You’ve heard me say of religion, it brings out the best, and the
worst in people. This certainly can
be said of our religion. How much
bad behaviour is unleashed in the running of shules, and other Jewish
institutions, and really just about everywhere you go? How many scandals have there been regarding
child molestation in our Jewish schools?
Regarding the selling of gets, of divorce papers? How many Jews do you know, who have dropped
out of Jewish life because of the general sometimes-nasty edge to it?
But the phenomenon
is not limited to us Jews, not by a long shot!
Roman Catholics have had a difficult couple of decades as their church,
worldwide, has been wracked with scandal.
Priests abusing children. Priests
in supervisory positions covering it up.
Back when the worldwide scandal first began coming to light, I was a
military chaplain, working closely with Catholic priests whom I considered my
friends and colleagues. How much anguish
they felt as their vocation was sullied by revelation after revelation of
terrible behaviour by their brother priests!
And the Protestant Christian
world is not immune either. They have
also had their share of scandals:
sexual, financial, power. And
yes, Islam and the Eastern Traditions; we don’t hear so much about them,
because their worlds are relatively opaque to the outsider. But really, there is more than enough shame
to go around.
So we have here a
paradox. Something that is supposed to
bring goodness into the world, religion, unfortunately is often an agent for
sin and suffering. And as you know, I’ve
talked about this paradox before.
Religion brings
out the best in people because of its message of hope and redemption. One thing I struggled with during my first
years in the rabbinate, was the role of Symbolic Exemplar. Because of what I represent due to my
calling, I found myself sometimes put on a pedestal, a place where I did not
feel comfortable. A colleague named Jack
Bloom, a Reform Rabbi who is a clinical psychologist, wrote a book about it: The Rabbi as Symbolic Exemplar. When I read it, it really hit home.
Sometimes the Symbolic
Exemplar thing takes on humorous tones.
When people find out I’m a rabbi, they will automatically change the way
they talk, and the things about which they talk, around me. Early on, I would take to not ‘outing’ myself
in order to have normal conversations with people! And then, when the subject came up and it was
either ‘out’ myself or lie, and I would reveal my vocation, they would change
instantly!
I’ve come to
accept the phenomenon of the Symbolic Exemplar, and even understand why it
happens. And it really comes down to
what I was talking about a moment ago, that religion does bring out the
best in people. But if so, why does it
also seem to bring out the worst? I’ve offered
an explanation in the past, but whilst reading in preparation for this Shabbat,
I came across another rabbi’s very lucid explanation.
As you may
know, this Shabbat is Shabbat Parah – the Sabbath of the Heifer, as in
the Red Heifer. The traditional Maftir
reading for this Shabbat is found in the 25th chapter of the Book of
Numbers. It instructs the Israelites to
take a completely red cow without blemish, a cow which has never been yoked for
work as a draft animal, slaughter it and have the priests burn it completely on
the altar. Then its ashes would be mixed
with water and sprinkled on anybody or thing needing purification. But the paradox of the Heifer is that the
priest’s duties in this case make him unclean. How can the same ritual make the clean unclean
and the unclean, clean?
In looking for
answers, I came upon a brief answer offered by J.H. Hertz in the Soncino Chumash,
which is often referred to as the ‘Hertz Chumash.’ Dr Hertz writes the following:
A word must be
said on the paradox of the (Red Heifer), …[with regard to] the simultaneous
possession of sanctification and defilement. There have been great institutions and
movements, in both Jewish and general history, that have sanctified others, and
yet at the same time tended to defile those that created or directed those
institutions and movements. The very men
who helped others to self-sacrifice and holiness, not infrequently themselves became
hard and self-centred, hating and hateful:
elevating others, and themselves sinking into inhumanity, impurity, and
unholiness. It is a real, if disturbing,
fact in the spiritual life of man.
Now I could
have said similar words in my own voice, but how much more powerful coming from
the late Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom! What I hear Dr Hertz saying, is that through
religion and other endeavours, people work hard to uplift others with something
positive and good. Unfortunately, it is
human nature that when one is doing righteous things, one can easily fall into
the trap of ‘self-righteousness.’ This
is a mindset, where one thinks that, because they’re doing good for people,
they are beyond reproach and, ultimately, restraint. We know the term, and the syndrome, and we
are quick to condemn it in others. But
the truth is that we’re all subject to the tendency. And when we’re in a position of doing good, we
must constantly be aware of the tendency and be ready to fight it when we see evidence
that we’re falling into it.
There are
elements of our great tradition that are easily grasped. When we read the Torah, it often sings out to
us in a lovely song of goodness and righteousness. In the ancient world, the ethics emanating
from the Torah were singularly superior to any other system known to man. That’s why, in antiquity, there was great
interest and great movement among pagans to embrace Judaism. Really, that’s why even today, in the wake of
centuries of persecution of Jews, the Jewish message resonates so strongly.
And yet, there
are passages in the Torah that defy explanation. That even today, centuries later, still baffle
the greatest minds. And maybe they’re supposed
to baffle us, but more about that tomorrow morning.
Do good works,
religious or otherwise. But be careful
of the tendency to fall into the paradox.
Let it bring out the best in you.
But when you have any inkling that it’s bringing out the worst in you,
it is time to stop. Take a deep breath. Stand back.
And question your motives. Just
because religion does bring out the best and the worst, doesn’t mean it’s
supposed to! If we are letting it bring
forth the latter, then we’ve missed the boat.
Then we have, in the words of the late novelist Tom Clancy, perhaps mastered
the forms of religion, while allowing its essence to elude us. But if the essence is missing, then
there’s no value at all in the forms.
Minus the essence, the forms can only serve to try to
control people. And that is
unfortunate. Shabbat shalom.
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