The Video and Commentary Series Call & Responsa engages Hartman Institute scholars with leading North American rabbis in an interactive public exchange on issues affecting the Jewish people worldwide.
Each edition of Call & Responsa features a video segment from a Hartman scholar (the "Call") that sets out a view of the challenges facing the Jewish people in Israel and around the world. Paired with the video is original commentary by leading rabbis on the issues raised (the "Responsa").
No. 7, Iyar 5778, May 2018
The Call: Donniel Hartman
How do we find a Torah for a Jewish democracy which recognizes that Israel cannot be Jewish merely by the fact that it is the nation-state of the Jews? Israel is not going to be the Unites States or Canada of the Middle East, where Jews are a majority. The model of separation is not one they are going to accept.
If Israel wants to think of Judaism not in terms of a nation-state, where a nation-state is only Jews…there cannot be one sub-community. You actually have to recognize there are multiple sub-communities, each with their own sensitivities and sensibilities, each of which has to have their own rabbinate.
Click the video above to watch the entire commentary from Donniel Hartman.
The Responsa: Sarah Mulhern, Aaron Brusso, Avital Hochstein, Shraga Bar-On, Baruch Frydman-Kohl
Sarah Mulhern
Hartman Institute
New York
Aaron Brusso
Bet Torah
Mt. Kisco, NY
Avital Hochstein
Hartman Institute
Hadar Israel
Shraga Bar-On
Hartman Institute
Jerusalem
Baruch
Frydman-Kohl
Beth Tzedec, Toronto
I want to see Israel take the Torah of Shabbat seriously. The practices we have developed are gifts to humanity and deeply radical, and the Jewish state should pay attention.
The tragedy would be if, after seeing our multicolored beauty, we chose to enslave ourselves by requiring uniformity of identity and practice under the banner of one chieftain.
Being the majority and having Jewish sovereignty are new experiences for Jews, even after 70 years of having a state. As we mark this anniversary, we have a lot of work ahead of us.
I don’t believe we should give up the aspiration to shape a full Jewish culture with a Jewish parliament, health system, foreign affairs, and courts, just because of the challenges we face.
Respect religious diversity in Israeli society and move toward a public conversation that emphasizes managing a conflict, rather than deciding it through legal or legislative systems.
