May 2006 Archives

In his masterful book "Sacred Fragments," Rabbi Neil Gillman explores the question of revelation and asks: What really happened at Sinai? And what does our answer mean about revelation and the value of the Torah?

Gillman considers, and rejects, a variety of positions–from the traditional belief that God literally handed a scroll to Moses, to a naturalistic view that ‘Torah’ is simply the name that we give to a natural process of human discernment. But Gillman doesn’t find any of these explanations wholly satisfying. Instead, he follows the model of the German-Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig in asserting that Torah is neither wholly divine nor wholly human, but rather is a synthesis that is created in the space between God and Israel. Torah as we know it is not the content of, but a response to, revelation.

Personally, I’m not sure I can go as far as Gillman or Rosenzweig in asserting an active role for God in creating Torah–or that I need to. I believe that Torah is in fact a human creation, but that its human origins doesn’t render it any less precious or sacred.

Torah is a collection of teachings, wisdom, laws, and sacred stories written down over the course of generations by imperfect, fallible people who were trying both to discern and express God’s will. And more than that, Torah is the discourse and engagement of the countless generations that have followed–reading, interpreting, and wrestling with these holy words so Torah may speak to us with a fresh voice in each generation.

Thus, when we say that God gave the Torah at Sinai, we are not so much making a factual assertion about Torah’s origins as we are giving expression to the ineffable holiness that lies at its core, asserting that its preciousness transcends the mere recording of words and reveals to us truths about God.

Seen this way, Sinai isn’t a moment or a place; rather Sinai is the process of writing and of wrestling and studying through the ages. This is the sense in which we all truly do stand at Sinai–not only on Shavuot but whenever we approach Torah with awe, openness, and love.

What happened on Mt. Sinai? To me, the question is not central. My faith in Torah doesn’t depend on its origin; rather, it derives from the countless generations of Jews who have been touched by its sanctity and have in turn imparted it with meaning–turning and re-turning to it in endless loving cycles down the years.

According to tradition, God gave the people of Israel the Torah at Mount Sinai on Shavuot, the holiday we will celebrate Thursday night through Saturday.

There is no way to truly know what–if anything–happened at Mount Sinai. Ultimately, it is a matter of faith to believe God revealed the Torah to Moses and the Jewish people at Mount Sinai.

Faith and reason, however, need not be incompatible.

In the current debate over the factual accuracy of the Bible, scholars debate whether or not archaeology can prove, or disprove, the historicity of the text. As with many such debates, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. Clearly the Torah text we have today does include anachronisms that point to a later editorial hand. However, that does not necessarily deny the antiquity and authority of much of the text.

Take, for example, the story of the golden calf. I don’t think it is an accident that the panicked Jews choose to build a golden calf, symbol of the Canaanite storm god, while awaiting Moses’ return from a mountain filled with thunder and lightening. In such a little detail, faith and reason converge: the confluence of a Biblical story and an Ancient Near East fact confirms the contextualization of Torah within the time the story is supposed to have taken place. This is just one of many details we know from modern archaeology but which would have been unavailable to someone writing hundreds of years after the purported events (at the time many date the current Biblical text), unless that person was working from much older material. That’s why I’m not so ready to write off Sinai as mere myth.

That doesn’t mean we know what actually happened at Sinai, though whatever it was certainly changed the course of history.

It might be comforting to know that we are not the first generation to wonder what happened at Sinai. The Talmudic sages wondered whether God uttered only the first commandment, the first word, the first letter, the first aspiration of the soundless Hebrew letter aleph, before the people quailed and begged Moses to intercede, in effect to take notes for them.

They asked whether the Jewish people willingly accepted the covenant, crying out naaseh vnishmah, "we will do and then we will hear the details" (the ancient equivalent of signing a contract from someone you trust without reading the fine print), or whether their ambivalence was so great that God had to threaten them with annihilation before they accepted the covenant.

Sinai raises other questions as well: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel asked how could any limited human being, even one as spiritually capable as Moses, contain the infinity of God’s revelation? Think about God trying to download the enormity of Torah, and Moses’ hard drive not being large enough to contain it!

In other words, even if the Torah was transmitted through Moses, Moses could only “get” what made sense to a 13th-century BCE man. For example, he would not have been able to conceive of a religion in which men and women were social and legal equals, as hinted at in the opening scenes where God created the first Adam as equally male and female.

Furthermore, God, being all-knowing, would have known just how much the Israelites of that time could have handled. Therefore, while rejecting human sacrifice, God included animal sacrifices, because God knew that the Israelites would not be able to cope without this mainstay of ancient religion. Lest this sound heretical, Maimonides said something similar when he wrote that, if the Temple were rebuilt, animal sacrifices would not be resumed. Such musings open the way for evolution of observance while still embracing the commanding voice of Torah in our lives.

