In the little Jerusalem shul where I daven the daily Minchah we were just about to begin the Repetition of the Shemoneh Esrei when two bare-headed men came in They were not there to join us for Minchah. Carrying ladder and tool kits they headed right to the air-conditioning unit in the back of the room and began tinkering with the unit.

Here were we reciting Kedushah and there were they working on the machinery. We said “kadosh kadosh kadosh”; oblivious to us they kept on working. We responded to every brachah; they continued working. We answered to Kaddish; they worked away. No Amen escaped their lips; no acknowledgment that this was a community engaged in prayer.

Watching them I hoped against hope that these fellows were not Jews. But unfortunately they definitely were. They were young Israeli Jews who had clearly never been in a shul who had never learned that when you hear a brachah you respond “Amen ” and that at the very least one should have respect for others who are in the midst of prayer. We continued reciting Amen Amen Amen and they continued obliviously tap-tap-tapping away.

We could have been on two different planets. As far as they were concerned they could have been in a Catholic church or an Arab mosque — although I must admit that I wondered if they would not have waited respectfully in a church of mosque until the prayers ended.

Was I annoyed with them? No. Did I feel sorry for them? Yes. Did I feel sorry forIsrael? Very much so. Because these were two young Israelis who knew absolutely nothing about a significant part of their people’s heritage.

Here was pathetic Exhibit A of the two societies that have developed inIsrael: One fully aware of what Judaism is all about and one fully unaware of what Judaism is all about. How sad it is that Jews living in the Holy Land in theHolyCity within ten minutes of the Kosel have no idea of Jewish tradition of the sanctity of prayer of the holiness of a synagogue. How did this tragedy come about? Those early secular Zionists who wanted to create a “new Jew” freed from the overwhelming weight of old-world religion have succeeded only too well. They have a created a new Jew — one who is Jewishly illiterate.

And how bitterly ironic — more accurately lunatic — it is that those secularist who have failed in their own educational endeavors are now trying to force the one group that has succeeded in raising a generation of knowledgeable Jews — the religious groupings — to follow in their bankrupt secular footsteps.

The issue of two separate Jewish societies inIsraelis so monumental so overwhelming: Can it even be addressed? It is an agonizing problem but we must not lose heart. We have the wherewithal to address intractable problems; the overwhelming ones simply take a bit longer.

This problem can be addressed — one Jew at a time. For beneath every Jew there pulses a neshamah that yearns for authenticity and spirituality. The secret is to reach that neshamah and to touch it inspire it elevate it. And the secret lies not only in a religious Jew’s ability to reach out to others; it also lies in the ability of a religious Jew to reach inward to his own self and make of himself the kind of human being who stands as an exemplar whose behavior from dawn to dusk is such that everyone envies his Torah ways his family life his Shabbos and Yom Tov his integrity and decency — and wishes to emulate him.

It is this kind of “in-reach” and caring that can help bridge the chasm and create genuine outreach. The secular world does not hate Torah. It does not want to destroy Torah. It simply has had no introduction to Torah and its values. Were we truly to live those values —not only espouse them — what seems like icy resistance to Torah would in time surely melt away

We need in-reach more than outreach — to begin with ourselves. Now that the new school year is beginning we need to emphasize in our yeshivos and religious schools the responsibility that each religious Jew — young and old — bears as a representative of the Torah: to represent it proudly or by our behavior disgrace it. All the preachments about Torah preserving the Jewish people are ineffective in reaching the masses of non-committed Jews if so-called Torah Jews live lives that do not reflect positively on that Torah.

Chances are that those workmen never had a serious conversation with a religious Jew. Though each planet would have benefitted from the interaction each fears the other. But unless we have some interplanetary travel the brachos of Shemoneh Esrei will remain forever unanswered.