blogs/rabbi-huberman

Values Above Rules #456

Today's Torah: More values, less rules 
 
Do you ever wonder how the history of the Jewish people, or of humanity, will unfold after we're gone?
 
Will we as a people survive? How will humanity resolve the clashes between its major religions? Where will the technological revolution end?
 
What awaits us?
 
Our greatest teacher, Moses, had similar questions. In a revealing story in the Talmud, Moses confronts the future, and we conclude by studying it that "what will be will be," but in the end, we will survive as a people  - just differently.
 
Those who have had the opportunity to observe the words inside a Torah will notice that there are little extensions resembling crowns which top some of its letters. (please see above)
 
One day on Mount Sinai, after receiving the Ten Commandments, Moses observed God affixing these small crowns to the tops of some letters. Moses asked why the letters of the Torah weren't already perfect without the crowns. 
 
God replied that, many generations later, there would live a man named Rabbi Akiva who would use these crowns to create "heaps and heaps of laws" not contained in the original "hard copy" of the Torah.
 
"This I have to see," said Moses. 

So God transported Moses fifteen hundred years into the future, placing him in the back row of Rabbi Akiva's classroom. The classroom was buzzing with discussion, debate, and argument, as students and teachers spoke about applying the Torah within the context of contemporary society.
 
We can only imagine the issues facing the Jewish community then, as they sought to survive under Roman rule.
 
Moses was confused. The teachers spoke of sacrifices, of adapting to new technologies, of taking steps to maintain Jewish identity, of amending laws and creating new ones. Moses had no idea what was going on.
 
Moments later, a student challenged Rabbi Akiva, asking him to prove an assertion he had made, to which Rabbi Akiva replied, "It is a law given to Moses from Sinai."
 
A comforted albeit humbled Moses was returned to his own time, and, from Mount Sinai asked God, "How is it that you have someone like that, and yet you gave the Torah through me?"
 
And God explained to Moses that, in future, while the words of the Torah given on Mount Sinai would remain the same, the context which they would be applied to would change from generation to generation.
 
The way I see it, the crowns atop the Torah continue to inspire us to reach beyond the words, and enable future generations to apply Jewish law to current times. It is how Jewish society and our people have survived, and will continue to thrive.
 
Last Sunday morning, on the first day of Shavuot, the Jewish festival commemorating the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, a half-dozen of our graduated Limud Hebrew school students came to synagogue and read portions of the Torah. They ranged in age from fourteen to twenty.
 
Why was this important? After all, we have a Cantor and a number of rabbis and laypeople who could have read.
 
But as I looked into the Torah last Sunday, and observed those crowns, it occurred to me that this was not the same Torah that Moses received, nor was it the same one that Rabbi Akiva studied, nor the one that our parents handed to us. 

This Torah belongs to the future, and how it is applied will be completely different from the one that we received. Perhaps it will even be applied in ways we're not comfortable with. 
 
When I was growing up, when a local, national, or world event occurred, my parents and grandparents would ask, "Is it good for the Jews?"
 
This generation asks, "Is it good for humanity?"       
In my teenage years, significant attention was focused on whether what we ate was technically kosher. For example, our laws tell us not to combine the carnivorous act of eating meat with the consumption of milk, something a mother lovingly creates to nurture.
 
Yet these days Jews, especially younger ones, are expanding the Torah to ask perhaps even more important questions.
 
"What are the labor, animal rights, and environmental practices of the company that produced the food?" Are workers treated fairly? Are animals treated with compassion? Is the land respected? This is something my wife and I consider when making purchases -- large or small. 
 
As I was growing, homosexuality was something whispered about. Today, when an event such as the recent massacre at Club Pulse in Orlando occurs, the world focuses on the senselessness of the attack and on the power of universal love.
 
And all of that, and for that matter the future of Jewish law, is symbolically contained in those little crowns atop the Torah. They have, and will continue to inspire the future.
 
Surveys consistently tell us that the focus of a new generations is not so much sitting in a pew and reciting fixed prayers from a book, but rather on imbuing the world through the lessons of Torah, with love, kindness and compassion. 
 
Indeed, we are blessed within this congregation with many young people who are passionate about Judaism, Israel, Torah values, and tradition. But they may not practice it in the same way.
 
Last Sunday, as the time approached for our young people to read from the Torah, I noticed that many were not in the sanctuary. Rather, they were one of our small social halls, busy texting.
 
Rather than immediately telling them to turn off their phones, I gently approached and asked, "Who are you texting?"
 
One replied as she held up her cell phone for me to see, "we are texting our Jewish friends in France and the Ukraine and Israel - the ones we met on our trip last December to Israel."
 
I thought to myself, "What are the crowns telling me?" Was this a horrible religious transgression, or a confirmation of a new Judaism - one based on values and relationships?
 
I walked away, and did not stop them.
 
Indeed, it is a new world we live in. Thank God.
 
Years ago at a conference I attended, Jewish educator Clive Lawton mused, "We do not need curators of the museum. We need creators of the future."
 
Clive Lawton's observation reminds me of the teachings of my late mentor, Rabbi Joseph Ehrenkranz, of blessed memory. 
 
Rabbi Ehrenkranz taught that Judaism needs to focus less on rules and more on values. Within this generation especially, as our common sense tells us - and as recent polling confirms - the future of our religion will rest less on the practice of man made rules and routines, and more on the applied values of our tradition.
 
The words which our youth read this past Shavuot were identical to those that Torah readers have chanted for centuries. But this past Sunday, young women and men stood proudly in front of the congregation and led the way.
 
The Talmud tells us that it is the concept of "Torah" and not the "The Torah" which passes from generation to generation. And we must honor that forward motion. Let us exhibit the communal strength, not only to honor tradition, but to open a path to an evolving Torah. Who knows where it will lead.
 
I am excited about the future. 
 
As Moses learned in the Talmudic story, the only thing which is consistent within Judaism, is the process of considered change.
 
The story of Moses and Rabbi Akiva inspires us to look at the crowns of the Torah, and embrace Judaism's evolution.

It is less about survival, and more about enabling Judaism to shine its best upon humanity. 
 
Indeed, let us have the courage, to embrace Judaism though new eyes -- inspired by those crowns embedded at Mount Sinai -- under the glow of this living and dynamic light we call Torah. 
 
Shabbat Shalom, v'kol tuv (with all goodness)
 
Rabbi Irwin Huberman