DEEP CALLS TO DEEP – ETS & SR – LJS

8.00 Alex’s introduction (5 minutes)

8.05 Elli – background / context followed by overview of paper (20 minutes)

Background/context

• Good evening, everyone. As with the previous session in this series, my contribution this evening relates to a paper I wrote in the context of a Jewish Christian dialogue group facilitated by Rabbi Tony Bayfield that was made up of participants with a background in Interfaith dialogue.
• The aim the group at the outset was to produce and publish a book that would contribute to a new understanding of Jewish Christian encounter that would inform the work of the Council of Christians and Jews. The plan for the group was that it would involve a three-year commitment for all of us. In the end, the work of finalising the book meant that the commitment lasted four years.
• Assigned the topic of providing a Jewish response to the theme of ‘The Third Dialogue Partner: How Do We Experience Modern Western Culture?’ I had the difficult task of writing and presenting the first paper that was destined to be the first chapter of the book. The task was difficult because as I approached the paper, I did not have the benefit of having heard the contributions of the other participants. The task was also difficult because I was aware that this group of Jews and Christians encompassed those who came from the traditional end of the spectrum as well as those from the progressive end, so, my paper, by definition was likely to be very challenging to the traditionalists. As it happens, when I gave my paper one of the Orthodox Jewish participants took exception to what I was saying in rather aggressive tones to say the least. It was a testing moment and a very uncomfortable experience for me.
• Fortunately, by contrast, my pairing with Dr Stephen Roberts proved to be a very positive, fruitful and mutually respectful encounter. I enjoyed our meetings and my contribution to the book was enhanced and deepened by our exchanges. It was a pleasure for me to meet up with Stephen a few weeks ago to plan this session.

