Page 18 - Core Beliefs For Intentional Community

The excerpt from Uriel Tal was utilized in the ICD study group but did not appear in CALL

(The Community of LAND, WORK, WAY of LIFE, BELIEF)
Uriel Tal, (1926-1984) from STRUCTURES OF FELLOWSHIP AND
COMMUNITY IN JUDAISM be socialist, it will be unable to fulfill the
… Even if the modern state will
In Conservative Judaism, Vol.28, No.2, -Winter 1974, pp. 3-12
yearning for fellowship. The state cannot give the individual the elemental

feeling of togetherness which s/he seeks from fellowship. For the state is not
…it is through anthropological structures, developed amidst diverse historical
and is not intended to be a fellowship. No large aggregate of people can be
situations, that the intentionalist character of the Torah and consequently of
termed “true community” unless it is composed of small, vital social units of
Jewish tradition, has been realized. The earthliness of the Torah indicates that
experiential togetherness. The relationships between the “true communities”
man is able to unfold in community both his essence, his metaphysical status as a
must be as direct and vital as are the relationships between members of the
being “created in His image,” and his existence, his natural status as a rational
individual “true community”.
creature.

When the real-life relationships between people within their natural
The framework in which this process of growth, of unfolding, takes place is the one
social units are fragmented** then the larger social unit can only pretend to
we called “fellowship and community,” starting as man as a partner in God’s
covenant, proceeding through the family, the community, the congregation, the
relate to the desire for fellowship and partnership.
people or ethnic group or perhaps nation, and culminating in the world community…
It is necessary to renew the real-life bonds between individuals. The
The covenant with God binds Israel, as the Jewish people, to the task of being a
revival of the primary community necessitates revival of local community, work
holy nation, separate and distinct. This separateness obliges them to fulfill the
community, fellowship and the religious congregation. All of these, whether they
divine commandments. These commandments, however, are related not to heaven
have withered or become part of a state-like machine, whether they exist in
only, but to earth, to the world and its community, to every part of reality, physical
partial concealment or if they are tolerated by or ignored by the state – of
as well as spiritual, to the world as creation. The very purpose of Israel’s
these must become the home for beings of the spirit whose life on earth will be
separateness, therefore, is to live in the world, bestowing form, order and meaning
fulfilled in the community‛s precincts. The public life must become an expression
upon it. In order to be faithful to his calling, the Jew has to work in and through
of partnership in community. Only thus can we revive the primary community
society, in and through his own community as well as through the world’s community.
stemming from land and labor in common as well as togetherness in way of life

The Community four bases of relationship parallel the above four types of
and belief. These

fellowship.
The community is the medium for the actualization of the covenant. It is the
nucleus of Jewish social cohesion, the indispensable structure that enables man to
Only the community (and not the state) can constitute the responsible
survive so that he can serve God. Without this necessary condition, without
bearer of land held in common (even if the formal ownership of the land is in the
surviving in his own, unique community, the Jew cannot fulfill the commandments in
hands of the state.) Only the work-fellowship, (not the state) can be the
respect to the relations between man and God, nor those between man and man.
suitable framework for collective production. Only the social fellowship – not

the state – can generate a new way of life. Only in religious fellowship (as
Structures of Fellowship and Community in Judaism
distinct from the formal church) can a new belief flourish…

It is the particularistic community which enables man to practice universalistic
*Translated into English from the Hebrew version in: Avraham Shapira, Ed.,
ideas such as justice or the pursuit of peace. Maimonides said in his Introduction to
the Mishnah: “…A man will not search for truth nor seek to do what is good when he
“Chavruta”, Nativot B‛Utopia, Sifriat Ofakim, Am Oved, 1983, p. 165 ff.
goes off into exile or is hungry or is fleeing from his enemies…” Because of this
vital function, the community is often called kehilla kedosha, holy community.
** Buber refers to the mechanical separation of the spheres of work, family,
Indeed the adjective “holy” is applied mainly to communal institutions, rarely to
worship, and politics within modern society
persons…

Compiled by Michael Livni

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