Idealism through Objects: A Vision of Maale Gilboa
By
Elisha Fine
Abraham Joshua Heschel is amongst the most fashionable philosophers in Maale Gilboa. Heschel's thick book God in Search of Man (1955) is creased and tattered from continuous reading. The Yeshiva's one copy of The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (1951) has been passed around extensively. There is even a student who has made it his overarching goal to consume the whole of Heschel's bibliography. Why is Heschel so popular? Using that question as a springboard, I will examine objects that exemplify the principles of Maale Gilboa.
The Schedule
We identify with Heschel because he shares with us an obsession with time- and more specifically the organization of time. He states in The Sabbath:
Jewish Ritual may be characterized as the art of significant forms in time, as architecture of time. Most of its observances----the Sabbath, the New Moon, the festivals, the Sabbatical and the Jubilee year---depend on a certain hour of the day or season of the year. It is for example, the evening, morning, or afternoon that brings with it a call to prayer. The main themes of faith lie in the realm of time… (The Sabbath, page 8).
For many students at Maale Gilboa, the construction of this "architecture of time" is expressed through an object: the daily schedule sheet. This sheet is taped to many desks in the Yeshiva and utilized by most students. In its most basic form, the sheet lists all the classes of the week but most students customize the sheet to reflect their own schedules. Looking down from this computer to my desk-mates' schedule sheet, I can see how his time is constructed. He only includes the classes which interest him, and by extension excludes those classes which do not. I see that every Monday and Thursday he runs. He dedicates Wednesdays' to composing stories. My desk-mate wrote next to seven o'clock shaharit---"write day's goals"; but in a sense he already has written his goals. The reminders printed on the schedule serve a greater function then simple memory aids: they represent his-- and our-- principled struggle to impart meaning into the Yeshiva day. In my desk-mates' own words: "the schedule is the best day I can have.
This is an example of a typical schedule sheet:
מערכת שעות – זמן חורף תשע"א –
| יום ראשון | יום שני | יום שלישי | יום רביעי | יום חמישי | |
| 6:45 | לקום... | ||||
| 7:00 | שחרית ולכתוב מטרות ליום | ||||
| 8:00 | ארוחת בֹקר | ||||
| 8:45 | הרב יהודה – שו"ת | ועדים – הרב יהודה/הרב יוסי | הרב יהודה – שערים למחשבה הרב קוק | חזי – תנ"ך | ועדים – הרב יהודה/הרב יוסי |
| 9:30 | שעור פתיחה – הרב יוסי | ||||
| סדר עיון – עידן שרעבי | |||||
| 11:45 | שעור עיון – הרב יוסי | ||||
| 12:45 | ארוחת צהרים | ||||
| שנ"צ | ריצה | 13:30 – 14:00 הרב יהודה – אורות הקודש/עין איה. | ריצה | כתיבה יוצרת | ריצה |
| 15:00 | מנחה | ||||
| 15:20 | הרב טל – משיבת נפש | הרב יהודה – אקטואליה בהלכה ובמחשבה | הרב ביגמן – תושב"ע על תושב"ע | הרב זאביק – מבוא לחסידות | הרב יהודה – פרשת שבוע |
| 16:30 | סדר בקיאות | ||||
| 18:10 | לקרוא 'בהר מתוך האש' | הרב מאיר – מסילת ישרים | הרב זאביק – תפילה | הרב ארז – כה אמר | חזי - תורה |
| 19:00 | ארוחת ערב | ||||
| 19:45 | ערבית | ||||
| 20:00 | ליקוטי מוהר"ן – עידן וחמי | מסילת ישרים - טוביה | נעם אלימלך – שמואל | מסילת ישרים - טוביה | פ"ש ביקורתית - אוהד |
| 20:30 | חובת הלבבות - שאול | פ"ש ביקורתית - אוהד | לקרוא – 'אחד היה ישעיהו | חובת הלבבות - שאול | איש האמונה – ג'ו ג'ו |
| 21:00 | שמונה קבצים - אשר | איש האמונה – ג'ו ג'ו.ב"ח - נתן | ליקוטי מוהר"ן – עידן וחמי | ||
| 22:00 | הרב יוסי – אבות דרבי נתן | דבורה ליס - אומנות | חזי – בקיאות תנ"ך | הרב ארז – ליקוטי מוהר"ן | ראשי הישיבה - שיחת חובה |
| 23:00 | כושר | כושר |
The Mountain
There is a stark separation between time spent in Yeshiva and time spent outside, specifically because we live on a mountain. The mountain feels exceedingly remote, though it's not really so high nor so far from “civilization.” Travel here is difficult. Hitchhiking (called in Hebrew “tramping”) is the only way up or down the mountain except for a bus that grudgingly stops in the kibbutz once a day.
