BEIT TEFILAH ISRAELI Creating Israeli Judaism

Tel Aviv as the Jewish Renewal Center in

A. , Mayor of , at BTI 10th anniversary Kabbalat Shabbat, August 2014

“Look at the sight! There is something in the air... Seems like the atmosphere here is full of excitement. But this kind of excitement n Tel Aviv did not start yesterday neither Today. It started many years ago, since the days when the City was built. One of the most beautiful traditions established in the city of Tel Aviv is "Oneg Sabbath" led by the national poet Haim Nahman Bialik in 1926. It started by a group of artists and writers who got together on Shabbat evenings engaging themselves in the Jewish culture from a variety of aspects. Over the time these gatherings became more and more popular, and they had to transfer them to the building of the Gimnasia Herzliya, which was the largest building in the city of Tel Aviv back then. And when the Gimnasia became too small to hold all the large crowd, "Oneg Sabbath" events had to move again to an even larger building, so they built for them the new Ohel Shem building on Balfour Street, which was opened in 1929 ... And listen to what that says Bialik at the laying of the cornerstone, "Out of a basic and profound instinct and simplicity the audience felt the value of this institution and was magnetized to it without further questioning. And therefore we have witnessed a phenomenon of young and old, from left and right, gather together without any difference between them. We established Torah lessons and the multitude exploded the doors to listen to the word of God . And we hope that when God will expand our borders, we'll have a bigger place that can hold 1000 people, and even then it will be too narrow to hold everyone.. And here we are today, 80 years after Bialik’s Oneg Sabbath, Tel Aviv-Jaffa is still a very Jewish city – in its own unique way, and still has a huge thirst for Jewish content, for Jewish learning Jewish rituals and ceremonies. 1 And alongside Page

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BEIT TEFILAH ISRAELI Creating Israeli Judaism

to the Orthodox Judaism, the city is enjoying unprecedented flourishing of the so-called “Jewish Renewal” - and maybe you can just call it simply the “Tel Aviv Judaism". Tolerant, based on Jewish values, Judaism as a cultural and ethical universe; Judaism as a set of moral values; and therefore you- Rabbi Esteban and Rani and all the people of Beit Tefilah Israeli - have a cardinal role, a cardinal role in the flourishing of the City of Tel Aviv, and as in Bilaik’s vision, also to you, here too in the port, hundreds and hundreds are coming each week - and the place - very soon - as Bialik said, will be too small to hold the crowd! Look what's going on here ! We, the Municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, has long recognized the flowering of the Jewish renewal, and the increase accessibility and frameworks for Jewish culture and Jewish values to the public. And we intend to expand it in the coming years, to further Jewish activities in the city. Jewish pluralistic, tolerant, ethical, and spiritual activities that see the Jewish tradition as the moral basis of the nation and the city . So all I have left to do is to thank you, distinguished guests, for having me. I'm part of this community. Thank you for a wonderful experience that takes place the first Hebrew city - with an emphasis on the ‘Hebrew’ and on Jewish pluralism and Jewish Renewal.

B. There is another Tel Aviv/ Shaul Tchernikhovsy

But it is impossible not to love Tel Aviv. I mean the cities. It is, finally, the only place in the world where a Jew can be a Jew - not a Jew by permission and not by prohibition, but simply a person who is a Jew. He feels himself a Jew not through constantly bumping up against non-Jews, but through simply feeling a Jew without a need to be aware of such. Like a tree in the forest, like a bush on its native land, like a Russian farmer from Pensa,

like a Frenchman from Du valley, like a German from a village in Pomrenja, to see the big world through Hebrew eyes without having to even know there are other eyes. But here it is possible - for the Sabra - not to understand what exile means, and to yearn for the entire world through a pure Hebrew outlook. (1940)

Published in :Tel Aviv at Jubilee 1959

C. Ginegar, 4 March 1930

It must be clear to you that in our rebelling against the religiosity in the Diaspora, we threw off the “clothing” – the outward manifestation of the holidays, but we did not, in so doing, feel that we had exorcised the shechina from the holiday. The festive nature of the holiday was annulled, and what remained was emptiness. In the Diaspora, in our war against the religious environs that would not leave us in peace, we didn’t feel this – but here, in our approach to the task of creating a new life on a new basis, we must create new holidays. Holidays that will be rich in content and worth for our times. The continued presence of the spirit, and the uplifting of the soul are necessary for us as well,

and there is no way other than the resuscitation of the holidays. And this will serve as a 2 foundation and a basis for the generation that follows us and learns from us. Page

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Sincerely,

David Omansky Kibbutz Ginegar, Tel Aviv, 28 March 1930

To Mr. David Omansky, Kibbutz Ginegar

My dear sir, The holidays are not something that one invents from the heart. Yerav’am once tried to do this, and he did not succeed. One can “phrase” or “adapt” the holidays a bit, but one cannot create them ex nihilo. The holiday is a matter of group creation, a process in which many and varied forces and foundations join together: religion, tradition, history, art, nature, and so forth. And just as one cannot write great poetry “on order,” or based on instruction or by means of proxy, in the same one one cannot “order” a holiday or a ceremony. The assured festive nature of the holiday sprouts fourth from the heart and comes into the world in holy spirit – and if it [the holiday] doesn’t have this, how could advice from afar be of any use?

My advice is: Celebrate your ancestors’ holidays and add to them a bit of your own, according to your ability, your taste, and your reason. What is paramount is that you do everything out of faith, and with a live feeling and a soulful need – and don’t be too clever. Our ancestors didn’t tire of their shabbatot or holidays, even though they repeated them throughout their days many times in the same form. Every time, they found in them new meaning and a new awakening. And do you know why? Because they had vitality and the blessing of the holiday dwelling in their souls. Those who do not find meaning in the holidays or – (חול) celebrations – this is a sign that their souls are empty and the inner life is profane and for them there is no repair. Sincerely, and with blessings for the upcoming holiday,

Bialik

D. . […] the whole concept of Jewish culture was reduced to a small section of life. That is to say, all that was beyond this concept was defined as human. When a man ate his bread, if he said "Hamotzi" he has included a measure of Judaism in his eating. If he just ate, then it is human. If he ate Kugel on Shabbat, then it was a Jewish form of meal. If he ate just any food, then it was a human meal. And this line of reasoning applies to everything. If there is nothing specific from the Jewish religion in something, then it ceases to be Jewish and became merely human. Here in Eretz Israel this division ceases. This is where the concept of culture gets its full sense. All that is created in the country by Jews – is made by the hand of Jews, through their own efforts, tools, through the strength of their literature, and their science. The people, for the most part, does not contemplate, it only understands what it sees in plain sight. It sees everything 3 Page

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created by the Jews themselves, and understands that it too is part of Judaism, and that the Jewish Shekhinah lives in it too. This is the concept of culture that is growing here in Ertez Israel.

-Haim Nahman Bialik, "On the Question of Israeli Culture", 1932

E. "I was standing on my roof and watched a building built by the city of Tel Aviv. It was a Friday early evening, near sunset, and the work had to hurry, [...] and thus they added more workers to excite the fire of the work. Although they started singing. [...] With the decline of the sun, when he heard the blowing of the horn declaring that the Shabbat is coming to the streets of Tel Aviv, the workers were at the final stage of their work. [they] poured the last bucket of cement they sang with fervent enthusiasm. And with this fire and dancing they enter Shabbat. I remember their joyous way of working and how they transition from one holiness to another. I never had such an exciting impression but only once more, when we sat three hundred to four hundred young people at the Yeshiva, in with the same state of mind and soul we have studied, with this feverous excitement we prayed, and the signing entered into our souls.

Bilaik talk to Hanoar Haivri movement, DAVAR, July 7 1939

F. עלי מוהר A Tel Aviv Prayer תפילה תל-אביבית Eli Mohar / Yoni Rechter ֱא ַֹלהי - ָכּאן ֵאין ָלוּ ֹכּ ֶתל, ֵישׁ ַרק ָים ֲא ָבל ַא ָתּה ֲה ֵרי ִ ְמ ָצא ְבּ ָכל ָמקוֹם ,My God - here we have no Wall ָאז ֶבּ ַטח ָכּאן ַגּם. .only the sea But since you seem to be everywhere ְו ָל ֵכן, ְכּ ֶשׁ ֲא ִי ֵהוֹלְך ֹפּה ְל ֹא ֶרְך ַהחוֹף you must be here too. ֲא ִי ֵיוֹד ַע ֶשׁ ַא ָתּה ִא ִתּי ְו ֶזה ֶעוֹשׂה ִלי טוֹב. So when I walk here along the beach ְוּכ ֶשׁ ֲא ִ י ֶרוֹאה ִפּ ְתאוֹם ַתּ ֶיּ ֶרת, ָי ָפה ְוּשׁ ָזוּפה I know that you are with me ְשׂ ָרוּעה ַעל ַהחוֹל ִבּ ְת ָוּחה ֲח ָשׂוּפה .and it feels good ֲא ִי ֵמ ִעיף ָבּהּ ַמ ָבּט, ְוּק ָצת ִמ ְשׁ ַתּ ֶהה And when I see a tourist beautiful and tanned ַו ֲא ִי ְמ ַק ֶוּה ֶשׁ ַא ָתּה לֹא ַרק ֵסוֹל ַח ִלי ֶא ָלּא ַגּם ֶ ֱה ֶה. I look at her not only for myself ֲא ִי ָא ְמ ָם ַמ ִבּיט ָבּהּ ְל ַמ ֲע ִי ֲ ָבל ַגּם ְ ק ָצת ְל ַמ ַע ְָך but also for you ִכּי ֲא ִי ֵיוֹד ַע ֶשׁ ַא ָתּה ְבּ ִתוֹכי ְכּ ֵשׁם ֶשׁ ֲא ִי ְבּ ְתוֹכָך. because I know that you are in me ְו ַאוּלי ִבּ ְכ ָלל ִ ְב ֵר ִאתי just as I am in you ְכּ ֵדי ֶשׁ ִמּ ִתּוֹכי ַתּוּכל ִל ְראוֹת and maybe I was created so that from within me you can see ֶאת ָה ָעוֹלם ֶשׁ ָבּ ָר ָאת the world you created ְבּ ֵע ַי ִים ֲח ָדשׁוֹת. .with new eyes

G.

