ANARCHISM  IN JEWISH AND MUSLIM TRADITIONS

 

 

An exchange I enjoyed with a woman on ANARCHISM.net in the body of the "Left and Jihad" thread was the afflatus of this treatment of Anarchist thought within Jewish and Muslim traditions. My interlocutor wrote that she thought that Muslim Anarchists are ex-Muslim Anarchists. Her reasoning was that Islam is not consistent or compatible with Anarchy and one must relinquish either the one or the other.

The following six paragraphs is my response to what she wrote.

I've been in touch with a number of Muslim Anarchists and the
overwhelming majority of them are not atheists. Their take on Islam is very similar to mine on Judaism. They are believers and find much truth in their Tradition, but they are totally non- and anti-authoritarian.

They also interpret all of the verses in the Qur'an in a humanistic manner. I do the same with the Torah. This requires some very creative interpretation and a lot of hard work.

I believe that the holy Scriptures of all of the religions with which I am familiar were meant to engage us in that creative interpretation. I believe we are intended to go beyond what the surface of the Texts seems  to say and get to the intention, which is always pro-Humanity. Sacred Texts never pit God against Humanity. We, the students of those teachings, are never asked to choose between God and Humanity. The correct interpretation of the Holy Scriptures of all religions is always the satisfaction of both. This is the true monotheism of Judaism and Islam. In Judaism we say: "God is One". That seems to be a merely numerical statement, but then the teaching goes on to say: "There is no other". That is to say, there is nothing that is not God. How, then, could there possibly be a breach between the ultimate welfare of Humans and God? The mystic tradition of Islam, Sufi, is similarly humanistic and absolutely monotheistic.

By getting used to thinking creatively and humanistically in our interpretation of sacred Texts, I believe we learn how to be creative about how to better society too. This type of thinking hones our skills as humanistic thinkers.

 

Both the mystic traditions of Judaism, the Kabbalah, and that of Islam, Sufi, bring their adherents to the same point: an unmovable, unshakable love of God and Man. The adherent becomes a juggernaut in the pursuit of justice for all Humankind, unstoppable either by the carrot or the stick.

It is not, therefore, necessary to reject religion in order to be an Anarchist. Atheism may be right for some, even most, Anarchists, but it is not right for all of us and is certainly not sine qua non for being an Anarchist. The idea for those of us who wish to stay within the framework of our Traditions even as we are dyed-in-the-wool Anarchists (I am an Anarcho-Communist à la Kropotkin), is to reject the distortions of religion and return them to their original intentions. This can only be done in religions without authority, without an established clergy who decide what the interpretation is and in religions purified of the equation of not observing ritual and ceremony with sin.

We most certainly need to respect and consult with a Council of Aged Scholars, but their authority cannot go beyond that which they receive by dint of the love, honor and awe they arouse in our hearts. Their role must be that of advisors, never that of those who have the final word. In the last analysis, having considered the opinions of a number of Elders and Sages, we must make the decision that feels right to us asking God for the wisdom to make the right decision, coupled with steadfast faith in Humankind, including ourselves, to arrive at a just and good decision. Our faith in God must always be matched by our faith in our fellow Human.

 

I recall once seeing a drawing of Joseph Merrick ('"the Elephant Man") and a computer simulated graphic of what he might have looked like had his deformity been corrected.  I was struck by how his face, as it should have been, was effulgent with the nobility of his character and the loving-kindness and sensitivity of his heart. I am reminded of that graphic often when I think of the excrescence that has attached itself to religion and what it will look like after we perform the necessary corrective surgery and lovingly, gently restore and rehabilitate it.

 

In our present state, slaves as we are to myriad superstitions, misconceptions, suppositions, prejudices, formulaic modes of thinking, rote and routine behaviors etc., and having had our childlike sense of wonder and fancy beaten out of us when we were still small and tender; when we encounter holy Texts we react in one of two ways:

 

We:

 

1) reject out-of-hand that which we have read, believing that we have comprehended that which we have read.

 

2)  accept what we read, believing that we have comprehended that which we have read, embrace what we think the teachings are and go about living according to our misconceptions. In other words, we worship our own misconceptions.

