Deuteronomy Cycle 6 Netzavim/ VaYelekh

Who Was Standing at Mt Sinai? 

One of the big questions we are all faced with these days revolves around our identity as Jews.  What makes us Jewish? The rabbis in Kodashim (end of chapter 3) settle this question by focusing on the maternal line.  If your mother was Jewish you are Jewish.  You can also look at your maternal grandmother. Is she Jewish? Does she know?  Maybe so if she came over from Germany as a child after World War Two. If you can’t find enough information you can always look for gravestone sites of family,  that is if there are any. Unfortunately though, if you can’t prove it (despite the overpowering and often destructive waves of history) you’re out of luck. You will then need to convert.

This is what the ultra- Orthodox say. Maybe there were more ultra-Orthodox standing at Mt Sinai when God gave the transmission. I don’t know.  Mt Sinai is small but it’s still a mountain and if people are standing all around it, well…it stands to reason we can’t see everyone's true face. The mountain itself blocks our vision. In any case, even though denominations have been important in Judaism for only 5% of Jewish history it often seems unanimous: the ultra-Orthodox must be right. 

The Nazis were once thought to be right. They were around also for a small percentage of history, World history.  In the children’s book Der Giffpilz, a Jew is described as someone who has a nose shaped like a 6. His lower lip protrudes, his eyelids are thicker and his gait is shuffling and unsteady.

    A Conservative Jew would certainly agree with the ultra-Orthodox on the matter of maternal line but certainly not on everything. The Reform Jew would be more open. That’s why when many people think of Judaism they think of the ultra-Orthodox being the most authentic, the Conservative trying to reach to the Orthodox (and satiate the less strict) and the Reform as being the least strict of all (and the least authentic).

 These are false definitions though.  The various denominations are simply ways to define the levels of scriptural interpretation. The Orthodox will look at Talmud literally. This intense literal interpretation can open the doors to the mystical but (even if these doors are opened) behavior in Orthodox circles is still (often) expected to reflect the literal.  The Reform Jew does not cling to literal interpretation and therefore has little chance to arrive at the mystical (through Jewish paths). The Reform Jew does not at all expect behavior to be based on the literal. 

So today we have a choice: Behave literally and dive into the mystical. Or behave with a more open interpretation and do not focus on the (Jewish) mystical. The sad piece here is that Jewish mysticism has so much to offer. For those people who like surreal theater, existential art, physics and psychology, Zen meditation or Sufi dancing, Jewish mysticism holds layers of awareness, secret truths and amazing steps into the unknown. 

The absurdity of the choice when it comes to denominations and Jewish-ness is astounding. Everyone thinks they have it right. But  something is not right on earth when Orthodox children are disowning Reform or Reconstructionist parents, when a whole line of Torah and a whole conversation of Talmud is literally being forgotten.

  

That’s why I want to share a small experience I had this summer and then move to a teaching from Talmud that deals with (yes) Netzavim.  Who exactly was standing at Mt Sinai when God gave His transmission? That’s the real question.

This summer I had the opportunity to study Hebrew at Middlebury College. At first, since I’ve been leading services for a while, I thought I would help. When I organized a meeting I was the only one who did not claim a denomination. The Orthodox students thought I was Renewal. The Reform students thought I was Conservative. They were determining this by a certain dress code I guess or a use of language. That’s because the teachings I had already delivered were Conservative influenced (no doubt) but also post-denominational. I was simply trying to get to Torah not through denominations but through Talmud.

At the meeting they made decisions. They said that they could not feel they were Jewish if this prayer wasn’t prayed this way or that way, if this song wasn’t chanted and if we didn’t stand for this section. They didn’t say they wouldn’t feel comfortable. They each claimed…according to their own culture…that anything else wasn’t Jewish. 

The first question in my mind really revolved around their teachers. There must be a huge miscommunication happening teacher to student, I thought. I couldn't believe that a Conservative Rabbi in his right mind would say that if things aren’t done the Conservative way that they aren’t Jewish. Same with a Reform rabbi.

Let’s now look at Talmud (Shabbat 145b). Let’s look at it in context.

After  a huge conversation about “idolaters” who do everything from decorating the Torah with flowers to getting rich and fat and being lustful….and this conversation includes R. Isaac, R. Eleazar, R. Hannina, R Jacob, R Judah, R Hiyya b. Abba and R. Assi and R Jonathon….we get a great comment.  The rabbis decide that idolaters are this way because they did not stand at Mt Sinai for when the serpent came upon Eve he injected a lust into her. In other words, those who stood at Mt Sinai chose a moral way and therefore were not infected by the serpent but everyone else was.

But wait. It's not finished. 

This is the moment in Talmud…and timing is everything…yes this is the moment…once we have questioned the wily and sacrilegious route of  these blasphemous idolaters for more than a page…when R Aha, son of Raba asks R Ashi: What about the proselytes? As it is written in Torah: Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath.  In short: even if they weren’t present their guiding stars were present.  So serpent or no serpent, even the idolaters (it seems) were at Mt Sinai.

This line in Torah, written a thousand years before our liturgy was organized, and two thousand years before our present denominations, certainly has authority.  So,  the truth is whether we pray according to Mishnah or Tanya or Conservative Delineations or literal interpretation or metaphoric, whether we see metaphor as an escape or as a wide open door, whether we were born Christian or Buddhist or Jewish, whether we have stood at Mt Sinai for a fleeting glimpse some moment centuries ago or not, whether we feel closer to God when we study in a small room or in a small forest, whether we daven every morning or not, whether we are secular or religious or neither, in some way, in some form, by some star, if we feel it in our heart,  we all have the potential to be at Mt Sinai now.

Except for maybe the Nazis.