Birds migrate here from Asia, Africa and Europe in droves. Craggy and unordered rock formations jut from the hills. Winter brings cold howling wind and twilight hills bathed in purple light. The mountain is our refuge; our physical and symbolic wall that separates the world outside from the monastic realm of the ordered time.
Architecture
The symbol most commonly used to represent the Maale Gilboa is the Yeshiva buildings itself. The built structures of the Yeshiva are thoroughly modernist.
The modernism of the Yeshiva building as well as those in the kibbutz is a direct descendent of an earlier Israeli modernism that begins with the Bauhaus architecture of Tel Aviv—what they now call the “White City.” Bauhaus architecture uses clean lines, eschews superfluous decoration and generally avoids color and instead favors pure monochrome white.
The Yeshiva building shares many of these features. The lines of the structure are clean and geometrical. In true Bauhaus fashion, the interior of the Beit ha-Midrash is entirely white and free of “superfluous” decorations. The architecture of the Yeshiva building is not neutral, but reflects a specific, though implicit, ideology. A passage written by a student of the German Bauhaus school perhaps best describes the appeal the movement to Israeli architects and to an extent the builders of Maale Gilboa:
Like me, many of them [students in the Bauhaus school] had terrible experiences in the War. We were inspired by the desire to work for a new, better and more peaceful world. Some of the student wanted to escape from the intellectual and spiritual confusion of the post-war world; they hoped they would find the path to more purposeful existence at the Bauhaus (Whitford 177).#
Zionist architects built in the Bauhaus and later modernist styles because they represented the impulse to literally build a new and utopian future from the ashes of the old world.# They attempted to build a future thoroughly connected to the modern world; a future in which national hatreds-- a pertinent issue both to Jews and Germans in the early twentieth century-- would be forgotten. It is not for naught that Bauhaus architecture is often called the International School. The architecture of the Yeshiva building declares those who study within to be sympathizing with the future oriented tradition of the Bauhaus that is shared with almost all kibbutz architecture in Israel.
Large segments of the Yeshiva building, including the library and outside walls are constructed from local limestone, what we call “Jerusalem stone"--Jerusalem stone is not a material typically used in modern construction outside Jerusalem. The explanation for this odd mixture of white modern architecture and traditionalizing stone masonry can perhaps best be explained by discussing an object: the Maale Gilboa sweatshirt.
On the back of the shirt is a drawing of the Yeshiva. It rests on the clouds, and in the corner a flying cow leaps over the Yeshiva building. This image is a fantasy a symbolic representation of an ideal, and yet the architecture of the building itself does not suggest a uniform vision. The modern tower is depicted using stark simple lines, and the Jerusalem stone walls and tower are drawn with a jumble of squares. This contrast between the stone and glass towers harkens subtly to Israel's two architectural centers: Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The architecture of these two cities often represents two entirely different and perhaps contradictory views of reality. The Jerusalem stone asserts this building as connection to the antique past and religion, while the very contemporary, glass enclosed architecture of contemporary Tel Aviv shows the Yeshiva as thoroughly in tune with, and indeed leading the vanguard of the modern world. In the tee-shirt imagery, the silhouette of the Temple (itself modeled on the imaginary Temple model now at the Israel Museum) looming behind the Yeshiva building that combines the two visions. The Temple represents and combines the missions of the two otherwise disparate architectures. The Temple provides a symbol that allows the student in Yeshiva to strive toward a restoration of the ancient idyllic yet thoroughly modern past represented by the Jerusalem stone, as well as the creation of a messianic, utopian and entirely modern future. The architecture of Yeshiva building as shown on the sweatshirt—seemingly the most mundane of objects, allows for the synthesis of the past and future into a coherent vision.
The Ideal
The objects discussed in this blog post-- the schedule sheet, the mountain and the Yeshiva building, are central to the symbolism of Maale Gilboa. The schedule is an attempt to construct meaningful "architecture of time" as Abraham Joshua Heschel puts it, occupied with study. That study would not be nearly as effective, were it not for the separation the mountain provides Yeshiva students from the distractions of the world. The architecture of the Yeshiva building emphasizes Yeshiva's vision of the idealized future-both modern and religious. These are the material things through which our Yeshiva gives physical expression to our spiritual life. They constitute the ideal of Maale Gilboa.
