B"H

Finding God in The Hole of the Bagel

There are some experiences that can only be had in Israel when we are
amongst ourselves in our own home and at long, long last we can be
just exactly who we are. Last night I had one of those experiences
and it prompted me to write this piece. If you can understand my true
intent in writing this piece you will understand the reason for the
existence of the State of Israel.

Finding God In The Hole In The Bagel

I took my husband out for his birthday yesterday evening. We went to
a wonderful evening of music at a place that is called Ohel Avraham
Avinu (Our Father Avraham's Tent). The place is a bomb shelter,
which, like so many in Israel, is kept clean and in working order by
being used as some sort of a meeting place. Ohel Avraham Avinu is
decorated with comfortable chairs, tables, multicolor rugs on the
floors and multicolor scarves that hang from the center of the
ceiling and are attached to the bottom of the walls making the place
look like a very inhabitable tent indeed. The lead was Banjo Billy, a
recently religious singer-songwriter-musician who came to Israel
exactly one year ago (to the day) from Australia. He was accompanied
by another newly religious man who played guitar and harmonica and
third man dressed in full Chassidic regalia, replete with long black
coat and mink hat, who played mandolin. Banjo Billy introduced the
Chassid to the audience as the Head of the Yeshivah (religious
school) for newly religious young men that Banjo Billy learns in.

The audience consisted of the entire gamut of religious Jews:
Sephardi and Ashkenazy, newly religious, religious for many years,
born religious, newly married couples, couples who are great-
grandparents many times over, children. Some were dressed in very
typical, traditional Chassidic garb, some were dressed in Biblical
robes and long hair that the hippies tried to emulate, but no one
does it like us - the originals. Biblical garb is quite common and
becoming more and more popular in Orthodox circles because the
clothes are so comfortable and so very authentic. We just look like
ourselves dressed that way. As normal as it looks in Jerusalem or
Tzfat, it just wouldn't fly on Wall Street and would probably look
singularly "ethnic" even in Greenwich Village.

Among the teachings that Banjo Billy relayed to the audience by way
of the songs he has written since becoming religious is this: "You
don't have to be devout, if you have an open heart and mind you will
find God even in the middle of the hole of the bagel." At first it
just seemed like a cute image; but as I sat there listening to the
song the metaphor came back around at me and I sat there stunned. I
realized it is much deeper than one hears at first.

I realized that it is in the "holes" in my life that I should be
looking for God: in the things that I don't have, in the
disappointments and in the failures, in all the things I wish Israel
was and is not, in the many, many things that are not perfect that I
see around me, or as I wish they would be – and most especially for
me, in the lack of holiness in Judaism today – in the ignorance, in
the hypocrisy, in the fulfillment of the minutiae of minhagim,
whereas the most important mitzvoth d'Oreita are left unfulfilled.
It is there that I must look for God: in the hole in the middle of
the heart of the Jewish People.

Banjo Billy taught me that it is in the what is not that a very deep
revelation of God is found – a level far higher than the level of
Godliness found in the already realized.

I was not merely entertained – I was inspired and came away with a
precious lesson that I can cherish forever.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan
Tzfat, March 28, 2004

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