We still have days ahead, Were still many Jews in Israel will live in the land and our cultural 4 pains will not let them be in peace. And what is disparagingly discussed nowadays ... would make Page

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BEIT TEFILAH ISRAELI Creating Israeli Judaism

those who follow us a great distress of the mind. And as we grapple now with questions of Jewish labor – the quintessential questions of our existence in the country – the same way we’ll be struggling in the following days with the question of our cultural destiny, and it was a great gift from destiny, that this generation, the generation of the material and bricks makers, has given an intellectual giant, who sees things not only for their time, not only for his generation, but many generations ahead, and generations and generations back forward

Berl Katznelson eulogy for Bialik, 1934

H. A TEL-AVIV DREAM by Abraham Regelson Translated from the Hebrew original by Sharona Regelson Tel-Oren

"…And at the seashore, from Yaffo to the Yarkon River, flanked on both its right and left banks, stretches a huge public park, lush and rich. Every evening a band performs on a stage south of the Yarkon, one third of the concert classical music, one third Israeli songs, and one third eastern melodies, while rowers from their boats sing alongside. "And hushed, hushed is the city after nightfall. Passersby, between the courtyards lined with bush and flower giving off their fragrance in the night's dew, can discern strains of music-making, since there are learned people who found and restored instruments of ancient Israel – lyres, asors, zithers, psaltery, timbrels – and youngsters practice on them. And there are even musicians to be found, who compose especially for these ancient/restored instruments, so well-suited are they to the atmosphere of Israel. "These instruments of song are also used in synagogues. Since they originated from ancient Israel, no prohibition (on grounds of being an imitation of non-Jewish religious practice) applies to them. Art has embraced Religion. Synagogues are built with marble floors, marble benches for seating, and without roofs, so that the stars can peek in. Only in the short rainy season, two wings of steel, folded inward at the building's side, open upward, forming a dome from above. Through the new melodies, the Prayer-Book (the Siddur) returns and lives on, inspiring once again the people's love for it. Poetic additions are presented along with the prayers. Just as in former times recitations of Ben-Gavirol's and Halevi's poems were added to the prayers, so our contemporary great poetry is admitted into the service. This replaces tales of sacrifices, which are generally skipped over in the reading, though they are still printed in full, out of respect and reverence for our forefathers of old---

I.

5 ערב עירוני Urban Evening מלים: נתן אלתרמן Lyrics: Nathan Alterman

Page לחן: יוני רכטר Music: Yoni Rechter

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BEIT TEFILAH ISRAELI Creating Israeli Judaism

Translation: Donny Inbar

שקיעה ורודה בין הגגות Along the roofs the sunset’s pink אספלט כחול מלמטה The asphalt’s blue below it עיני נשים נוגות, נוגות ,And melancholy women’s faces blink אומרות לערב "למה באת?" ”.Oh, evening, do not blow it“

הפנסים פרחי העיר A fragrant light blooms all around מלבלבים באור ניחוח From all the streetlamps, urban flowers אביב חשמל עצוב בהיר Electrifying spring’s renowned משיכרונו אסור לברוח For its intoxicating powers

הוא רק יתום ורק תמים It is an orphan, so naïve נולד לרגע ואיננו Just born and in an instant vanished בין הלילות והימים Between the morning and the eve הוא בא לזרוח בעינינו It shines our life and, hark, it’s banished

בין הימים והלילות Between the evenings and the morn לנאות מראה כחולים נלך נא May we all graze in bluish meadows כל נשמותינו הבלות Our worn-out souls will be reborn שם דשא עשב תלחכנה And then will fade out in the shadow

נפנוף שלום ילדה פתיה Farewell my darling silly child את חיוכה נשא האוטו What’s gone is gone and not returning מה שהיה ולא היה The car drove on and took your smile נדמה כמו ישוב להיות עוד Away, yet we are never learning

כעת אני מאוד אחד Alone and one I am at best ומסתכל מאוד בשקט ,I stare, and sound I do not utter איך הלבנה חולצת שד As lady moon reveals her breast מקיר הבית שמנגד to feed the stars around that flutter

גופי נקטן ומתנמך My body shrinks, it’s growing small אבל ראשי כל כך גבוה And yet my head seems to keep soaring עד שאפילו אם אלך And therefore if I walk or crawl לא אתבונן לאן אבואה I cannot see what I’m exploring

שקיעה ורודה על סף הרחוב On the street’s threshold dusk is pink ורחוב כמנהרה של תכלת And blue keeps streaming in formation מי שיגיע עד הסוף ,Then, once you cross this stroke of ink ירצה לבכות מרוב תוחלת You’d cry with such anticipation

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