Overview of my paper: Liberating Individuals and Challenging Communities

• One of the main arguments of my paper is that Judaism has changed over time, right from the beginning – although in its early formation, it could not be called ‘Judaism’– with key watersheds along the way.
• The most transformational watershed prior to Modernity was the development of Rabbinic Judaism following the destruction of Jerusalem and the last Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. During Temple times, worship centred on a sacrificial cult presided over by priests. After the last Temple was destroyed, a new leadership of learning reconstructed Jewish life. Drawing on the teachings of the Torah, the rabbis formulated an entirely new way of putting the Torah into practice, centred on the home and the synagogue, and on the individual’s responsibility for keeping the mitzvot – the commandments – originally outlined in the Torah, which the rabbis interpreted and made practicable in the context of daily life. The rabbis spoke of the halakhah – based on the Hebrew root, Heh – Lamed – Kaf, ‘to go’ or ‘to walk’ – which in the Aramaic form used in the Talmud, hilkhata, came to mean ‘law’. So, in this context, ‘Judaism’ was about following the law, set out in the Torah and expounded by the rabbis. Judaism became a way of life.
• The French Revolution of 1789 was the next transformational watershed in Jewish existence, precipitating three principal Jewish responses – none of which existed before the dawn of modernity: Progressive Judaism (encompassing Liberal and Reform varieties)^[1]; Conservative Judaism; and Orthodox Judaism (an umbrella term encompassing differing approaches from the modern stance of Samson Raphael Hirsch through ultra-orthodox forms of expression).^[2] Broadly speaking, Progressive Judaism responded positively, both, to enlightenment and to political emancipation, embracing democratic values and the empowerment of the individual. Meanwhile, Conservative and modern Orthodox Judaism, which both developed in Germany in the 1850s as a reaction to the more liberal religious positions taken by Progressive Judaism, endorsed a form of Jewish life, whereby an individual could be ‘a Jew at home and a human being in the street.’^[3] Ultra-Orthodox Judaism, by contrast, in the absence of the ghetto walls, sought to strengthen ‘the fence round the Torah’,^[4] in an attempt to insulate Jewish life and protect it from erosion by the wider society, which had become more open and accessible.
• A segregated ghetto existence had for hundreds of years ensured Jewish communal stability and continuity by supporting a system of social control inherent in the practice of halakhah. The emergence of Modernity disrupted the social order by bringing down the ghetto walls and introducing a new agent into society: the empowered individual. As Jewish communities were no longer required to dwell alone and apart, so individuals were free to roam beyond the confines of Jewish life and explore new opportunities to realise their personal hopes and dreams.
• Of the threat to traditional Jewish life, Modernity’s challenge to communal authority over the lives of individuals had the potential to wreak the greatest havoc. It is not surprising that one powerful response was the development of Orthodox Judaism – an attempt to limit the threat of modernity by reinforcing the limits and boundaries around Jewish life. This response remains powerful and effective to this day. Indeed, it might be argued that after more than two centuries of flux and change and the continuing generation of a multiplicity of choices for individuals, ultra-Orthodoxy, in particular, has become an attractive and safe solution to the complexities of modern life for those individuals who seek to orientate their lives and find a coherent path in the face of a plurality of options, ideas and truths.
• The resurgence of Orthodoxy also has something to do with the underside of Modernity, the assault on meaning and traditional approaches to meaning-making. Alongside the new opportunities, open vistas and stimulating developments in human knowledge – in particular, the scientific revolution – Modernity has also brought in its wake a materialist impulse that has threatened to reduce human existence to material factors and a plethora of forms of measurable data. Of course, the lives of people in modern culture have benefited hugely from advances in technology and material prosperity. But as individuals have been transformed into consumers, driven to accumulate more and more must-have products, paradoxically, increasing consumption has generated an existential sense of emptiness. In 1976, four years before his death, Erich Fromm, a Jewish psychoanalyst and social reformer, who was born Frankfort in 1900 and immigrated to the United States in 1933 when Hitler came to power, published a book, entitled, To Have or To Be?^[5] Fromm argues that people in today’s world no longer say ‘I am’, but rather ‘I have’. It’s not just that our material possessions dominate our existence, having is also the way we relate to the people we know and the people we love. Fromm points out that, in Hebrew, there is no verb to express ‘having’. If I want to say ‘I have’, I must say, yesh li, ‘it is to me’^[6] He suggests that the word for “to have is absent… in societies with predominantly functional property, that is, possession for use.”^[7]
• Fromm’s observation about language hints at the trauma that people experienced as the mode of existence shifted from ‘being’ to ‘having’ at the beginning of the Industrial Age. In 1844, as the new industrial order was reaching its zenith, Karl Marx argued in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts^[8] that with the advent of mass production, workers, who were no longer engaged in creating things with their own hands from start to finish, became alienated from their human essence as creative beings. Before the advent of manufacturing, the objects that people made were extensions of themselves, bearing the stamp of each person’s individual personality.
• We cannot ignore the underside of Modernity, but on the other hand, the opportunities it has created have been immeasurable. Inspired by the new spirit of freedom, Progressive Judaism has embraced those opportunities, not least the opportunity to reconstruct Jewish teaching and practice ‘to satisfy the needs of the age’, as Lily Montagu, one of the founders of Liberal Judaism in this country put it in 1899 in her work, ‘Spiritual Possibilities of Judaism Today’:^[9]
• As signalled by the rallying cry of the French Revolution: Liberté, égalité, fraternité, one of the key values and goals of Modernity is equality. Over the course of the 20^th century, the commitment to satisfying the needs of the age that had put equality at the top of the agenda, extended beyond the equal treatment of men and women in synagogue life and the leadership of women rabbis to the equal treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jews, including the leadership of LGBT rabbis.
• In recent years, Progressive Judaism has also responded to the needs of the age in recent years in the arena of the impact of mass consumerism and globalisation. Liberal Judaism’s policy on Ethical Eating^[10] is a good example of a response that brings commitment to fair-trade, animal welfare and organic food production together with a reinterpretation of the Jewish dietary laws that emphasises ethical and universalistic values, while maintaining a distinctive Jewish approach.
• Another important opportunity grasped by Progressive Judaism has been the potential for individual Jews to make meaning and commit themselves to Jewish life. Liberal Judaism, in particular, and Progressive Judaism in general, is committed through the provision of quality education to enabling Jews to make informed choices. Of course, there is a threat inherent in the freedom of the individual to choose – they may choose not to engage; they may choose to opt out of Jewish life.
• But as it happens, increasingly, individual Jews, making informed choices, are choosing to engage – and not just as Progressive Jews: Modern society has enabled individual Jews to be Jewish in their own ways. In addition to denominational allegiances, there are secular Jews, humanist Jews, Socialist Jews, Zionist Jews, Buddhist Jews,^[11] New Age Jews, Renewal Jews,^[12] Eco-Jews, and so on – many of whom cross fertilise from these different varieties of ways of being Jewish, as they forge their own sense of what it is to be a Jew. Then there are also Jews, who are not born Jewish, who choose to become Jews, as well as those who are not Jews, either by birth or choice, but who choose to walk along some of the paths of Jewish life and engage with their own selection of Jewish teaching and practice.^[13]
• Of course, the proliferation of individual Jews choosing their own Jewish ways has an impact on the Jewish community. Jewish congregations that open their doors to individuals are in the process of change. Where will these changes lead? Will multiple expressions of Jewish life give rise to multiple Judaisms? Has ‘the Jewish people’ already become ‘many Jewish peoples’? The impact is not only internal – internal to the synagogue; internal to the Jewish world. Those who come in from the outside, as it were, bring more than themselves, as individuals, to congregational life. They also take the world within with them outside – and create bridges between the congregation and wider society. So, as the congregation looks outwards, engagement and alliances with other communities become possible – with different religious, spiritual and faith groups, with people with different ethnicities, with a variety of organisations and interest groups.
• Modernity has ushered in threats and challenges and opportunities – and the clash between traditional and progressive worldviews continues to play out the battle between the old and new worlds ushered in by the rise of the new world. The ultimate outcome is unknown and unknowable. What is clear is that, whatever side you’re on, modern culture is a real presence, and with the exception of religious denominations that withdraw completely from society, none of the forms of Judaism or Christianity extant today – or any of the other faiths for that matter – would be the same without it.
• My chapter concludes with those words, but I want to end the overview of my paper with a more hopeful vision. In my view, the greatest gift of Modernity holds out the greatest promise for the future: empowered individuals choosing to take responsibility for their own lives, forming alliances with one another and building faith communities and multicultural and interfaith communities rooted in a commitment to ethical engagement and social justice, mutual respect and the imperative to repair the world.

