Preventing civil war: closing the religious rift

In a dynamic, fast paced exhortation on Sunday night, Rabbi Dr. Seth Farber laid bare the rift between the religious and marginally or not religious segments of Israeli society and the struggle to heal this wound that, if allowed to fester, could lead to civil war.

Twenty men and women listened attentively in the Young Israel of North Woodmere as Farber presented cases and dilemmas he faces as founder and director of ITIM: The Jewish-Life Information Center, an organization that assists Israelis with the legal intricacies of personal status-marriage, divorce, conversion and burial. Its services are free.

He opened his talk with a quote from Yeshayahu (Isaiah), the part read on fast days, that Isaiah prophesized when he “was certain that he was standing at a transformative moment. ‘Thus says G-d, seek justice and righteousness because my redemption is about to come. Blessed is the person who grasps this covenant by observing Shabbat and behaving properly with your fellow human beings.’” Farber stated that this is a “pretty normative prophecy” and then Isaiah introduces two people, a convert and a man who can’t have children. If they observe the Shabbat and behave properly to their fellow man they will not be “separated out” but “I will give them an everlasting memorial, I will give them something better than children.” These people feel marginalized but the prophet proclaims, “we can find a space for you at the center,” explained Farber. The convert has no past and the eunuch has no future but here he said G-d will “bring you to the Temple and you’ll be a part of it.” Essentially, noted Farber, Yeshaya said “’the whole geulah is only relevant if I can take people from the margins and put them in the center.’ That was 2500 years ago.”