That is why the most important question is not what actually happened at Sinai, which we cannot recover, but how does Sinai live on in us. According to Rabbi Heschel, the discrete historical moment of Matan Torah, the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, was only part of revelation. Revelation continues through Kabbalat Torah, the accepting of the Torah.

Each generation and every individual has the opportunity to continue to receive Torah, not only through Torah study but through applying what Torah teaches to the new conditions of our lives. Every time we ask ourselves WWTD, “What Would Torah (have us) Do?” we find ourselves back at Sinai.

There is no question that neither the Jewish day school nor supplemental "Hebrew school" model is succeeding when it comes to educating our kids to be informed, conscientious, proficient, identified Jews. The reason is simple: both day schools and supplemental schools are being called to take on an impossible role–that traditionally played by parents, extended families, and the local Jewish community.

Schools, after all, can be a place to convey information but they were never supposed to be the primary–let alone sole–place to impart identity, values, life skills, and an organic sense of what it means to live Jewishly. In most parts of the American Jewish community, however, our schools are being called upon to do exactly that–is it any surprise they’re buckling under the pressure?

The solution? Sadly, there’s no quick fix to this problem, but there are a few steps I think can help:

Family education. Programs that involve parents and children together help provide crucial Jewish knowledge to parents and empower them to take an active role in guiding their Jewish education and moral development. Children get to see that their parents value Jewish learning and learn from their parents’ example, just as they do when parents drop children off at Sunday school and then rush off to Starbucks or to the mall.

Immersive peer experiences. There is no substitute for the messages and reinforcement kids get from their peers, and placing them together in a Jewish environment is tremendously important for promoting identity and a sense of connection to the Jewish people. Possibilities include Jewish camping and Israel trips through youth organizations, schools, or programs aimed at college-age Jews such as Birthright or Otzma.

There’s no place like home. Clearly, there is no substitute for the lessons learned and experiences created at home within one’s family. The magic of sitting down together for a Shabbat meal, of baking hamantaschen, of a seder, of discussing words of Torah around a table–Jewish education needs to empower parents by giving them the skills necessary to create these organic Jewish moments for their own children that will become a part of their kishkes.

Obviously, none of this is easy to do. It involves engaging parents who may be ambivalent about Jewish education or practice, who may lack the skills to model Jewish living for their children, and who may have negative attitudes toward Jewish education from their own childhood experiences. It demands asking these parents what they want for their children and how the schools can partner with the parents to make it happen. It requires sustained attention and energy, with a focus on values as well as content and skills. The task is daunting, but the payoff is enormous.

I can go on for pages about how important a day-school education is toward ensuring the continuity of the Jewish people. Likewise, I could spend hours explaing how critical Jewish literacy is for Jewish life. There are no issues more dear to my heart than the importance of Jewish education and literacy.

But then I remember it's actual people we are talking about here, not some vague statistics or ideas thrown around Jewish organization board meetings and think-tank sessions.

As someone who went both to day schools and public schools, yeshivas and Berkeley--and a few other secular and religious institutions in between--I have lived the dilemma that so many parents face in figuring out what educational environment is best for their children.

The truth of the matter is that there have been changes in Jewish education over the past 15 years (since I was a high school freshman). But I still think one thing remains the same: the question each parent needs to ask. First and foremost, what is best for my child? Unfortunately, day schools do not have the infrastructure set up to understand and accommodate all children.

Day schools for the most part demand that children behave a certain way, dress a certain way and think a certain way, and that kind of environment is certainly not for everyone. Most day schools such as the silly, pretentious one I went to in Brookline Mass., (that has subsequently been brought to its knees) are good at offering an educational environment that can breed a few miniature rabbis, doctors, and lawyers--but what about artists, musicians, and plumbers? What about the average kid who just is not so into Judaism and Jewish study or the precocious child who occasionally inhales something other than cigarette smoke? They simply have no clue how to deal with difference.

The person who really gets this issue is the ever-perceptive Marvin Schick, president of New York's Rabbi Jacob Joseph Yeshiva. In commenting on how day schools deal with difference, he argued:

"Perhaps inevitably they operate at times in ways that counter the paramount precept of Torah education, chanoch l'naar al pi darcho--that each child should be taught in the manner that best ensures his advancement...Now, the attitude in too many of our schools is to reject applicants, as if this demonstrates that they are stronger Torah institutions. They also are quick to expel students who do not readily fit in. I have heard principals say that they never expel a student until they have found a substitute school, as if expulsion alone is not sufficient to destroy a child's confidence and emotional underpinnings. In my experience, the truth is usually otherwise and students are expelled even when there is no other school that will accept them...The "if in doubt throw it out" attitude that used to be applied to food products is now being applied to Jewish children. This attitude must be challenged. I know this entails a risk, but it is one that must be taken in the face of unfolding tragedies in Jewish homes. If but one child is saved because of this protest, the risk will be worthwhile."