8.25 Stephen – overview of paper (15 minutes)

8.40 Elli – subsequent reflections (5 minutes)

Challenges of Modernity:

• Individuals are challenged to make meaning to connect the lives of the lives of others in the communities around them.
• Communities are challenged to empower and enable individuals within the community – and to connect with communities.
• Vigil today at Sussex University for those killed, maimed and bereaved in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, provided for me a potent example of individuals connecting with one another in a community context. Organised by the multifaith chaplaincy, the Vigil involved supporting Sri Lankan students, individually and collectively, and brought together students from across the religious, ethnic and cultural spectrum.

8.45 Stephen – subsequent reflections (5 minutes)

8.50 Q&A (10 minutes)

9.00 Elli introduces Exodus 25.1-8

• Study of our sacred texts was an integral feature of our dialogue meetings.
• I’ve chosen this text, the opening verses of the parashah, T’rumah, because of what it teaches about individuals bringing gifts of their own free will for the building of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle in the wilderness.
• The rationale for the building of the Mishkan is given at verse 8: V’asu li mikdash, v’shachanti b’tocham – ‘Let them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.’
• After Stephen introduces his text, you will have an opportunity to discuss in pairs what these texts may teach us about the relationship between the individual and the community in the modern world.

Stephen introduces Ephesians 5 (or 1 Corinthians 12)

9.05 Discussion of texts in pairs (10 minutes)

9.15 Feedback and final reflections (10 minutes)

9.25 Alex – conclusion

1. Please note: ‘Progressive’, ‘Liberal’, ‘Conservative’, ‘Orthodox’, with an upper-case initial letter – as distinct from ‘progressive’, ‘liberal’, etc. Progressive Judaism is a generic term and the World Union of Progressive Judaism, founded in 1926 is the international body that encompasses a variety of movements designated as ‘Liberal’ and ‘Reform’. The use of the terms, ‘Liberal’ and ‘Reform’ can be rather confusing. There are two progressive movements in Britain: Liberal Judaism and the Movement for Reform Judaism. Liberal Judaism’s sister movement in the USA is known as Reform Judaism. In the USA, a third progressive movement known as ‘Reconstructionism’, founded by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983) emerged in the late 1920s. ↑

2. German Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (20 June 20 1808 – 31 December 1888) is best known as the intellectual founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz (Torah with ‘the way of the land’ school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. Note that Chassidism, while considered among the ‘ultra-othodox’ forms of Judaism today, developed as an entirely separate populist pietistic movement in the pre-modern setting of 18^th century Eastern Europe. ↑

3. This expression is attributed to Yehudah Leib Gordon, 1831-1892, the most important Hebrew poet of the nineteenth century and a leading figure of the Russian Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment). ↑

4. See Pirkey Avot, The Sayings of the Sages, 1:1 (appended to the Mishnah, order Nezikin, edited c. 200CE). ↑

5. To Have or to Be? by Erich Fromm. Abacus, London, 1979. ↑

6. Ibid p.32. ↑

7. Ibid ↑

8. The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 by Karl Marx. Also known as The Paris Manuscripts of 1844. First published in 1932. ↑

9. Published in the Jewish Quarterly Review, 1899. ↑

10. Ethical Eating is written by Rabbi Janet Burden in the Liberal Judaism in Practice leaflet series (Liberal Judaism, 2007) ↑

11. So many Jews now choose to become Buddhists there is even a name for them: ‘JUBUs’. See The Jew in the Lotus by Rodger Kamenetz, first published in 1994 by Harper San Francisco, which is an account of an historic dialogue between rabbis and the Dalai Lama. The title is a pun on the Tibetan mantra, om mane padme hum, or ‘the jewel in the lotus.’ ↑

12. The Renewal Movement first developed in the United States. The homepage of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal states: ‘Looking for a joyful, creative, deeply spiritual and relevant approach to Judaism? Yearning for meaningful learning rooted in Torah and tradition, Kabbalah and Hasidism combined with a modern consciousness that is politically progressive, egalitarian and environmentally aware? Hoping for a community that embraces singles, GLBT people and interfaith families? The Judaism you’ve longed for has arrived!’ – see: https://www.aleph.org/ ↑

13. One such individual, who has been participating in study and other activities my congregation, Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue, for the past half dozen years, once an active member of his local Church of England congregation, now refers to himself as a ‘God-fearer’. ↑