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Walk Through the Parsha by Rabbi David Walk
Juggling Act
Yitro 5768
January 24, 2008
This past weekend Rabbi Shlomo Riskin visited here in Stamford. It
was really wonderful on two levels. First of all listening to his Torah
was a real pleasure, and personally it was great to reconnect with my mentor and
friend. The interesting thing was that on Sunday morning he touched on an
issue which I had been thinking a lot about recently. His remarks were
about the role of the Jewish nation in making the world a better place. Rabbi
Riskin powerfully expressed the great success our religion has had on world
civilization and spiritual development. When our Patriarch Avraham burst
upon the scene about 3800 years ago, he was the world's only ethical monotheist.
Today more than half of the world's population belongs to this club.
The good Rabbi expressed his pride over this success and his conviction
that working with other religious groups especially Christians can only enhance
this achievement.
The biggest proof text that Rabbi Riskin used to push this
agenda is the prayer which concludes all our prayer services, namely the Aleinu.
This prayer invariably appears in our prayer books as two paragraphs.
Rabbi Riskin used the second to make his point. In this section we
announce to the world and remind ourselves that we anticipate a time when all
peoples will reject idolatry and acknowledge the sovereignty of God. The
critical phrase seems to be that we must 'repair the world (l'takein olam)
through the Almighty's rule.' What's fascinating is that when we carefully
analyze the two paragraphs they give two totally different pictures. The
emphasis in the second paragraph is about our obligation to and influence over
the world at large. On the other hand the first segment is about the
unique duty of Jews to recognize and worship God without regard to the rest of
humanity. We first stress our responsibility to submit to God, and then to
demonstrate this allegiance to the rest of the world. Rabbi Joseph D.
Soloveitchik pointed out that the reason that we declare this dual task before
we depart from synagogue is to remind ourselves of these jobs out in the world.
We must maintain our allegiance to God and make a positive impact on the
non-Jews around us.
The significance of this double chore is that we are eternally
balancing the two missions. The first is very ethnocentric and private,
while the second is the epitome of universality. One defines our special
relationship with God and the other proclaims God's love for every human being.
This dichotomy appears in this week's Torah reading. You knew I was
going to get there. In preparation for receiving the Torah, God tells the
Jewish nation that they have a unique role in this world. "So shall
you say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel… And now, if you
obey Me and keep My covenant, you shall be to Me a treasure out of all peoples,
for Mine is the entire earth. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a
holy nation (Exodus 19:3-6)." There are a number of interpretations
for this phrase 'kingdom of priests and a holy nation'. Most, like Rashi,
stress the close relationship that we alone have with God, and that both titles
are emphasizing basically the same issue. Others (including Rabbeinu
Bechaye) suggest that we are priests ministering to God's service in this world
and that we will be a holy nation in the world to come.
However, I tend to view the two concepts as reinforcing the idea
I was discussing before. Our role as a kingdom of priests describes our
ministry to the rest of the world. We are the priests and the others are
the parishioners in God's congregation. While the title holy nation
depicts the work we do to improve our own national spirituality. We are,
therefore, commanded to both influence others and develop ourselves in God's
service. These two functions naturally dove tail with each other.
I believe that this approach is reinforced by another aspect of
this pronouncement, which God requires Moshe to convey to the Jews. God
instructs Moshe to pass along this momentous news to 'the house of Jacob and the
sons of Israel.' The famous interpretation of this dual identification of
the Jewish nation is that it refers to the women (house of Jacob) and the men
(sons of Israel). The Torah Temimah (Reb Baruch halevi Epstein) explains
that this explanation is linguistically logical because in Hebrew words daughter
(bat) and house (bayit) are essentially the same word. However, I've
always felt that house of Jacob implies the work we do on ourselves in the
privacy of our mezuzah fortified homes. While the designation Children
(notice how I went gender neutral) of Israel refers to our role vis a vis the
rest of the world. This fits the basic meaning of the name Israel, which
comes from, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because
you have commanded power over God and with men, and you have prevailed (Genesis
32:29)." The name Jacob refers to the original aspect of the third
patriarch, who was called a tent dweller or home body. The message was delivered
to both parts of our national psyche, because we have to juggle the two
realities.
So, now we understand why it's so important to recite the Aleinu
prayer before venturing out to the cold, cruel world. We have to keep
eternal vigilance to maintain focus on these twin goals. To succeed in
this undertaking we must remember that "God has not made us like the other
nations of the earth…and has not assigned our portion like theirs for our lot
is not like that of the multitudes."
It's a monumental operation, but we must take on this calling,
because the stakes are so high. Only our acceptance of this charge will
bring about the time when, "God will be King over the whole world, on that
day God will one and the Name will be one." We must have the
necessary confidence in ourselves, because we are the Children of Israel, God's
special treasure, and keep on juggling.
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