Sharing it With the World

Should Jews actively promote Jewish values to the rest of the world? For two millennia, there was not much of a question. No one would listen. Today in the West we have the ability to speak our minds, and often a large audience of those who believe that Jews have access to a treasure-trove of Divinely communicated wisdom. They are open to, and invite, our sharing it with them.

This is where the debate begins, not ends. Some believe that anything we say will in time be used against us, as it always was. Our stance towards others should be respectful and cooperative – but not educative.

Others believe the very opposite. It is more dangerous, they believe, to allow a world to plunge headlong into moral darkness. Besides, we have a Torah imperative to create universal respect for G-d (see Rambam in Sefer HaMitzvos, Positive Mitzvos #3). How better to do it than by showcasing the power of His teaching?

Probably by temperament more than anything else, I lean to the latter position. Many frum Jews have a hard time conceiving of what it is exactly that we could share with the rest of the world if we were to decide that this should be our policy. We wouldn’t teach about Shabbos, or kashrus, or the current Daf Yomi? What else is there?

There is much. I could not resist sharing the following remarkable presentation by the individual who probably does a better job of this than anyone on the planet: Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks. He gave this address a week ago to the European Parliament.

Some will argue that he is sui generis. Few have his breadth of history and philosophy; few his gift for oration. Some will take issue with his derush.

They will all miss the point. The arguments he presents should demonstrate to us how much wisdom can be mined from traditional sources. Truths that we take for granted and rarely think about abound in our mesorah. Rabbi Sacks’ stints at Cambridtge and Oxford contribute to, but are not the most important elements in his success. That is a product of two commodities that should be available to all of us: his desire to create Kiddush Hashem, and his deep humanity.

Here is the full text of his remarks:

Mr President, Members of the European Parliament, I thank you for the privilege of addressing you today. I thank you even more for undertaking this vital initiative of Intercultural Dialogue. I salute you all, but in particular your visionary, wise and deeply humane President Hans-Gert Pottering, and in what I hope will be today my only breach of the separation between church and state, religion and politics, I pray that G-d bless all of you and all you do.

I speak as a Jew from within the oldest continuous cultural presence in Europe. I want to begin by reminding us that European civilisation was born 2000 years ago in a dialogue between the two greatest cultures of antiquity: Ancient Greece and Biblical Israel – Athens and Jerusalem. They were brought together by Christianity whose religion came from Israel, but whose sacred texts were written in Greek. That was the founding dialogue of Europe. And some of the greatest moments in European history in the intervening 2000 years were the result of dialogue. I will mention just three. The first took place between the 10th and 13th centuries in Al-Andalus in the great cultural movement initiated by the Umayyads in Spain. It began with an Islamic dialogue on the part of thinkers like Averroes, with the philosophical heritage of Plato and Aristotle. The Islamic dialogue inspired Jewish thinkers like Moses Maimonides, and the Jewish dialogue inspired Christian thinkers, most famously Aquinas.

The second great moment of intercultural dialogue took place at the beginning of the Italian Renaissance when a young Christian intellectual, Pico della Mirandola, travelled to Padua, where he met a Jewish scholar, Rabbi Elijah del Medigo, who taught him the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, and Kabbalah in their original languages. Out of that dialogue came the most famous statement of Renaissance values: Pico’s Oration on the Dignity of Man.

The third and most poignant of them all has been the dialogue between Christians and Jews after the Holocaust, inspired by Martin Buber’s philosophy of dialogue and by Vatican II and Nostra Aetate. The result has been that after almost 2000 years of estrangement and tragedy, today Jews and Christians meet in mutual respect as friends.

But I want to say more that this. As I read the Hebrew Bible, I hear from the very beginning G-d’s call to dialogue. I want to draw attention to two passages (I am not quite sure how this will go down in translation so anyone who is listening to me in translation, I hope you get it). I want to draw attention to two passages in the opening chapters of the Bible whose meaning has been lost for 2000 years in translation.

The first occurs when G-d sees the first man, isolated and alone, and He creates woman. Man, seeing woman for the first time, utters the first poem in the Bible: ‘Now I have found bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Ishah, woman, for she was taken from Ish, man’. Now this sounds like a very simple poem. It even sounds rather condescending, as if the man was the first creation and woman was a mere afterthought. However, the real meaning lies in the fact that biblical Hebrew has two words for man, not one. One is Adam, and the other is Ish.

This verse that I just quoted to you is the first time the word Ish appears in the Bible. Listen again. ‘She shall be called Ishah, because she was taken from Ish’. In other words, the man has to pronounce the name of his wife before he even knows his own name. I have to say ‘you’ before I can say ‘I’. I have to acknowledge the other, before I can truly understand myself. This is the first point the Bible makes: identity is dialogical.

