Difficult Secularity: Talmud As Symbolic Resource

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provided by RERO DOC Digital Library Published in Outlines. Critical Practice Studies 8, issue 2, 59-75, 2006 1 which should be used for any reference to this work

Difficult secularity: Talmud as symbolic resource

Tania Zittoun

Summary Religious systems are organised semiotic structures pro- groups, while others leave religious commu- viding people with values and rules, identities, regular- nities to join secular life. Some people stay out ity, and meaning. Consequently, a person moving out of such communities, but mobilise religious of a religious system might be exposed to meaning-rup- values or fragments of systems to engage in tures. The paper presents the situation of young people a “religious bricolage”, the self-making of a who have been in Yeshiva, a rabbinic high-school, and who have to join secular university life. It analyses the personalised religious kit (Campiche, 1997). changes to which they are exposed. On the bases of However, joining a religious system, leaving this case study, the paper examines the following ques- it, or having access to religious narrative, sym- tions: can the religious symbolic system internalised by bolic objects or values do not necessarily and a person in a religious sphere of experience be mobil- immediately solve meaning needs; moreover, ised as a symbolic resource once the person moves to a these movements in themselves create rup- secular environment? If yes, how do religious symbolic resources facilitate the transition to a secular life? And tures and call for meaning-making. How is if not, what other symbolic and social resources might a religious system functioning as a symbolic facilitate such transitions? system satisfying people’s need for orientation and meaning? How does it function when the person is exposed to a situation for which People have to deal with the unpredictability she has not been prepared within her religious and the uncertainty of the diversity of modern environment? And what happens if a person secular lives, and often strive for meaning and cannot mobilise her religious system to ad- values. Cultural and religious systems provide dress successfully ruptures with which she is people with structures that bring regularity, confronted? orientation, community and meaning. Con- To address these questions, the following temporary societies put inclusive cultural or theoretical proposition is made: rather than ex- religious systems at stake. Also, in the current amining religious systems and their symbolic balance of social forces, extreme religiosity components per se, one needs to examine how might appear as a threat to occidental, liberal a given person actually uses them as symbolic values. Consequently, the adhesion to religious resources as she is intentionally engaged in values or to an inclusive religious system is addressing specific issues (Zittoun, Duveen, not necessarily taken for granted. Some people Gillespie, Ivinson and Psaltis, 2003; Zittoun, convert to religion, join sects and religious 2006). The questions to be examined are thus 2 the following: how can a person mobilise parts indicates general issues raised by this case of an internalised religious symbolic system study. as resources to address issues external to her religious experience? And which other social A semiotic psychological and symbolic resources can she use to address ruptures to which she is exposed? approach to change From a cultural psychological perspective, the The present contribution to the question of use world in which people constitute themselves of religious systems as symbolic resources is as human is inhabited by symbols encapsulat- limited to a single case. This paper is based ing meaning, and circulating through time and on the observation of a small group of ortho- space (Benson, 2001; Cole, 1996; Markovà, dox Jews who left the inclusive sphere of ex- 2003; Valsiner, 2005; Wertsch, 1998). Soci- perience of a Yeshiva, a rabbinic school, in eties thus provide individuals with semiotic order to study in a secular university. Jewish devices that they can use to confer meaning to orthodoxy offers a very strong corpus of texts their lives, and it is through expressive sym- and rules, and teaches hermeneutic competen- bolic means that individuals participate in so- cies: a set of heuristics of thought, that allow ciety. Symbolic activities are thus the locus of scholars to induce and deduce other cases, or encounter between what is most peculiar to to interpret some new events or cases in the individual’s interiority, and the shared knowl- light of canonical situations (see for ex. Billig, edge and understanding of societies (Obeye- 1987; Levinas, 1982; Ouaknin, 1986; Zittoun, sekere, 1977; Winnicott, 1971). 1999). In theory, an orthodox Jew, expert in these matters, should be able to link any new, Cultural elements and symbolic resources unexpected situation to the corpus, to elaborate The notion of cultural element can be used as a multi-voiced meaning of it, thus interpreting a generic to designate any complex constella- it in the light of the tradition. However, once tion of semiotic units (signs that carry shared confronted with the secular world, the young meaning), distinct from other constellations, persons observed here did not use religious organised and structured in particular ways. resources: they mobilised non-religious cul- Here two main categories of cultural elements tural elements to confer meaning to their new will be considered. life situations. A first category is that of cultural elements that have their meaning given by their inscrip- The first section of this paper presents the tion in a particular symbolic system. Religious key notions of this psychological approach. books, objects, or sets of beliefs, are thus cul- It details the notions of transitions