Shalom,
Last week I received an unusual number of responses for my weekly article and I'd like to thank you all for writing.
I'd like to share with you one of the emails I received and was written by a dear congregant: "Certain rituals we do not observe to-day and I wonder how to explain that. Nothing can change my deep deep belief in G-D. .."
This email reminded me a study I read a few weeks ago conducted by the Gutman institution for democracy where it was published that 80% of Israeli Jews believe in God.
The study was compared to the one made in the mid 90's by the Hartman institute. The new study reveals that more Jews today believe in God than 15-20 years ago and more Jews today define themselves as religious or observant. Similarly less Jews see themselves as anti religious or secular.
3% see themselves as anti religious (compared to 6%); 43% secular (previously 46%), 32% traditional (previously 33%), 15% religious (previously 11%) and 7% Haredi (previously 5%)
Even though 46% of Israeli Jews see themselves as secular it doesn't mean they do not believe in God or in Judaism. 77% believe a "super power" that controls the world, 72% of them believe that prayer has the power to influence one's state, 67% believe that Jews are the chosen people and 65% believe the Torah and commandments were given by God.
34% believe that a Jew who does not perform Mitzvot dangers all Jews. 77% of Israeli Jews believe in reward and punishment, 56% believe in life after death and 51% believe in the coming of the Messiah.
A very high percentage see great importance in rituals of life cycles events: 94% with regards to Brit Milah, 92% with regards to Shiva, 91% with regards to Bar Mitzvah, 90% when it comes to reciting kaddish, 86% with regards to burial according to Halacha and 83% with regards to a Bat Mitzvah.
80% believe marriage should be performed according to Halacha but at the same time 51% believe Israel should have civil marriage as well.
Even though 65% believe in the commendams as the word of God only 30% said they keep Shabbat. Most Israeli Jews observe traditional practices like spending time with family (84%), have special meal (69%) lighting candles (66%) or making Kiddush (60%). Not with standing 65% would watch TV or listen to the radio, 52% surf the net, 37% go on sports activity or go the beach, 29% go out or dine out, 16% go shopping and 11% would go to work.
Similarly to Shabbat we find that 85% of Israeli Jews think it's important to celebrate Jewish holidays according to the tradition. 82% light the Chanukah Candles, 68% fast on Yom Kippur, 67% would not eat Chametz on Pesach, 36% would read Megilat Ester on Purim and only 20% would learn Torah on Shavu'ot night.
76% of Jews in Israel keep Kosher in their homes but only 70% would follow the same practice outside. 63% would never mix dairy and meat and 72% would not eat pork.
71% think it's important to learn Torah but only 10%-20% actually do that.
There are many more interesting facts in this study but I think that the conclusions are clear. While vast majority of Jews in Israel believe in God and the importance of Judaism and tradition, when it comes to practice things are quite different. There's always a gap between what we believe in and what we are willing to do for this belief.
Faith is a connection man and God and at least in Judaism it is not all or nothing approach. There's not only one way to feel connected to God and practice Judaism.
Pesach is called also the holiday of freedom and my hope is that we'll all remember to respect the freedom of choice each Jew has. We might have a freedom to choose a form of practice but we have an obligation to respect every choice.
Tehilah, Yehudit and I are looking forward to seeing you all during Pesach and wish you Chag Same'ach and a Zissen Pesach.
Shabbat Shalom form Jerusalem,
Cantor Arik Wollheim
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