Two interesting Micah developments:

1. I was recently drawn into a Sunday morning conversation in our lobby. The topic: "Is our Micah community open and accepting of criticism of Israel and its varying governments' policies?"

2. A couple resigned their membership in the congregation for several reasons: the primary one was geographic, but one contributing factor was their perception that I personally endorse and defend every policy of every Israeli government and speak too much about Israel on the High Holy Days.

Should I be surprised by either of these? What is the role of Israel in Temple Micah? What is the place of Israel in American Jewish identity? What do I believe?

Personally, I consider myself a firm member of the Zionist Left. I am a strong supporter of Americans for Peace Now. I believe the settlement movement as driven by ultra-nationalist and Zionist Orthodox parties is extremely harmful to Israel, Judaism and peace. I believe that the settler movement began in the wake of the ecstasy and euphoria that followed the Six Day War, when leaders on both sides of the Israeli political aisle allowed themselves to believe that gratitude for the economic benefits of occupation would override the nationalist desires of Palestinian Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli leaders, through the 1970s and most of the 1980s, failed to recognize the Palestinians' desire to have their own story recognized by Israel.

I further believe that the Arab citizens of Israel (those living within the 1948- 19 7 border and representing 20 percent of Israel's population) enjoy more freedoms and better education, health care and other social benefits than any other Arab population in the world. Yet their situation should be far better than it is. The de facto second class status of Arab citizens remains a blight on the country. Still, it should not be overlooked that the Arab press within Israel is a totally free press. Arabs participate actively in Israel's vibrant democracy, Arab Israelis enroll in Israel's universities and Arabs serve as elected members of the Knesset.

I believe that American Jews have to rally as strongly to support Israel in the push for peace as we do when Israel is threatened by terrorism and war. Thus far, we as a community have not been as successful in our role as Rodfei Shalom, "Pursuers of Peace." I believe that peace will require painful compromises on both sides, Israeli and Palestinian, and that both sides will be required to be honest, to admit past mistakes and to recognize each other's narratives and claims.

Do I speak too much about Israel on the High Holy Days? My feelings for Israel run much deeper than my thoughts and opinions on the policies of any particular Israeli government and this, I feel, is what I do not communicate strongly enough. My stance is decidedly not "Israel right or wrong" or "Israel can do no wrong." My convictions, rather, are theological. Israel is part of my religious consciousness as a Jew--an integral reflection of the Torah as our religious guide. My connection to Israel is fundamental to my identity as a Jew. For me, Zionism is inseverable from Judaism.

With the dawn of Genesis, Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden for a split second and then are expelled for their sins. We learn immediately the Bible's message about home and exile. To have a home is a blessing. To be in exile is an affliction, a punishment, a burden on the soul. So exclaims Cain when he cries out, "My punishment is greater than I can bear," when God casts him out as a perpetual wanderer for the crime of killing his brother. The religious message of the Bible could not be more clear. Just a few chapters later, when the curtain goes up on Abraham, God immediately sends him to a distant land that is to be home--not only his, but the home for his descendants ever after. This is the Jewish story.

In the earliest stories, our people either are in that home or yearning to return to it. Modern Zionism is the latest chapter of this Jewish religious narrative that is the central defining Biblical theme from the beginning, literally.

My feelings for Israel are not, you see, simply political. Embedded in them is the very story of our people--the building blocks of our religious narrative. To live in a period when our people have returned to our historic homeland is, metaphorically speaking, to see the Bible come alive once again. Israel is the story of the Jewish soul. This is what Temple Micah Mitzvah Missions, our trips to Israel, are all about. Our people did not get to Israel yesterday. The Bible is the record of our ancestors' struggle to build a humane society in that land. In Israel today, you feel their--our--journey.

Given this, how can Israel--with its dreams and realities, its beauty and its warts, its heroes and its hustlers, its prophets and its fools, its achievements and its setbacks, its wisdom and its folly, its aspirations and, yes, its errors--all of it the miracle of Jewish life in our time, not be a constant topic of conversation within every Jewish community? And our opinions and ideas should be as free-ranging and voluminous as the Torah commentaries that comprise our greatest libraries. That is my dream for Temple Micah.