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| The brief Post October 7th unity of the Jewish people (PBS) |
I consider myself second to no one when it comes to pursuing this ideal and have often lamented the elusiveness of this lofty goal. Mostly as it applies to the disunity of Orthodoxy. But there should in fact be unity between the entirety of the Jewish people.
The author of this opinion piece makes what seems to be an
excellent point:
"All my life, I’ve heard about how smart we Jews are, especially Israeli Jews. We’re the Start-Up Nation. We’ve won Nobel Prizes far beyond our proportion…
If we’re so smart, why can’t we figure this out? Why do we keep repeating the same patterns with the same disastrous results? Shouldn’t intelligent people be able to learn from the past?
Creating AI, launching satellites, and curing disease – we’ve mastered all of this. We have just never found the answer to the challenge of unity. Why?"
That’s a powerful and thought-provoking question.
One of the reasons we lack broad unity among the entirety of
the Jewish people is the attempt (over 200 years ago) at the reformation of Judaism by a group of rabbis who no
longer saw observance of all the Torah’s Mitzvos as necessary. In their attempt
to make Jews less conspicuous and more integrated into the prevailing culture,
they decided that Judaism should be stripped of many of the things that made us
different. Hoping that by doing so, we could be seen as equal in every respect.
The hope was that this would reduce antisemitism in the then relatively new age of
Enlightenment.
Unfortunately, we are seeing the bitter fruits of that
effort in two very different ways. First, antisemitism is no longer reserved
for conspicuously religious Jews. It affects even completely secular Jews.
Second, by stripping Judaism of its uniqueness, many Jews are left with no real
Jewish identity. In its place there are universal values like social justice,
which, while noble, apply to all of humanity. This is one reason Jewish
demographics in this country are shrinking so rapidly. But I digress.
The point I’m really trying to make is that when such a fundamental split exists, unity becomes virtually impossible. You cannot say that observance of Torah law is both mandatory and optional at the same time. That is self-contradictory.
As I read the author’s references to the Torah and some of its classic commentaries like Rashi and the Mechilta quoting a Midrash - and especially his reference to the Final Redemption, I assumed the author, Rabbi David Fine, must be an Orthodox rabbi. To make sure, I googled him and found references to a *Reform rabbi by that name and at first assumed that he was the authot of this article. But I was mistaken. I have been informed that he is indeed an Orthdox rabbi - ordained by RIETS (YU). should have known better since - to the best of my knowledge, Reform Judaism does not believe in the concept of Final Redemption.
Bearing this denial of one of the fundamentals of the Jewish belief system in mind, can we have unity with Refrom Jews? As much as I would like to say yes, I’m still not sure it’s possible. I would go a step further and question whether we can have true unity with any heterodox movement that legitimizes heretical beliefs that actually do question the Divine authorship of the Torah.
I would argue that unity is not possible with segments
of the far-left Orthodox world that supports the LGBTQ agenda - some of whose rabbinate officiates at same-sex marriage ceremonies. I would even
question their Orthodox credentials.
We cannot be unified as a people when our core values clash
- when Torah values are redefined or corrupted by well-meaning rabbis in the
spirit of inclusivity. As I’ve said many times, we can and should be welcoming
without ‘Kashering’ forbidden behavior or promoting pride in desires that
involve serious Torah prohibitions.
I agrew with what Rabbi Fine is advocating. I beleive it is possible to have unity with the entirety of our people on a more basic level. We are one people in the sense that we are all Jews. And we have demonstrated that kind of unity in the past - tragically, often only when disaster strikes. That’s what happened on October 7th. In the face of horror, we stood united. We all shouted ‘Never Again!’ and proudly proclaimed, Am Yisrael Chai - the People of Israel lives!
In those moments of shared tragedy, our Jewishness rises to
the forefront of our consciousness. Pride in being Jewish emerges regardless of
observance level. The ideological and cultural differences between right and
left, secular and religious, were - for a brief time - cast aside. We were all in
the same Jewish boat, both in Israel and the diaspora. Sadly, there were some
on the extreme right who refused to attend a post-October 7th unity
rally in Washington, objecting to the implied legitimacy granted to secular and
heterodox Judaism. But by and large, the Jewish people were united, if only for
a fleeting moment.
Rabbi Fine’s question remains: Why can’t we harness that
same sense of unity when tragedy doesn’t force it upon us? Why can’t we
find a way to unite as we once did at Ma’amad Har Sinai, the giving of
the Torah at Mount Sinai? If we can achieve so much as a people in medicine,
technology, and science - why can’t we be equally ambitious in striving for
unity?
I understand the obstacles. One of the most significant I’ve already mentioned. But still, we ought to find a way to harness the unity we feel in times of tragedy and apply it in times of celebration and joy.
*Update An earlier version of thids post erred in identifying Rabbi Fine as a Reform rabbi. I was susbsequently informed by one of his colleagues that he is Orthdox and always has been. The post has been corrected accordingly. And I apologize if I caused him any pain or disconfort.