 

Both of these, seemingly diametrically opposed, reactions have one thing in common: In both cases we do not realize that filled as we are with memes, misconceptions, propaganda and all sorts of physical poisons that reduce our ability to perceive and cognate we haven't begun to plumb the depths of what those Texts are really saying.

 

It is for this reason that I call for the development of a way of life that will release us from our bondage upon bondage.

 

I believe that only in an Anarchy will we be able to commune not only with one another, but with the holy that resides within us, which we have been rendered incapable of accessing, except for fleeting moments and even that only to minimal intensity.

 

Only when we have become capable of communing with one another will we be able to really and truly commune with our Souls and develop healthy religions.

Practicing Muslim and Jewish Anarchists are very much in sync on this point and I think it is the kind of Anarchy most likely to be palatable and implemented here in the Middle East and in other parts of the world where Islam is practiced. I see the similarities between what Judaism and Islam could develop into in an Anarchy as common ground upon which these two historically cooperating, cross-fertilizing and mutually-enriching cultures could build a society characterized by peace, security and mutual trust.

 

In my youth I undertook a spiritual quest that went over a period of some twenty-five years.  I experienced God. I am aware that many consider those experiences to be delusions and that there is a burgeoning school of "neurotheology", which claims that religious experiences are nothing more than neurological epiphenomena. I will not argue with them. I will say only that the experiences that I had were not only very real to me, and that can be my only measure of reality; they set me on the path to Anarchy and I am not alone in having become indefatigably radicalized as a result of deep involvement in mysticism.

 

Magnificently sublime and rapturous as the religious experiences were, they were removed from the pain I saw all around me in this world and they were very isolating. I could not share that which I experienced with others. Worst of all, I could not alleviate people's suffering simply by virtue of the fact that I knew there is a God, that there are higher worlds than the one in which we live and that the Soul is immortal. While I communed with God widows and orphans languished. I could not stay in those rarified heights knowing there was so much suffering. I took leave to return to this reality.

 

Spiritual quests should not be undertaken for the sake of fleeing the unbearable in this world, as was mine. They should not be a desperate resort for a wounded Soul trying to find solace and meaning in a world that seems too cruel and absurd to live in and bear.

 

By all rights, the spiritual quest should be undertaken only when we have achieved a very high level of material security, moral human interaction and personal fulfillment.

 

When we live in a world described by free and fair trade, equality among all Human beings, mutual aid, respect for all sentient beings, maximum actualization of the Self and aid to others to actualize themselves in the material world we will discover that there is still something missing, something that we cannot attain from material welfare, well-being and prosperity alone. I have seen this occur many times to many people in secular Kibbutzim.

 

We are spiritual as well as corporeal and psychic beings and the fulfillment of all of those aspects of ourselves will become actual on the ground when and where they can meet – on the ground of moral and just living. The religious impulse will arise spontaneously and naturally within us as individuals and among us as societies and it will be an expression of organic unity that we, atomized as we currently are, are simply not capable of.

 

The time for that has not yet come. There is much groundwork to lay.

 

We are in a sickly, mutilated, truncated and stunted state. We are slaves. Our perceptions are not only distorted, they are highly constricted. That is because our freedom and self-expression is highly restricted. We are filled with negativity and mistrust. We are filled with every manner of fear, foreboding and trepidation, as our economic masters have conditioned us to be. We are filled with shame. We are filled with either suppressed or conscious rage and outrage. In either case we cannot express those justified feelings, lest we will be severely punished. Our bodies are poisoned and we have been trained to run to the comfort of substances and diversions in the small bit of free time that we have. We regard one another as competitors. Our eye is trained on the negative in others. We do not begrudge the next one hir successes and fulfillment because we have been taught that everyone is a competitor and there aren't enough resources to go around.

 

In such personal states of insalubrities inculcated in us by societies as unwholesome as ours we cannot possibly interpret and understand holy Texts properly. We do not possess the clarity and the refinement to perceive the Holy. Most certainly, we do not see it in one another as we vie with one another for our sustenance.

 

We see the very same negativity in holy Texts that we see in those around us and in ourselves.

