Micah Goodman | Yale University Press | 2020

Reviewed by Rabbi Dr. Stu Halpern

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In his The Wondering Jew: Israel and the Search for Jewish Identity, Micah Goodman seeks to bridge the divide between religious and secular Israelis and chart a path that avoids the trappings of extremism. Goodman, an Israeli public intellectual and the president of Beit Prat (a network of Israeli houses of study for young adults), argues that religious commitment can bring certain challenges. Those seeking full involvement with general society can often find their beliefs and practices bumping up against strict boundaries, clashing with humanistic values, or creating a sense of guilt. Secularism is not without its own hurdles. As Goodman documents, secular people are on the whole less happy in their lives and more inclined to be individualistic. And secular Israelis' identity doesn't seem to mark a continuation of the Jewish story if they refuse to see themselves as continuing to it in the first place. Furthermore, the current, divided Israeli population finds itself amidst the historical irony of a nation founded by secular Zionists that enshrines modes of religious coercion in its laws. Goodman traces the philosophical underpinnings of the present moment. The pre-state Zionists “dreamed of a liberated Jew, independent and fulfilled… Halakha [these Zionists] believed, trained Jews to be obedient, the opposite of Zionism’s intent.” For thinkers like Ahad Ha'Am, however, Goodman argues, religious Jews' "slavish" devotion to their past and rebellious secularists' renunciation of the Jewish past represented a break in Jews' relationship with history. Hayim Nahman Bialik, a student of Ahad Ha'Am, argued that "even if we need to create a new foundation, we should take the foundation stone from the foundation of tradition." Following in their footsteps, Goodman argues for a bridge through shared conversations within the tradition's texts and ideas. "[P]articipating in a tradition means taking part in a conversation about the tradition [without] confessional conditions for such participation." As the recent book #IsraeliJudaism shows, most Israelis actually share a common religious language and common practices (e.g., lighting Shabbat candles, celebrating Hanukkah, and experiencing a Pesach seder). In Israel, Jews can return to living Jewishly without God and without obedience to halakha—"to return to tradition without turning to religion." Using "the Mizrahi style of religion" as a framework, Goodman argues that it "presents an alternative to the hardline, legalistic form of Judaism…[and thereby] an alternative to the rebellious version of secularism," allowing Jews who might identify as "secular" to feel faithful to the past without feeling controlled by it. Urging a "self-confidence" on the part of both sides, Goodman hopes for a more open-minded, tolerant religious population, "attuned to their own sense of morality," alongside a "secular" population willing to be excited about opening up a page of Talmud and learning in a beit midrash. Summarizing his argument, Goodman urges a shared middle ground. Such a space could accommodate Religious Zionists, whose Zionism opens up fresh possibilities for Judaism, and secular Zionists, who are open to reconnecting with the past and their own terms. "Together," he writes, "they are paving a new path to a way of life that contains tradition but no certainty." Goodman ends by raising the possibility of Shabbat as a means of commonality between religious and secular. As he writes, Shabbat, independent of one's degree of fealty to its laws, reminds of the possibility of "islands of time… the Sabbath creates a space that allows our minds to be present where our bodies are. The greater our awareness of the vital need to repair the relationship between people and technology, the more relevant the Sabbath will become." And on the whole, as The Wondering Jew makes clear, greater awareness of the tradition and joint learning together stands to bridge the divide between Israel's religious and secular population. To read more Straus Center book reviews, click here. You can learn more about the Straus Center and sign up for our newsletter here. Be sure to also like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Instagram and connect with us on LinkedIn.