The second occurs soon after, in the great tragedy that overcomes the first human children, Cain and Abel. We expect brotherly love. Instead there is sibling rivalry and then murder, fratricide. And at the heart of this story in Genesis chapter 4, is a verse that is impossible to translate. In every English Bible I have ever read, the verse is not translated, it is paraphrased.
I am going to translate it literally and you will see why no-one translates it that way. Literally the Hebrew says as follows: ‘And Cain said to Abel, and it came to pass when they were out in the field that Cain rose up against Abel and killed him.’ You can see immediately why it cannot be translated because it says ‘and Cain said’, but it does not say what he said. The sentence is ungrammatical. The syntax is fractured. The question is why?

The answer is clear: the Bible is signalling in the most dramatic way – in a broken sentence – that the conversation broke down. The dialogue failed. And what do we read immediately afterwards? ‘And Cain rose against his brother and killed him’ or to put it simply: where words end, violence begins. Dialogue is the only way to defeat the worst angels of our nature.
Dialogue therefore testifies to the double aspect of all human relationships, whether they are between individuals, or between countries or cultures or creeds: our commonalities on the one hand, and our differences on the other, what we hold in common and what is uniquely ours. Let me put it as simply as I can: If we were completely different we could not communicate, but if were totally the same we would have nothing to say.

That is all I have to say about dialogue, yet I want to add that dialogue may not be quite enough. You see, between the late 18th century and 1933 there was dialogue between Jews and Germans, just as there was dialogue and even friendship between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda, or between Serbs and Croats and Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo. Dialogue brings us together, but it cannot always keep us together when other forces are driving us apart.
Therefore, I want to add one other word, which played a significant part in healing fragmented societies. The word is ‘covenant’. It played a major role in European politics in the 16th and 17th centuries in Switzerland, in Holland, in Scotland and in England.

Covenant has been part of American culture from the very beginning to today, from the Mayflower Compact in 1620 to John Winthrop’s speech aboard the Arabella in 1630, all the way through to the present. When Barack Obama makes his inaugural speech – what he is going to say, I do not know! – but he will either mention or allude to the concept of covenant.
Covenant is, of course, a key word of the Hebrew Bible for a simple reason: because biblical Israel was formed out of 12 different tribes, each of whom had, and insisted on retaining, its distinct identity.

What is covenant? A covenant is not a contract. A contract is made for a limited period, for a specific purpose, between two or more parties, each seeking their own benefit. A covenant is made open-endedly by two or more parties who come together in a bond of loyalty and trust to achieve together what none can achieve alone. A contract is like a deal; a covenant is like a marriage. Contracts belong to the market and to the state, to economics and politics, both of which are arenas of competition. Covenants belong to families, communities, charities, which are arenas of cooperation. A contract is between me and you – separate selves – but a covenant is about us – collective belonging. A contract is about interests: a covenant is about identity. And hence the vital distinction not made clearly enough in European politics between a social contract and a social covenant. A social contract creates a state; a social covenant creates a society.
You can have a society without a state – that has happened at times in history – but can you have a state without a society, without anything to hold people together? I do not know! You can hold people together in many different ways: by force, by fear, by suppressing cultural difference, by expecting everyone to conform. But when you choose to respect the integrity of many cultures, when you honour what I call – as the President reminded us – the dignity of difference, when you honour that, then to create a society you need a covenant.

Covenant restores the language of cooperation to a world of competition. It focuses on responsibilities, not just on rights. Rights are essential, but rights create conflicts that rights cannot resolve: the right to life against the right to choose: my right to freedom against your right to respect. Rights without responsibilities are the subprime mortgages of the moral world.
What covenant does is to get us to think about reciprocity. Covenant says to each of us: we must respect others if we expect others to respect us, we must honour the freedom of others if they are to honour ours. Europe needs a new covenant and the time to begin it is now.
Now, in the midst of financial crisis and economic recession, because in bad times people are aware that we all share a fate.

The Prophet Isaiah foresaw a day when the lion and lamb would live together. It has not happened yet. Although there was a zoo where a lion and a lamb lived together in the same cage. A visitor asked the zookeeper: ‘How do you manage that?’ The zookeeper said: ‘Easy, you just need a new lamb every day!’.

But there was a time when the lion and the lamb did live together. Where was that? In Noah’s Ark. And why was that? It was not because they had reached Utopia but because they knew that otherwise they would both drown.

