This past year in our Thursday Lunch and Learn class, we’ve been working through a stimulating curriculum from the Shalom Hartman Institute. The classes each break down different components of Jewish Identity, Peoplehood, and our relationship to Israel. One of the paradigms the curriculum recently referenced is sitting with me this week with Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel Independence Day, on the calendar.
We learned about the Zionism of Being and the Zionism of Becoming. In the Zionism of Being, we celebrate the fact that Israel can be a home to all Jews, regardless of the way that they express their Judaism. Israel is the place where Jewish holidays are celebrated on public lamp-posts and where holiday songs are sung proudly in public schools. Israel is the place to be safe from antiSemitism. Quite literally, the Zionism of Being represents the Israel where we can just BE.
The Zionism of Becoming is the constantly evolving, ever growing nature of what our Jewish State can be. This level of engagement reminds us that sometimes we have to do more than just BE, we have to ask hard questions and push ourselves. The Zionism of Becoming is aspirational; it is the recognition that there are changes that Israel can make to greater realize the beautiful vision of what she can be in the world. The Zionism of Becoming is a framework that keeps us from being complacent and asks us to constantly engage with the question of “how can Israel be better?”
The pairing of these two frameworks, in concert with one another, is so much of what I celebrate and honor this week. I feel pride in the Zionism of Being and tremendous gratitude to those that enabled the Zionist dream to be a reality. That pride and gratitude is not compromised by my simultaneous belief in the Zionism of Becoming, the beauty of a country that can continue to build on its vision. This year, I invite each of us to think about how we’ve each experienced the beauty of both of these frameworks. When did you feel connected to the Zionism of Being? What are your hopes for the Zionism of Becoming?
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
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