 

There are, then, under the present social conditions, two possible reactions when encountering holy Texts. In both cases we read them on a most perfunctory level and wholly misunderstand them, but believe that what we see is what they are saying. We then do one of two things. We either reject that which we think we see out-of-hand. Or, we accept that which we see on the surface and live a religion that is little more than our own hallucinations.

 

A goodly number of religious figures gathered large followings within a relatively short amount of time. It has been my general experience in life that that which truly elevates the estate of Human beings does not become popular quickly. People do not let go of their manacles and gyves nor surrender their crutches readily. Those who are shackled have been taught that it is their shackles that sustain and support them and they are, therefore, desperate to hold on to them. They attack those who would divest them of their fetters viciously, perceiving those who would emancipate them as enemies who mean to harm them. Therefore, the fact that religions have caught on quickly makes them suspect in my eyes.

 

There is another matter that is of yet more concern to me. Although I would say that most people who set out on spiritual quests were sensitive Souls and well-intentioned, we see that not one spiritual path has ever alleviated human misery and poverty. I think the reason for this is eminently clear. Religious authorities do not change the physical and social conditions that cause people to want to flee from this world. They do not call for the elimination of classes, power structures and economic disparities. Quite the opposite. They encourage them, even making them obligatory. The adherents of religions are taught that it is sacrilege to defy or even question authority. The punishment for doing so is, in addition to the misery of this world that is taken as a given, unending, indescribable misery in the next world or forfeiting one's place in the World to Come altogether. It is, then, in the interests of those in religious power to keep this world rather unbearable so that they may constantly dangle the carrot of hope in the next world before their adherents if and only if they "behave" themselves. Thus far, all religions, no matter how sublime they may or may not have been in their inception, deteriorated into mass mind and behavior control by creating conditions of misery for the vast majority.

Not one religious establishment thus far, not a single one, has called for the elimination of power structures as a religious tenet. They cultivated a "this world-other world" illusory dichotomy. Rather than organized religions eliminating poverty and the dependence of classes upon others, they encourage it as one of their most central methods of concentrating power in the hands of some.

 

The shame of all the foregoing is that the kernel, the very Heart and Soul of religions, is precisely the equality of all to enjoy the fullest actualization of their potential, justice and ongoing emancipation from straits and constrictions. Due to the abuses of religious authorities, in addition to our presumptions about what the Texts say upon perfunctory consideration; we confound the injustices that have been introduced into religions with the nature of the religions themselves.

 

Today religion teaches us that we, as individuals, and we alone, are responsible for all of our unhappiness and ills. No blame whatsoever is put on our economic slave masters. If we are sad, sick or evil befalls us (all too often in the form of economic hardships) it is because we have been negligent in the performance of some ceremony, recitation of formulas or other magical rite. Of course, we are expected to tithe our incomes and to give some percentage to both our religions' priests and to the poor. We are not taught to eliminate poverty and differentials of power in society, or even that that is desirable. Most certainly we are not taught that it is obligatory to do so if we wish to adhere to our religions as they are intended to be. Rather, we are taught that neglecting to tithe (though putative charity is, in actuality, a system devised to perpetuate poverty by keeping the poor on the brink, while stuffing the pockets of the clergy) most certainly rains the wrath of heaven down on us, so we are taught.

 

For the present, then, the holiest work one can engage in and the only real spiritual practice available to us is the abolition of authority, of classes and poverty, with all their attendant ills so that we may be freed to become fully Human beings. This idea is expressed in a quote from the Preface to Part Two of RED EMMA SPEAKS by Alix Kates Shulman 1998. Shulman writes: "A rabbi who heard her lecture a large conference of clergymen on atheism probably came closer than the public to understanding her antireligious stand." In spite of all Miss Goldman has said against religion, he announced, "she is the most religious person I know."". Amen!

 

Religion cannot, must never be, concerned with the otherworldly. It must be an expression of our physical, psychic and spiritual natures. We are physical, psychic and spiritual beings always and inextricably. In a healthy society, one that is habitable for, and conducive to, people who are in a continual state of attaining their Humanity to express it, one aspect of our being is never sacrificed in favor of any other. Our profoundest spiritual yearnings are always expressed through our physicality, thoughts and emotions. It is only in this world that we can carry out the precepts of justice and express our love. Our task is to create a society in which the full acceptance of our own physical, mental and emotional natures, in immanence, is possible and can be expressed in our voluntary interaction and exchange with one another and the way we relate to the physical world.

