miles away than he was in Israel. To him, we were willing to schlep across the ocean to connect to our Judaism, and he wondered maybe he was too close to it.

In this week’s parsha, Nitzavim, our brit (covenant) with G-d is renewed, the covenant of promising to uphold G-d’s mitzvot. This covenant is not only with all of Bnei Yisrael that were present, but also with those of future generations. The next section of the parsha describes how future generations may stray from the Derech HaShem, the way of G-d in life. The Torah tells us that we are curious people, that we will be drawn by other aspects of other religions.

Soul scene

Cont’d…

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