Opportunity Lost
November 9, 2002

John Milton wrote an epic poem – “Paradise Lost.” The topic for my sermon today is “Opportunity Lost.” The lost opportunity I am referring to – which could have lead to better understanding among Jews – resulted from the cancellation of a nationwide Jewish book tour. This tour was to feature two rabbis, Ammiel Hirsch and Yosef Reinman, co-authors of One people: Two Worlds. What is unique about their collaboration is that they inhabit opposite ends of the religious spectrum. Rabbi Yosef Reinman wears the long black kaftan and large black kippah that is the traditional male garb of the ultra-orthodox world where Rabbi Reinman is a leading scholar. Ammiel Hirsch is a well known Reform rabbi and serves as the executive director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America.

The book they co-authored is based on their 18-month e-mail correspondence on a wide range of religious issues such as: the authorship of the Torah; the question of who is a Jew; homosexuality; interfaith marriages; the role of women; and support for the State of Israel. One review of this book observed that it offers not only a refreshingly candid look at differing ideologies but also shows how two people gradually moved from suspicion of each other to mutual respect and friendship.

What aborted the book promotion, that was to reach seventeen cities throughout the country, was pressure on Rabbi Reinman by his ultra-orthodox colleagues. Specifically the pressure came from Moetzet Gedolay Ha’Torah which in English is known as the Council of Sages. In the ultra-orthodox world, their word is law. In explaining why he withdrew from the book tour, Rabbi Reinman said, “I have acted on the advice of people older and wiser than I. . . I accept the declaration of the Council of Sages without reservation.”

Gary Rosenblatt, the editor of the Jewish Week, and himself an orthodox Jew, wrote an editorial in which he severely criticized the Council of Sages for their actions. He points out that many non-orthodox Jews feel that their orthodox brethren look down on them and on the style of Judaism they practice – a perception that leads to misunderstanding, resentment and even anger. Trying to heal that wound, Rosenblatt writes, was no doubt a reason that these two rabbis wrote their book in the first place. But now that wound has been further aggravated by the book tour cancellation. Someone will have to explain to thousands of unaffiliated and non-orthodox Jews why the opportunity to meet and talk with Yosef Reinman, a brilliant scholar and an articulate spokesman for orthodoxy, suddenly has been taken away from them.

That resentment is further inflamed by the statement issued by the Council of Sages explaining their reasons for commanding Rabbi Reinman to cancel his tour with Rabbi Hirsch: “Light cannot exist together with darkness,” they said. “Nor can falsehood be peddled along with truth.”
It is the claim of all orthodoxies, religious and secular, that they alone possess the truth, which makes harmonious relations and dialogue with them difficult if not impossible. Pluralism has no legitimacy in the eyes of fervently Orthodox Jews. Their attitude is “You can pray to God in your way and we will pray to God in His. The idea of there being many paths to the top of the mountain lacks currency with them. The claim of the fervently orthodox is that there is only one right way - all the others are wrong.

Just last month, a book written by Jonathan Sacks, the chief rabbi of Great Britain, was labeled as heresy by several of his orthodox colleagues. One of sentences they found offensive states “no one creed has a monopoly on spiritual truth.” After meeting with some of his critics, Rabbi Sacks, who is orthodox, agreed to make appropriate amendments in the next edition of his book.

I wish that Rabbi Sacks had stood up to his colleagues and stood by his statement that no creed has a monopoly on spiritual truth. Why close ours minds to the ideas of other denominations in Judaism or to the insights of other religions. Everyone benefits from openness and interaction.

Within Judaism, each one of our denominations has a unique strength, which other branches of Judaism would do well to emulate. Orthodox Jews, for example, exhibit enviable devotion to the study of Judaism’s sacred texts. Orthodox children, who almost exclusively attend yeshivot, devote hours each day to learning Bible and Talmud. Orthodox Jew also place great emphasis on observing Jewish traditions and performing mitzvot. For them, more than for any other group, Judaism is an all encompassing way of life. Jewish traditions and values play a role in their lives every hour of every day.
Reform Jews are to be esteemed for their commitment to tikkun olam – social action. They originated the concept of mitzvah day where congregants spend a day doing a variety of social action oriented mitzvot. They go to soup kitchens, homes for the elderly, children’s hospitals and battered women shelters. They bring gifts, provide entertainment and demonstrate caring by just being there. Reform Jews have been leaders in the fight for civil rights and fair labor practices.

Our own Conservative Movement has made a significant contribution to Jewish life today. It has a unique approach to the issue of tradition versus change. To those who say nothing in Judaism can change, we must stick to our age-old traditions, Conservative Judaism says: the modern world we live in is different from the world of our ancestors. Therefore, sometimes Judaism must seek accommodation to life as it is lived today.

At the other extreme, to those who say that the traditions of Judaism are outmoded and must be totally reformed, Conservative Judaism says not so fast. Our traditions are what unite us as a people and what connect us to our past. Most of our customs and rituals are meaningful and relevant even today. However, should change be deemed necessary, it must be undertaken with circumspect deliberation, guided by the halachic, the Jewish legal process.

Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook, was the first chief rabbi of Israel. And though he was fervently orthodox, he taught that every Jew of every stripe – even one who is a non-believer and non-practicing, has a role to play in the drama of Jewish life. He wrote: “The eedifice of the Jewish people is constructed from various parts and approaches. All the different points of view are the living word of God. It is precisely this multiplicity of opinions, deriving from a variety of souls and backgrounds, that enriches wisdom and brings about its growth.”

Rabbi Kook’s insight is profound. He recognizes that each Jew, with his own unique soul and background, each branch of Judaism with its own wisdom, enriches the Jewish people collectively. It is an idea that finds further amplification in a beautiful midrash on this morning’s torah reading. You may recall that Jacob, who has just had a bitter fight with his brother Esau, flees the land of Israel heading toward his mother’s ancestral home in Mesopotamia. Just as he is about to leave the holy land, he lies down to sleep and places nearby stones under his head. It doesn’t sound like a very comfortable pillow to me, but the Torah says that is what Jacob did. Upon waking, Jacob takes the stone he had slept on and makes it into a shrine he named Beth El.

Did you happen to notice a discrepancy as I told the story? First the torah says that Jacob took stones, plural, and slept on them, but when he wakes up there is one stone. The midrash provides an explanation that teaches us an important lesson for today. It says that the stones Jacob collected were twelve in number and represented the twelve tribes of Israel. As soon as Jacob assembled them, they began arguing among themselves, each declaring that it, alone, had the right to serve as Jacob’s pillow. The tribe of Reuben claimed priority as descendants of Jacob’s first born son. But the tribe of Levi claimed it was more important because it provided the religious leaders of the Israelites – the Cohayns and Levites. The tribe of Yisachar claimed priority because one day it would raise many great scholars, but then the tribe of Zevulun chimed in saying they were the most important tribe because as successful merchants, they would provide financial support for the students of torah. God listened to all this talk and then He acted. He gathered the twelve stones and forged them into one, declaring that no one tribe is superior to the others. Each benefitted from the contribution of the other tribes.

I firmly believe that today, too, God wants to see the Jews unified as one people. Instead of isolating ourselves from one another, instead of seeing ourselves as opposing camps, instead of denigrating the other, let us try to learn from each other, emulate the best values from each branch of Judaism and work together to forge and shape a more vibrant religious experience for all the Jews of America.

Shabbat Shalom.