 

Religion should never have to be a refuge for the economically, intellectually, emotionally and socially indigent. It cannot be a palliative for living in economic, intellectual, emotional and social squalor and deformation. We must never ask of religion that which we need from people and is not being fulfilled. If we do, that neediness makes us easy and certain prey to those who would demand all manners of unnecessary and even perverse behaviors in order to get that which we seek piteously when we turn to religion in our need. It is in our turning to religion for that which society must provide, that which we must demand and see to it that society provides, that we create organized religion and beg others to fulfill our needs by becoming "religious leaders" over us.

 

Just as emotionally healthy human beings do not wish to enter into emotional relationships on the basis of desperation or personal lack; so our spiritual-morality must proceed from us as full and materially and socially fulfilled human beings.

 

Religion must be the crowning achievement of having creating a just, providing and fulfilling society. It can never be a replacement thereof.

 

When we will have created just societies and attained Human stature; when we will have created a world that is inhabitable so that we may be grounded in this reality, in this world; we will, in wisdom, security and repose, turn to God for ultimate fulfillment, able to engage in a relationship with the Divine that is real and fitting for free Men, Women and Children. No more will we come to God as beggars bartering our Souls for our daily bread.

 

Although I have studied a bit of Sufi and have read the Qur'an, as someone who is not a practicing Muslim; I do not think it is my proper place to represent Islam other than very generally. Muslim Anarchists must speak for themselves. I do feel confident saying that there most certainly are practicing Muslim Anarchists today and Anarcho-Communism is in no wise contradictory to Islam, as evidenced by the writing of Abū Zayd ‘Abdu r-Raḥman bin Muḥammad bin Khaldūn al-Ḥaḍramī (May 27, 1332 AD – March 19, 1406 AD), simply known as ibn Khaldun (See: "Ibn Khaldun; a 14th Century Arab Libertarian", Source: anarkismo.net http://tinyurl.com/2ljek5). The reader can find more information about the polymath ibn Khaldun in this Wikipedia article: http://tinyurl.com/28alqm. Please note his remarks about the Jews and Judaism in the body of the Wikipedia article. He is quite right in his assessment of Jews not desiring the expansion of our religion (Judaism is not only not  a conversion religion, we discourage conversion because we are aware of how difficult a religion ours is to follow). He was also absolutely correct in his statement that for four hundred years after the time of Moshe and Yehoshua bin Nun, Jewish society was an Anarchy. All disputes were indeed settled by consulting with Elder Sages. The suggestions of the Elder Sages were not enforceable by rule, power or any type of agency. He is also correct about the fact that after that four hundred year long period the Jewish people believed that they should establish a kingdom, but not because they were harassed and attacked by various nations, as he claims. They wished to establish a kingdom because the Prophet Shmu'el's sons were corrupt and they could not trust them to continue the Tradition of the Prophets. Ibn Khaldun is entirely wrong, however, about the fact that the Prophet Sh'mu'el was in agreement with that request. The Prophet was, in fact, wholly against the establishment of a king of flesh and blood over Israel. (See: The Book of Shmu'el I, Chapter 8; http://tinyurl.com/25h7ec). Ibn Khaldun also erred in stating that Sha'ul slayed Goliat of Gat and in saying that Goliat was ruler of the Philistines. Goliat was merely a fierce and redoubtable fighter. As is commonly known, it was, in fact, the young David, long before he became king, who was the slayer of Goliat. (See The Book of Shmu'el I, Chapter 17: http://tinyurl.com/3xjkey ).

 

Every means of support should be extended and every expression of solidarity should be shown to those intrepid and lonely Souls who have the courage and the insight to embrace both Islam and Anarchy. Tremendous hope for peace among Humankind resides within their efforts.

