Before my trip to Israel
in March, I spoke a lot about Achdus/t, unity. Seeing a fractured
Jewish world, my initial response was that unity was the answer.
While I still very much believe in Achdus, and continue to try to
work with individuals who share this view, on a communal level, I no
longer believe that achdus is currently
achievable between the Modern Orthodox and Charedi worlds. Instead,
I'd like to pivot and suggest a new communal goal, which might be a
step towards ultimate unity.
When
one speaks of unity, it is between people who see themselves as part
of the same group. The more homogeneous, and the smaller the group,
the easier it is to have unity. As the group becomes more
heterogeneous, and larger, it is harder to keep everyone together.
Over time, this usually leads to infighting, and ultimately, a split.
Comedian
Emo Phillips has a great
routine that highlights this point. He tells of an encounter with
a man who is about to jump off of the Golden Gate Bridge. In trying
to talk him down, Phillips starts to discuss religion. He asks the
man whether he is Christian or Jewish. The man answers Christian. Emo
responds “Me too”. He continues by asking Catholic or Protestant,
and when told the latter, he once again responds “Me too”. The
questions continue, with the same response of “Me too”, until,
upon discovering that they are members of slightly different sects,
Phillips says “Die Heathen!” and pushes him off the bridge.
Unity
involves more than being part of the same people. No one, on either
side of the divide, denies the Jewishness of the other. Where
communal unity becomes impossible is when we turn to theology and
halacha. The modern Orthodox (and for the point of this post, I'll be
a little less nuanced, and include the dati leumi community under
that title) and charedi worlds, have too many differences over what
we believe God asks of us, relating to the outside world, the State
of Israel, secular Jews, non-Jews and more. Regardless of who is
correct, or even whether many of these issues have a single “right”
answer, there is too much that divides us. The differences are so
strong that we are unable to agree to disagree. I do not wish to deal
with whose fault it is. Let's leave it that each group too often
seeks to demonize the other. Let's ignore the question of fault or
blame.
So,
what is the alternative? Is there a way to move from the status quo?
I believe there is. One, is less than ideal, but might just be the
best that we can hope for. The other is far more ideal, and far
harder to achieve.
In
the Kuzari, Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi tells the fictional story of a king
who has a dream, where God informs him that he is on the wrong path.
The words that God says are instructive. “Your intentions are good.
Your actions are not good”. God acknowledges that the king means
well. He is trying to do what is right. The problem is that he has
chosen the wrong path. The king has good and noble goals, he's simply
not doing the right things to achieve them. It is one thing for God
to say this. After all, He knows that which is objectively. When a
person uses these words, there is a bit on condescension in them.
“Now, now” he says, sounding a bit like a scolding parent or
school marm. “I know that you meant well, but let me tell you how
it's done”. It is this connotation that makes it less than ideal.
Implicit in the message is that we are right and you are not.
The
second possibility is to recognize that our “objective” knowledge
is, with few (possible) exceptions, subjective. Everything that each
of us sees, we see through our own eyes, and understand through our
own minds and biases. With this perspective, we can recognize that
the person who sees things differently can have the same goal, but
think the way to achieve it is different (Of course, we can and
should extend this to people with other goals). Here, the goal is not
agreement, or necessarily interaction. The goal is simply to
understand that the other group is not anti-Torah or anti-God. It is
much more difficult to achieve because we often fail to recognize
that we are inherently subjective.
This
new goal is much less noble sounding than a call for unity. It is
however a necessary precursor to unity within our community. Before
we can love our fellow like ourselves, we first need to stop
demonizing him. This is the longer shorter way.
Post by Pesach Sommer.
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