Anyone raised on studying Humash with Rashi is well aware of the great commentator’s antipathy toward non-Jews. Rashi’s selected quotes from Midrash and Talmud are deeply infused with the images of good vs evil and us vs them. Rashi’s commentary is quite reflective of the era in which he lived, during which marauding Crusaders devastated a multitude of Jewish communities throughout Europe. The popularity of Rashi’s comment, and of late its adoption as the foundation for the Artscroll translation (and, to a lesser extent, commentary) on the Torah, continue to perpetuate its underlying theological constructs.
The Rabbinic tradition presented by Rashi is an authentic Jewish tradition, and represents a significant perspective on the Jewish experience – not only in the past but in the present as well. Even before the disappearance of the last of the survivors of perhaps the greatest tragedy in all of Jewish history there emerged the Pollyanic visions of the end of antisemitism. Those visions include the liberal ideology that the emergence of Western democracy and the emergence of the thriving State of Israel signal the end of Jewish fragility as well as the messianic movements on the right who see the Jewish return to the land as an unquestioned sign of the imminent Redemption. Alas, the naivete of both has been upended by the ugly resurgence antisemitism masked as antizionism and by the lack of linearity in God’s redemptive plan. Unfortunately, antisemitism is not about to disappear so fast, and Rashi’s worldview is not obsolete.
On the flip side, there is an equal Rabbinic tradition reflected in the worldviews of many other commentaries, including Rashi’s own grandson, Rashbam. That tradition, no less valid than the one promoted by Rashi, sees all people created in the Divine image and imagines Jews living side-by-side, harmoniously, with their follow humans.
These two traditions coexist in Rabbinic literature. For much of the last two thousand years one tradition has been more prominent, given the circumstances of the Jewish exile. But while the other was less prominent, it was always present. The Aleinu prayer, recited at the close of every daily prayer and the centerpiece of the prayers on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, is comprised of two paragraphs. The first paragraph highlights the uniqueness of the Jewish people, as God’s chosen people, while the second affirms God’s universal love for all of His children and a wish for all of them to reunite with the true God. This central theme is at the core of the structure of the daily preparation in Pesukei deZimrah as well as in the two blessings preceding the Shema¬- the first affirming God’s care for all of creation and the second affirming God’s unique relationship with the Jewish people, to whom He revealed Himself and gave the Torah.
Rabbi Reuven Hammer’s report on the recent decision by the Conservative movement is profoundly disturbing – not because it seeks to reaffirm God’s universal love for all humanity but because it seeks to erase an entire core Jewish tradition and, along with it, the uniqueness of the Jewish. Take, for example, the following passage:
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The Rabbinical Assembly document states clearly that there are laws that appear in various Jewish codes that discriminate against non-Jews ... According to this paper, these teachings are no longer to be considered authoritative.
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Such a statement, while politically correct, is an exaggerated reaction to equally disturbing comments denying the inherent sanctity of all humanity, and seeks to nullify half of the Rabbinic dialogue on the topic. The broad nullification of an entire body of laws in a single brushstroke using a superficial application of principles such as Darkhei Shalom undermines their noble effort to restore the half of the tradition ignored by those to whom they are reacting.
This is not the proper venue for an in-depth discussion of the various halakhic considerations invoked by the Assembly; I will suffice with a personal vignette. Thirty-four years ago I was introduced to a recent émigré from the Soviet Union, Mr. MorehDin, who told a remarkable story from the Shoah. One of the camp guards was looking to gather anti-Semitic propaganda information about the anti-Gentile comments in the Talmud. Mr. MorehDin had studied quite a bit of Talmud and offered to help. Over the course of his stay in the camp the guard made sure that his special prisoner survived, while the young scholar studied passage-by-passage demonstrating that those halakhot were not anti-Gentile but designed to promote a Jewish society in which insiders received special privileges. Those privileges were accompanied my mutual obligations, responsibilities demanding special treatment over and above what would otherwise be expected, and were not extended to those who were not “members of the club.†Mr. MorehDin not only survived, but turned an anti-Semitic propagandist into someone who respected the Jewish value of building community.
Erasing either one of the paragraphs of Aleinu or either of the blessings preceding the Shema does violence to the richness of the Jewish tradition, regardless of the good intentions to correct a historic imbalance.
Kol Tuv,
Zvi
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2016 02:06PM by mlb.
