28 ways to think about Jewish Collectivity
Save
Copy
Add to Collection
Export to Google Docs
Share
Seven Principles for Maintaining Jewish Peoplehood
- Number one, keep talking to one another.
- Hence, rule two, listen to one another.
- Rule three, labour to understand the people with whom you disagree.
- Rule four, don’t think in terms of victory or defeat. Think in terms of the good of the Jewish people.
- Rule Five, if you show contempt for other Jews, they will show contempt to you. If you respect other Jews, they will show respect to you. So if you seek respect, give respect. That’s rule number five.
- Rule six, we may not agree on anything, but we remain one extended family.
- Rule seven, remember that God chose us as a people. He didn’t choose only the righteous, or only the saints, or only the very, very holy people, he chose all of us. So that means it is as a people that we stand before God, it’s as a people that we stand before the world. We are united by a covenant of shared memory, of shared identity, of shared fate, even if we don’t share a faith.
Adapted from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Which of the principles resonate most with you? Any you disagree with? What principle would you add?
Six Wings for Holiness
Shacharit Tefillahוְכֻלָּם מְקַבְּלִים עֲלֵיהֶם על מַלְכוּת שָׁמַיִם זֶה מִזֶּה. וְנותְנִים בְּאַהֲבָה רְשׁוּת זֶה לָזֶה לְהַקְדִּישׁ לְיוצְרָם בְּנַחַת רוּחַ. בְּשפָה בְרוּרָה וּבִנְעִימָה. קְדֻשָׁה כֻּלָּם כְּאֶחָד. עונִים וְאומְרִים בְּיִרְאָה:
קָדושׁ קָדושׁ קָדושׁ יהוה צְבָאות. מְלא כָל הָאָרֶץ כְּבודו
קָדושׁ קָדושׁ קָדושׁ יהוה צְבָאות. מְלא כָל הָאָרֶץ כְּבודו
Then they all accept upon themselves the yoke of heavenly sovereignty from one another, and grand permission to one another to sanctify the One Who formed them, with tranquillity , with clear articulation, and with sweetness. All of them as one proclaim and say with awe: "Holy, holy holy is the Lord of Hosts, filing all over the Earth with God's glory."
How does prayer fit into your idea of Jewish collectivity? Do you understand holiness as a communal concept?
A Five Legged Table for Stability Memory, family, Mount Sinai, the Land and the State of Israel, and the Hebrew language. If every Jew would find a way of internalising at least three out of those five legs in their lives, we won’t be uniform but we will always be unified.
- Avraham Infeld
Is it possible to affirm Jewish unity while celebrating the Jewish people's lack of uniformity? Infeld says that you must accept three legs upon yourself to be part of the Jewish collective-- do you agree or disagree? Which legs do you privilege?
Four Tribes within the TribeThe establishment of a working multilayered system of communal leadership is the genius of the Deuteronomist. Judges, kings, priests, and prophets separately and together are needed in order to allow for the Israelites to create the kind of society worthy of their history and their destiny.- Rabbi Rachael Sabath Beith-Halachmi, PH.D
How does leadership factor into Jewish collectivity? Does the vision of the Deuteronomist still hold? Who are our leadership tribes? What role(s) as future religious leaders do you see yourselves taking on?
A Three Legged Table for Stability
Berakhot 32aואעשה אותך לגוי גדול וגו׳ אמר רבי אלעזר אמר משה לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא רבונו של עולם ומה כסא של שלש רגלים אינו יכול לעמוד לפניך בשעת כעסך כסא של רגל אחד על אחת כמה וכמהולא עוד אלא שיש בי בושת פנים מאבותי עכשיו יאמרו ראו פרנס שהעמיד עליהם בקש גדולה לעצמו ולא בקש עליהם רחמים:
In the same verse, God promised Moses: “And I will make of you a great nation.” What was Moses’ response? Rabbi Elazar said: Moses said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, if a chair with three legs, the collective merit of the three forefathers, is unable to stand before You in Your moment of wrath, all the more so that a chair with one leg, my merit alone, will be unable to withstand your wrath.Moreover, but I have a sense of shame before my forefathers. Now they will say: See this leader that God placed over Israel. He requested greatness for himself but did not pray for God to have mercy upon them in their troubled time.
How does history impact your understanding of what it means to be part of the Jewish people? Do we inherit greatness from our predecessors?
Two Competing ForcesThe phenomenon of dualism in our psyche [is] a fundamental characteristic of the Jewish people...If we investigate ancient Jewish times and perhaps even its earliest history we shall discover these two tendencies-- on the one hand the desire to expand from the center and, on the other, to contract toward it and cleave to it. No nation strives to be swallowed up in other groups as much as the Jews, and, at the same time, to remain an entity-- an entity whose least particle is still recognizably Jewish.
From its earliest time the nation regarded itself as composes of two elements-- shepherds and farmers....the farmer is slow of movement, conservative, enslaved to possessions; in contrast to him, the shepherd is quick of movement and not enslaves to immovable property. -Haim BialikDoes Bialik's read of Jewish history resonate with you? How do these two competing factors impact our collective identity?
One Heart
(ב) וַיִּסְע֣וּ מֵרְפִידִ֗ים וַיָּבֹ֙אוּ֙ מִדְבַּ֣ר סִינַ֔י וַֽיַּחֲנ֖וּ בַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר וַיִּֽחַן־שָׁ֥ם יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל נֶ֥גֶד הָהָֽר׃
(2) Having journeyed from Rephidim, they entered the wilderness of Sinai and encamped in the wilderness. Israel encamped there in front of the mountain,
(ב)ויחן שם ישראל. כְּאִישׁ אֶחָד בְּלֵב אֶחָד, אֲבָל שְׁאָר כָּל הַחֲנִיּוֹת בְּתַרְעוֹמוֹת וּבְמַחֲלֹקֶת:
(2) ויחן שם ישראל AND THERE ISRAEL ENCAMPED as one man and with one mind — but all their other encampments were made in a murmuring spirit and in a spirit of dissension (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:2:10).
תוספתא סוטה פרק ז הל' יבשמא יאמר אדם בדעתו: "הואיל ובית שמיי מטמין ובית הלל מטהרין, איש פל' אוסר ואיש פלוני מתיר, למה אני למד תורה?" מעתה ת"ל 'דברים', 'הדברים', 'אלה הדברים': כל הדברים נתנו מרועה אחד, אל אחד בראן, פרנס אחד נתנן, רבון כל המעשים ברוך הוא. אמרו, אף אתה עשה לבך חדרי חדרים והכניס בה דברי בית שמיי ודברי בית הלל דברי המטמאין ודברי המטהרין
Tosefta, Sota 7:12If one should say, “Since Beit Shammai renders impure and Beit Hillel renders pure, this one forbids and this one permits, why should I learn Torah? For this the verse states (superfluously) 'words, the words, these are the words' All the words were given from a single shepherd; a single G-d created them, one Provider gave them, the Lord of all deeds, blessed be He. They said, so too should you make for yourself a heart of many rooms, and enter into it the words of Beit Shammai and the words of Beit Hillel, the words of those who declare a matter impure, and those who declare it pure.
Can we be one?
