Rabbi Shai Cherry
Parshat Ki Tavo
At the height of the WWJD craze, I taught a course with the same initials — What Would Jews Do?
At the time, I was living in Nashville, which residents enjoyed designating as “the buckle of the Bible Belt.” My students at Vanderbilt University didn’t know what to do with this kippah-wearing Jew who seemed to be fabricating the Bible’s meaning and, thereby, rejecting what they considered to be the truth, beginning with two (Hebrew) words from this week’s Torah portion: v’halakhtah bidrachav — walk in His paths (Dt. 28:9).
Amelia Bedelia, whom I have previously outed as Amelia the Amalekite, would lace up her hiking boots to walk in His paths. Our ancient sages anticipated such silliness. If you’re going to start reading the Torah literally, you’ve got bigger problems than identifying the trail markers on God’s paths.
What does it mean to walk in God’s paths? How can anyone follow the Divine Presence since the Torah earlier stated: “For the Lord, your God is a devouring fire,” and one cannot approach fire!
Rather, just as the Holy One clothes the naked, so, too, should you clothe the naked. Just as the Holy One, visits the sick, so, too, should you visit the sick. Just as the Holy One consoles mourners, so, too, should you console mourners. (Talmud, Sotah 14a)
It’s a metaphor, Amelia! Take off your boots and prime your compassion pump. Religion is about spreading love through kind deeds, not setting out on a solo trip that might fry your brains in a devouring fire.
It turns out that the rabbis of the Talmud not only anticipated Ameila Bedelia, but they also cautioned against the pursuit of a mystical union that threatened to isolate and consume the worshipper at the expense of communal needs.
I appreciate this midrash for what it says, but I love it for what it leaves unsaid.
WWJD? If we’re being encouraged to follow God’s deeds, the author of the midrash left out a few biggies. God wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah for their lack of compassion; he taught those enslaving Egyptians a lesson or two; and even after the Levites killed 3,000 Israelites because of the golden calf episode, God still sent a plague.
But punishing enemies and avenging our own people for their transgressions does not figure in our midrash about following God’s ways. Our midrash was choosy.
The Greek word for choosy is heretic. The rabbis were merciful heretics — and, as a university professor, I acknowledged as much. Many of my students interpreted that admission as a fatal flaw and awaited my embrace of their more Bible-centered approach.
But that’s the glory of the rabbis’ oral Torah (the Talmud and midrash). It reworks the written Torah in ways that concretize their values through creative interpretations and selective appropriations. When our midrash says that God visits the sick, the implication is that God visited Abraham after he was circumcised.
The written Torah, however, says no such thing. Nor does God console mourners. But I cherish being a member of a community where visiting the ill and comforting the bereft is an expectation of everyone, not just the clergy.
Those specific imperatives are rooted in the value of the biblical command to love your neighbor. Maimonides wrote exactly that in his legal code, the Mishneh Torah. But it’s the rabbis of the oral Torah who chose which of the written Torah’s values to turn into behavioral norms for our community. Clothing the naked, visiting the sick and consoling mourners are all righteous acts that the rabbis chose to promote. They were compassionate heretics.
Here’s how the medieval “Book of Education” explains our duty to walk in God’s paths: “We are commanded to perform all our actions, with all our power, in the way of honesty and goodness, and to channel all our concerns in the way of kindness and compassion.”
What Should Jews Do?
Since honesty is an underlying value for all our actions, as the “Book of Education” says, honesty about the development of Jewish tradition is a prerequisite for all else. To be faithful heirs of the rabbis requires us to continue developing Judaism in kindness and compassion. Righteous heresy is our inheritance and our mandate.
Shai Cherry is the rabbi of Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park. He is an author and the featured lecturer for The Great Courses’ Introduction to Judaism. The Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia is proud to provide diverse perspectives on Torah commentary for the Jewish Exponent. The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Board of Rabbis.
