Zoology 

Is this the kind of “innovative thinking” that Reform Judaism wishes to transfer to Israel?

Low-hanging fruit in the succah should not be touched or handled during Yom Tov, says the halachah. Better to hang it high, near the sechach.

But there are figurative kinds of low-hanging fruit. In business lingo, it refers to projects that are easily done and require very little energy, effort, or intelligence. In writers’ jargon, it refers to a subject that is easily dissected or satirized.

Here is an example of low-hanging fruit that is so obvious that no self-respecting writer would stoop to ridicule it. If, for example, a Reform temple were to change the venue of its Rosh Hashanah services, and instead of holding those services in its own building would hold them in a zoo, that would be an easy punching bag for humor, satire, and caricature. Yamim Noraim prayers in a zoo is a self-lampoon; nothing else needs to be added.

Let me not be coy: In Atlanta, Georgia, this past Rosh Hashanah, the fruit was hanging so low that it scraped the ground. One of the largest Reform temples in the US proudly announced that this year it would hold a “multigenerational family service” in a location away from its own building — at a spacious hall on the grounds of the Atlanta Zoo. In addition, all participants in the services would get free passes to visit the zoo itself after the end of services. (There is no mention of Tashlich.) Because of the expected demand, the zoo prayers would be “open only to Temple members by reservation only.”