Spotlight on CLAL
Welcome to Spotlight on CLAL. Here you will find stories about what is happening at CLAL and about the work that CLAL is doing across North America. Sometimes we will focus on a program, or a special event, or upon a CLAL faculty member's work and interests. Bookmark this page if you want to get to know us better.
To access the Spotlight on CLAL Archives, click here.
CLAL At The Washington National Cathedral
By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs
In February, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, CLAL Vice President, participated in a five-part series on faith, doubt, and evil at the prestigious Washington National Cathedral. Drawing on the award-winning documentary, “Faith and Doubt Beyond Ground Zero,” which aired on “Frontline” (PBS) on the anniversary of the tragedy, the series brought together several of the film’s participants for five evenings of lecture and discussion. Rabbi Hirschfield led the fourth session, where he talked about religion and violence.
“There is a seductiveness in absolutism,” said Rabbi Hirschfield. “We all hunger to know with certainty who we are, where we come from, and what is right and wrong. The danger is in not seeing or hearing anyone with whom you disagree, or worse still, making them go away.”
Rabbi Hirschfield talked about his own experiences in the 1980s as a settler in Hebron, one of the most contentious cities in the West Bank. “At first, there was a sense that we were reclaiming Jewish land and that we could do no wrong. But that certainty became a betrayal of my beliefs that the sacred is infinite. There has to be room for us all.”
In much of his presentation, Rabbi Hirschfield emphasized that all religions must admit to own their dark sides, and that the challenge for traditions was to find a way to both honor their own particularity while participating in the wider world. “Religion drove those planes into the Twin Towers,” he said of the tragic attack of 9/11, but added that “we must see the underbelly of our own traditions, or we’ll be no better than the perpetrators we decry.”
Following his presentation, a conversation with the audience took place. Rev. Dr. Michael Wyatt, Canon Theologian of the Cathedral, moderated. Many in the audience asked how one could both deeply love his or her path while recognizing that it was not the only path. Rabbi Hirschfield responded that one could be passionately spiritual without being fanatically absolute.
Helen Whitney, the filmmaker of the award-winning
documentary, led the fifth session later in the month.
To access the Spotlight on CLAL Archives, click here.
To receive the Spotlight on CLAL column by email on a regular basis, complete the box
below:
