Rabbi Landsberg's Blog

Human, citizen, Jew

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, wrote a fascinating drash on last week's parashah, on what he calls "one of the most remarkable of all of Torah's narrative devices--the power of the future to transform our understanding of the past."  [If you're interested, check it out here: Covenant and Conversation: Toldot.  (This gets you to the main parashah page.  Click on the link to Toldot.) He analyzes God's words to Rebecca about the future of her unborn twins, Esau and Jacob].  To phrase it simply, we can never fully understand either our past or our present until we are in the future, looking back with time-won wisdom.

I was thinking of this as I noted that we are now celebrating the 100th birthday of Hannah Arendt.  There is a renaissance of interest in her work, and she is now being hailed by many as being a profound and original thinker.  She challenges us with her assertion that the essential question of morality in this world is inherently bound up with politics and with questions of power.  There is no meaningful sphere in life that is apolitical:  there is no apolitical Zionism, for example, and--with all due respect to Revenue Canada--there is no apolitical tzedakah.

Arendt was brutally tactless, without a doubt, yet she threw her fate in with the Jews--wrestling with Jewish issues throughout her life.  Although I abhor her insensitivity to those who participated in the Judenrat, I think that we should be blessed with more, not less, figures such as this woman who immersed herself in all the affairs of the Jewish people.   You can read a lovely review of her life and works here: Human, citizen, Jew

To Infinity and Beyond....?

I officiated at the funeral last week of the 95 year old mother of a dear family friend.  At the graveside, several family members came to me to point out the nearby headstones, noting how many of their family members were buried right alongside one another.   It spoke not only of their family, but of the Toronto Jewish community of yesteryear and still even today, with its strong bonds uniting family and community. 

I had that image in my mind as I thought about the recent furor over the strength of our future here in the North American Jewish Diaspora (and I know when I speak of a "furor in the North American Jewish Community" that this is in truth a debate amongst a cadre of what has sometimes been uncharitably referred to as "Professional Jews" and not really the talking points of Jewry in general, but that is a question to be examined another day).  Although Zeev Bielski, the head of the Jewish Agency, spoke warmly at the United Jewish Communities' General Assembly (which just concluded in Los Angeles), he had all too recently declared the death of the diaspora, stating that the only viable Jewish future will be in Israel.  You can hear excerpts from his GA talk here: UJC General Assembly speakers (as well as hear from other noted speakers, such as Bernard-Henri Levy and Ehud Olmert) and then read about his prior assessment of the diaspora here: Bielski on Diaspora.

All of this is a continuation of the fallout from the noted Israeli author A.B. Yehoshua's dismissal of Diaspora Jewry at the American Jewish Committee's (AJC) Centenary Symposium this past spring (read his bio here).  If you find a way to access the video of the symposium, please both watch it (it is fascinating) and send me the link.  The AJC published many of the responses to Yehoshua, including one by our own Rabbi Eric Yoffie, head of the Union of Reform Judaism.  His words made me proud to be a Reform rabbi and hopeful for our future.  You can access his words, together with the thoughts of many other leading thinkers at: The Yehoshua Controversy.