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Day 4: Is Jewish Renewal the Next Step in Spirituality, or Boomer Narcissism?
By Daniel Bronstein / February 16, 2007
From: Arthur Waskow To: Daniel Bronstein Subject: We must learn to live with power
Daniel,
If I repeat myself, it’s because I feel unheard and caricatured.
A new Judaic paradigm will not require us to abandon all elements of the older paradigms. Of course “Love your neighbor” from Torah (that’s Biblical Judaism) and Hillel’s interpretation of it (Rabbinic Judaism) remain valuable. Just as Hillel used what came from a previous paradigm, so can we. And we do.
But crucial elements of an old paradigm can become rigid and deadly. A major example: sacrificial offerings at the Temple. Maimonides taught that we dropped the sacrifices because we grew more mature and didn’t need them. They were regressive, childish. We needed a new paradigm.
I am surprised that you seem unsure whether Rabbinic Judaism was a new paradigm, a form of Judaism quite different from Biblical Judaism.
I am especially surprised that you scoff at the idea that Rabbinic Judaism presupposes that the Jewish people do not have and cannot exercise political power.
With the Bar Kokhba rebellion, Rabbi Akiba made an attempt to acquire politico-military power and independence for the Jewish people. Even though the rabbis thought that Akiba was an amazing teacher, they wrote Bar Kokhba out of the sacred history and downplayed the Maccabees precisely to prevent bids for political power, which had proved so disastrous.
Two millennia later, the Jews now have power. And because the rabbis had so little experience in exercising it, Rabbinic Judaism cannot guide us in how an Israeli Army or an AIPAC should behave. We must draw from Torah to create a kind of Judaism appropriate to our new reality—just as the rabbis once drew on a few lines of Hosea and Isaiah and Hannah in order to change Judaism’s focus from animal sacrifice to prayer.
Another example: the rabbis explicitly gave up on the Jubilee Year practice of redistributing land and letting it rest, saying this applied only in the Land of Israel, and only when the majority of the Jewish people lived there. As a result, the only “environmental” concept in Rabbinic Judaism is Bal Tashchit, a very weak way of protecting the earth.
This made sense for an era when the Jewish people had no way of making “land policy” or what we now call “environmental policy,” because they had no political power in the Land of Israel or any other land. But now we have both the need and the power to work with other communities toward healing the Earth. There are hints of what to do in some aspects of Biblical Judaism, but almost none in Rabbinic teaching. We need a new paradigm.
I do, however, want to celebrate one of your comments:
“In fact, given the horrendous job humans are doing these days in managing the world, I would welcome being bossed around by God, especially since we are ‘scorching’ the world.”
That’s precisely my point. You would welcome being bossed around by God, but it ain’t happening. Why keep addressing the God you know ain’t there, when you could be addressing the God who is—the mysterious but palpable YHWH, Breath of Life, joyful Breeze, shattering Hurricane, in-breath and out-breath. That metaphor for God might help you to not burn up the world, because you will feel its interwovenness with you. In contrast, God-as-King makes many Jews feel resentful, rebellious, as if they hold no stake in the world He owns.
As for the Orthodox community, I am not in the least surprised by their resurgence. They are reacting
against modernity by going back before it. Put women back in the bottle, other religions back in the bottle, the Earth back in the bottle. To do this, they need a lot more coercive power than their zeydes did. One hundred years ago, nobody had to beat up women to keep them from davening at the Western Wall. Now the genie is out of the bottle. It takes violence to put it back in.
So I see the extreme Orthodox as “Jewish restoration,” not continuity. This is very different from traditional Judaism.
Meanwhile, Renewal and Reconstructionism have pioneered the full involvement of gay and lesbian Jews. Conservative Judaism, long rigidly resistant, is following that path. Even Orthodoxy has its Trembling Before G-d, the film about gay Orthodox Jews that shook many people and opened many windows.
That is the rumbling sound of Rabbinic Judaism falling apart, a dozen bricks at a time rather than all at once. And it is the sound of a new home being built from many (not all) of the old bricks, along with some new hyper-insulated energy-conserving materials; and we are rearranging these raw materials into very new kinds of architecture.
Sh’ma!! To that sound, and to the breathing of the One! No branch of Judaism needs to vanish for the renewal of Torah and of the Jewish people, nor for a new paradigm to come into being.