following tural elements that can be part of a bounded ruptures of the taken-for-granted in people’s religious symbolic system. Such a system is lives, and of resources which might facilitate diffracted upon various interdependent sup- these; it also exposes the problem of leaving ports, and is regulated by some authorities religion. The second section presents the meth- (or “warden of the frame”, Grossen and Per- odology of the case study of young orthodox ret-Clermont, 1992) who define what belongs Jews coming back fromYeshiva to secular life. to the symbolic system and what does not. The third section examines the rupture these Judaism is such a bounded symbolic system; young people experience, and the fourth sec- it includes texts of reference, various cultural tion highlights various resources they use to objects, rules and norms, social regulations deal with newness. The fifth section finally and forms of authorities, which all take their 3 meanings from their location in that given sys- A second type of cultural elements are bounded tem. The rules, norms and principles can be or limited by a material support – e.g., books, described as hierarchically organised (Geertz, films, songs, or paintings. These, too, are or- 1972; Valsiner, 2001, 2005). In the case of organised constellations of semiotic units, but thodox Jews, such a system can tentatively be their material support fixes their boundaries. described as follows: Cultural elements “exist” for people who “experience” them – reading a novel, partici- Level 1: At a first level, specific rules are pating in a rite – that is, when they link them guiding concrete, embodied actions and with their embodied memories and feelings. perceptions (e.g., praying, not eating Thus, cultural elements always refer simulta- pork, not looking at young girls’ exposed neously to something in the real world, and to shoulders); how other people have related to it. Level 2: The tradition defines rules and in- Experiences of cultural elements of both tentions for classes of actions and typical types eventually become internalised and con- situations (e.g., suggesting the study of stitutive of people’s personal culture (Valsiner, specific texts; preventing from eating lunch 1998). They can thus extend the range of peo- in a non kosher place); ple’s experience, and their knowledge, skills, Level 3: The tradition offers principles that images and emotions, about themselves, the have constraining forces. Such commit- world or others (Vygotsky, 1934; Winnicott, ments or meta rules include the value of 1971). learning and of studying religious texts; the Cultural elements can be objects of experi- value of the otherness; the value of improv- ence as such, that is, for their explicit function ing oneself; these are likely to canalise and or meaning – reading a novel for the fictional organise certain types of activities; experience it offers, participating to a rite in Level 4: The tradition defines fundamental be- order to participate to that rite – but also, they liefs: there is one God, and it is an honour can be used in relationship to something else. and a duty to respect the very special rela- Cultural elements used in relation to some- tionship between God and his creatures. thing that exceeds their intended meaning can be said to be used as symbolic resources.A Level 4 is a basic assumption in a given symbolic resource can thus be defined as a community and is bonded to identity. Level cultural element used by a person intending 3 meta-rules, as means to respect the latter, something beyond the meaning or aesthetic are diffracted within the texts and in everyday qualities of the cultural experience itself, just situations, guiding practices at level 2 and 1. as any cultural tool can be used (Brentano, In a Jewish orthodox milieu, such rules are 1874; Vygotsky and Luria, 1994; Zittoun et likely to be strongly actualised, re-enacted and al., 2003). For example, a book can be read in reassessed within the social field and the inter- order to get some sense of a foreign country to personal relationships (meals, prayers, familial which one will travel (Gillespie, 2006). Cul- songs). They compose the architecture of the tural elements mobilised as symbolic resources self (Zittoun, 2006): symbolic culture is non- can thus offer complex forms of semiotic me- dissociable from the person, and constitutive diation intended to facilitate the apprehension of her apprehension of the world and of herself of new events and thoughts. (Geertz, 1972; Nathan, 1991, 1992). 4

Ruptures & transitions emotions and their unconscious prolongations In their everyday life, people can experience (Duveen, 2000; Green, 2000; Valsiner, 1998, ruptures that have different sorts of causes. 2005). The social world itself can be disrupted – as In principle, cultural systems provide when a war starts; people themselves can people with means to support regularity and move place, or the settings of their activities predictability: they structure time through can be modified; relationships in which they recurrent rites and events. They also usually are involved change; and at a more individual offer procedures to deal collectively with level, they might physically change, or come deviance, the unpredictable, and individual across new ideas. As a result, what they use ruptures (the loss of someone, birth, illness, to take for granted might be put at stake, etc.) (Levi-Strauss, 1962; Moro, 1998). Cul- and people can feel a sudden or progressive tural systems can be more or less open – that rupture. Perceived ruptures can thus be fol- is, more or less ready to integrate new events, lowed by transition processes, through which or to adapt to new conditions of the contexts people try to restore their sense of continu- (Deconchy, 1973). But what actually occurs ity and define new regularities. Three inter- at the level of the person who