Even though Schick might not admit it, there have been some postive signs coming from the emergence of interdenominational schools that understand the need for multiple models and frameworks for helping children grown and learn. The bottom line remains that day school education still has a long way to go.

Thirty years ago (way before the 2000 National Population Survey shocked everyone with its intermarriage figures rising above 50 percent), a group of forward-thinking Jewish educators charged the Jewish community with devoting significantly more resources to Jewish education and improving its quality. They founded the Coalition for Alternatives in Jewish Education (CAJE) hoping that creative reform would transform Jewish education and thereby save the Jewish people.

Thirty years are a mere blip on the Jewish timeline, yet much has changed in the field: CAJE’s acronym now stands for the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education, since so many of CAJE’s original “alternatives” have become mainstream practice: non-frontal teaching, teacher training, creative language acquisition, etc. Boards of Jewish education around the country are staffed with CAJE program graduates. Foundations, from Avi Chai to Covenant, now fund day school and afternoon school initiatives. The number of non-Orthodox day schools and high schools continues to grow. These factors reflect great success. However, there are also a number of significant challenges that remain.

Day schools remain prohibitively expensive. In effect, access to Jewish education becomes an issue not only of priorities but also of economic capability. That may be one reason that, except for the small percentage of non-Orthodox families deeply committed to day-school education for its own sake, many parents choose day school where it is as an attractive substitute for an unsafe or academically inferior neighborhood public school.

While more communal funding is critical, it is not a panacea to all woes.

It is obvious that students in a day school will learn more than those in an afternoon school, if for no other reason than the increased hours spent in Judaic and Hebrew classes. However, while day-school children may have a stronger background in Bible or Jewish history, they still may not be fluent in Hebrew, competent in Jewish ritual observance outside of the daily prayer service recited each morning in school, or imbued with a stronger commitment to Jewish affiliation than their afternoon-school peers, particularly if their Jewish education ends in eighth grade.

One reason is that even Conservative day schools are hesitant to advocate personal observance or a commanding sense of a personal relationship with God. Where the day school is a community school, the value of mutual respect for difference can clash with the educational opportunity to inspire the next generation in Jewish practice where there is an inability to agree on “whose practice” will be taught.

All these challenges are amplified in afternoon schools, where the commitment level of families may be lower, teaching hours less, and the ability of students to pay full attention after a full day of school more limited.

Studies have shown that Jewish peer engagement, not class room hours per sae, is the single most significant variable in determining 21st century Jewish affiliation. Perhaps that is because, though Jewish identity and living skills historically were transmitted in the family, most American Jewish families no longer have the will nor the skill to do so. Therefore, while peer bonding – through programs like Birthright and significant Jewish camping remain critical, the bottom line is that even the best Jewish school education is no substitute for what a child learns and does at home. In other words, until family education becomes mainstreamed and integrated within regular curricular objectives and goals, rather than seen as enrichment or additional optional programming, we will continue to see a gap between the hope and the reality of Jewish education, whether on the day school or afternoon school level.

This past summer in Israel, on a long walk to a friend’s house for Shabbat dinner, I passed groups of young people hanging around street corners. Looking through the lit windows of Germantown’s cafes, I saw numerous individuals sitting alone...

The Jewish press in America and Israel is abuzz about the recent comments of Israeli novelist A.B. Yehoshua to the effect that Jewish life in the Disapora (outside of Israel) is incomplete and irrelevant.The substance of the charges is nothing...

The recent spat at the American Jewish Committee's conference in Washington is what happens when you get a lot of Jews in one room who really do not know that much about Jews or Judaism.The debacle happened on the first...

Sadly, the story is all too common–Jewish families trying to outdo each other with over-the-top Bar and Bat Mitzvah parties that show off wealth and status in an orgy of conspicuous consumption. For some it seems it don’t mean a...

When our son Yoni was 12, he begged us for a Bar Mitzvah disco party like all his classmates were planning. He was not initially pleased when we replied with plans for a Saturday night largely home-cooked dinner and talent...

“Keeping up with the Steins,” the new movie set to hit theaters shortly, is one of those cultural events that remind you just how different your Judaism is from your grandparents' Judaism. The story revolves around a family preparing for...

Perhaps no issue is more misunderstood within the context of halakhah, Jewish law, than gay marriage. On the one hand, those such as my friend and teacher Rabbi David Ellenson, President of Hebrew Union College, has radically argued that “a...

One of the core precepts of Reconstructionist thought is that Judaism is always evolving in response to times and circumstances–and thank God for that!If Judaism had remained static, then our religion would have died out 1,900 years ago when the...

When Vince, aide to President MacKenzie Allen on ABC’s "Commander in Chief," chooses to secretly tie the knot with his partner to protect the President during an election year (Episode 15, “Ties that Bind”), the writers are suggesting that our...