Shalom,
Arthur
To: Arthur Waskow From: Daniel Bronstein Subject: Grass will Grow in Our Cheeks
Dear Arthur,
Sh’ma: I have heard you, and I have listened to you. As for caricature, I think you have been doing quite a bit of that in the ways you discuss “Rabbinic Judaism” and traditional conceptions of God.
A former icon of the boomer generation, Timothy Leary, spoke of “old” knowledge as “canned, static,” and “dead,” and of everyone becoming “his own Buddha.” I don’t want to caricature you, but Leary’s ghost echoes in some of your words.
Even so, your last letter is far more nuanced: It is heartening to see that you have shifted from the
metaphor of “dead idols” to that of “old bricks.” That’s progress.
I am also heartened that you wrote that no “present branch of Judaism needs to vanish for the renewal of Torah and of the Jewish people.” I am not Orthodox and often dissent from its ideology and practice. At the same time, we should acknowledge that Jewish “Orthodoxy” is far from monolithic and is in fact probably the most diverse “stream” of Judaism. I have been enriched by many aspects of Orthodoxy and have learned from many Orthodox teachers.
I understand that the Judaism of the Tanach differs from the Judaism of the Mishnah or Talmud. Yes, animal sacrifice is radically different from prayer. However, I object to your broad pronouncements about ancient and “Rabbinic” Judaism; we really don’t know a whole lot about how it “really was.”
I understand “power” differently from you. I don’t believe it stems only from politics, and I believe that the rabbis often empowered Jews by helping them maintain their humanity and their sense of history.
I believe in a God who is “there” and who is “here.” And while I regret human failings as well as God’s seeming absence, I am unwilling to relocate God to the self, which really returns us to the original discussion about narcissism.
We disagree about whether the Torah and Jewish people need to be “renewed.” I’m still old-fashioned enough to want to affirm what some rabbis taught so many centuries ago: the learning of Torah is equal to all other mitzvot because it leads to all other mitzvot (Talmud Torah k’Neged Kulam; it still resonates far better in the original Hebrew).
The need for renewal suggests decrepitude, and while certain forms of Judaism and perhaps even segments of the Jewish people have become decrepit, Jews and Judaism have been in an ongoing state of renewal for many centuries. I don’t think that we are anywhere close to knowing all the answers, or even whether we have been asking the right questions.
You mention Rabbi Akiba. He was illiterate for most of his life until he humbled himself, attending school with children, ultimately becoming one of our greatest teachers. Even so, he placed his faith in a soldier, Bar Kokhba, proclaiming the latter as the Messiah who had arrived, in the midst of war and profound suffering, to redeem Israel. Even our greatest teachers can be wrong. As one of Akiba’s rabbinical colleagues explained “Akiba, grass will grow out of your cheeks and David’s son the Messiah will still not have come.”
Arthur, the grass will grow out of our cheeks before the arrival of the messianic age. It will take all of us, collectively as well as individually, in a partnership with God, whose spark resides within us but still transcends us, to bring about the world we yearn for.
Shalom,
Dan
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Shalom TikkunGer
You have provided a well thought out response to the on-going discourse. And for that you are to be applauded.
Renewal, like its predecessor and companion movement, the Reconstructionist Federation are not monolithic movements, and Renewals aim is to reach out to non-attached or disaffected Jews and their families as well as contribute to the ongoing tikkun. That there is an ongoing dialogue with many in the Progressive and many many members of the Reconstructionist movement means that in those settings the level of discourse if much higher than what would be available from a general intro site.
Rabbi Bronstein is also a Rabbinic student at JTS, and one would assume that his responsa come from his (laudable) studies in this denomination’s Rabbinic School.
Having finished an overview of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan’s writings it is clear that back in the 1920′s and 1930′s he was thinking the same thoughts. Indeed his agenda, though slightly more conservative (this is a reflection of his times) was indeed revolutionary for its time. His influence on Renewal is attested in Reb Zalman’s teachings in the DVD Yishmeru Da’at, and even the most fleeting perusal of ‘The Future of the American Jew’ demonstrates this glaring similarity. This is also shadowed by the joint ordination of many of the Rabonim in Jewish Renewal (many are graduates of the Reconstructionist Rabbinic Seminary), and the influence of Reconstructionist liturgy is evident in such siddurim as the P’nai Or Siddur, or Siddur Kol Kore.
