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Rabbi Irving Greenberg, president of the Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation, gave an interesting lecture last night at Queens College. The topic was The Triumph of Life: Towards a Unified Theory of Judaism. His approach leaned towards the humanistic version of Judaism by showing how the stories and themes in the Bible point towards respect for human dignity with the ultimate goal of creating a better world (Tikun Olam).I shall try to do justice to his well-presented lecture.
He began by stating that there are three main stories or themes that are central to Judaism which ultimately have one unifying idea. The themes are Creation, the Covenant, and Redemption.
The creation story teaches us that life isn’t purposeless, meaningless, or random. There is a Creator who has interest in our lives. Within the story of creation there is a threefold rhythm. The world moves from:
A. Chaos to order (big bang/universe formation)
B. Non-life to life (evolution)
C. Complexity that is manifest as increasing consciousness/will and thereby approaching god-likeness (Tzelem Elohim/image of God).
Tzelem Elohim (which is discussed in Sanhedrin 37a) is further broken down in a threefold manner. Being made in God’s image affords humans:
1. Infinite value to human life (Save a life, save the world).
2. Equality (racial, sexual, religious). No human is better than any other human just as if we were to imagine one theoretical image of God not being any better than any other likeness of ‘Him’ {Masculine. pronoun for simplicity sake and to be true to the sources, ancient Israel envisioned God as masculine. But, of course, our consciousness is raised to the point of not assigning gender to God – so says smoo}
3. Uniqueness. Just as God is unique, so too every human is unique.
The world we live is filled with social injustice and affronts to the dignity of beings created in God’s image. Sexism and racism are a quantitative denial of the dignity due to a Tzelem Elohim. Poverty is a rejection of the infinite value of human life (and all life for that matter). For pennies a day a child’s life can be saved with mosquito netting to protect them against malaria. Skimping on the cost for what should’ve been a double hull, allowed the Exxon Valdez ecological disaster to occur. Hunger is the rejection of human equality by forcing the hungry to resort to begging and dependence on others. Sickness, like a stroke, robs a man of his uniqueness. War kills infinitely valuable human beings.
This brings us to the third story, that of redemption (bypassing the second, for now). The goal of redemption is to overcome all the previously mentioned maladies (and more). The focus on redemption is for THIS world not the next. Tradition teaches that the world was intended to be perfect but it is our own task to work towards that end.
The way we get to that end is via the second story, that of the covenant. Redemption will not come about through miracles like rapture or by escaping this world (through ideas like Hinduism or Buddhism). It won’t happen through martyrdom and escape to the next world and it won’t happen if humans walk alone independent of God. It will happen through a partnership between God and humans. And in that covenant the underlying, unifying ideal is the commandment to choose life. Deuteronomy 30:15 says, “Behold, I have placed before you today life & good and death & evil.” There are no neutral acts in this world. There will be acts for good that will sustain life and evil acts that will drain life. We can choose healthy food, which will prolong our capacity for life or junk food, which can be detrimental. In our speech, we can respond in a positive affirming manner or in a degrading tone. Of the 613 commandments, 610 can be abrogated to save a life.
The final three are exceptions that prove the rule {at least to Rabbi Greenberg}.
1. If someone says you should kill John or you would be killed, the law is you should accept death. Whether you kill John or not, there will be one life lost but if you do the killing you have taken upon yourself the devaluation of life. A witness to your crime will learn from that. Should you refuse, you will affirm life and any person who hears the story should be inspired to affirm life as well.
2. Idolatry is taking something made by humans and making it absolute. The person knew the statue was made yet this person invokes that statue/god in order to control the world around him. This kind of control ends up leading to oppression. (I know, kind of weak. Can’t I just pretend by going through the motion? God knows where my heart is).
{LATER NOTE thanks to discussions with NJG: Perhaps the problem with idolatry at least from a modern viewpoint is that any social force especially one as influential as religion is, should not gain credence by accepting the use of violent coercion (threat of death) to gain adherents and control. By acquiescing, a person validates devaluing human life for the dissemination of ideology.}
3. Sexual perversion is destructive to the human psyche (like becoming obsessively focused on an act) and possible damaging to other peoples as well (some things are demeaning others devaluing). {I know, if no one is getting hurt, why get killed over this. I guess 611 out of 613 is unifying enough to prove the point that choosing life is most important.}
Tikun Olam (perfecting the world) is contagious. Start at a human pace, at home, then your community, then pan out. You start with your own poor first, and then expand to others and ultimately to all. Recognize that you are human and have flaws and failings but that should stop you from striving to do the best you can. The characters in the Bible were fallible as we are. They are truly human models trying their best, flaws and all.
We should recognize that we won’t accomplish this in our lifetime so we use the Mesorah (and the Mitzvah of Be fruitful) to pass on our increasingly evolving higher consciousness.
So choose life, mutual respect, dignity for all of God’s creation, and strive to make the world a better place. That is what Judaism is all about. That will be our redemption.