views

guest column

Cramming Kabbalah?

I

t was a late
Tuesday after-
noon, and my
wife and I were get-
ting ready for our
first Kabbalah class.
“Did you read the
book?” she asked
Mark Jacobs
me.
“There’s a book?!”
I answered, and
suddenly that old
panicked feeling
I experienced from seventh grade
to law school came right back. My
immediate instinct was to go with
the old tried-and-true strategy that
worked for me years ago: cram.
But this wasn’t, of course, like
preparing for a history exam or
having to write a paper on Great
Expectations. This was Kabbalah,
which, even I knew, would not lend
itself to memorizing facts or faking
out an oblivious high school teacher.
No, this was very different. Our
teacher, Cantor Michael Smolash,
could certainly spot a Kabbalah
phony in an instant.
But how is one supposed to fit
mastering a complex subject into a
busy life? There are just too many
meetings, emails and phone calls
during the day and a super summer
schedule on Netflix at night. The
answer, of course, is that it can’t be
done, especially with something as
spiritually demanding as Kabbalah.
“Instant Karma” was a fun John
Lennon song, but I’m reasonably
sure it doesn’t exist. Kabbalah, just
like anything big and complicated,
cannot be quickly absorbed or
condensed into cute, catchy sound-
bites although I did check out the
Kabbalah for Dummies book on
Amazon (don’t judge me).
There’s an old story about Albert
Einstein when he was a profes-
sor at the California Institute of
Technology in the 1930s. According
to the story (possibly apocryphal),
one day a graduate student rush ed
into class and excitedly started
sharing a physics epiphany that had
come to him overnight. He hurriedly
began scribbling his new theory
on the chalkboard as Dr. Einstein
looked on. But shortly after he
began speaking, Einstein abruptly
cut him off and said, “Please. You
must s-l-o-w down. I think v-e-r-y
slowly.”
We all love having huge amounts
of information spoon-fed to us in
small bites. There are newspapers
(USA Today) and news channels

8

August 9 • 2018

jn

(Headline News) dedicated to doing
just that. We love to quickly grab the
main points and then convince our-
selves and others that we know what
we’re talking about. But it doesn’t
work that way. Truly absorbing com-
plex information requires time, a lot
of it. Unless our brains work at twice
the speed of Dr. Einstein’s, then we,
too, must slowly and methodically
trudge through the tedium of pro-
cessing difficult information.
This realization became especially
apparent to me during my last trip
to Israel, my second in two years.
Understanding the Middle East
and Israel is, after all, the ultimate
complex, seemingly insolvable
conundrum. It can’t be reduced to
paper-thin explanations or catchy
soundbites.

ADVOCATING FOR ISRAEL

Anti-Israel groups use catch phrases
like “Free Palestine” and “Boycott,
Divestment, Sanctions” and “apart-
heid state,” but they are all mislead-
ing and inflammatory, which makes
them so dangerous. The pro-Israel
community’s response to these slo-
gans must be more than just reciting
our own counter soundbites. We
must have a solid grasp of the flaws
of the anti-Israel soundbites and a
well-reasoned, deep factual analy-
sis of the issues. If we can’t answer
Israel critics ( Jewish and otherwise)
with thorough and compelling argu-
ments, then how can we expect oth-
ers to?
Recently, a friend of mine told
me about his nephew who was
involved in advocating for refugees
around the world. The young man
sounded like an incredibly bright
and committed guy, just the kind
of person the pro-Israel commu-
nity needs. When I asked my friend
how his nephew views Israel, my
friend grimaced and he told me his
nephew is very pro-Palestinian and
anti-Israel and actually involved
in the BDS movement. My friend
said he’s tried to talk to his nephew
about it, but that the young man
said he was unpersuadable, stating,
“I just always go with the oppressed
people.”
Sadly, we all know this isn’t an
isolated tale. I don’t know if this
kid can be dissuaded, but I know
we have no chance to change his
mind and others like him without
being able to articulate — as best
we can — the case for the historic,
strategic, military and moral rea-
sons why Israel matters and why it

must be supported. That’s no small
order, but that’s now the challenge
of pro-Israel advocates. We need to
be armed with more than just head-
lines, soundbites and cursory over-
simplifications. If we really believe
that our positions are just, then we
need to do the hard, tedious work of
real learning. That’s a tough home-
work assignment, but I’m afraid
that’s what these times call for.

Ryan Silberg and Lauren Had

SOURCES FOR LEARNING

Fortunately, there’s a plethora of
great sources that can keep one up
to date on events in Israel, including
the digital versions of the Times of
Israel, Jerusalem Post and i23NEWS
(all free). Each of these also sends
out breaking news alerts and analy-
ses in real time that are highly infor-
mative.
AIPAC’s website, even for those
who aren’t AIPAC donors, is also an
excellent source of information on
the political status of U.S. support
for Israel along with our govern-
ment’s efforts to assist Israel militar-
ily and otherwise.
For those who are slightly obses-
sive with real-time security news
from Israel, there’s an app called Red
Alert (also free) that literally sends a
siren (which can be silenced) telling
where and when rockets or missiles
are being launched at Israel. The
app is quite startling as it shows the
constant barrage that Israel faces,
and the user cannot help but realize
how shockingly silent the U.S. media
is in reporting these attacks.
The topic of Israel, it seems, is one
topic in which most everyone has a
strong opinion, which is great — as
long as those opinions are based
on facts. But all too often, those
opinions are just a regurgitation of
empty soundbites.
If we truly wish to understand
anything complex — especially
something as infinitely perplexing
as Israel and the Middle East — then
soundbites don’t cut it; we have to
put in the time and learn, and then
keep learning and learning.
That’s also true whether you’re
trying to teach physics to Albert
Einstein or, as I learned the hard
way, cram Kabbalah. •

Mark Jacobs is the AIPAC Michigan director
for African American Outreach, a co-director
of the Coalition for Black and Jewish Unity,
a board member of the Jewish Community
Relations Council-AJC and the director
of Jewish Family Service’s Legal Referral
Committee.

You can see the fingerprints on the artwork.

Teens Raise
Funds For
UMatter

Ryan Silberg of Novi and his friend
Lauren Had of Northville, both upcom-
ing seniors at Northville High School,
held a fundraiser at the Plymouth Art
Fair to benefit UMatter, a teen suicide
prevention program run through the
Friendship Circle.
Through their efforts, they raised a
significant donation for UMatter as well
as awareness about the wonderful and
important services UMatter offers.
The idea for the project came from
Lauren. A suicide of a student at
Northville High School last year encour-
aged her to act on her idea sooner
rather than later.
Lauren created a piece of art to raise
awareness of mental health and teen
suicide. Her idea was that people could
donate to the cause then place a fin-
gerprint on the artwork. Ryan reached
out to UMatter, an organization he
became familiar with from his member-
ship on the Detroit Jewish Fund Teen
Board, and the two partnered to have
a booth at the Plymouth Art Fair from
July 13-15. Lauren plans to donate the
finished artwork to UMatter.
Their efforts were very successful.
They collected donations of more than
$1,200 (consisting of mainly small dona-
tions) and raised awareness about the
UMatter program. Both Lauren and
Ryan are members of the UMatter teen
board for next year. •

