Friday, August 29, 2003
Sparks From Israel
The Love Parade
At the close of each summer is the city sponsored Love Parade. This festival gives the youth a chance to dance wildly all night and day and express their hedonism openly. But just like the inmates of Auschwitz who after concluding that G-d was dead broke off their discussions to pray Mincha (the afternoon prayer), so too, the city made sure that the party was over in time for many of these weekend Hedonists to be home for Shabbat. Oxymorons? Maybe.
Unlike the west where one’s Jewishness is expressed mostly by religious practice, here one’s bond to the Jewish people is national. The level of ones religious observance is not the determining factor of ones acceptance here, but rather ones choice to be part of the Jewish Nation, and to share in its destiny. Just as the Land beckons to love sick Jews from around the world to return, it also spits out those who don’t desire her, both religious and secular.
Those who dwell here, on the other hand, may fall into religion, or out of religion, or back again, but whatever point they are in, they are influencing the destiny of the Jewish Nation. There is a feeling of unity here that is not felt in the exile were everyone is completely free, and isolated, and to themselves. Here we are all traveling together and many worlds collide and overlap. For example the acid jazz beats and the psychedelic projection screens typical of a western ‘rave’ (dance party), are not so typical when the stage is also shared with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, blending Vivaldi with two live tribal drummers and electronics. The sound is spectacular and even more spectacular is the lack of a generation gap.
The high security surrounding the fenced in festivities are also unique. At each entrance there are heavily armed soldiers as well as small squads that patrol the grounds. The soldiers and the young people inside are roughly the same ages 18-21. Outside of Israel, 18 year old hippies dancing to trance music and soldiers with guns and ammunition, are not from the same society. What is unique here however, is that many of those dancing and grooving all night, will don their uniforms the next day and report for duty. I watched one girl ask a policeman to let her ride with him on his motorcycle, so he took her for a spin and came back. The lack of separation between uniforms, roles, ages, kippas, no kippas, is something unique to Israel. A nation that dwells alone, yet always together.
The Love Parade
At the close of each summer is the city sponsored Love Parade. This festival gives the youth a chance to dance wildly all night and day and express their hedonism openly. But just like the inmates of Auschwitz who after concluding that G-d was dead broke off their discussions to pray Mincha (the afternoon prayer), so too, the city made sure that the party was over in time for many of these weekend Hedonists to be home for Shabbat. Oxymorons? Maybe.
Unlike the west where one’s Jewishness is expressed mostly by religious practice, here one’s bond to the Jewish people is national. The level of ones religious observance is not the determining factor of ones acceptance here, but rather ones choice to be part of the Jewish Nation, and to share in its destiny. Just as the Land beckons to love sick Jews from around the world to return, it also spits out those who don’t desire her, both religious and secular.
Those who dwell here, on the other hand, may fall into religion, or out of religion, or back again, but whatever point they are in, they are influencing the destiny of the Jewish Nation. There is a feeling of unity here that is not felt in the exile were everyone is completely free, and isolated, and to themselves. Here we are all traveling together and many worlds collide and overlap. For example the acid jazz beats and the psychedelic projection screens typical of a western ‘rave’ (dance party), are not so typical when the stage is also shared with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, blending Vivaldi with two live tribal drummers and electronics. The sound is spectacular and even more spectacular is the lack of a generation gap.
The high security surrounding the fenced in festivities are also unique. At each entrance there are heavily armed soldiers as well as small squads that patrol the grounds. The soldiers and the young people inside are roughly the same ages 18-21. Outside of Israel, 18 year old hippies dancing to trance music and soldiers with guns and ammunition, are not from the same society. What is unique here however, is that many of those dancing and grooving all night, will don their uniforms the next day and report for duty. I watched one girl ask a policeman to let her ride with him on his motorcycle, so he took her for a spin and came back. The lack of separation between uniforms, roles, ages, kippas, no kippas, is something unique to Israel. A nation that dwells alone, yet always together.
