July 25, 2025

The anatomy of a concert. The anatomy of a country at a crossroads. The anatomy of a sacred journey.

It all combined for me in one evening, at Casearia, in the outdoor amphitheater, where the best of Israel perform. If you know me for a long time, you will roll your eyes when I tell you that it was Shlomo Artzi I went to see. It is probably my 15th time. He is like the Paul McCartney of Israel, The Singer of his generation. And the thing with me is that when I fall in love with a performer or band, I go until they are no longer able to sing. Artzi is 75.

My dear friend and colleague, Rabbi Dan Cohen (TSTI) and I took first year rabbinic student, Jay Ascher (grew up at TSTI and worked as our TBJ Youth Director….just the best) with a dear Israeli friend. After the show, I drove Jay back to Jerusalem and he once again reminded me of why he is going to be such an extraordinary and wise rabbi. During a 90-minute non-stop conversation, he told me that he kept on seeing all the stories within the story of the concert. I agreed but didn’t internalize what that meant to me until I woke up the next morning.

Picture the scene. This was pure Israel. There was not a word of English to be heard. It was hot but cooled with the Mediterranean breeze emanating from the sea, a few meters away. There was palpable excitement in anticipation of the show. And simultaneously there were equal amounts of anxiety and worry in the air. It has only been a few weeks since the war with Iran. Just in my three weeks here, there have been several evenings of missile attacks from the Houthis which almost never hit but do send us into bomb shelters. And of course there is still a hot war in Gaza. Soldiers are dying weekly; and there is indeed (reported here) a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Whatever you think about what got us here, those are the facts. And all of it is felt, seen through the microcosm at this concert. The dichotomy of the crowd singing and dancing with every word; and an underlying of not-so-subtle worry. Artzi is too plugged into the cadence of Israeli life not to intentionally affirm both sides of the dichotomy. He talked and sang about growing up in periods of war and terror. He spoke about the Covid era. He described how he toured the country to pay shivah visits to random families who lost family on 10/7; to sit with other family circles as they wait for their hostages to come home. He found at one of those Shivah’s an orphaned 23-year-old (parents killed on 10/7) with a unique voice and invited him to get up in front of thousands of people and sing as a picture of his slaughtered parents beamed on the screens. And finally, as his practice in this period, he invited several families who lost their children in battle to come to the concert. Artzi told their stories and offered comfort to the surviving parents and siblings, as the pictures of their lost souls were memorialized on the jumbotron. One of those families happened to be sitting in the row in front of us. I couldn’t stop looking at them, running imagined narratives through my mind. The crying mother, the father who couldn’t stand when asked, the sister trying to manage her parents’ (not to speak of her own) grief. All of them draped with long scarves with their son’s picture depicted. The emotion was too much to bear because their heart holes will never completely heal. And yet, the crowd and the performer, for a moment, made them remember they were not alone. At the end of the show, the father turned around, looked me in the eye….all I could do was offer a hand, an embrace….I thanked him for his son’s sacrifice, and I wished him heartfelt condolences from all of us. I am guessing I will never see this family again, but for a moment, the random interaction resonated.

The anatomy of a concert…of our Homeland at a crossroads….of a sacred journey almost at its end.

I have been teary knowing that I am leaving. Not sad that I am returning to my family and congregation. I have a rich and full life at home. It is just that part of my heart always remains here. It is a strange sensation to feel so at home in a place of so much paradox and complexity. I feel torn by it all. On one hand the sense that I feel more at home here than I do anywhere besides my home and TBJ. I walk through the streets speaking, eating, interacting freely, in ways that fill every crevice. And I don’t always understand it. I don’t understand because there are real problems. There is what has unfortunately become the obvious, neighbors who want to destroy us….trauma which has only been cumulative since 10/7. As a friend said to me this morning, no matter how tough you think we are, our society is utterly frightened. We see the hatred of Jews all over the world and that scares us even more. You don’t get used to going into a bomb shelter. I saw it myself last Shabbat when at Joel and Gail’s and we were sent into the shelter….and I saw the fear on their grandchildren’s faces; you don’t get used to being shot at.

And now there is for the first time, for many, an existential crisis about the war and its impact. I wrote to you last week and more polls continue to come out about how 83% of the population wants this war to end. People see soldiers dying weekly and Gazans are dying needlessly. And yes, the pictures of what clearly feels like an evolving famine have been plastered on newspapers. The debates rage. It is obvious that the food that does get into Gaza, much of it is being looted by Hamas, which only sustains their terror. And quite frankly there is no love lost by most Israelis for Gazans. They are not over the trauma of what happened here 21 months ago, but they understand that even the children of your enemy must be able to eat, have shelter and medicine. Bibi’s numbers continue to crater because he does not have the trust of the populace. 70% want him out of office, even after the miraculous handling of Hezbollah and Iran. They don’t seem to trust his rationale for why this war continues. They say there now must be some kind of diplomatic solution. They don’t want Hamas left there, but believe alliances are there to be formed to remove the evil group permanently. I asked a newer friend (connected deeply to the Nir Oz community) how he reconciles all of this…..the anger and pain and trauma with the imperative to feed, those who might want to kill you. He said, as only a secular Israeli could say it: If I were to sit next to God in my local café and asked what God wanted from him, God’s only response would be, “Act like a mensch”…that is why we cannot let them starve. Not only for them, but so we maintain our humanity as well.

And perhaps, that is why I feel as fulfilled as I do here personally, spiritually and intellectually…. because the dichotomy that we try so hard to avoid in most parts of our lives is living in all its intensity here….and somehow that intensity always has the potential to bring us balance and fulfillment….it does for me.

I only report what I read and hear from across the spectrum….as I asked last week, don’t react immediately, just take in the raw data of human, Israeli information. It is part of the reason I come here so much….for you to take in as much as I can report.
Talia has left and now it is just me to return. I am back in different parts of the States in short order, just not quite back to TBJ for a bit. I will be home to speak on August 1st at Services for a visit so I can fill you all in. Please come if you are around. In the meanwhile, I can’t tell you how much this space has meant to me….for you to read and a way for me to process it all. I am utterly thankful to our unique community for giving me this time. It means everything.

Shabbat Shalom and love from Jerusalem,
Matthew