Friends, last Thursday – six days ago – the Archbishop of Canterbury and I led a mission of the leaders of all the faiths in Britain, leaders of the Muslim community, the Hindus, the Sikhs, the Buddhists, the Jains, the Zoroastrians and the Baha’i, and together we travelled and spent a day in Auschwitz. There we wept together, and there we prayed together, knowing what happens when we fail to honour the humanity of those not like us.

G-d has given us many languages and many cultures, but only one world in which to live together, and it is getting smaller every day. May we, the countries and the cultures of Europe, in all our glorious diversity, together write a new European covenant of hope.

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12 Responses

  1. joel rich says:

    This iiuc was exactly the point E’ JB Soloveitchik zt”l makes on last week’s parsha – ger vtoshav anochi imachem – we (as temporary residents and citizens ) have a unique destiny as Jews but are still part and have common cause with the rest of humanity.

    I’m reminded of a famous kiruv mussar piece which ends in shamayim (afterlife) with one turning to his “frum” neighbor and saying “you mean you knew and you didn’t tell me?”
    KT

  2. mycroft says:

    Excellent post-

    “We wouldn’t teach about Shabbos, or kashrus, or the current Daf Yomi? What else is there?”
    Obviously-Yahadus has a lot to teach the world-see a famous 20th century example where R J B Soloveitchik gave the lecture that became the Lonely Man of Faith to a Catholic Seminary in Boston. Obviously, one has to know what one is doing but the principle is there. Another point, an importnat part of Yahadus is Shabbos, Kashrut, Limmud Hatorah etc but the other parts are equally essential part of Yahadus and must be emphasized more.

  3. LOberstein says:

    Are we so different than the rest of the world? Living in a free country where our ‘belonging’ is not in doubt,we are part and parcel of the United States. We are not an alien group foisting ourselves on an intolerant host.That was the way it was,but is not in this country.
    Jonathan Sacks is a great thinker but I feel sorry that he lives in England,where we are not as welcome. The way to keep America safe for Jews is to be Americans.
    Thus, many of my friends cannot understand why so many orthodox Jews have political and social views so at odds with the Torah’s commands for tzedek and chesed. Why do some frum Jews feel only contempt for the less fortunate and the other aliens, how can a Jew be a supporter of the politics that is so at odds with our heritage?

  4. Mike S. says:

    The speech was good. But the primary way we can teach Avodat Hashem is by example, not speech. And the example that matters most is how we treat other people. Not only other frum Jews, even from “non-standard backgrounds”, but Gentiles and the non-religious jews as well. Chazal tell us that when our interpersonal behavior is of the highest order, people are inspired to praise the Torah, and the opposite when are behavior is improper, chas v’shalom. Unfortunately, there have been far too many examples of the latter in the news recently.

    One reason for that, in my opinion, is that we have neglected to emphasize respect for the Tzelem Elokim in each person. And we have lost confidence in the ability of the torah to inspire, and so have resorted to contempt for others to fight assimilation and intermarriage.

  5. David N. Friedman says:

    Regarding two points:
    1) should Jews take it upon themselves to share our mission with humanity?
    2) is there meaning in a “covenant of hope”?

    Please witness the lives of the Chabad Rabbi, his wife and others who died in the recent horror in India for evidence. Beautiful people take it upon themselves to go the far reaches of the world to be kind and they are the subject of ultimate cruelty. They were correct to do as they did despite their gruesome murder at the hands of Islamic savages. Regarding interfaith dialogue and a “covenant of hope” as expressed by Rabbi Sacks in light of the same episode, it seems there is no lack of dialogue between humanity and the beasts and “respecting others” cannot include those in the Islamic world that wish is death. I do not believe Rabbi Sacks had such compassion in mind when he was speaking of hope. Nonetheless I cringe over “hope” used in such a manner, it is easily exploited by people such as Mr. Obama– and if respect is the operative term here, it seems to me the judicious use of force is what commands respect in the eyes of the murderers.

    Chabad is a sterling model for sharing “it” with the world–we should not be deterred by this tragedy.

  6. Ori says:

    LOberstein: The way to keep America safe for Jews is to be Americans.

    Ori: Definitely.

    LOberstein: Thus, many of my friends cannot understand why so many orthodox Jews have political and social views so at odds with the Torah’s commands for tzedek and chesed. Why do some frum Jews feel only contempt for the less fortunate and the other aliens, how can a Jew be a supporter of the politics that is so at odds with our heritage?

    Ori: I know people who perform acts of chesed on both sides of the political spectrum. If I understand your allusion correctly, it’s not about whether people should do chesed, but whether the government should engage in it. In other words, whether it is OK for the government to require some people to pay taxes so it can provide chesed to others.