 

Our earliest record of Jews having lived communally comes from the time of Elisha the Prophet and there is every reason to believe that he inherited that tradition from his Teachers. We learn from the Book of Kings II, Chapter 4, Verses 38 – 44 that the followers of Prophets, called B'nei Nevi'im, the Spiritual children of Prophets, lived communally and took their meals communally. We learn from these passages that eating communally results in abundance. The first three verses of Chapter 6 in the same Book not only demonstrate that the Prophet Elisha and his students lived communally; we see that one of the Prophet's students refers to himself and the other students as the Prophet's "servants" out of respect. Yet, he enjoins the Prophet to come with them to build the new house, and the Prophet assents. Certainly, this is not a relationship of master over slavish devotees.
 
Likewise, HaYachad (as they called themselves, meaning the Ones Who are Unified, a derivative from the Hebrew 'chad', meaning 'one; uni-, mono-), more commonly known as "the Dead Sea Sect" and also as "the Essenes" (probably from the Aramaic 'assouta' meaning healing, for they were renowned for their knowledge of health and healing), the sect of very pious Jews during the Second Temple Period who wrote and preserved the Dead Sea Scrolls, lived communally according to their reports about themselves; the writings of Josephus Flavius, who lived amongst them (some are of the opinion that he wished to join their Community, but was not accepted); the observational reports of Philo; an account by Pliny the Elder and contemporaneous reports of their way of life based on archeological evidence. They, like the Prophets and their students, took all their meals communally. A large communal dining hall was built for this specific purpose. Their community and their habit of communal dining, as witnessed by Josephus, are described by him in Chapter VIII of his WARS OF THE JEWS. There he writes: "These are despisers of riches…Nor is there any one to be found among them who hath more than another; for it is a law among them, that those who come to them must let what they have be common to the whole order – insomuch, that among them all there is no appearance of poverty or excess of riches, but every one's possessions are intermingled with every other's possession; and so there is, as it were, one patrimony among all the brethren." Josephus' description of their communal dining is borne out by the archeological evidence of their dining hall that was discovered at Qumran. Communal dining always was, and remains, an important aspect of life on Kibbutz as well.

 

Rabbi Hillel Livlin of Shklover, the grand-nephew and disciple of the famous Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Kramer, the Ga'on (Genius) of Vilna (1720-1797; See: http://tinyurl.com/ccwdh  http://tinyurl.com/a9mzr http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilna_Ga'on ) wrote the very mystical work KOL HATOR, meaning VOICE OF THE TURTLEDOVE, - the latter term being a designation for the Messiah found in the Song of Songs, 2:12. Rabbi Livlin of Shklover did not simply interpret the passages in the Bible that I will quote presently to mean that one must not use unfair weights and measures when conducting commerce, as they are usually interpreted. He went much further than that. He said that the passages actually mean that the Messianic Age cannot come until there is economic equality in Israel and he was basing his interpretation on ancient sources. The passages that speak of the demand for equality most clearly are: Deuteronomy 25: 13- 16. There we read: "Thou shalt not have in thy bag diverse weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thy house diverse measures, a great and a small. A perfect and just weight shalt thou have; a perfect and just measure shalt thou have; that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. For all that do such things, even all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God." The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text, The Jewish Publication Society translation [1917].

 

Rabbi Livlin's interpretation is astounding, for it means that only in an Anarcho-Communistic society will the inner Torah, the Torah as it will appear during the Messianic Age, be revealed. Therefore, that society must be founded previous to the Messianic Age. We cannot wait for the Messianic Age in order for perfect economic justice to be brought about. We are invested with the responsibility to create that society, not the Messiah.

 

