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For decades, official American Jewry has been trapped by its own public relations sloganeering. No one can be against a more soulful Jewish public. But what exactly does the word soulful mean? In what context is the word to be translated into deed and attitude? In short, what and where is the key to reaching and opening the shriveled soul of American Jewish society?
Truth be said, it does not appear to be in the existing structure of organized Jewish life in America. Organizational meetings, banquets, dinners and conferences are all important events but none of them really create a soulful atmosphere. The scruffy business of fundraising and organizational turf protection or expansion all gets in the way of soulfulness.
This, by the very nature of the matter, apparently cannot be helped or avoided. But it is a reality that should be recognized. It is apparent that it is outside of the realm of official organized Jewish leadership that soulfulness must be created and pursued. Organizational life, no matter how efficiently structured and well-intentioned can only achieve practical results in the physical world. It is too sterile an enterprise to affect the soul.
In Jewish tradition the house of worship, of prayer, was meant to be a soulful place. It was not meant to be a place of entertainment or even of the mere fulfillment of a religious obligation. It was meant to be a place where one could converse with one’s own inner self and thereby with one’s Creator. It was and is governed by physical rules and set texts in order to help the one praying to achieve that goal of inner and lofty communication.
But the rabbis characterized it as a place of "kavanah" – a Hebrew word that almost defies translation because of its exquisite sense of nuance. The word is loosely translated as direction or intent or concentrated fervor but in terms of prayer it really signifies connection with one’s own soul and thereby with its Creator.
I have experienced such a place a few times in my lifetime. The first was as a child in my father’s large synagogue in Chicago on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur when the synagogue was filled with Eastern European Jews and their prayers rose as a storm sweeping all before it. Their roar of anguish and awe was a soulful experience.
Later in life I read about the experience of the great Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig serving with the German army in Poland in World War I. A completely assimilated German Jew, engaged to marry a non-Jew, he wandered into a small nondescript synagogue in a Polish village on Yom Kippur night and theexperience of that prayer service transformed him forever. Our synagogues and prayer services are certainly sterile and cold in comparison.
The house of study was also meant to be a place of soulful inspiration. I remember the moment when,at fifteen,the study of Talmud was transformed within me from a chore and an assignment into a joy and a spiritual experience,I had teachers that enabled me to feel that way and that allowed me to draw inspiration from the white spaces and not only from the black letters on the page.
Torah study was meant not only to provide necessary knowledge but it also, just as importantly, was meant to create a conduit to one’s own soul and being. That is why the rabbis stated that there were seventy facets to every word and idea of Torah. Every individual finds a different facet of spirituality to attach one’s self to. There is no one size fits all when it comes to matters of the soul.
But the ignorant and unlettered – tragically, most of American Jewry - are almost automatically precluded from such an attachment; the Torah for them remains an unexplored and forbidding dark continent. It is within the synagogue and the study hall that soulfulness in Jewish life can be regained and fostered.
It will require new ideas and tactics, much determination, and human and capital investment to achieve this. But the Jewish soul is not dead within us. It needs nurturing and will. Maybe organized Jewry will yet devote its talents and resources towards this pursuit of soulfulness and not continue to flounder in slogans and the wilds of organizational life.
Subjects of Jewish Thougts Why Must I be Religious to be a Moral Person? - Part I
Rav Kook, Musar Hakodesh
The Torah Perspective The Importance of the State of Israel in the Writings of Rabbi A.I. Kook
part II
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 9 - "Seeing is Believing" (parag. 21-30)
These paragraphs elaborate on the theme that seeing and knowing is better than any attempt to prove logically, and begins explaining the difference between Israel and gentiles.
Ein Aya Various Universal Stages of the Geula Process
Rav Kook examines the various stages of redemption, explaining how (in addition to the obvious oft-mentioned stages of ingathering the exiles, reviving the Hebrew language, army, state etc.) the messianic dream of world prosperity, the State of Israel and world unity can and are realistically and logically gradually coming true.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 8- "Answering Questions on the Kuzari's Proof from Mass Revelation
How do we know that the "claim" of mass revelation to 2,000,000 witnesses at Mt. Sinai is really true? This important class answers all of the questions skeptics ask about this claim of the Kuzari.
Ein Aya Armies Still Necessary for Balance & the War Against Wars
Rav Kook explains why the world was originally divided into the various seemingly contradicting ideologies and cultures, in order to develop each one respectively. Swords or armies symbolize how each respective ideology defends themselves, as well as deters their opposing ideologies and cultures. On the other hand, the messianic era will be one of peace, and Rav Kook explains the transition to that stage, which mankind is already undergoing.
The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
