RECENT READINGS, PART II
A HEART OF MANY VOICES:
CELEBRATING THE MANY VOICES WITHIN JUDAISM
by David Hartman
October 24, 2002
Let me introduce you to a fine man and beloved teacher, author, founder in 1976 of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and a spiritual sage to millions around the world: David Hartman. He has published a remarkable and insightful, perhaps even soul-saving, collection of essays whose title derives from this famous Talmudic quotation (Sotah 7:12):
A person might think,
"Since the House of Shammai declare unclean, and the House of Hillel clean, this one prohibits and that one permits, how then, can I learn Torah?"
Scripture says, "Words. . . the words. . . . These are the words. . . . " All the words have been given by a single shepherd, one God created them, one Provider gave them, the Lord of all deeds, blessed be He, has spoken them. So make yourself a heart of many rooms and bring into it the words of the House of Shammai and the words of the House of Hillel, the words of those who declare unclean and the words of those who declare clean.
In the spirit of this ancient text, Dr. Hartman, himself an Orthodox Jew, steadfastly teaches that halakhic Jews need not feel threatened by different understandings of normative Judaism. And so this collection of essays, A Heart of Many Rooms, expresses his determined conviction that building educational bridges between Jews in Israel and throughout the Jewish world is not only a possibility, but an absolute necessity. Hartman reflects:
My refusal to give up hope is rooted in my early religious upbringing. My parents were pious, observant Jews, totally committed to their children's Torah education. During the years of my youth, I never once heard the language of demonstration and exclusion (such as they're heretics!) so prevalent in modern-day religious discourse.
And so, not only does Dr. Hartman welcome to his prestigious Institute Jews of many denominational stripes but also Christian theologians and pilgrims who are seeking deeper understanding of Judaism. Everyone is accepted for who they are. There is no effort to proselytize.
Among the subjects addressed in this book, A Heart of Many Rooms, are these:
In every case, Dr. Hartman draws on Talmudic texts to explain the worrisome developments and the fanatical, even evil realities, of our God-created world. And, mind you, in so explaining, Dr. Hartman never resorts to explanations by Jewish mysticism.
At one point he cites how the ancient rabbis themselves wondered:
If God hates idolatry, why does He not destroy the objects of idolatry? If someone stole grain and planted it in the earth, why does it grow? Why does an illicit sexual relationship result in pregnancy? (Avoda Zara 54B)
In response to such perplexing realities of our world, the ancient pronouncement was made centuries and centuries ago (and it is well worth our remembering): Olam ke-minhago noheg-the world conforms to its natural course.
The Talmud concedes that by all rights, stolen grain ought not grow; nevertheless, the world conforms to its natural course. Judaism's hope for justice has always pointed to a future state of harmony where one will be compelled to account for one's conduct.
Tumors, hurricanes, lymphoma, floods, West Nile Virus, HIV-AIDS, heart attacks, terrorist bombs, are not judgements visited upon us by God. Says Hartman,
The crucial point of this Talmudic text is the admission that natural forces and events do not mirror the moral quality of the relationship between human beings and God.
He goes on to assert, and challenge us each:
My search for a way to renew the Sinai covenant leads first of all to "Egypt"; in other words, to solidarity with a suffering people seeking liberation.
Solitary lonely individuals with no sense of community cannot appropriate the spiritual way of life that emanates from Sinai. Judaism is unique in that rather than beginning with a leap of faith, it demands a leap of identification with a people and its history. . . .
Religious Jews who are deeply concerned about the fate of all Jews must not only share the burdens of survival but also strive to build spiritual bridges among Jews.
In this wonderful, thoughtful book, Dr. Hartman counters so much of the meanspiritedness and fanaticism of fundamental religion today when he asserts:
Not only are we able to understand the varieties of 20th century Jewish practice, we need to relate to one another as fellow believers.
I liked Dr. Hartman's analysis of the role we parents must play in the lives of our children (a subject not at all irrelevant to this Bar Mitzvah Shabbat). Says David Hartman:
The role of parents is to help children develop a sense of history and an empathic identification with the world of experience beyond their own. . . . The parent is significant for the child not because of the latter's helplessness. . . . but because, without the parent, the child has no Sinai, no Egypt, no Abraham-in a word, no memory. . . .
Judaism imposes a vital task on parents: to tell the Jewish people's story. What the child does with this past, no parent can decree. Parents provide their children with luggage. Whether they open up this luggage in the future and use its contents is beyond the knowledge and control of parents.
It is sufficient for parents to aim at instilling memories that "haunt" children an entire lifetime; their bequest is a weight of generations, an awareness that a Jew's biography begins with Abraham.
On another pressing subject, our feelings for the State of Israel, Dr. Hartman review pre-1938 attitudes toward Zionism and the founding of a Jewish State.
Ultra-Orthodox and Ultra-Reform were against establishing the Jewish state, but for different reasons: the Messiah's exclusive right, for one, the Messianic Age and the usefulness of the Jewish state for the other.
Though we Reformers have come along and established deep roots in Israel, there are hundreds of thousands of Ultra-Orthodox who, though living in Israel and enjoying citizenship, do not accept the validity of this Jewish state and refuse to serve in its armed forces, because it is inauthentic, not having been established by Divine, but rather by human hands.
Here was the choice, as Hartman expressed it:
The challenge facing 20th century Jews was either to choose a Jerusalem of heaven, which one entered only in one's dreams, or to build a Jerusalem of the earth, for which one would be responsible seven days of the week.
Where was God to dwell? In a mystic rapture? Or in a living community? The revolution of secular Zionism created the conditions in Judaism for the "return" of the Lord to the fullness of everyday life, with all its problematic features.
Do you see what manner of man this is? His lucid thinking melds antiquity with futurism; the abstract with realism, and the result is reverent clarity and a productive, healthy agenda for the Jewish and human future.
Above all, we Jews must rise above the overwhelming but terribly destructive temptation to vilify those who disagree with us, either religiously or politically. Says Hartman:
The Talmud answers that whenever Hillel presented his position in the house of learning, he would always mention Shammais' position first. He was so "considerate and modest" that when addressing students, he would begin by discussing the alternative opinion to his own. . . .
So Dr. Hartman concludes with this good sense:
The Jewish community suffered many different Egypts throughout history because we embodied the scandal of particularity. We became the permanent strangers in history, the stumbling block to those who attempted to impose a monolithic religious and political order.
We who have returned to build the third Jewish commonwealth, where we are the majority culture and where the national, social, and political frameworks support our collective dignity, must also realize that the Egypts of our history must teach us to appreciate and celebrate the dignity of the stranger in our midst.
In this world of ours, in which every faith tradition-Jewish and non-Jewish-seems to have adopted an armed camp mentality if us v. them, the saved v. the damned, the faithful v. the heretics-Dr. Hartman's book is a breath of fresh air. Both thoughtful and provocative, its breadth of scope provides us all with the generous embrace of inclusiveness.
Hartman's obvious and passionate delight in pluralism and diversity of thought gives us reason to pause in our bitter controversies, and regaining our sense, remember once again that
Beloved are all human beings,
Created in the image of God.
Amen.