The most startling example of a Jewish mystic who propounded Anarcho-Communistic ideas known to me is that of Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag. Rabbi Ashlag was aware of Marxist theory, but was wholly in disagreement with the authoritative aspects of it. He arrived at Anarcho-Communism through his study of the Kabbalah. Evidently, he was not aware of the writings of the Anarchists, with which his own teachings were in full agreement. I surmise this because though the concepts he speaks of, which he termed "altruist Communism" are pure Anarcho-Communism; he employed Marxist, not Anarchist rhetoric.  (See the heading "Teachings" on this link: http://tinyurl.com/ywuydc).  The personal notes of David ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel, who belonged to the Labor Party, reflect the fact that he and Rabbi Ashlag met on a number of occasions. Ben Gurion wrote: "While I wanted to speak with him about the Kabbalah, he wanted to speak to me about Socialism and Communism". [My translation. Quoted from the article in Hebrew, the title of which I render as "Arriving at Communism by Way of the Kabbalah". See: http://tinyurl.com/3xeqxe]. That same article speaks of the close friendship that Rabbi Ashlag enjoyed with Avraham Yitzchak Kook (1864–1935), the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi during the time of the British Mandate for Palestine, who was renowned for his devotion to the mystic tradition of Judaism as well. While Rav Kook did not call for Anarchy or Anarcho-Communism, as did his dear friend Rabbi Ashlag, he did see the Kibbutz Movement, including the secular Kibbutz Movement, as part of the heralding of the Messianic age.

 

The reader is referred to the Wikipedia article "Anarchism and Orthodox Judaism", which can be found on this URL:  http://tinyurl.com/ypy76h , for yet more general information on the subject of Jewish orthodoxy and Jewish mysticism and their relation to Anarchism, particularly Anarcho-Communism and, to a lesser extent, Anarcho-Syndicalism.

 

I am of the mind that religion will not disappear in an Anarchist society. It will simply get saner and healthier. I've seen this phenomenon on Kibbutz as I mentioned in passing above. I will elaborate a bit on the matter at this juncture. There is a great deal of very healthy religious experimentation going on in Kibbutz.

 

Kibbutzim are of quite various sizes, ages, demographic mixes, religious orientations and places along the generally Left political spectrum. Traditional Kibbutzim, those from the original Kibbutz Movement, are all based upon some mix and balance of agriculture, horticulture and industry. Though the Kibbutz Movement assumed an Anarchistic, rather than a Communistic, configuration; they were initially influenced by Marx far more than the Anarchists. They arrived at the realization that creating communities based on agriculture, horticulture and industry was the most stable economic structure after experimenting, independent of Kropotikin's ideas.

 

When people start out being completely secular and have their every material need and want provided for, they often find that something is missing. They search for something more profound.

 

I have witnessed in the secular Kibbutz Movement, on wealthy Kibbutzim the residents of which have all of their socio-economic needs provided for quite lavishly indeed, that a feeling of superficiality and meaningless begins to creep into the hearts and minds of a good percentage of the members. They begin to feel that, though they have everything they need and want materially, something profound is yet missing. Some of those who feel that way, and they are a goodly number, turn to religious studies and practices, which involve, more often than not, specifically Kibbutz-inspired innovations and improvisations.

 

They turn to religion not in desperation, not in fear, not in loneliness and not in insecurity or need. They turn to religion for a final fulfillment.

 

The religion that they consider is based on their traditional religion, but they are not afraid to experiment with new forms of ceremony, less so with ritual, or discard that which does not seem meaningful to them. They feel free to innovate, to question and to improvise. This to my mind is all very healthy and I believe that were we all living in a communalistic society, as are the members of the Kibbutz Movement, this seminal spiritual/moral enterprising would arise spontaneously and would prove to be fecund, producing new expressions of ancient religions and new religions that would provide the deepest fulfillment of the Human experience.

 

Over the period of the last two decades or so, all sorts of synagogues and religious study halls have been erected on formerly wholly secular Kibbutzim. Our own Kibbutz, Kibbutz K'far HaChoresh, was the host Kibbutz that trained the people who built the first Conservative Kibbutz, Chanaton. I met my husband Daniel, a long-time member of Kibbutz K'far HaChoresh, when he came to complete a prayer quorum in the synagogue that was built by Kibbutz K'far HaChoresh for their Conservative trainees. My husband's uncle established a synagogue on his formerly staunchly secular Kibbutz, K'far HaMaccabee, after he survived a massive heart attack. A regular prayer quorum soon formed among the members of Kibbutz K'far HaMaccabee. I lived on and worked for awhile on Kibbutz Ya'hel, the first Reform Kibbutz. I am also acquainted with people from the Religious Kibbutz Movement, which is part and parcel of the General Kibbutz Movement.

