A Rabbi's Take on the Asbury Revival

I'm reading with fascination stories about the ongoing Asbury revival. What is it?

Students at Asbury University in Kentucky have been singing and praying continuously for 10 days. People are flying in from all over the world.

What started as a normal chapel service has become, in its participants’ words, an awakening, an overflowing, a new beginning, a celebration of the spirit in a dark time.

While American religious history has had many similar revivals, this one seems to be the first in a new era fueled by video and social media. And it’s exciting.

Why Now?

Why is this revival happening now? Because we need hope in a time of increasing cynicism. Despite advancements in technology, many people feel angry, bitter, and hopeless.

This frustration cuts across religious, ethnic and socio-economic classes. American today feel more pessimistic than at any time in my life.

But we can't live forever in darkness. Hope is life. And whatever one thinks of the theology and worship practices at Asbury, one cannot deny the joy and hope on display. Its spontaneity and youth make it even more compelling.

Jewish Revivals?

Is there any equivalent in the Jewish tradition? Not at the moment.

But throughout history, certain gatherings have fostered a spirit of hope and change with long-term consequences.

I think of the First Zionist Congress in 1897 in Basle, Switzerland. It revived the spirit of many Jews around the world and ignited the dream of returning and rebuilding the Jewish homeland.

It was also prophetic.

The leader of the gathering, Theodor Herzl, wrote immediately after it concluded, “At Basel I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, l would be greeted by universal laughter. In five years perhaps, and certainly in fifty years, everyone will perceive it."

In 1948, 51 years later, the state of Israel was born.

Jewish summer camp fostered this spirit of hope and revival as well. In the 1950s and 1960s, many children and adolescents found synagogues boring and irrelevant.

The great theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel began his book God in search of Man with the words, "It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the decline of religion in modern society.”

“It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid."

Summer camps sought to infuse joy, spontaneity, and freedom into worship. They succeeded, and the campers brought that spirit back to synagogues, which incorporated the music and creativity fostered at camp.

But the pendulum swings back and forth. Perhaps what seemed new and exciting decades ago feels "irrelevant" and "dull" today?

That's where renewal comes in. I prefer the term renewal to revival because in a religious community, we are not reviving something that was dead. We are renewing the spark of life and holiness. And it is always alive and available to us.

Indeed, hope is a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we discover and truly feel it, we gain strength. And we can use that strength to find the spark of renewal in ourselves and our community.

May the excitement and joy happening now give us hope.