Moses said, “I must turn aside to look at this marvelous sight; why doesn’t the bush burn up?”
Shemot 3.3
Moshe’s destiny truly begins with his ability to question. He questions the right of the Egyptians to beat the Hebrews, he questions the right of the Midianite shepherds to the water at the well, and he questions the seeming anomaly of a bush burning in the desert. His ability to question and to upset the status quo is part of what he has to teach us. It is a lesson that we can apply both to our children’s education and to Jewish education in general.
It is often entirely forgotten is that the Torah was the first rebellious text to appear in world history. Its purpose was to protest. It set in motion a rebel movement of cosmic proportions, the likes of which we have never known. The text includes all the radical heresies of the past, present and future. It calls idol-worship an abomination, immorality an abhorrence, the worship of man a catastrophe. It protests against complacency, self-satisfaction, imitation, and negation of the spirit. It calls for radical thinking and drastic action without compromise, even when it means standing alone, being condemned and ridiculed.
Judaism was born out of opposition, rebellion and protest. It overthrew and outlived mighty empires and gave the world a radically new understanding of itself. It has nothing to fear. It has prevailed over all those who criticized it, but it has also learned much about itself by listening to opposing voices. Through these voices, it has been able to sharpen its own claims and, if necessary, to change its mind when the inadequacy of these claims has become clear. Only by continuing to do so, will it continue to play a central role in the future of humankind.
The benefits of opposition
While it is most important that we give our children and ourselves the best Jewish education possible, we will succeed in creating determined religious personalities only when we ensure that they are confronted with strong ideological opposition. Instead of developing a Jewish educational system that is self-contained and ideologically self-supporting, we should build yeshivot and high schools in which students are constantly challenged in their beliefs and commitment, in order to give them the Jewish religious tools to explain and defend these beliefs. In fact, they should learn how to challenge the very teachings that oppose their tradition.
To make this happen, teachers should bring to the attention of their students critiques against the Jewish Tradition and show them how these criticisms could be answered through the world of Jewish wisdom as found in the Talmud, Midrash, and the writings of Jewish philosophers. A reading of Spinoza’s Tractatus and Nietzsche’s critique of religion would do wonders in the Bet Midrash. John Locke’s A Letter Concerning Toleration should be studied and debated along with Tractate Sanhedrin. The teachings of Sartre should be challenged by Chassidic texts such as those of the Kotzker Rebbe and the Mei Ha-Shiloach. This would sharpen the minds of students and show them the profundity of the Jewish Tradition. They would learn how to challenge these non-Jewish works, or even use them to deepen some of the most important Jewish teachings. This would generate a new appreciation of what Judaism is all about and would make it more relevant and vital than ever.
Once in a while, a yeshiva should invite an apikores (heretic) to come and challenge the students’ beliefs. The debate that would follow could spark a whole new way of seeing what Judaism really has to offer. Instead of shunning such a proposal, it should be embraced and encouraged.
Of course, this can only be done with mature and serious students who have a good understanding of Jewish religious texts. These encounters would need to be carefully guided by talented, well-informed teachers who have struggled with religious doubt and questions in their own lives. After all, how can one be truly religious without having experienced an inner fight? It is this inner battle that create strong religious Jews who know what they stand for, enjoy challenges, and move Judaism forward.
A rebellion against mediocrity
This need for opposition seems to be entirely lost on our current religious establishment. We are instructing our students and children to obey, to fit in, to conform and not stand out. We teach them that their religious leaders are great people because they are “all-right-niks” who would never think of disturbing the established religious and social norms. We train them to view these leaders as the ideal to be emulated. But by doing so, we turn our backs on authentic Judaism and convey the very opposite of what Judaism is meant to project.
By using clichés instead of the language of opposition, we deny our students the excitement of being Jewish: excitement resulting from the realization that there is a need to rebel and take pride in it, no matter the cost; excitement at the awareness that they are part of a great mission for which they are prepared to die, knowing that it will make the world a better place because they are real dissenters.
When we teach our children to eat kosher, we should tell them that this is an act of disobedience against consumerism that encourages human beings to eat anything as long as it tastes good. When we go to synagogue, it is a protest against man’s arrogance in thinking that he can do it all by himself. When couples observe the laws of family purity, it is a rebellion against the obsession with sex. By celebrating Shabbat, we challenge our contemporary world that believes our happiness depends on how much we produce.
As long as our religious educators continue to teach Jewish texts as models of approval, instead of manifestations of protest against the mediocrity of our world, we will lose more of our young people to that very mediocrity.
Judaism, in its essence, is an act of dissent, not of consent. Dissent leads to renewal. It creates loyalty. It is the force that compels the world to grow.
We need new and bold religious leaders, but they will only emerge when those we have today stop fearing any and every challenge to Judaism. It is easy to be brave from a safe distance, but that does not create great leaders. Judaism was built with courage. To overcome fear and behold its wonder is the way to go. Let Judaism be challenged; it will only improve.
As C.S. Lewis once said, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”[1]
To forget this is to betray Judaism.
Questions to Ponder from the DCA Think Tank
- Judaism, the author posits, is an act of dissent, not consent. What of the values and needs embedded within a thriving community, which require adherence to law and custom, along with protest? Isn’t there a balance that needs to be achieved? Who decides how to calibrate that balance?
- Is the willingness to cleave to a highly structured and all-encompassing system an act of heroism nowadays, given that we live in a milieu that respects and elevates individuality and unstructured spirituality? Could the conservatives, at whom most of the Western world rolls its eyes and sniggers, be the courageous ones?
- Non-conformists must have something against which to rebel! They need the conformists as an anchor, a springboard, and a default. Could it be that all of us — conformists and non-conformists — are part of a system that produces bold ideas? Rebellion is always inspired by (and against) the status quo, and both extremes are necessary in the forging of the ultimate Golden Mean. Should the Orthodox serve as that anchor, and might this be its own form of heroism?
[1] C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (HarperCollins e-books), 156.