 

Celebrations of "Pentecost" (Shavu'ot in Hebrew) on Kibbutzim are particularly interesting. Shavu'ot was originally the holiday of the bringing of the first fruits of harvest to the Temple. On Kibbutz the members celebrate the holiday in their own special way. Except on the religious Kibbutzim, it is celebrated as a secular holiday, emphasizing the agricultural aspects. The Kibbutz members throw in their own experience. Brightly-painted tractors, as pictured on the links immediately below, have nothing whatsoever to do with the holiday. They are brought into the celebrations on secular Kibbutzim because they are so much part and parcel of Kibbutz everyday life (See: http://tinyurl.com/2sn2s6 and http://tinyurl.com/2sn2s6 ), while the wreaths in the hair of the children, the palm fronds and the laying out of cornucopia are traditional expressions of the holiday of Shavu'ot (See: http://tinyurl.com/38tfr7 and  http://tinyurl.com/38tfr7 ). Of course, the flowers and the fruits are Kibbutz produce that they grow for market. The fronds most likely come from the lovely palm trees that adorn the vast majority of traditional Kibbutzim.

 

On our Kibbutz, K'far HaChoresh, we used a Kibbutz Movement version of the Passover Hagadah (the reader out of which the proceedings of the festive Passover dinner, called the Seder in Hebrew, are read), which reflected the communalism of the modern Kibbutz experience rather than reading from the traditional Hagadah, which is written in the language of the religious experience of the sages of the Talmud, which most modern, secular Kibbutz members cannot relate to.

 

An exciting new development in Israeli society is the flowering of the Urban Kibbutz Movement. Having learned from the mistakes of the original Kibbutzim, many third and fourth generation children of Kibbutz have been leaving their own Kibbutzim, which were traditionally isolated communities, and founding small Kibbutzim (called K'vutzot) in cities together with other communalistically-minded young people who hail from society-at-large. Urban K'vutzot tend to be groups of about 35 to 40 people. This allows a form of democracy that is very direct and wholly participatory. They aim toward consensus decisions, which of course require a lot of deliberating, and tend to reach them.

 

Urban K'vutzot intentionally set up house in underprivileged areas and development towns. They have developed many outreach programs for the needy from all walks of life and hailing from all age groups. The city of Haifa specifically asked the Working and Learning Youth Movement, the Leftist youth movement that trains young people who wish to live on Kibbutz, to begin an Urban K'vutza in that city in a neighborhood experiencing a great deal of juvenile, both Jewish and Arab, drop-out and crime. They did so and have had remarkable success working with youth at risk.

 

One of the Urban Kvutzot, Kibbutz Reishit in Jerusalem, is made up of members all of whom are traditionally religious. Another, K'vutzat Reut (see: http://www.reut.org.il/ ), is a group of both religious and non-religious members. Kibbutz Tammuz in Beit Shemesh, the oldest of the Urban Kibbutzim, is experimenting with finding a form of Judaism that reflects and accommodates their lifestyle (see: http://tinyurl.com/ypxxg2 and http://tinyurl.com/2obv9s ). Kibbutz Eshbal has developed outreach programs to help Bedouin populations (see: http://tinyurl.com/2637qt and http://tinyurl.com/2637qt ). Projects such as these hold out the hope of cultural and religious cross-fertilization. Historically, before the imperialist invasion of the British in the Middle East, Jews and Muslims enjoyed a condition of being good neighbors, mutual support in commerce and trade and a great deal of educational, cultural and religious interchange and exchange. It is well known that the traditions of the Kabbalah and Sufi cross-fertilized one another. The British disrupted this during the period of the Mandate, in order to "divide and conquer", as imperialists always do. I have heard this from both Jews and Arabs whose families have been in this area for many generations.

 

Religious experimentation, then, abounds in the Kibbutz Movement and we can hope to see a great deal of innovation and flowering of healthy religious practice in the near future.

 

In summation: While no religious Anarchist would presume to foist any beliefs, and all the less so practices, whatsoever on another, most certainly not hir specific beliefs and practices; the provenance of religious Anarchy is the very purest, most loving, most enduring and most humanistic in religion.

 

 

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel

[email protected]