Horace Kallen wrote (Culture and Democracy in the United States):
“Men may change their clothes, their politics, their wives, their religions,
their philosophies, to a greater or less extent; they cannot change their
grandfathers.” The Israelites have seen everything change because slavery
changed everything. Yet Torah supports Kallen’s observation. When Moses pleads
with God not to send him back to Egypt, God assures him that God will always be
present for him. But…
Moses said to God, “When I come to the Israelites and say
to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What
is His name?” what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh.” He continued, “Thus
shall you say to the Israelites, “Ehyeh
sent me to you. And God said further to Moses, “Thus shall you speak to the
Israelites: The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you…” (Exodus 3:13-15)
Why isn’t Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh sufficient identification? Why must Moses
reference their “grandfathers”? It certain seems that Kallen got it right.
Kallen is suggesting that while people can work scrupulously to shed aspects of
their cultural identity, they cannot change their background, and that
background is a part of them. Perhaps that is why I often hear people say,
“Jews see the world in a certain way.” An example: I moved to Columbia, Maryland
the home town and brain child of James Rouse, nearly 20 years ago. The symbol
of Columbia was a sculpture know as “The People Tree.” It has a large “trunk”
with 66 people in a sphere reaching outward. The first time I took a good look
at it — a really good look — was only last summer while sitting on the lawn
downtown listening to a concert. I was taken aback. Rather than being a
positive, life-affirming symbol, I found it, well, creepy. To me, those
rail-thin bodies reaching out were trying to escape; it could have been a
Holocaust memorial sculpture. My grandfathers are part of me. To the core.
What does it mean that we cannot
change our grandfathers? For many it means that
the status quo is sacrosanct. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch started that
ball rolling in the 19th century. It is encapsulated in the horrific
motto of the Chatam Sofer: All change is forbidden by Torah, at any time, in
any place.” That wasn’t even the case for the Israelites! Their very first
religious act is to observe a wholly new rite: the ritual of the Pesach. God tells
them:
This day shall be to you one of remembrance; you shall
celebrate it as a festival to the Lord throughout the ages; you shall celebrate
it as an institution for all time. (Exodus 12:14)
Before someone pounces on the phrase “throughout the
ages” we should remind ourselves that the pesach
is not a facet of the covenant
Abraham forged with God. Passover was not the foundation story of the
patriarchs. It is new. And what is more, the manner in which God tells the
Israelites to keep this new festival was wholly revamped by later generations.
We don’t do it the biblical way; we go by the later rabbinic innovation of a
seder and special prayers. And even that isn’t fixed. There has been an
explosion in the publication of haggadot
and new practices around Passover. If you have the slightest doubt, get a copy
of A Different Night, the Family
Participation Haggadah by David Dishon and Noam Zion.
Throughout history, we have interpreted, innovated, and
invented. The Rabbis invented shabbat candle-lighting; Rambam took us down the
road of law codes (a most unfortunate initiative); the mystics of Tzfat gave us
Kabbalat Shabbat and a universe of new theological views. Heraclitus
encapsulated it best: “You cannot step twice in the same river.” Perhaps you
cannot change your grandfathers, but you needn’t be your grandfathers.
The river that parted for the Israelites to complete
their redemption flows on. In our time, we have seen Eco-Kashrut, Magen Tzedek,
the rise of independent, vigorous minyanim,
new theologies (neo-Hasidism
and Process Theology,
for example), and new rituals. Neil Gillman gave
us a new understanding of techiat
ha-meitim (resurrection of the dead). Abraham Joshua Heschel gave us a new
view from Sinai of revelation and Torah. Scholars such as James Kugel and Jon
Levenson are opening doors for us to see our heritage in a new light vis-à-vis
Christianity. This will in turn lead to new understandings of basic Jewish
categories which will, in turn, beget new expressions of Judaism. In short, the
river rolls on.
When God tells Moses to identify God to the Israelites as
Ehyeh, the God of their ancestors, I
understand God to be saying: Let your heritage be a source of strength to move
forward out of Egypt to redemption and a new
covenant with Me. That is what we, as Jews, do. We step into the river —
again and again — and enjoy its newness each time.
© Rabbi Amy Scheinerman
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