I've told this atheist numerous times that I owe him a debt of gratitude for helping me clarify for myself many ideas through my discussions with him. I don't know if I will be able to express this idea clearly, but I will try, at least as a rough draft.
Before you read what I think, I'd like to ask you a question. After you have your own answer, you can read what I wrote and tell me if you disagree.
I assume that each and every one of us has a conception of what it means to live life as a good Jew. While we may not live up to our ideals, we each know (more or less) what we should be doing in order to live life as a good Jew. Where did we -- where did you -- get that knowledge from? How do you know what a Jew should do to live a good life?
Ok. Think about that, then back to my essay.
There is a person I know, who, whenever they hear of an evil / disgusting act committed by an orthodox jew, remarks, "its things like this which make me not want to be religious."
I always thought this was a highly irrational comment. Deciding whether or not to be religious should be a function of the objective truth of religion or lack thereof - who cares how other people act? If you accept as true the sinaitic revelation, then even if you have to be like avraham ha-ivri - who stood on one side of the river with the whole world against him, so be it.
To a certain extent, I was right. Objective truth does not change based on the actions of others.
But we know that chazal tell us that when religious jews act in an improper manner, this creates a chilul hashem. Why?
Obviously, its because of the reaction it induces as represented by our anonymous comment above. But as I said, I didn't think that chazal were giving legitimacy to such comments, which seem to be highly irrational. Rather, chazal were saying, since people think like that, even if there is no rational basis for such thinking, the chilul hashem is there.
But I've changed my mind. When discussing how I react to the sometimes terrible things fanatical "charedim" do in the name of judaism (I should just note that I am not, by any means, bashing charedim in general. I have many cousins in Israel who are all bona fide charedim, and they are some of the nicest people I know. I do disagree sharply with their hashkafah, but thats a different topic) I told the atheist that he shouldn't judge Judaism by how its "practitioners" act, but rather, by what it says. I proceeded to marshal sources to prove the fanatical extremists wrong, and we moved on.
But he wasn't satisfied with this response, and upon further reflection, I think he is partially right. Can you judge Judaism fairly based solely on the written word?
No. For every source that tells us to be kind, loving and generous, I'll find you a source that can be interpreted to preach hatred and cruelty. We may know how to interpret these sources in context, but for that you need more knowledge than just an objective analysis of the texts without any outside information. You need to come in, knowing, apriori what we stand for - asos mishpat, ahavas chesed, vihatznea leches (that doesn't mean that our interpretations are forced - they are natural, and make good sense. but you can never prove one specific interpretation, and you can always come out with a different outlook.) If you come in without the basis of middos, then you will end up with an interpretation of the talmud that preaches cruelty and hatred.
How is one supposed to know, apriori, that we preach kindness? Doesn't a purely objective read of the talmud demand that we don't assume anything about what it asks? Maybe the talmud really does preach a doctrine of hate?
No. Because we have a mesorah in how to interpret the talmud - we have a mesorah that teaches us these apriori facts. Its not an explicit, verbal mesorah - its a mesorah based on how klal yisrael lives and acts. Its true that the torah expects us to sometimes commit genocide, but if we look at the way bnei yisrael have lived, we see that the jews lived lives overwhelmingly of chesed, not of genocide. That is a mesorah, its part of torah shebaal peh back from Sinai- we know that we have to interpret the harsher laws of the torah in the context of that mesorah (no apologetics, but at the same time proper interpretation is required).
Another example where this mesorah comes into play: tznius. If you just read the talmud and some commentaries based off of it, you can very easily reach the conclusion that we should lock women up in their rooms, tear the clothing off women in the street if we deem it immodest, and all sorts of other harsh things. (see, for example http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/orthodox-judaism-treats-women-like-filthy-little-things-1.404505)
But I know that this is not the conclusion to be drawn from the talmud - how do I know? Because I have faith in our mesorah in how to live. And this mesorah tells me that that isnt what the talmud, or g-d, wants us to do. (Back to Sarid's Yemach Shemo article, like I said, if you come into the talmud with bad middos, the conclusion you draw will be one full of bad middos. That article represents not the Talmud's view of women, but is closer to Sarid's. see http://www.vosizneias.com/97948/2012/01/02/new-york-an-open-letter-to-yossi-sarid-by-rabbi-yair-hoffman/ for a more technical response, but ultimately, this response relies on my point.)
Anyone with half a brain knows that tznius, for both men and women, is so much more than just the strict halachos- its one of the three things g-d asks of us along with asos mishpat and ahavas chesed. what does it mean to follow hatznea leches im elokecha?
If you think that you can figure that out based on just reading the talmud and other sources, I think you're crazy. You need a mesorah - you need a living example of tznius to understand what tznius is. (Learning torah could deepen that understanding in profound ways - but it has to start with the living mesorah.)
When we say that we have faith in the mesorah all the way back to sinai - its on much more than just the strict technical laws. I believe that we know (not me, but someone living today) how to properly keep tznius because we have a mesorah going back to moshe rabbeinu what it means to live a life of hatznea leches. We have learned from the previous generations from their actions what the values are which Judaism is based on, and what should be interpreted and contextualized in light of those values. This mesorah affects how we understand the entirety of torah, and as a consequence of that fact obviously has tremendous nafka minahs lihalacha (like the cases I discussed above.)
I never realized this until now, but I believe the following is true: if you don't believe that there are people nowadays who both understand the torah (they're probably rabbis) and live their lives in accordance with its value system (tznius, chesed vs. cruelty) you are a heretic. Don't get me wrong - I rant against daas torah all the time. But this is about faith in our mesorah. If no one alive knows how to live their lives in accordance with the value system of the torah, then from where will the next generation learn? Is the mesorah broken?
If an orthodox jew is cruel, he corrupts our mesorah. The only way that I know that Judaism isnt a religion that preaches hate and cruelty is because of that mesorah (like I said, the interpretation of written sources will always follow the axiomatic values you bring in apriori). As such, for a Jew to be cruel undermines the entire mesorah upon which Judaism is based.
The halacha is that a rav she-eino hagun - a rebbe with bad middos, is prohibited to teach torah or to learn torah from him. We understand this very well - as important as learning the sugya of yiush shelo midaas is, it pales in comparison to the importance of the mesorah of our value system. To learn from a rebbe who is cruel (for example) will lead the talmid to a mesorah that Judaism is a cruel religion, and he will interpret halachic rulings accordingly (like Yossi Sarid yimach shemo).
We now understand - could there be a greater chillul hashem then a corruption of His religion? By acting in an improper way, we permanently corrupt and distort the mesorah = the torah, and make it into a teaching of falsehood. Torah is powerful - it connects to us- because it is a toras emes. It is totally understandable that when the torah is corrupted into a toras sheker, people dont want to stick with it. Acting against the value system of the torah isnt just a violation of the torah - but it corrupts the mesorah because we only know how to interpret the torah through the way klal yisrael lives and acts.
So my answer to the question I asked you above- while its obviously true that book learning is critically important - there is a mitzvah to learn torah, and only through study can one keep to the (important) technical laws of the halacha. But ultimately, torah shebaal peh, even nowadays, is still rubo al peh - we only know how to be good jews via the chain of mesorah and transmission from one generation to the next. Which means that it is totally fair to judge Judaism based on its practitioners. G-d should help us all take this knowledge to heart and act accordingly.
No comments:
Post a Comment