Sabbatical journalTrip to Israel brings chance to look inwardRABBI WILLIAM BERK
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| Editor's note: Rabbi William Berk, spiritual leader of Temple Chai in Phoenix, reflects here on his sabbatical in Israel. He and his family visited the Jewish state for six months earlier this year. |
 Rabbi William Berk and his wife Susan (together at right) are joined in Israel by (from left) Deborah Mendelson, David Mendelson, Esther Schon and Don Schon while on a 10-day Advanced Studies Program trip in June. |
Jan. 16 - Shabbat draws near
the quiet grows
the surprise sweetness seeps out of everyone
yet it's the last rush before the quiet
that draws me in
I can hear the passion
I can feel the victory
Shabbat is here.
Jan. 22 - Studying with Aviva Zornberg, I came across her saying that it's our obstacles that create passion, which can be used to create. One can appreciate the obstacles in one's life - not for ruining one's life - but for fueling creative passion and desire.
Jan. 25 - I saw Eretz Yisrael (Israel) from the ground up today. Gavi (our youngest daughter) is having trouble adjusting to her all-Hebrew-speaking mishpachton (home day-care worker). So I spent the whole morning on the floor with Gavi and her friends Yotamy, Gedalia, and Yisreal. I am getting the Zionist Hebrew day care I never had as a child. For four hours we danced, sang at least 50 Hebrew songs, watched videos, played Legos, etc. My teacher is Kayla, a seventh-generation Jerusalemite on her mother's side and a third-generation Jerusalemite on her father's side - and she doesn't speak a word of English. This woman, who must be in her mid to late 70s, out-sang me, out-danced me, and out-hustled me in every department.
Took a taxi to get the stroller fixed. I rode with a guy who claimed to be the only American taxi driver in Jerusalem. He was 48 when he made aliyah. I asked him why he came. He said, "I looked at my future, and it looked just like my past. I decided I better do something or I might as well be dead. So I came." He said life has been hard, but good. He married, had twins, and now he's driving Jerusalem.
Feb. 12 - I heard a nice teaching recently from Rabbi Mordechai Gafni. He says, "On one hand, I totally choose my path (see Rambam, Chapter One of Hilchot Teshuvah). On the other hand, once something happens, it's the path you need to be on. You need to know this - it was meant to be; you are where you were meant to be, where you need to be. We are supposed to embrace this paradox."
April 15 - We took a three-day trip to Kibbutz Yahel and Eilat. Our car broke down three times in the middle of the Aravah Highway, in the middle of nowhere. Not many Jews have been in this desert since Moses! It was 104 degrees and nobody was around. The girls started singing "Dayenu". A young family stopped to help us and gave us their food and water. Finally we made it to the kibbutz. Morale was good, but it is still such a poor, undeveloped kibbutz. Eilat was unbelievable. We ate at a Burger Ranch, which was "kosher le-Pesach"!
May 3 - It's such a privilege to live here (in Jerusalem)! The groundedness, the meaning, uplift. Godliness of every single Shabbat - there's a richness to spiritual life here despite the problems and the challenges we face. I was thinking - in a culture where a book is holy, where a day is holy, imagine how holy a human being can be?
And yet the situation on the ground here is so troubling. There is so much demonization of the "other". Last time I was on sabbatical (1991) I heard so much stereotyping of Arabs. Today, one hears this about groups of Jews with whom one disagrees.
May 13 - I heard a great story which exemplifies so much of what is wonderful about Israel. Naama Kelman (first woman ordained as a rabbi in Israel) took her 9-year-old daughter to the central bus station in order to go to Pesach camp. The girl was crying - she didn't want to go to camp. The bus is 15 minutes late. Nevertheless, the bus driver leaves his seat and goes to comfort her daughter and speaks to her for a long time, assuring her that he would take good care of her, that she would like camp, etc. Now the bus is very late and NO ONE on the bus said a word, even though they were all so late.
May 21 - I am writing at the Meditation Retreat at the S'de Boker Field School. David Zeller has been teaching us how the soul is singing to us 24 hours a day and we can't hear it. In America, we can't hear the soul anymore. There is such cynicism in America, not only about the possibility of fixing America, but about the reality of soul. If we could sing together Friday nights, maybe at some point we could hear our souls singing to us again. And then the holy could open up for us anywhere.
June 30 - A man lays next to his wife, resting, children playing in the other room
He breathes deeply for a long time
No Arab rockets threatening
Just a few crazy Jews arguing about important things
Peace
It's already here
If only it would last.
