Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Year 4 Day 354
“The goal of Jewish law is to be the grammar of living, dealing with all relations and functions of living. Its main theme is the person rather than an institution.” (Thunder in the Soul pg. 78)
What a wonderful phrase, “the grammar of living”! Sadly, history and present day seem to indicate “the goal” is yet to be reached! We know this from the Bible itself, Moses’s railing against the people in Deuteronomy, the books of Joshua and Ezra, the sex crimes of King David, the overreach of King Solomon, the need for the Prophets, etc. The Rabbis in their zeal to reach “the goal of Jewish law” made it so rigid, so inane in some cases, so restrictive in others, that We the People have never really engaged in it with the sense that it is “the grammar of living”, learning how to live into “Jewish law” not as a chore, not as a “have to”, rather as the way to make our unique life what it is meant to be, just as proper grammar is the way to make a sentence mean what it is meant to mean.
Unfortunately, just as English grammar seems to have taken a back seat to LOL’s, etc, “the goal of Jewish Law is to be the grammar of living” also seems to have done the same. Being more interested in the check list, caring more about being “Shabbat Police”, sneaking around for gossip on one’s neighbor, spreading LaShon HaRa, bragging about how many mitzvahs one did today, not caring whether they impacted another human being or not-just doing the mitzvah and checking it off is more important, keeping kosher according to the law regarding food and NOT in the over 100 laws of making, spending their money, has made “Jewish law” not important to too many of We the People. Instead of seeing “the goal of Jewish law is to be the grammar of living”, today’s orthodoxy is more interested in Jewish law being a weapon against ‘those people’ who are not even good enough to be called an apikoros, a sceptic!
Understanding, seeing, living “Jewish law”, means to deal with one another in truth, with dignity, with awe for the divine image and gift another human being brings. It is to “treat the stranger well because you were strangers in the Land of Egypt”! It is to not take what isn’t yours, to not treat another human being with malice, to not deny the dignity of anyone, including your enemies because We the People, all of us are created in the image of God, ergo: we all have infinite worth and dignity, equal worth and dignity and unique worth and dignity. No one can say: “my father is better than yours” according to the Talmud and the tragedy I see today is that the very people who proclaim to be ‘the real jews’ are constantly misusing “the grammar of living”, constantly bastardizing the “goal of Jewish law” and betraying our gift to the world; “be a light unto the nations”!
The reason this is all happening is found in the 2nd sentence above. Rather than keep the “main theme” of “Jewish law” “the person rather than an institution”, modernity has turned the tables on this idea, this way of being. We find that our religious “institutions” are more important than “the person”. Just as in business, keeping the business open is more important than how employers treat their employees, always complaining about paying them a livable wage, providing benefits, etc and, when a customer complains, when someone holds business’ accountable, there is howling like a dog at the moon! Well, the same is true with “religious institutions” these days. Hasidism began as a revolution to freedom of expression for the individual towards God and became a part of Orthodoxy, what the Baal Shem Tov did not want to happen, given his myriad of arguments with the Orthodoxy of the time.
Having run a Jewish Institution for over 20 years, I know the traps involved, I know how easy it is to make the institution more important than the people and, I say with humble pride, Beit T’Shuvah kept it’s commitment to “the goal of Jewish Law”, we kept the “person” front and center, often to the dismay of people who wanted “follow the rules”, “punish the people”, etc. Rather than just have a cookie cutter way of dealing with “all relations and functions of living”, the staff followed “the goal of Jewish law” and saw each case on its own merits, asked what was best for the individual AND the group, how do we treat the stranger with kindness and welcoming, how do we help people find the path of “Jewish law” that will give voice to the melody of their soul, etc . Rather than ‘follow the rules’, we, like Rabbi Harold Shulweis taught us, believed there were times to obey and times to disobey. This was the cause of many discussions, many anxious moments, there were times when we, the staff, brought issues to We the People and members of the community at that time helped in decision making. Putting the person first, allowed for the restoration of dignity and value, truth and justice, kindness and grace within the person themselves.
ACTION STEPS:
Ask yourself what is the goal of the “law” you live by-is it to raise your standard of living materially, socially AND spiritually or just the first two and forget the latter.
Write down how your “goal” has overtaken your decency, your morality, your intuitive mind.
How has the “institution” you run, be it family, business, religious group become more important than the individuals in the “institution”?
What of “Jewish law” (or any spiritual discipline) can/does/could help you to reach being “the self you were created to be”?
Write a T’Shuvah letter to your soul for ignoring it in the past and make the commitment to hear it more and louder in the present.
God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark