/ Rosh HaShanah Day 2 5778 ראש השנה יום ב' תשע''ח Rabbi Micah Peltz Bad Religion Introduction Our Torah reading for the second day of Rosh Hashanah is the Akedah the binding of Isaac. It s a difficult story, and for this reason it one of the most commented on sections in all of Torah. We find commentaries on the Akedah not only by traditional commentators, but also by philosophers, rabbis, and even comedians. Even Woody Allen has written a commentary on the Akedah. His account goes like this: And Abraham awoke in the middle of the night and said to his only son, Isaac, I have had a dream where the voice of the Lords sayeth that I must sacrifice my only son, so put your pants on. And Isaac trembled and said, So what did you say? I mean, when God brought this whole thing up? What am I going to say? Abraham said, I m standing there at two in the morning, in my [pajamas] with the Creator of the Universe. Should I argue? Well, did He say why He wants me sacrificed? Isaac asked his father. But Abraham said, The faithful do not question. Now let s go because I have a [busy] day tomorrow And so he took Isaac to a certain place and prepared to sacrifice him, but at the last minute the Lord stayed Abraham s hand and said, How could thou doest such a thing? And Abraham said, But thou said Never mind what I said! the Lord spake. Doth thou listen to every crazy idea that comes thy way? And Abraham grew ashamed. Er not really no. God said: I jokingly suggest thou sacrifice Isaac and thou immediately run out to do it! And Abraham fell to his knees, See, I never know when you are kidding! And the Lord thundered, No sense of humor, I can t believe it! 1
But doth this not prove I love thee, that I was willing to donate mine only son on thy whim! And the Lord said, It proves that some men will follow any order no matter how asinine as long as it comes from a resonant, well-modulated voice. And with that, the Lord bid Abraham to get some rest and [said He would] check-in with him tomorrow. 1 This is one way to deal with the difficult story of the Akedah to see the whole thing as a misunderstanding. What underlies Allan s take is the belief that God would never have actually asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. This idea is already present in many traditional commentaries, such as the 12 th century Spanish scholar Ibn Ezra, who wrote, Abraham did not know the secret of the prophecy, and he hurried to sacrifice Isaac, and God said to him Ezra? I did not ask for this! 2 Who knew that Woody Allan studied Ibn לא בקשתי זאת! Despite Ibn Ezra s commentary, it is difficult to read this text as a big misunderstanding. God is pretty clear: Take your son, your favored son, the one you love, Isaac, and go to the land Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering. Not much ambiguity there. Abraham s response is also clear he listens, he goes to Moriah, he ties Isaac down, he raises the knife. It seems that, if not for the angel intervening, Abraham was ready to go through with it. Bible scholar Phyllis Trible cites this story as an example of a text of terror. It is indeed difficult to read, especially today, when so much violence in our world is performed in God s name. So what does the Akedah teach us with regard to faith and living a religious life today? What does it say about confronting religious violence and extremism? Think on it---page 220 1 Excerpted from Without Feathers by Woody Allan 2 Ibn Ezra on Genesis 22:1 2
Aliyah 3 The Akedah, or the binding of Isaac, that we read this morning is a difficult text, especially in a world that is plagued by so much violence and discrimination that is perpetrated in the name of religion. What does it have to teach us about faith and the religious life today? Rabbi David Hoffman, a Talmud professor and Vice Chancellor at the Jewish Theological Seminary, cites a story from the Talmud that he sees as a counter-weight to the קח את בנך את Akedah. He notes that, in the second verse of our story, God tells Abraham story, Take your son, your favored one, the one you love Later in the - יחידך אשר אהבת in verses 12 and 16, the words את יחידך your favored son are again used to describe Isaac. However, the words אהבת,אשר the one that you love, are left out. He sees this as symbolic of the tension that can exist between loving God and loving human beings. We seek to love both, but sometimes it gets complicated. The rabbis of the Talmud felt this tension too. It is expressed in a story told in Tractate Yoma (23a)- the section in the Talmud about Yom Kippur. It tells the story of two kohanim, two priests, who were so eager to serve God, they would race each other up the ramp to collect the ashes at the altar. One day, one of the kohanim, in his passion to win the race, took out his ritual slaughtering knife and stabbed his fellow priest in the chest. The father of the stabbed kohen kneeled over his dying son. We can only imagine the pain, the anguish that this father must have felt. But he had other concerns. Astonishingly, the father tells those around him that they should pull out the ritual slaughtering knife from his son s chest before he dies, so that the knife would not be rendered impure. It is unthinkable as his son lay dying this father s first thought is about the purity of a knife? The rabbis of the Talmud are equally outraged, as the story concludes with this postscript: 3
This story comes to teach us that the purity of their vessels was more important to them than the spilling of human blood. 3 Here we see how love of God became a force for horrible violence in the world. This kohen was so fixated on serving God, he devalued the image of God, his fellow kohen, who was in his way. Here love is transformed into pathology. And the rabbis of the Talmud rebuke this kohen, and offer a scathing indictment of a religious society where the love of God privileges the love of human beings. 4 When we read the Akedah through the lens of this story from the Talmud, we can see it as a corrective to a violent reading of religion. Abraham might have indeed intended to sacrifice his son, but the point is that God said no. Don t do it, that is not what I want. Our dedication to God should not supersede the lives of other human beings. This might seem obvious to us, but clearly there are plenty of people in the world today Muslims, Christians, Jews, people of all religions who don t see things this way. Rather they are committed to seeing their vision of the world come to pass regardless of who it hurts, or what it costs. It is most tragic when this worldview leads to violence and death, as we have seen in acts of terrorism perpetrated in God s name in Paris, London, Syria, Israel, the US, and so many other places around the world. Sadly, it happens so often that we have become accustomed to violence being perpetrated in God s name. But, as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes in his book on confronting religious violence, when religion turns men into murders, God weeps [and says:] Not in My Name. 5 3 Yoma 23a 4 Rabbi David Hoffman, Subverting Abraham As a Knight of Faith. JTS Torah Commentary, Parashat Vayera, October 26, 2007. 5 Not in God s Name: Confronting Religious Violence. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Pg. 3 4
And it is not just violence perpetrated in God s name that we see in the world today. It is also policies of exclusion and intimidation. This happens in the US, with religion used in politics to justify the cutting of access to birth control and planned parenthood centers, and it occurs in Israel as well. This year, much of American Jewry was outraged when Prime Minister Netanyahu s cabinet decided to table the Kotel Agreement of 2016 and simultaneously the Legislative Committee of the Knesset put forward a new Conversion Law that would give the Ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate sole authority in Israel for conversion to Judaism. The Kotel agreement was a compromise that was pain-stakingly worked out by leaders from the Israeli government, the Jewish Agency, the Federation system, and the Conservative and Reform movements. It is meant to create equal access to the holiest space in our tradition, the Western Wall, for Jews of all denominations. The sudden backtracking on this agreement represents the victory of cynical political calculations over the good of the Jewish people. It s what happens when one group feels they have the only and correct notion of what God wants. We see this same attitude with the Conversion Law, which would codify the exclusion of those who converted to Judaism under the supervision of any rabbi not approved by the Ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate. This includes Reform, Conservative and Modern Orthodox rabbis. Working with conversion students is one of my favorite things to do. And I am proud that this year, TBS is hosting a section of the Goodblatt Conversion Academy, a conversion program sponsored by our region s Rabbinical Assembly. If you or someone you know is interested in converting to Judaism, this is a wonderful course, taught by Conservative clergy and educators in our area, that will help guide them along their path. With every conversion student I work with, I explain to them that though we do 5
