An authentic reading of tradition - a Shoftim Sermon

“For whom do you speak?” asked our dean Jack Wertheimer.

I was attending a seminar for rabbinical students from all seminaries, orthodox, conservative, reform, and transdemoninational and it was our first session. With a smile, knowing he was about to be controversial, Dr. Wertheimer asked again, “For whom do you speak? As a rabbi, can you ever speak for the Jews? What about your movement? How about your synagogue community? We know that traditionally rabbis are considered a public voice for social justice. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched with Martin Luther King. After the Six Day War, American Jewry was unified in its pride and support of Israel. But today, can you ever speak for any view other than your own.”

It was a provocative question and the answers surprised me.  While the Reform Movement has been an important voice for social justice since the 1960s (and in some cases even before), I quickly learned that that was not the case with other movements. In fact, most of my orthodox classmates were adamant that an issue like climate change and health care is too complicated for any rabbi to advocate for. Jewish ethics do not conform to the intricacies of public policy, they said. You can speak to your own views but its unfair to force Judaism to say what it does not.

I was a minority voice but a loud one. Jewish leaders, rabbis, cantors, and Jewishly educated laity have not only a right but an obligation to teach, preach, and advocate for American interests in a distinctly Jewish idiom. My classmates were right in one regard. Issues are just too complicated and opinions to diverse to ever begin a sentence with the phrase, “the Jews feel that…” If I took a poll, we would find a diversity of opinions on universal health care, environmental policy, and reproductive rights. Unless you give me the right, I cannot speak for you.

What I can speak for (and this applies to anyone who takes the study of our sacred texts seriously) is an authentic reading of our tradition. I am framed by certain key texts in our tradition, one of which appears at the start of this week’s Torah portion and is the phrase, tzedek, tzedek tirdof…“Justice, justice, shall you pursue!” Other texts include the command, v’ahavta l’reiacha kamocha, love your neighbor as yourself and the notion that we are all created b’tzelem elohim, in the image of God. Anyone who takes Jewish learning seriously has a right to use that information to frame their worldview and raise a prophetic voice that advocates for justice and equality!

However, I often find myself reluctant to speak up about issues we face today. Am I smart enough to take a teaching from the prophets Isaiah or Jeremiah, couple it with teachings from the rabbis and speak with a prophetic voice for social change? The answer is yes! WE ALL ARE. And we have an apt metaphor for this internal struggle in this week’s Torah portion.

Parshat Shoftim speaks about the notion of the false prophet.  Here, Moses tells the people that after he is gone, God will raise up a prophet in his stead. He will speak the words of truth and the people are commanded to listen to him. However, Moses continues, there will surely arise false prophets among you. How then will you know whether a prophet speaks the truth? Moses explains that if a prophet speaks in the name of God and his prophesy comes true we know he was a true prophet. If not we punish him for uttering a false prophesy in the name of God.

This text is telling but dated. The rabbis acknowledge that after the destruction of the Temple, prophesy halted. God no longer speaks to us directly. Now, when we want to find out our religious duty in the world, we have to look to our sacred texts for guidance. Where once, a prophet knew if he was speaking the truth if he heard God’s voice, today speaking in a prophetic voice for justice is much harder. We have to read texts, make judgments and trust ourselves.

Where once the big question was whether or not a person was a false prophet, today the bigger question is whether when we speak for the tradition, are we speaking truth or falsehoods? Without God’s guidance, it’s a lot easier to be on the wrong side of history and that’s a scary thought.  It’s easy to look back at those rabbis who marched in Selma or who fought to preserve the redwood forests in the 1990s, known affectionately as the Redwood Rabbis and say that their decision was easy. It’s much harder to be in the moment having to choose between a Jewish reading of budgetary issues and social programs, workers or employers, those who wish to immigrate to America and those who citizens who remain unemployed.  

Without divine guidance and forced to make my own judgments about Jewish tradition, it’s no wonder that I and many others would rather simply let Judaism inform our religious life, like prayer, Shabbat, and kashrut, and personal ethics like honoring my parents, avoiding stealing, and treating others with dignity and avoid any mixing of Judaism and public policy.

However, Jewish tradition is clear, a reading of the tradition informed by texts and thoughtfulness is an authentic reading and can serve as a platform to assess and engage with the modern world. As American Jews we can hold two truths in our hands. We are informed by American sensibilities and by Jewish ideals, and together we can each speak for what we feel Jewish ethics mandate from America. Others may not agree with us our conclusions. Many may ridicule our reading of tradition. But without God’s voice in our heads, we can only trust our own judgment as we rightfully and prophetically fulfill our moral mandate to seek peace and pursue justice.

Our struggle to overcome our fear of giving the wrong message and being on the wrong side of history is an ancient struggle that our rabbis faced nearly two thousand years ago.  The Talmud asks the question, “There are so many smart rabbis who study much more than I but some pronounce things ritually pure while other pronounce it impure. Some kosher while others unkosher. What should I do?”

The Talmud answers with a teaching that still speaks to today, “Make your ear like a hopper, which takes in that you hear, but acquire for yourself a discerning heart and don’t be afraid to pick a side.”

The jury is still out about whether we can speak in the name of other Jews, but I submit to you that there is no question that each and every one of us here, can cultivate that discerning heart and can speak with an authentic and prophetic voice in the name of Judaism.