Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Menorah Review VCU University Archives 1989 Menorah Review (No. 16, Spring, 1989) Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/menorah Part of the History of Religion Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons © The Author(s) Recommended Citation https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/menorah/16 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the VCU University Archives at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Menorah Review by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MENOAAH REVIEW• THE JUDAIC STUDIES PROGRAM OF VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY • NUMBER 16 • SPRING 1989 For the Enrichment of Jewish Thought it was out of this world and from readers. An anti-war activist in the JEWISH RENEWAL such sentiments that the Jewish 1960s, by the end of the decade Was­ TheseHoly Sparks: TheRebirth of counterculture movement in North kow began to become involved inten­ the JewishPeople American was born. The visions of sively with Jewish life and thought. those years were utopian; and while His interests in the Jewish commu­ By Arthur Waskow the mood of the country and the Jew­ nity were nurtured by his participa­ Harperand Row ish community has shifted drastically tion throughout the 1970s in Fabran­ over the last two decades, a number gen, a participatory, egalitarian A Rroiew essay by David Ellenson of projects whose origins can be community of Jews in Washington, The 1960s were a time of challenge traced directly to the enterprises of D.C. He is currently the editor of and change, energy and anger, for those years are now part of the main­ Menorah, "a journal of Jewish re­ the American people. The war in stream of American Jewish life. newal," which he founded in 1979, Vietnam, the assassinations of the Among them are the supportive and and serves as the director of the Sha­ Kennedys and Dr. King, protests on individualistic havurah, the three lom Center, a Jewish project for the our college campuses, riots in the Jewish Catalogs, the Coalition for Al­ prevention of nuclear war. Waskow streets-these were among the hap­ ternatives in Jewish Education also is a member of the faculty at the penings and images that seared the (CAJE), Response Magazine, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College minds of Americans during those Philadelphia-based spiritual commu­ where he teaches, among other years. For many persons these events nity of B'nai Or. Countless other pres­ things, the "midrashic process," the combined to create a loss of confi­ ent-day efforts-from Tikkun Maga­ task of interpreting the Bible and dence in the established institutions zine to the new Jewish Agenda-are other classical Jewish texts so as to and dominant cultural patterns of equally part of the indirect but nev­ plumb their meanings and grant American society. Calls for personal ertheless traceable legacy this move­ guidance to the lives of Jews and growth and greater individual auton­ ment has bequeathed to Jewish life in other people in the modern situation. omy arose, and experimentation with the United States and Canada. Waskow's career and interests thus alternative styles of life and educa­ It is apposite to recall these matters mirror the development of one seg­ tion resulted. in reviewing These Holy Sparks by Ar­ ment of the Jewish counterculture Faced with the seeming bank­ thur Waskow, for Waskow has, for community during the last 20 years. ruptcy of many facets of modern life, nearly two decades, been one of the These Holy Sparks can be seen as both many persons of minority back­ most articulate and provocative an articulate personal statement on ground began to turn to the richness spokespersons for the Jewish coun­ Waskow's part and as a reflection of and wisdom that could be discovered terculture movement in North Amer­ the evolution, spirit, and state of one in the cultivation of their own partic­ ica. From the Freedom Seder in the element in "the movement for Jewish ular tradition. The search for roots 1960s, to Godwrestling in the '70s, renewal" in North America today. burgeoned, and many ethnics ac­ through Seasons of Our Joy in the early It is the metaphor of shattering and quired a sense of genuine pride in 1980s, Waskow's words have in­ restoration that provides the over­ their own cultural heritage. The per­ spired, motivated, and inflamed his arching theme of These Holy Sparks. ception emerged among many of Drawn from the teachings of the Jew­ them that one's own past could pro­ ish mystics of sixteenth-century Sa­ fed, Waskow employs this image to vide a surer compass for navigating IN THIS ISSUE the