Friday June 30, 2023
Update from Tel Aviv
We hope you all have some time for fun and relaxation this summer. Our time is mostly devoted to family and enjoying Tel Aviv. It is truly a fabulous city, and I (the foreigner) still find hidden gems.
One place I sought out is called Beit Matanel – Alma – Bayit L’tarbut Ivrit (Center for Hebrew Culture).
I’ve come across this term “Hebrew Culture” several times last year and this. The term roughly means the Hebrew language side of Jewish culture and texts, but without a religious context. For example, Alma (just a few minutes’ walk from us), offers study of Hebrew/Jewish texts for those who would be called “secular” – “non-religious.” A secular Israeli with a good high school education has had a much richer exposure to Jewish texts than average non-Orthodox American rabbi. That Israeli being “secular,” though, means that they have had no place to engage with the that they studied back in high school or in college. At Alma, there is no doctrine, no religious world view. No rabbis in charge. No politics. As the person who gave us a tour termed it, “we are walking barefoot in the orchard of Jewish texts.” Alma, you might say, is a yeshiva for secular Jews.
Meirav and I signed up for summer course on reading passages from the Zohar (the class is in Hebrew). The teacher, Neta Sobol, has her Ph.D. in Kabbala from Tel Aviv university. She has a deep and poetic soul and is clearly adept at studying with the unique nature of the Israeli student. The 25 or so disparate students range in age from 20’s to 60’s, women and men. None wears a kippah (except your truly). The text of the Zohar is translated into Hebrew. As class discussion moves along, the students’ knowledge of Jewish texts (Bible, Midrash, etc.) is apparent. It is also apparent that many have studied other spiritual paths, including Eastern and New Age. I see that Neta’s role is not to teach “the meaning of the text” (a questionable literary endeavor to begin with). From my point of view, she teaches in the spirit of “the hammer on the rock” (see Talmud Sanhedrin 34). The word of a holy text is like a rock. As the mind of the reader of the text strikes the word, sparks of meaning fly. The room at Alma, full of disparate souls, is united by one thing: those present wanting to find meaning, as community, in a text that is their legacy, too. Meirav and I so deeply enjoy the sparks of interpretation, of meaning and engagement, flying in the room.
One of the main genres of the Zohar is the community of students (the “chevraya”) gathering together to strike the rock and let sparks fly. In this class, we are studying one of those passages (Sitrei Torah on Lekh Lekha – Zohar volume I:89b-90a). It is a deep experience, seeing us in the library at Alma, mirroring the text, the text mirroring us.
