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September 26, 2003/Elul 29 5764, Vol. 56, No. 1
Hartman calls the question on Jewish life
VICKI CABOT
Contributing Editor
Vicki Cabot, Andy Gordon and Susan Berk continue the discussion after class at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
Photo by Howard Cabot
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"Are we the Torah people or not?"
Rabbi David Hart-man goads a group of adult learners and rabbis during a summer session at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. His voice fills the cavernous Beit Midrash, study hall, as he calls the question on Jewish life.
Hartman, a modern Orthodox rabbi from Mon-treal, made aliyah in 1967, convinced that the future of world Jewry lay in the Jewish state.
"I had to come," he tells his audience. "Israel is too important."
Nation building was critical to the Jewish future - both in Israel and the Diaspora - and Hartman was compelled to play a role in building a Torah-based Jewish state.
"Israel is a mediating principle for all world Jewry," he believes.
For the past 40 years, that unshakeable belief has infused his work. A respected scholar, an inspiring speaker, a prolific writer, Hartman, now in his 70s, has reworked and refined his ideas without straying far from his original premise. One of his earliest books, "The Living Cove-nant" has become a classic treatise on pluralistic Jewish thought.
The Hartman Institute, now housed in a stunning stone and glass edifice on a terraced plot in one of Jerusalem's choicest neigh-borhoods, is named for Hartman's late father. David Hartman's son, Donniel, also a rabbi, teacher and scholar, shares responsibility for over-seeing the institute's programs and activities and developing funds to under-write them. Its Rabbinic Seminar, which brings together nearly 100 rabbis from across North America; its Center for Rabbinic Enrichment, a three-year program of intensive Jewish study; and its Jerusalem Lay Leaders Retreat reflect the institute's inclusive ap-proach.
"We are creating an institution open to all those who want to seek and learn," says David Hartman.
Six Valley residents were drawn there this summer. Rabbis William Berk of Temple Chai and Michael Wasserman of the New Shul are two of the 20 participants in the three-year rabbinic program, which includes two annual study retreats in Israel and weekly lectures and discussions by video conferencing and one-on-one hevruta, study sessions. Valley residents Susan Berk, Vicki and Howard Cabot and Andy Gordon were students in the lay program.
For all the participants, the opportunity to study at the prestigious institute, whose faculty is comprised of highly respected Judaic scholars, was reason enough to sign on.
"The faculty is extra-ordinary," says Susan Berk. "There is an incredible array of talent."
Many of the same scholars teach in both the rabbinic and lay programs. Susan Berk was impressed with their passion and ability to excite their students.
"They were not just scholars but people who truly care about allowing (students) to explore," she says.
Gordon was taken with not only the intellectual caliber of the faculty but their openness to question and strive for new perspectives.
"The teachers knew their stuff - and they were willing to challenge things," he says.
And challenge their students.
"It enabled you to go to a new place," he observes.
The one-week lay program was comprised of three-hour morning and afternoon sessions with additional evening lectures or events. This past summer its overarching theme was prayer. Gordon, an attorney and a member of both Temple Solel and the New Shul, says he came away with a renewed appreciation for the historical bases for prayer.
"I began to understand the history and tradition of the service, and that became more important than the words," he says.
The program of study delved into theological and philosophical premises for prayer, looking at issues such as the rationale for communal prayer and the differences between public and private worship.
Gordon relished the opportunity to immerse himself in Jewish study without the distractions of everyday life. It allowed him to consider how the tradition impacts not just his head but his heart, he says.
Wasserman says the intensive study both energized and inspired him.
"Learning is nourishing," he observes.
Participating in the program "reminds me of why I decided to become a rabbi."
He credits David Hart-man's vision for powering the endeavor.
"David believes in making Torah a force that can speak to all of life," he says. "It is a vision of Torah that can bring people together across the ideological spectrum."
Wasserman lauds Hart-man's ability to eschew questions that might sep-arate people and concentrate on the broader issues that connect them. The approach is heavily text-based.
"He asks us, 'What does it say? How does it speak to our lives?' (These are) questions anybody can answer," says Wasserman.
The rabbinic programs draw rabbis from across the denominational divide.
William Berk speaks of the "great intellectual excite-ment" that suffuses the institute and the impact of studying in Israel that creates a seriousness that might not be found in other venues.
"The implications of what comes out of the beit midrash are implications (for) the Jewish people," he says.
David Hartman says he wants to bring Torah back to the Jewish people.
"We've forgotten how to be a Torah people, how to ask halachic questions," he says.
"Hartman said it all comes down to Torah," observes Wasserman. "And rabbis above all are transmitters of Torah. American Jewry needs to understand the importance of learning and how enriching it can be. That is where our future is."
Contact the writer at vicki_cabot@jewishaz.com.
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