Torah Table Talk A New PaRDeS

Is There Room for a Revolution in Jewish Life?

Parshat Reeh, Deuteronomy 11:26 16:17
This weeks Torah Table Talk is dedicated by Rabbi Philip and Rebecca Weintraub In honor their second anniversary and Aviva and Ari Fellmans first secular anniversary
In the middle of the 7th century BCE, Josiah the king of Judea ordered that Solomons Temple be refurbished. In the midst of the restoration a book was discovered in the Temple precincts. Upon having the book read to him, Josiah realized that this was the Book/Scroll of the Covenant. He and the nation were guilty of not obeying Gods commandments as set forth in this ancient scroll. The king immediately called the nation together, read the book to them, ordered a series of far reaching reforms and ordered the public observance of Passover. Josiah not only removed pagan implements from the Temple but destroyed all of the places of worship outside of Jerusalem. From this time forth, only the priests associated with the Jerusalem temple could serve God and all sacrifices and offerings had to be brought to Jerusalem. Josiahs reforms were nothing short of a revolution. It not only changed the nature of Israels religion but it made Jerusalem the spiritual center of Jewish life. Today we believe that Josiahs scroll of the covenant was the book of Deuteronomy. Today when we read the book of Deuteronomy we find frequent references to worshipping God in the place which God has chosen. While Josiahs decision gave Jerusalem a unique place in Jewish life, it was the first case of religious intolerance in human history. Josiahs reforms remain a controversial episode even today. Deuteronomy 12:2, 4-6, 8 You must destroy all the sites at which the nation you are to dispossess worshiped their godsDo not worship the Lord your God in like manner, but look only to the site that the Lord your God will choose amidst all your tribes as His habitation, to establish his name there. There you are to go and there you are to bring your burnt offerings and other sacrifices, your tithes and contributions, your votive and freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and your flocksYou shall not act at all as we act now every person as he pleases 2 Kings, 22-23 22:1 In the eighteenth year of King Josiah 8. The high priest Hilkiah said to the scribe Shaphan, I have found a scroll of the Teaching in the House of the Lord. Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan, who read it. 9. The scribe Shaphan then went to the king and reported to the king: Your servants have melted down the silver that was deposited in the House, and they have delivered it to the overseers of the work who are in charge at the House of the Lord. 10. The scribe Shaphan also told the king, The high priest Hilkiah has given me a scroll; and Shaphan read it to the king. 11. When the king heard the words of the scroll of the Teaching, he rent his clothes. 12. And the king gave orders 13. Go inquire of the Lord on my behalf, and on behalf of the people, and on behalf of all Judah, concerning the words of this scroll that has been found. For great indeed must be the wrath of the Lord that has been kindled against us, because our fathers did not obey the words of this scroll to do all that has been prescribed for us..23:1 At the kings summons, all the people Judah and Jerusalem assembled before him. 2. The king went up to the House of the Lord, together with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and prophetsall the people, young and old. And he read to them the entire text of the covenant scroll which had been found in the House of the Lord. 3. The king stood by the pillar and solemnized the covenant before the Lord that they would follow the Lord and observe His commandments, His injunctions, and His laws with all their heart and soul; that they would fulfill all the terms of this covenant as inscribed upon the scroll. And all the people entered into the covenant.

PaRDeS
1. Pshat Understanding the plain sense meaning of the text
Josiahs actions were clearly inspired by Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is the only book of the Torah that is called a Book of the Teaching, whose contents are described as terms of the covenant and which calls on the people to accept its laws as the basis of their national life. It is the only book of the Torah that prohibits kadesh-functionaries (23:18) and that explicitly mentions the worship of the sun, moon, and the hosts of the heavens in its laws about idolatry (4:19, 17:3). It is the only one that prohibits sacrifice outside the single chosen Temple once Israel settles in the land; Exodus 20:21, in contrast envisages multiple places of sacrifice. As a corollary to this prohibition,

Deuteronomy is the only book that requires the entire nation to offer the pesah in a single Temple. The dire warnings that so terrified Josiah, point to the curses of Deuteronomy 28 which threaten the king with exile. (Jeffrey Tigay, The JPS Torah Commentary, Deuteronomy) The limitation of sacrificial worship to a single place is the most unique and far reaching law in Deuteronomy. It affected the religious life of individuals, the sacrificial system, the way festivals were celebrated, the economic status of Levites, and even the judicial systemthe limitations also affected the personal religious lives of individuals. With sacrifices restricted to one location, distant from the homes of most people, it became difficult to give thanksgiving and sin offerings, to undergo purification ceremonies, and to pay vows; and meat meals were deprived of their religious dimension. Deuteronomy must have expected that some other religious activities would take the place of sacrifice in the peoples lives throughout the year. (Jeffrey Tigay, The JPS Torah Commentary, Deuteronomy) My Commentary: If Deuteronomy is the book which was brought to King Josiah in 633 BCE, then it is not difficult to understand why he responded so dramatically to this text. The book claims to contain the final words of Moses in which he not only instructs them to establish a place of worship in a location which God would identify (it was obvious to him that this was Jerusalem) but it also offered serious consequences if the people failed to live up to these commands. What is so surprising is how different Deuteronomy is from the other books of the Torah, not only in style but in content. With the book of the covenant, religion went from being a localized religious experience to a national and political affair. There was now a centralized authority. This was helpful not only in ridding the nation of the last vestiges of paganism but it also meant communal standards would be set by religious authority far from the daily lives of the people.