hazards and combatting the ano­ describe the situations and tasks con­ mie of contemporary American life • Jewish Renewal fronting Jews and humanity during than the one that was supplied by a • Israel and the Modern Jew the 1980s. From the outset, he re­ previously omnipresent Anglo-Saxon • Looking for God in Conservative minds the reader of the "shatterings" ethos that was now in disarray and Judaism that mark our lives as individuals, as ostensibly crumbling. • TheMeaning of Midrash Jews, and as members of the human • Book Briefings family. From the Jewish expulsion 2 from Spain in 1942 through the crisis in society. Rather, secularization in­ ism, Israel, and the Diaspora and of modernism, which erupted for dicates that the influence of religion concludes with theological and per­ Jews in the Holocaust and for human­ becomes diminished, that religion in­ sonal reflections on the meaning of ity in the threat of nuclear terror, forms fewer and fewer spheres of God, secularism, and Israel among Waskow is painfully aware of the im­ one's being and activities. Life be­ the nations in our time. perfections of this world. These im­ comes fragmented, and certain as­ For those familiar with Waskow's perfections, he claims, point to the pects of one's life often have no rela­ work, the scope of his topics, as well truth of the kabbalistic myth concern­ tionship to other parts. For adherents as the style and substance of his ap­ ing the origins of the universe, a of western religions this may well proaches, will come as no surprise. myth Waskow summarizes in the fol­ mean that what occurs in a church or For those unfamiliar with it, These lowing way: synagogue on Sunday or Saturday Holy Sparks will provide a primer for Divine energy poured into the will have no relationship to how wor­ Waskow and the movement he rep­ void, creating an utterly harmo­ shippers on those days conduct resents. His faith in the possibility nious, seamless vessel of super­ themselves during the other days of that Jews can and ought to create nal light-a holy universe. But the week. Or it may indicate that a open and participatory communities, God-energy was so intense that person who is punctilious regarding ones that are egalitarian, inclusive, its very holiness shattered the the ritual observances of religious tra­ and informed by a non-hierarchical, vessel it was shaping. The seam­ dition may totally ignore that tradi­ feminist ethic, is evident on virtually less vessel of supernal light ex­ tion's ethical teachings and be a every page of the book. He believes ploded into infinities of sparks. moral scoundrel. In view of this pre­ that such communities hold the key The sparks of holy light dis­ dicament, this "shattering" divisive­ for the "repair" of the world and the persed. Because they were no ness that marks modern life, These individual persons who dwell upon longer in touch with each other, Holy Sparks attempts to search for the it. because each now stood in isola­ wholeness necessary to "repair the Waskow's positions on a variety of tion, in alienation, each holy holy vessel." It outlines a program other matters are hardly unexpected. spark became obscured by a that will allow Jews to unite their For example, he decries the imper­ husk or shell of darkness and personal needs with their communal sonal synagogue where a rabbi-spe­ unholiness. At the root of every strivings, their spiritual quests with cialist delivers sermons and leads soul, every act, every relation­ appropriate forms of ritual and polit­ prayers for a passive audience. In­ ship in the universe we live in ical expression. stead, Waskow advocates the type of . is the darkened spark of Waskow thus takes as the subject learning and prayer that takes place holiness in exile (p. 1). matter of his book a vast range of in the intimate and intense havurah Yet, the message of the myth is not concerns which occupy the modern where To rah-discussions occur in cir­ one devoid of consolation. Waskow Jew. He attempts to provide an inte­ cles with persons facing one another continues: grated program for uniting them, a and where prayer involves the use of It is, said the Kabbalists, our hu­ drama, the arts, and body move­ man task-though with God's ment. Nor, to turn to another item, is It is the metaphor of shattering help--to gather the sparks, to his contention that the spiritual leg­ and restoration that provides bring them back in to a holy acy of Judaism can and ought to be the overarching theme of These whole, and so to remove the employed to direct the charitable ac­ Holy Sparks. husks of alienation that disguise tivities of the Jewish community them. How do we repair the holy shocking or particularly novel.