has internalised dependent processes of transition are likely such a system, when she is confronted with a to occur: (1) people engage in repositioning challenging rupture? and identity redefinition (Duveen, 2000); (2) this calls for new forms of knowledge (Per- The rupture of coming back to secular life ret-Clermont and Carugati, 2001); (3) and it The young people presented here all define requires the elaboration of emotions and the themselves as orthodox Jews (cf. also Bilu and restoration of an inner sense of continuity, both Goodman, 1997). They know Jewish tradition being part of meaning-construction processes very well, including Biblical and Talmudic (Bruner, 1990; Perret-Clermont and Zittoun, (Jewish law) texts of reference, and have ex- 2002). Transition processes are based on the pertise in interpreting them. They share the mobilisation of previous knowledge and skills, experience of having lived in a sphere of ex- which have to be recomposed or reorganised perience entirely shaped by the same religious in an original way to avoid rigid repetitions system, and of moving to a new, secular sphere (Janet, 1929; Piaget, 1974). Yet the danger is of experience: the transitions lived by young that such creativity might lead the person too orthodox Jews coming back from Yeshiva to far from what he or she used to be, or to a secular life. change which is not acknowledged by his or Moves in and out of religious communities her social world – that is, to forms of alien- have been the attention of researchers. Join- ation (Lawrence, Benedikt and Valsiner, 1992; ing religious life is both a question of con- Valsiner, 2005; Zittoun, 1996). version (change in beliefs or values) and of socialisation (becoming a member). Religious Symbolic resources and transitions communities often propose specific settings The general assumption held by the present welcoming newcomers, marking the stages of approach is that people use symbolic resources their inclusion, with the help of more experi- to support processes of transition (Zittoun et enced members (Anderson, 2000; Francis and al., 2003; Zittoun, 2005, 2006). Symbolic re- Katz, 2000, Hood, Spilka, Hunsberger and sources can guide and canalise social posi- Gosuch, 1996). Leaving a religion is usually tioning, promote knowledge development, and a more problematic affair. As communities might enable sense making, the elaboration of mostly condemn it, they usually do not offer 5 any accompanying structure to the leaving Researching uses of person. For her, it involves the loss of one’s social network and emotional support, and religious resources often brings her to face a secular world for Reflecting in terms of perceived ruptures and which she is absolutely not prepared (Law- chosen symbolic resources puts a strong em- rence, Benedikt and Valsiner, 1992; Nathan phasis on individualised pathways, yet con- and Swertvaegher, 2003; Shaffir, 2000; Zit- strained by sociocultural threads of meanings toun, 1996). Social scientists usually examine and forces (Moscovici, 1997). This calls for deliberate moves out of religious settings: a a methodology that captures the dynamic person looses faith, or is attracted by other tension between socially prescribed organi- forms of life (Bar-Lev, Leslau and Ne’eman, sations of life-patterns, and the manner in 1997; Shaffir, 1997). In the example of leav- which these appear in a particular life-world. ers of Jewish orthodoxy, some organizations One way to do so is to study people on the have begun to offer a support and accompany- basis of their trajectories and the system to ing setting to facilitate the transition out of which they belong, as suggested by Valsiner religion (Shaffir, 2000). and Sato’s “historically structured sampling” In contrast, this paper examines a group method (2006). of young people unwillingly leaving an inclu- The participants chosen for the present sive, orthodox sphere of experience: raised in paper share an equivalent experience of coming a religious community in England, they have back from Yeshiva, although they have various been encouraged by their family and social past and future trajectories. Processes in which group to spend one or two years in a Yeshiva each of the young persons engages can then (rabbinic school) in Israel. After that period, be compared. Second, all these young persons their parents call them back, and require them belong to the same network and share activi- to accomplish a university curriculum which ties, which have to be documented (Valsiner will provide them with a profession. It is ex- and Sato, 2006). pected that, as adults, they will be able to have Various data collecting techniques are com- a “secular” profession, while pursuing their bined. Young people were contacted through religious study and life in their free time. The the local Jewish society in an English Univer- young people examined in this paper are thus sity town whose meetings I attended for one confronted to the problem of leaving religion. year. There, six participants were asked to be However, in contrast with cases documented interviewed on “the role of cultural experience by the literature, they have not chosen to leave in our everyday life”. The present analysis is, it. In other words, they move out of a reli- for the major part, based on these interviews, giously structured sphere of experience, with- and on other information helping to capture out renouncing its symbolic system of propo- people’s field of experience. First, I have some sitions and values, that is, their internalized familiarity with the Jewish tradition although I religion. The question is therefore, whether have not lived an orthodox life (Zittoun, 1996, in absence of the corresponding community, 1999). Second, I observed meetings and shared these internalized religious cultural elements activities of the local Jewish society, where I can become resources to address