Had my second interview at an outdoor table at Cafe Cafe on Emek Refaim with Tamir Nir, a really interesting person who has started a congregation in the Beit HaKerem section of Jerusalem.
Born in Jerusalem, Nir's Mizrachi Masorti ("religious but not strict") background gave him a different religious perspective from those of the Alon Shvut neighborhood of Gush Etzion (in the territories) that he moved into as a ten-year old. Nir was not happy there, it not being really accepting of Mizrachim, and when his father asked for some concessions in the synagogue for Mizrachi liturgy and practice, they refused and he went to start a separate synagogue. But Tamir still had Ashkenazic friends, liked Ashkenzic melodies as well, so he began to have the sense that he was split between two worlds. When he was 15, he began to attend the yeshiva in Ma'alei Adumim, which was more accepting, and after that, he went into the army. It was there, after serving as a tank commander that he entered the educational part and found that he loved being an educator.
Nevertheless, after finishing his army service, he trained to become an architect and also left the religious way of life completely. He worked as an architect for 5 years. But it is practically impossible for a Jew living in Israel to leave Judaism (it's in the calendar, the history, the language), and he was still involved in teaching and in working with nature, and those became Nir's path back to Judaism, albeit in a different format. He started a company aimed at running nature camps for children called Yeled Teva (Nature Kid), but after a few years, the company failed. However, the parents who had sent their children to his camps approached him to start a community (a kehilla) where his teachings could take root. "They were trying to take responsibility for all the space around them: the cultural, society, and physical space," Nir said. The community would not simply be based on a school but on a total inclusive life space, with improved roads, a community garden, and a community center, although not a formal synagogue (bet knesset). But a bet knesset literally means a "house of assembly," and that is what Nir and his community started. There they would have kabbalat Shabbat services, and mark religious milestones such as bar/bat mitzvah (for those who want the service).
The kehilla in Beit HaKerem sees itself as the last secular neighborhood in Jerusalem [see my previous post on "haredization"], and the people of the neighborhood are afraid of a religious takeover of the neighborhood and the resultant changes in law. They are proud of their own way of life and of how they approach Judaism. For example, when they give a d'var Torah (a lesson from the Torah), they prefer to give it as "k'firah," that is, in a way that challenges assumptions of piety of the Biblical characters or that questions the morality of the stories or laws presented, or even present an interpretation that is opposite that which is normally accepted.
But Tamir Nir, who is 45, has seen a change in himself, perhaps via exposure through his teaching at Hebrew Union College. Now he has begun to pray again, and slowly he has lost much of the anger that he had built up in his youth against tradition. He sees his life as having gone through a cycle: he spent his first 20 years as a religious person, and then 20 years as a secular person, "and now I'm starting 20 years as something new, I don't know."
Nir is an activist, one this phenomenon's movers and shakers, but in many ways he and his community typify so many modern Israelis who are looking for the way back to a Judaism that is communal, nourishing, guiding, and both spiritually and intellectually satisfying.
This blog is going offline for the Sabbath; I'm having Shabbat dinner with friends who live in Talpiyot and then will attend Shabbat morning services at the Hebrew Union College student lounge, where the Reconstructionist monthly minyan is held. So I wish everyone Shabbat Shalom, a sabbath of peace and enjoyment, on either day (or neither!) on which you celebrate it!
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