Three human qualities

I recently heard Mark Borovitz (The Holy Thief) speak recently. He reminded me of something that Yitz Greenberg had said in discussing the commonality of people. It is worth remembering and thinking about. Greenberg said that the Torah starts by teaching us that we are created b'tzelem Elokim (in the image of G-d). This leads to three important and simultaneous conclusions:

• All people are infinitely valuable


• All people are equal


• All people are unique

All people are created in the image of G-d is demonstrated when G-d says, "Let us create man in our image." Each person is an image of G-d. How we understand this image, how we allow G-d's image to manifest in us is less important than understanding that the Other, each person who we encounter, is created in G-d's image, just as we are. Therefore, each one of us is holy.

All people are infinitely valuable grows out of the previous notion that we are created in G-d's image. If each of us bears the image of G-d, then each of us carries within us something that is irreplaceable and priceless. We are taught that when one save a single life, it is as if the entire world had been saved. This is easily understood if we start by understanding that each of us is infinitely valuable.

All people are equal because each of us is inherently equal in the eyes of G-d. No person can claim to have an inherent preference to G-d than another.. According to our sages, the Torah starts with Adam to teach that no one can say that "my father is better than your father," because we all come from the same source. Our equality is fundamental and transcends our differences in race, belief, or special capabilities.

All people are equal is the complement to the idea that we are all equal. Again, the sages illustrate G-d's greatness with an allegorical statement. They say that for a human artist, each copy made from a master mold will yield an exact replica. Yet, G-d, who created each of b'tzelem Elokim, in the Divine mold, turned out uniquely different individual people. No two people are identical (not even identical twins) and it is our uniqueness that should be celebrated.

Conclusion: It is a wonderful teaching that reflects both how we should view Others and how we should view ourselves. Each person that we encounter is holy, unique, and uniquely valuable. We, ourselves, are likewise holy, unique, and priceless. Together, all of us contain the image of G-d.

The End of the conservative Conservative

"We are in no need of another motto," said Schorsch, who is set to retire as chancellor in June. "What ails the Conservative movement is that it has lost faith in itself. Internally, we have already become Reform, and it will only be a matter of time before [externally] we appear like Reform."

Ismar Schorsch at the Mexico City RA convention (Quoted in the Forward http://www.forward.com/articles/7539)

If it were not for the constant peeking over their right shoulder, the Modern Orthodox might have embraced certain crticial understandings of Halacha that would allow a maximal role for women. There is still time and opportunity for bold Modern Orthodox leaders to make a statement that will attract large and core groups of committed Conservative Jews, who, if not for the egalitarian issue, would find themselves very content in a Modern Orthodox synagogue. The Conservative Movement will be very unhappy when they find that the core of their movement, those who attend shul, lead services, teach, and provide the essential services to the congregation move away from the leftward shift of the movement. When there is no difference between Conservative and Reform, there will no longer be a place for those Jews whose commitment to Halacha is uncompromising.

Melanie Phillips's Diary - Ken Livingstone at it again

Quoted from Melanie Phillips:

Is London’s mayor Ken Livingstone suffering from a form of Jewish Tourette’s Syndrome? Despite the fact that he is in the middle of appealing against his suspension by the Standards Board for an offensive remark made to a Jewish reporter, he couldn’t restrain himself from doing it again today in another extraordinary outburst. At a press conference on the Stratford city redevelopment project in London’s East End, which has been having a few problems, he said of a pair of Jewish property developers involved in the project, David and Simon Reuben: If they’re not happy here perhaps they could go back to Iran and try it under the Ayatollahs a remark which he repeated – with slight variations in the wording between the two comments -- when asked to explain himself. As it happens, the Reuben brothers were born in Bombay to Iraqi parents of Jewish descent and have lived in the UK for almost four decades. Had they actually been Iranian, the remark would have been the equivalent to saying to a pair of black property developers: ‘Go back where you came from’ – the defining verbal tic of a racist. Since they are not Iranian, the remark is the equivalent of saying to a pair of Jamaican property developers: ‘Go back to Africa’ – a possibly even more offensive variant on this tic. In any event, suggesting that two Jews should either shut up or push off to a regime which regards them as targets for genocide is simply an expression of a quite visceral prejudice.

One wonders why the voters of London put up with Ken Livingstone. Regardless of whether one sympathizes with his Jew-bashing, you would think that the average voter would be embarassed by the public mean-spiritedness. Or maybe that is just an American conceit?

Read more at www.melaniephillips.com...

Pirkei Avot 3.10

Rabbi Dostai bar Yannai in the name of Rabbi Meir says: Whoever forgets anything of his Torah learning, Scripture considers it as if he bears guilt for his soul, as it says: But beware and guard our sould exceedingly, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen (Devarim 4:9) Does this apply even if [he forget because] his studies were too difficult for him? Scripture says: And lest they be removed from your heart all the days of your life (ibid); thus, one bears no guilt for his soul unless he sits and removes them from his consciousness

The peshat (simple meaning) of this text is clear. Rabbi Dostai is speaking to his colleagues and students who learned Mishna and related traditions by heart, reciting them over and over with great care so that they would not lose these teachings. Since the great corpus of Jewish tradition was not written down at this point, it was essential that each sage and student be diligent in reviewing and practicing their learning so that they would not lose any of it. For Rabbi Dostai, to lose this learning was tantamount to losing one's soul. Whether the punishment was in fact, or only metaphorical, it is clear that the sages took their responsibility to preserve the Oral Law seriously

What can we, who are not Torah scholars and who have the great tradition of Jewish learning printed in ever increasing quantity, take from this exhortation? The more traditional commentators continue to expound the basic and direct lesson that Rabbi Dostai gave to his comtemporaries. They comment that study, review, reflection, and constant vigilance is part and parcel of Torah study. It is incumbent upon each scholar, whether ancient or modern, to continuously add to one's learning and not to allow that which was won to be lost through inattention or carelessness.

Rabbi Dostai concludes in the second portion of this Mishna that we are only held liable for that which we lose through such inattention. Where the teaching is too difficult or our skills are not honed sufficiently, so long as we pursue our learning diligently, we are to be forgiven for this is an unintentional "sin" and not something that we could have prevented.

Yet, I think that we can find something deeper in Rabbi Dostai's warning not to allow our learning to lapse. If we look at Rabbi Dostai's proof text, we find the following verse, quoted in full:

Only beware for yourself and greatly beware for your soul, lest you forget the things that your eyes have beheld and lest you remove them from your heart all the days of your life, and make them known to your children and your children's children (ibid)

The section in bold is what is not quoted directly in our Mishna, yet I think that it is the critical piece in understanding the import of Rabbi Dostai's teaching. For modern times, the issue is not that we will forget the basic teachings. Unlike Rabbi Dostai's time, we now have our great tradition written down. But what we are in grave danger of doing is failing to transmit our tradition to our children and their children. We live in an unprecedented time of danger for Judaism - not from our enemies, but from ourselves. It is incumbent upon us to transmit our traditions, our learning and our truths, to the generations to come. For if we do not, it will truly be lost. And the loss of Torah will result not only in the death of what we love, but ultimately in the death of Judaism. Our failure to do so, as Rabbi Dostai says, would truly make us bear "guilt for our soul."

(as presented to CAI Shabbat Maariv, Parashat Ki Tisa 3/17/2006)