2. Remez Allusions: Finding meanings hidden in the text

Only to the site that the Lord your God will choose amidst all your tribes as His habitation: This site is Mount Moriah. This was a well known fact among the other nations of the world; they knew of its stature from tradition. It was well known to the Israelites in the wilderness who knew this from their forefathers from the time of the binding of Isaac. The reason that Scripture never explicitly mentions the name of the place is that it was known to everyone. In his book, The Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides, offers three reasons for Scriptures silence in this matter. First, if the nations had known that their prayers and offerings would be accepted there, they would have fought one another to take control of it and there would have been more bloodshed among the nations. Second: had the Canaanites known that Israel would inherit this place in the future and serve God with offerings there, they would have completely destroyed it. Finally, had the tribes of Israel known the exact location of the Gods habitation, they would have fought with one another claiming that it was in their inheritance. Thus, there would have been division among the tribes just as there was over the priesthood. Therefore Scripture hid the location of Jerusalem and did not publicize it. If Israel did not know, then certainly the other nations did not know the location. Everyone knew the importance of Mount Moriah but they could not be certain that it would be the place which God would choose. (Rabbeinu Bahye ben Asher ibn Halawa, , a 14th century Torah commentator noted for introducing Kabbalah into study of the Torah) My Commentary: Rabbeinu Bahya wonders why the book of Deuteronomy never specifies the name of the place which God has chosen as the site of His temple. He quotes the Rambam who offers three reasons why the Torah is mum on the location of Gods habitation. We might take note of the fact that Maimonides lived during the Crusades and actually tried to settle in Palestine at the height of the battles between Moslems and Christians. After a short stay in Palestine, he chose to settle in Egypt. His answer, I suspect, was influenced by his own experience with religious wars specifically for Jerusalem. He is critical not only of how the non-Jews related to the land and its religious sites but also acknowledges the fact that Jews are also prone to battle over property that has religious significance.

3. Din Law: Applying the text to life

The view that enjoys the clearest textual support is that of M. Greenberg, according to whom Deuteronomy perceives sacrifice at multiple places as an inherently pagan practice. In chapter 12, after the requirement to destroy all the sites where the Canaanites worshipped their gods, including the altars, pillars, sacred posts, and images, the text continues, literally, Do not act thus toward the Lord your God but look only to the site that the Lord your God will choose.There you will bring your burnt offerings and other sacrifices. The command do not do thus means Do not act as the Canaanites did, by sacrificing in many places. (Jeffrey Tigay, The JPS Torah Commentary, Deuteronomy) My Commentary: In his commentary on Deuteronomy, Tigay offers a variety of theories as to why this book chooses to emphasize a single place of worship for the people of Israel. He suggests that identifying Jerusalem as the central

place of worship is part of political and economic strategy for unifying the nation. A single place of worship was also a way of symbolically teaching the theological and moral lessons of Judaism. Just as there was only one God, there is only one place and one way of worshipping Him. I suspect that this symbolic act had long term implications for other monotheistic religions which have continued to teach their own brand of religion intolerance (consider, for instance, Moslems destroying Buddhist statues in Asia, or Christian proselytism). In Israel today, we find a centralized rabbinate which often leads to a diminution of religious pluralism in the Jewish community. Finally, Professor Greenberg suggests that this was a final attempt to limit and remove pagan practices from the Israelite community. But why destroy Israelite places of worship outside Jerusalem as well? What was so un-Jewish about having other places of worship around the land? Had the Jewish people remained faithful to Josiahs revolution, Judaism might not have survived. It was the development of the synagogue as a localized place of study and worship that allowed the Jewish people to thrive during their years of exile. Tigay suggests that the synagogue might very well have been a reaction to the campaign against cultic centers in Josiahs time.

4. Sod The Meaning and Mystery of Faith

We dont often think of religions as having revolutions, and yet it is because there has been room for radical change that Judaism has survived. Less than a hundred years after the Josiahs reforms, Jerusalem would be destroyed and the people exiled. Had the people and their leaders been stuck in this revolution, Judaism would have died because it would have become ossified. Three or four hundred years later, it was the ability of the Maccabees to think outside the box that allowed them to rethink the relation between self-defense and piety. And two hundred years after the Maccabees, the sages at Yavneh had the religious and moral courage to rethink the nature of Jewish life so that the home and the academy became the center of observance rather than the Temple. Along the way, the synagogue developed so that there was a communal institution to take the place of the Temple. The rabbinate, for that matter, also developed as a powerful response to the priesthood. How are we to view these changes? Were they revolutions or evolutionary changes that allowed Judaism to adapt to a different world? I suspect that there were some innovations along the way that didnt work; the Essenes are an example of a failed religious experiment. Christianity was a revolution that went too far and could no longer be part of the mainstream of Jewish life. Looking at the world today, I wonder what it means to think about evolutionary and revolutionary change in Jewish life: consider how issues such as gender, medicine, science and sociology have changed how we see the world. And how about the founding of the state of Israel? Certainly the events we have witnessed since the Holocaust suggest a radically different type of Jewish community and as a result a radically different view of religion. And yet, ironically, religion in Israel (and around the world) seems to be bent on holding on to ancient institutions rather than seeing the world in new ways. I wonder what lessons we can learn from Josiahs Revolution.

Questions to Ponder
1. Other political leaders in ancient Israel tried to bring about a religious revolution by centralizing the religion (Josiahs great grandfather tried and failed some fifty years earlier) . Why do you think Josiah succeed where others failed? 2. What are the pluses and minuses of having a highly centralized religious community with a single place of worship? What are the pluses and minuses in light of Israels chief rabbinate today? 3. How could a book of the Torah get lost and then be found again? What do you think this suggests about the status of Deuteronomy? 4. How would you describe the change in the role of women in Jewish life today: revolution or evolution? 5. Is Judaism in need of a revolution today? If so, what type of revolution would it be?
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All it takes to study Torah is an open heart, a curious mind and a desire to grow a Jewish soul.
Copyright 2011 Rabbi Mark B Greenspan