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AcAdemic SympoSium:
Intentionally, I have brought more
texts than we can possibly address in a
single encounter. I am a glutton when
it comes to Jewish learning. I cannot
get enough and I hope that you will
find these texts worthy of deeper study
in your home congregations and com-
munities. The texts are accompanied
by guiding questions for your consider-
ation. It’s not enough for us to read the
text. The texts have to read us. We have
to be willing to engage in a meaningful
relationship with them and with our
learning partners and open ourselves
up to the possibility that these texts
have something to teach us about us
about our
nefesh
,
ruach
,
and
neshamah
.
Consider the text: “When Abraham
introduced himself to the Hittites,
as he was prepared to bury his wife
Sarah
, “
”גר ותושב אנוכי עמכם
– “
I am
a stranger and a resident among you.”
Not a stranger
or
a resident, but rather
a stranger
and
a resident.
here in North america generally,
and in the United States in particu-
lar, we have an imbalance between
being at home and being strangers.
We are too much at home and not
enough strangers. To what extent are
we willing to be different? To what
extent are we willing to assert our
being apart from as well as a part
of the society in which we live? In
many respects, Jewish learning and
Jewish living are a commentary on
a single phrase – “We are strangers
and we are at home here.” Jews have
struggled with this conundrum, with
this cultural calculus wherever we
have lived. We have understood that
an integral part of our sacred mission
as a people involves being learners
who consciously choose when to be
countercultural: when to push against
the grain of the mainstream even
though we know we are swimming
upstream. We have been willing to pay
the price because we believe the prize
is worthy, if not holy.
The Hebrew language is a case in
point. It is a particularist expression of
Jewish learning. It contains the sacred
cultural code of the Jewish people.
At the risk of dating myself, I recall a
commercial that claimed a telephone
call was the second best thing to being
there. I never bought that line. Similar-
ly, I am unconvinced that the prolifer-
ation of translations and commentaries
available in English have obviated the
need for a Hebrew-literate core of Jews,
and not only rabbis and cantors and
educators, and not only adherents of
Orthodox Judaism, but also Reform
and Conservative and Reconstruc-
tionist Jews who are not professional
leaders of the Jewish community.
Hebrew is more than a means of
communication; it is a language that
conveys memory and destiny. Hebrew
is also an aspect of identity. To be
called to the Torah by one’s Hebrew
name is an invitation to accept that
identity. Speaking personally, there
are people who know me as “Jan” and
others who know me as
״
״יונה
–
they
are not the same person. When I am
thinking, reading, writing, and speaking
in Hebrew, I am not the same person as
when I am conducting those activities
in English.
For the sake of Jewish learning, we
must develop a cadre of people in
our Movement who are seriously
Hebraically competent. In addition to
Hebrew, there are other ways in which
we can express our distinctiveness as
Jewish learners. One of them is to learn
to live in Jewish time.
We have dear friends for whom it was
inconvenient to observe the Passover
sedarim
on Monday and Tuesday eve-
nings (the first two nights of Pesach)
this past year. “Why not move a Seder
to Saturday night? Everybody can
make it, and we can all get together.”
The gain was a community of family
and friends in celebration; the loss was
the privatization and the customiza-
tion of that historical, memorable, and
global celebration. Jewish life is often
I am a stranger and a resident
among you.
(
Genesis 23:4)
Jewish learning is first to differentiate
and
then to integrate.
how is it possible to be both
a stranger and a resident, to be
not at home and at home, to
be counter-cultural and cultural, in
the same place at the same time?
גר ותושב
a stranger and a resident
Jewish wisdom can improve our
lives and help make for a better
world, and consequently, Jewish
learning is relevant and serious,
timely and timeless.
(
Jonathan Woocher/Jan Katzew)
Jewish learning is for the sake of
repairing the world inside us and the
world around us.
what are we doing as a Jewish
community that helps us improve
our inner life of the soul and our
outer life that others witness?
תיקון מידות הנפש
ותיקון העולם
repair the Worlds
inside and outside