Radical Torah

Better to be a talmid chacham than a tzadik, at least that’s the message I’ve been receiving as a learner in Jerusalem. Being a tzadic is unrealistic and not what people are looking for. And it is much less employable in our world of information shopping. Better to have more sources to back up your claim on how may hours before the seder you should stop eating chametz, than to build a true vision for freedom in our time.

Brilliant minds of our times are totally disconnected from reality because too much of the Torah learning world says it is okay to just be consumed with what happens inside the beit midrash without looking for the deeper Torah that connects to our lives outside the beit midrash. How ironic that the very books which have so much to teach about how to rebuild brokenness in olam hazeh, are used to avoid thinking about this same tragic brokenness. We need a lot of help to bridge the gap between learning and action.

Some weeks ago, I attended an event at Pardes called Human Trafficking: Slavery Within Our Midst, an entire evening dedicated to learning about institutionalized prostitution in Israel. The learning was engaging and challenging, and… the Kavanah was clearly geared toward learning for the purpose of action. Rabbi Akiva would have approved. But he also might have turned in his grave if he heard the facts we learned about human trafficking in Israel. Three thousand woman annually, are kidnapped from poor European countries and forced to be sex workers right under our very eyes. For a variety of reasons including huge profits, the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this phenomenon and has essential endorsed a kind of slavery within its borders.

Hearing how Israel sanctions an industry which forces foreign women to become sex workers was the center piece of an evening devoted to text study and social justice. One particular text moment caught my attention and hit me like a public service announcement. It was when Bonna Haberman giving a simple, yet radical, plug for about how we, as Jews, can and ought to approach textual learning. In her talk she revealed an approach to learning which she calls “text-based activism.” I had heard of such things before, but hearing her outline the basic precept of this method sparked something inside. It called for meaningful learning that could lead to action.

She said there are basically two kinds of texts which provoke an emotional response. The first are the ones which affirm our commitments to justice and validate our highest moral sensibilities about how the world should operate. These are the texts that we reference when we talk about the kind of world we are trying to build.

The second kind of texts leave us in a state of agony. They represent the opposite of what’s needed. There is a strong voice in our tradition which glorifies violence, destuction, and revenge and gives it a divine quality. How are we supposed to draw inspiration from these texts? Making matters more challenging is the sociological piece. How do we cope with a religious tradition that celebrates all of these texts? Where on any given Shabbat we dance, bless, kiss and parade the Torah when its message might be counter to everything we want to see the world become.

Then, in a bold and shocking maneuver, Bonna preceded to pull two striking texts together. From Megilat Esther she took the passage from the story when King Ahashverosh has just banished Vashti and now is sending a decree across the land for “every virgin young women, beautiful to look at.” (Esther 2:3) The passage continues and proclaims how these women will be rounded up and taken into custody of Hagai, the Kind’s Chamberlain, Keeper of the women.

Right next to this passage, Bonna inserted a typical advertizment used in a newpaper in Eastern Europe. It read, “Girls, must be single and very pretty. Young and tall, we invite you to work for us. Housing is supplied Foreign posts available. Must apply in person.” This is the kind of ad sex traffickers use to seduce and kidnap women from other countries and illegally smuggle them to places to where they become trapped in a live of forced prostitution in a country without rights. And three thousand women get smuggled into Israel annully who are lured in by this sort of advertisement.

As if this juxtposotion of texts which highlighted how our tradition celebrates this kind of sexual exploitation, wasn’t enough. I was horrified to realize that the passage in the Megilla is the same one that I layned this past Purim. And I had no idea what I was reading. I was more concerned with getting the troup right and making it presentable for the kahal. How do you make institutional prostitution/slavery presentable? Maybe I should have been more concerned with that. My eyes were opened. I’ll never read Megilla the same way.

So may we be blessed to be in learning environments which really do open our eyes to the wonderful and harsh realities of our world. And may we find peace of mind and peace of heart as we study Torah to find our voices and our legs to help make the jump from learning to action.