The Jewish Values Online website also offers a blog which presents comments on various topics within Judaism and the Jewish world. See http://www.jewishvaluesonline.org/jvoblog/index?aid=0. Rabbi Hecht is also a blogger on this blog.
His latest post
Why Be Jewish? (Part 3)
Roots and Beyond
is now available at http://jewishvaluescenter.org/jvoblog/YBJewish3
A link is also up on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JewishValuesOnline/
While comments are most welcome at both these sites, as we also would like to develop a discussion on this topic here at Nishmablog, we also present the article below
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In our opening discussions on this topic (please see Why Be Jewish? - Defining the Question and Why Be Jewish? - The Forces Within and the Forces Without), we effectively described the tension that exists between individual definitions of Jewishness and the collective definition of the group itself. The challenge is that when one describes oneself as Jewish, one is really defining oneself as a member of the Jewish group, the group that embodies Jewishness. The problem is, though, that we all are applying our own individual definition to this term notwithstanding that it may not necessarily be shared by others. We can then be left with a group of individuals each believing the other to share a similar perception of Jewishness when this is, in fact, not the case. And if and/or when this is discovered, many are then left wondering about the very idea of Jewishness. If we all simply believe Jewishness to be something different based upon our own personal definitions, what is, in fact, the very point of identifying oneself as Jewish? Why, indeed, be Jewish?
The fact is that Jewishness, of course, does indicate a
collective but, within this collective, there has always been much
diversity. There are, in fact, many personal paths by which one may
choose to define his/her Jewishness but the question still remains: how
do they come together to form the collective? The reality is, though,
that Jewishness has never been monolithic. Being Jewish, in fact, has
always been built on a base of diversity for, while Torah applauds the
value of the communal, it also recognizes the value and necessity of
individuality. Diversity, as such, is actually somewhat inherent to
Jewishness. How, though, does this diversity, flowing from
individuality, come together into a collective?
To answer this question, we must first recognize that this
acceptance of diversity does not mean that any possible divergent
perception of Jewishness can then be included within the bounds of the
collective. This diversity must still have its parameters. As much as
Jewishness accepts diversity, it also necessarily demarcates a boundary
on this diversity in the formation of the collective. This is what we
may describe as ‘the inherent force of the Jewish collective’. This
declaration as to boundary is not a result of some formal vote. It is,
perhaps, somewhat intuitive -- although connected to the principles of
fate and destiny we introduced in our previous discussion (Part 2).
The challenge is that, in a barrage of extreme diversity – such as
exists today -- there is a greater need to more formally articulate and
define this force of the collective. The value of our Jewish acceptance
of diversity still cannot allow us to ignore our unified, collective
Jewish essence. We also have an obligation to clearly recognize this
essence. The fact is, though, that this essence is, in many ways, tied
to this acceptance of diversity.
To truly understand this ‘inherent force of the
collective’, we must first return to our very roots – specifically that
which makes our group unique; specifically, that which makes our nation
unique. What is demanded, though, is not simply to show how the Jewish
nation is different from any other nation – that is, as different as any
nation is from another. The goal, as such, cannot be to simply show how
our culture is unlike the culture of any other nation. To truly
understand Jewishness, we must recognize how we are distinctive in our
very definition of nationhood, how the Jewish nation is absolutely
unique amongst all the other nations. In this regard, we must first
recognize that, in general, nations are formed by people, drawn together
because of the parameters of geography, who then develop a distinct
culture which further bonds them together. All our ancient works
describing the formation of the Jewish nation, however, declare,
emphatically, that we were not formed and determined by a land. Our
nation existed before it entered its land. Its formation was in its
spirit.
We are instructed that the very force which drew the Israelite
people together and bonded them initially was a specific collective
consciousness. It is only once they were bonded as a nation that they
then connected with a land which would further unite them. It is in this
initial connection of the mind that we actually find the beginnings of
the unique force of Jewish collectiveness. The nation was not pushed
together through some external parameter of geography, separated from
others simply by physical space. It was an internal sense of belonging,
the heart of an internal idea, that pulled the people together -- and,
this occurred in the context of the broader globe. As such, this force
also contained elements of connection to all humanity. The emotions of
particularism that were instrumental in the formation of the initial
Jewish group also reflected an emotion of universalism which led Jews to
think beyond their own group. Right from our forefather Avraham, we saw
value in ourselves but, also, in the other. A recognition of a
dialectic in human identity is inherent to the Jew. This recognition of
the dialectic in life is a reflection of why diversity is part of
Jewishness. Such recognition of the dialectic is also reflected in the
inherent force of the Jewish collective.
To see the dialectic demands of an individual to see the broadest
picture and contemplate different possibilities because the elements of
life are so broad. A dialectic only exists because we see beyond a
singular possibility. From this dialectic existent in our very identity,
the Jew, furthermore, finds value in the breadth of human existence. In
the concept of monotheism, the Jew further recognizes how this breadth
of human existence also reflects One Source. It is in this intellectual,
as well as emotional, dynamic of recognizing the details of life and
the overall picture – the gestalt -- that we find the inherent force of
the Jewish collective. Oneness within Jewishness is not the result of
simplicity and similarity. The Oneness of Jewishness emerges from the
very complexity of existence. The inherent force of the Jewish
collective flows finally from this recognition of this Oneness as its
source and destiny. This is why unity is also inherently connected to
diversity within Jewishness.
Being Jewish is being involved in this dynamic. Individually, we
each find our own point along the spectrum of existence which we define
as our own. As Jews, however, we still also recognize our place in the
full spectrum of existence. We see ourselves and we see the other. Our
collective respects diversity. Being part of the Jewish collective means
we wish to bond with those of a similar perspective – who want to
experience the dynamic of seeing the details as well as the greater
picture – as we also co-exist with all others. Why be Jewish? Because we
truly wish to respond and relate to true Oneness.
Rabbi Benjamin Hecht
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