Since the Reconstructionist Movement joined the UPJ, and many UPJ congregations have Renewal Havurot within them there is clearly a moving towards synchrocity occurring.
Having undertaken studies in the Renewal distance education program I have not found there to be a poverty of "Jewish" textual studies. The movement is only just emerging from its gestation, and given it is so young, we do not need to engage in Alpha male marking of territory. I have found my engagement with the rest of Judasim, and most especially the non-Orthodox world to be greatly enhanced by my involvement in Renewal.
This one at least is mindful that dialectics have an inherant weakness, they force you into a relationship of conflict. We would be well reminded of Pirke Avot 1:12 and seek to promote peace and draw all near to Torah. We must adhere to the injunction of R’ M Kaplan "The Jews’ response to these implications of modern nationalism must necessarily be – if they are to remain Jews – that they refuse to disbane as a people. I applaud any efforts to raise K’lal Israel.
’Rabbi Joshua said "The one who prays in his house is, as it were surrounded by an iron wall…the one who prays in the synagogue is rgarded as having brought up a pure meal offering…’Seek the L-rd where He can be found" [Isaiah 55:6]. Talmud Yerushalmi, Berachot 5:1
But as Eliezer Berkovits in this "Towards Historic Judaism argues that ‘the quality of worship is determined by the quality of the worshiper, which is moulded by forces outside the synagogue. These forces, if they are to create Jewish character, must be directed and applied by the spiritual strength of the living community."
May all our communities become strong voices that in their diversity create a harmonious choir chanting ‘Baruch Shem K’vod Malchuto Le-Olam Va-Ed’
Wishing you well in your journey, and may we meet in the prayers of our lips and the meditations of our hearts.
Kol Tov
Shimon de Valencia
John,
no-one seems to have gotten back to you. The answer is very simple they are Tefillin. The Head One is the Tefillin Shel Rosh, and the one for the arm is the Tefillin Shel Yad. This can be complicated by the fact that there is a name (phylactaries) which is in use amongst non-Jews. Do a search on Tefillin and you will get thousands of good articles on their use, history and make-up.
Hope that answers your question
Shimon from Brisbane Australia
To say that JR lacks rigour based upon the early writings of a movement which is reaching out the disaffected Jews is like using the Cheder teacher as an example of Talmudic rigour. It removes the observer from context.
I have been involved and observed JR, as well as Reconstructionist discourse for while now, and what i see is an evolving approach that is rooted in text. We are challenged to deepen our knowledge and engage with our Judaism in a meangingul way, but not in a way that alienates those who do not choose to embrace this higher level of learning. Whether through inclincation, intent, or injury.
I know many who have recited the Kaddish for years, yet when they first heard a translation are moved to tears and are surprised to find that they have said this prayer at every important juncture of their lives. Do we say that these people are ignorant in their Judaism.
As the body of Jewish Renewal commentary grows, there is clearly a love of Talmud Torah, and deep respect for rigour. But, we speak with each according to their needs. Rather than blast people with rigid orthodoxies that make them feel either overwhelmed, or unwelcome is counter-productive we make a space for them to join us at the table.
I respect that you have clearly been blessed with a good Jewish education and a nurturing Jewish home. But many have not, and JR welcomes those that others would not. But it does not stop there. We are invited to walk our own path into the Mishkan and engage according to our own skills and talents. Many of our Rabonim hold joint ordinations, and the Aleph Rabbinics program is far from a doddle, but is rigorous and challenging both in its textual content and spiritual development.
I have never encountered the rewriting of of Torah. The Shema is presented as the Shema. I have encountered exercises that deepen our understanding, kavanah and connection with this ‘Call to Faith’, but these have never replaced the Torah itself. This is always done in the light of Pirkei Avot 1:12 – HIllel Said, Be of the disciples of Aharon, loving peace, pursuing pece, loving thy fellow-creatures and drawing them near to the Torah.
May your heart be as the heart of Aharon, and may all Jews be drawn to Torah and bring about their own renewal.