everything k dat u k din, everything according to halakha for this process, their conversion will most likely not be recognized in Israel. It is just not right that personal status issues in the Jewish state are regulated only by the Ultra-Orthodox. Our TBS Board of Directors voted to sign us onto a letter from our Conservative Movement protesting this state of affairs, and calling upon Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government to embrace Jewish pluralism as a positive value to ensure the Jewishness of the Jewish State and its democratic values. Despite all of this, just before Rosh Hashanah the Netanyahu government reaffirmed that it would not be honoring the Kotel compromise agreement. This is a real blow to Jewish unity, and we American Jews, who value religious pluralism, will need to continue to make our position clear on this issue. These are just a few examples of the acts of violence and discrimination that get perpetrated in God s name today. So what do we do about it? How should we combat those who use religion as an excuse for violence, or as a reason for discrimination? Think on it Next Aliyah, page 222 6
Aliyah 4 In the face of violence and acts of discrimination being justified by religion today, it is tempting to put the blame on God. Especially when we read a story like the Akedah, where the basic message seems to be that God demands that we put our love of Him over our love of our fellow human beings. But, as Rabbi Hoffman points out, the rabbis of the Talmud already took issue with this view. Love of God is important, but so is love of human beings. Cherry-picking texts that justify violence against one s adversaries is not religion, it is politics, it is selfishness, it is greed. It is a power grab garbed in the righteous robes of tradition. This is not what we believe God wants of us, or what religion is meant to bring to the world. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes that the cure for bad religion is not no religion, but good religion. He goes on to say: Today, people of all faiths must stand together in defense of humanity, the sanctity of life, religious freedom and the honor of God. The real clash of the 21 st century will not be between civilizations or religions, but within them. It will be between those who accept and those who reject the separation of religion and power. Those who believe that political problems have religious solutions are deluding themselves as well as failing to understand who Abraham was and what he represented. 6 In the face of all the destruction that has been wrought in the name of religion, it is tempting to want to write the whole thing off. But that just ensures that those who twist God s words for their own gain will continue to do so. Rather, we must live by the religious values that we believe embodies what God wants of us in this word. As Sacks writes: No soul was ever saved by hate. No truth was ever proved by violence. No redemption was ever brought by holy war. No religion won the admiration of the world by its capacity to 6 Sacks 262 7
inflict suffering on its enemies. Despite the fact that these things have been endorsed in their time by sincere religious believers, they are a travesty of faith, and until we learn this, religion will remain one of the great threats to the peace of the world. [Rather],...we need to recover the absolute values that make Abrahamic monotheism the humanizing force it has been at its best. These values include the sanctity of life, the dignity of the individual, the twin imperatives of justice and compassion, the moral responsibility of the rich for the poor, the commands to love the neighbor and stranger, the insistence on peaceful modes of conflict resolution and respectful listening to the other side, forgiving the injuries of the past and focusing instead on building a future in which the children of the world can live together in peace. 7 This is our challenge as Conservative Jews. We live in a world of increasing polarization. Where it feels like the only choice is between one extreme or the other. But it doesn t have to be that way. In fact, it can t be that way, because it is not the way we want to live. Finding the middle path, what Maimonides called the shvil hazahav, the golden middle path, is what we aspire to do, and how we aspire to live. For this reason, we study our texts, especially difficult ones like the Akedah, while informed by the bigger values of Torah a belief in the sanctity of life, of dignity of every human being, and that love of God and love of human beings are equally important. When we read the Akedah in this way, and in our historical context, we need to reject the interpretations that see this story as an example of justified violence in God s name. Rather we see it as an example of the tension that exists in our religious lives, and our world, between love of God and love of human beings. And then we remember, that there really is no tension at all. If we love human beings than we love God, and if we love God, we love our fellow human beings. This is a religious lesson that the world needs to hear. As Rabbi Sacks has written: the cure for bad 7 Sacks 265 8
religion is not no religion, it is good religion. Our brand of Judaism is good religion. So let us have the confidence to teach it in our actions and our attitudes in the year ahead. 9