    My Jewish education is sadly lacking, but is this enforced chesed part of our heritage? Is it more so than values supported by the other side, such as restricting abortions(1) or keeping the man-woman definition of marriage?

    Note: I’m responding to what I think you meant, not what you actually said. If I misunderstood you, I ask for forgiveness but I’d appreciate it if you clarified your comment.

    (1) I don’t know for sure that abortion on demand is not a Jewish value, but I know the religious parties in Israel are the ones trying to restrict it, so I assume that’s the case.

  7. tzippi says:

    The question is almost moot, after last week. The Chabad spokesmen and press releases I’ve heard and read have been eloquent, moving, and steadfast in the determination to maintain humanity and a connection to G-d (which may not be two completely separate things). So the world’s got quite a taste of what we stand for the last few days.

  8. Yehoshua Friedman says:

    “Many frum Jews have a hard time conceiving of what it is exactly that we could share with the rest of the world if we were to decide that this should be our policy. We wouldn’t teach about Shabbos, or kashrus, or the current Daf Yomi? What else is there?”

    This is a good question. Some answer it with universal ethics, others with generalized theology. But nothing along these lines will be an expression of our unique Jewishness. None of the above will be something that could not be expressed by any other member of an interfaith dialogue.
    I think there is a universal message in all the particulars which is something we can share. Shabbos is an expression of creation and the limits of being a workoholic as well as the concept of the human being as a partner in creation. Kashrus generalized relates to the difference between the way we benefit from the physical as spiritual human beings as opposed to smarter animals. The Daf Yomi is about how G-d reveals Himself through the Torah and the original and uniquely Jewish way in which the Jew reads Scripture. In short, everything written in the Torah to be taken by the Jew in a strictly legal fashion and for ourselves only is also to be read as metaphor for all of humanity. I could add justice and family life and many more areas down to relatively small details. If we had true communication and dialogue we could take away the fear of those details which it seems that no one could ever fulfill and replace it with an awareness that they are the instruments of the love of a loving Creator. But to do that we need to strive to be better Jews and better human beings. Let’s get to work on both.

  9. LOberstein says:

    specific issues like abortion and gay rights are not the essense of a political world view.They are only two of many issues that occur today because of a changing view of society’s role in the private lives of its citizens.many people believe that they should have the freedom to live by their religion’s code of behavior and not impose that code on followers of other religions. In a secular society we risk the freedom of all when we impose our strictures on others. However, the above can lead to a slippery slope where nothing is forbidden. It takes a wise soicety and great leaders to navigate these waters.

  10. Ori says:

    LOberstein, I agree with you that abortion and gay marriage are just two political issues out of many. I mentioned them to explain why Orthodox Jews can decide to vote for conservative candidates.

    Both conservative and liberal politicians are going to hold views that contradict the Torah. I think it’s up to each individual to decide which contradicts it less – but neither side “owns” the Jewish vote.

  11. Dovid Kornreich says:

    I agree with this:
    Chabad is a sterling model for sharing “it” with the world–we should not be deterred by this tragedy.

    Comment by David N. Friedman — November 30, 2008 @ 12:24 pm

    And I think it is significant that the Jewish pop music artist Matisyahu, embarked on his mission to be a moral and spiritual voice within pop culture as a Lubavicher chassid.

  12. Toby Katz says:

    “specific issues like abortion and gay rights are not the essense of a political world view. They are only two of many issues that occur today because of a changing view of society’s role in the private lives of its citizens.many people believe that they should have the freedom to live by their religion’s code of behavior and not impose that code on followers of other religions. In a secular society we risk the freedom of all when we impose our strictures on others.”

    Comment by LOberstein — December 1, 2008 @ 11:18 pm

    —–
    It is not a matter of imposing our strictures, but if we are going to be a light unto the nations we have to state clearly what basic morality requires. We can legitimately disagree as to whether abortion should be slightly restricted or completely unrestricted, for example, but it is a chillul Hashem that people believe that Judaism is in favor of abortion on demand. Because of expediency and an exaggerated fear of the “slippery slope” we have muted our moral voice. In reality, Jews who advocate abortion on demand as a legal position for reasons of expediency should nevertheless make it clear that even if they are pro-choice politically, there is still a moral choice and an immoral choice, and both choices are NOT equal in G-d’s eyes.

    With regard to tzedaka, Jews on both ends of the political spectrum — those who favor increased government spending and those who do not — should make it clear that a truly moral attitude towards the poor is for people to reach into their /own/ pockets and give some of their /own/ money to charitable causes — and that merely voting for somebody /else/ to pay higher taxes and be forced to give /his/ money to the poor is NOT true charity!

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