Michael, you write:
However, after much hanging around with Renewalniks, reading their
books and articles, participating in online discussions, I eventually
came to a realization about Jewish Renewal. It is a community, an
approach to Judaism, in which what you feel is vastly more important
than what you know of Tanakh, Talmud, midrash, Jewish history, and such.
I'm sorry that's been your experience, but wanted to offer that it has in no way been mine. If you're interested in another perspective on Renewal, I invite you to read my blog, Velveteen Rabbi; I've been a Jewish Renewal rabbinic student since 2005, and I'm finding the experience intellectually rigorous as well as "heart-centered."
http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/ | http://www.zeek.net
while the insights and spirit of Zalman Schachter, Arthur Waskow, etc. have helped rejuvenate Judaism, revealing some of the 'good stuff' without demanding the rigidity of orthodoxy, it is precisely that rigidity of halacha (NOT the extreme humradik reaction of the black hats against modernity recently– I agree with that critique) that preserves Judaism and jews from exile and assimilation and many other worse things.
Keeping Shabbat and Kashrut are non-negotiable basics of Judaism; anything that strays from that needs something else to SUSTAIN itself. There may be nothing WRONG with the relaxed nature of renewal or reform custom; but there's nothing to suggest it can maintain itself across generations– or even through one person's lifetime. Most people I've met who've been connected to Renewal, have moved through several phases or steps or levels of observance, of which that was only one. To make something last requires building, and building requires stronger blocks.
What is the name of the object that they wrap around their head and arms for the morning prayer?
As I was reading your comment (the first half that is) I was already beginning to formulate a response to your comment. However by the end of it you seem to have covered most of the ground I was going to ask about.
Now before I continue I'd like to thank you for sharing your thoughts on the subject I for one found them helpful. I have no direct contact with the Renewal movement but identify strongly with many of its aspects, so it's nice to get feedback from someone who has been there and actually participated.
Ultimately, I agree with you in terms of increasing Jewish literacy within the renewal (leadership and membership) movement if it is to survive but isn't that the issue with almost all of non-Orthodox Judaism?
I mean honestly how literate, observant or even interested is the average reform or conservative Jew? Also although I'm sure it is likely that most Reform and conservative rabbis are far more literate than those associated with the renewal. I've noticed that often these same rabbis seem to be very disconnected from many of their congregants? Bearing this in mind does literacy really guarantee transmission of Jewish knowledge or spiritual values? And I think it's something different than encouraging social responsibility and environmentalism, because what I'm referring to here is soul food if you will.
Again I'm not suggesting that it isn't present within the Reform or conservative context I'm just kind of throwing it out there as something worthy of consideration.
The one thing that keeps hitting me as I've been following this series of exchanges that it's very set up seems to be somewhat flawed. Flawed in that it set up to create sparks which of course I suppose is a Jewish thing, however I've felt in this situation somewhat unfortunate.
Certainly in a postmodern era where " progressive" and " liberal" streams of Judaism claim to promote trans-denominational respect and understanding, we can do better than two rabbis throwing volleys at one another back-and-forth, trying to pass that off is a dialogue.
I myself am a Jew by choice of the Reform variety and although I'm a fairly confused person a lot of the time I do consider myself to be intelligent and certainly influenced by various aspects of Renewal. Having said all of that to be honest this exchange hasn't spoken to me at all other than as being somewhat demoralizing.
Seems to me both these guys were all about being right and at least to my eyes this show them in a pleasant light.
I guess I was hoping for a little bit more of a let's move past the disagreements and into commonality, if only for the sake of securing a viable progressive alternative to traditional Judaism moving into the 21st century.
Anyhow I seem to have gone off on a rant so I'll wrap it up but before I do that ,thanks for posting your comment and getting me thinking.
Be well
TikkunGer
For much of the 90s, I found Jewish Renewal attractive because of its emphasis on meditation, chant, storytelling and liturgical creativity. However, after much hanging around with Renewalniks, reading their books and articles, participating in online discussions, I eventually came to a realization about Jewish Renewal. It is a community, an approach to Judaism, in which what you feel is vastly more important than what you know of Tanakh, Talmud, midrash, Jewish history, and such.
True, the founder of the Renewal approach, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, is unquestionably learned, having been educated and ordained through Lubavitch, as were the Renewal rabbis Gershon Winkler and the late David Wolfe-Blank. Unfortunately, these rabbis have failed to impress upon the laity (and most of the Renewal-ordained rabbis) the importance of solid Jewish learning. Many Renewalniks I've encountered can barely read a word of Hebrew and must rely on transliterations and highly-interpretive New-Agey "translations" of liturgy, classical rabbinic literature, kabbalistic and Hasidic texts. Divrei Torah–talks on the weekly Torah portion–delivered by a knowledgeable individual are nearly always replaced with free-form discussions in which participants say, "This text makes me feel uplifted/inspired/oppressed/marginalized/whatever," but give no reasons to back up their statements.
The epitome of this approach, I think, is found in Waskow's Godwrestling, Part 2, in which he cites with approval the following incident. During one Torah discussion centering on the story of Dinah in Genesis, the facilitator asked for someone to "take on" the character of Dinah. A woman spontaneously began to intone that she, as "Dinah," had been raped not only by Shechem, but by the Torah itself in not giving her side of the story. "The Torah is still raping me," she cried. I cannot begin to express how offensive, disrespectful and ignorant this is. Rape is a physical act of forced sexual intercourse. "The Torah" can't "rape" anyone. That such a statement could not only be permitted within a worship service, but quoted with approval by one of the leading Renewal rabbis…gevalt.
Some Renewal liturgists have gone even further than the early Reformers and rewritten the Shema–which comes directly from the Torah and is part of Jewish liturgy's most ancient foundations–to make it less "hierarchical" or "sexist." I'm not saying every last line of the siddur is written in stone–far from it. But I'm sorry, you don't touch the Shema. Even the most radical Reformers never presumed to rewrite the very text of the Torah itself.
All this takes place within the Renewal community because, simply put, very few members possess even a 7th-grade Schechter school student's Jewish literacy. If you're going to make changes in Jewish practice, you'd better know exactly what it is you're changing. Picasso may have founded Cubism, but he began his career by studying the art of realistic depiction. Philip Glass may have pioneered minimalist classical music, but he began by studying Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. Jewish Renewal has produced many wonderful chants, songs, and art, and has helped prompt a revival of the Jewish meditative tradition, but if it is to survive for more than a few generations, Renewalists must ground themselves much more thoroughly in Hebrew, Jewish textual literacy, Jewish legal knowledge, and Jewish history.
“Sh’ma!! To that sound, and to the breathing of the One!” – Waskow
The effect, to my ears, is somewhere between “Reaffirm the People’s Commitment to Meeting the Targets of the XIIth Five-Year Plan!!!” and “By the Sword of Greystone – I have the Power!”
This language is both dead and paper-thin, insubstantial. The invent-your-own-religion game feels like a pastime for adolescents.
When people ask me what it is I feel in Judaism, why I feel it would ever be worth bothering with these obtuse prayers to a deity who, as generally depicted, I find ludicrous, and most of whose supposed proscriptions (dietary etc.) I have no intention of following, I explain that it is the history. As an eleven-year-old boy, I stood in a room full of older people and sang words which ran straight back, two thousand years and more. Those words – starting with the obvious “b.a.a.e.m.h-o” and moving on to the interesting stuff – are what hooks us in, what links us to a common historical and lived experience, what gives the religious enterprise depth and weight. The pinnacle of the Shabbas morning prayer, to me, is “Hadesh, Hadesh yameinu, Hadesh yameinu k’kedem.” Make our days new, as before. One could go on and on about this idea, and it is no wonder that in the ashkenazi ritual I grew up with it gets the best, most compelling wagnerian melody in the service. But suffice it to say that when you turn away from the “kedem”, you lose any real reason why a Jew would want to be a Jew, rather than a Soka Gakkai Buddhist or a Promise Keeper or whatever. “Breath” is really not a compelling reason for me to look seriously into Judaism; I can breath pretty well on my own, thanks.
being environmentally conscious, etc, be connected to religion at all? Why can’t they just be options that can improve your life and health and that of our shared world? Does reducing the trans fats and high-fructose corn syrup in your diet get connected too? Why should it? Is it necessary that all things are viewed/connected thru a religious prism?
Also, knowing we’re all here together, and all have value and things to teach each other–that’s not a religious thing either, but observational and simple human decency and respect. Morality itself is not necessarily a religious thing either.
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