secular life. was accepted as a peripheral participant: my status of researcher was publicly announced, I was obviously not orthodox, yet I am Jew- ish. Third, I got acquainted with some of the additional cultural elements mentioned by the 6 young persons (films, novels). Fourth, I inter- here have been interviewed in the frame of a viewed the Rabbi of the society on his role in study on uses of symbolic resources in youth the group, his intentions toward the students, transitions. These four interviewees have been his perception of their needs, and my under- isolated among other interviews with Jewish standing of their situation. This enables a mul- students, for they present a very consistent tiplicity of perspectives on the data (Valsiner group; data is highly saturated. They share a and Sato, 2006; Zittoun, 2006). Fifth, the theo- similar rupture, and the fact of having been retical framework to account for these data has familiarised to a clear set of cultural elements. been developed through a wider study on uses This very little group is thus chosen as exem- of symbolic resources in transitions, at vari- plar of the processes I am trying to articulate: ous ages (Zittoun et al., 2003; Zittoun 2005, that of the possible use of an internalised reli- 2006), and modified by that particular case gious symbolic system as resource in a secular study through an abduction process (Valsiner, environment. 2007). In effect, the Jews community was ap- proached with the expectation that, thanks to The technique their familiarity with Talmudic hermeneutics, The interviews were semi-structured, lasting religious Jews would develop an expertise in between one and one and a half hour, and or- using religious symbolic resources in new situ- ganised along two dimensions. One was tem- ations. However, as the analysis progressed, poral: starting from the present situation of the subjective importance of the rupture (rela- the person, it explored these young people’s tively to other young people), as well as the direct past, their childhood, their relationship difficulty of using religious resources called to their families and their representations of for a new set of hypothesis and further theo- the future. The second was linked to cultural retical elaboration. experiences: it explored the objects that the students had brought with them to their uni- The interviewees versity rooms, their religious practices, lei- The four interviewees presented here come sure time, and cultural experiences. Interviews from an orthodox background in England. explored thus the students’ experience in Ye- Some went to Jewish primary schools; all went shiva and in this University town, what they to secular high schools, in urban areas largely perceived as a rupture, and their uses of sym- frequented by religious Jews, and attended bolic resources. The interviews have been re- Sunday courses or regular private classes given corded, and analysed with a software support- by a Rabbi. All spent one or two gap years in ing qualitative analysis, Atlas.ti. The analysis a yeshiva in Israel before going to University, combines case studies, a transversal analysis and justified this choice as “natural” within and theoretical work. The coding frame was the social group (all classmates would do so; partly pre-organised by theoretical questions parents encouraged it). At the time of the in- and previous research (Zittoun, 2004, 2005) terview, their studying situation was as follows (what are the ruptures? what cultural elements (first-names are fictive, sub-discipline of study are mentioned, in relationship to what?). Other hidden): Abraham: 1st year, literature, two codes were defined through an analysis of 30 years in Yeshiva; Benny: 2nd year, literature, interviews with young people leaving through one year in Yeshiva; Dinah: 2nd year, literature, transitions (Zittoun, 2006) (specific sorts of one year in Yeshiva; Eli: Postgraduate, history, resources used, the role of others, reflectivity, one year in Yeshiva. degrees of elaboration, etc.). Some codes were As mentioned, the interviewees presented specifically defined for this subgroup. 7

ThetransitionfromYeshiva erarchy). More specifically, it enables one to achieve a more specific principle, the duty of to secular university becoming a good person and improving the Religious Jews experienced the rupture of world in general (level 3 of the hierarchy of leaving yeshiva to come back to England in values defined above). One of the main ways order to start studies in a secular university. of doing so is: “Jewish learning, because it To have a sense of the implications of this is good for the world, that too, but because it rupture, it is important to give a view of life in is really a good thing to do from a religious Yeshiva; the following description is based on point of view” (Benny). Learning is seen as a student’s narrative and on the literature (see good for the balance of the world in general e.g. Ouaknin, 1986; Shaffir, 2000). and learning is good for an individual in his/ A Yeshiva is a full time, Jewish study her relationship to God (level 3). These rules school, where most of the day is organised give rise to a class of practices (level 2): the around prayer, both collective and individual duty to teach. This duty is constantly repeated (practicing Jews pray three times a day), study, in everyday, material action and rituals (level both with peers and individually, and a few 1): it is discussed widely within rabbinic and domestic tasks. A Yeshiva offers a field of ex- mystic literature, philosophy and tales, and perience which is framed in time and space, is expressed in the usual everyday prayers, isolated from other sociocultural influences, grounds fundamental rules. with its own regulation, and its “warden” (the Hence, in a Yeshiva, one studies Torah – Rabbis, the head of the Yeshiva, etc.). Young which includes Talmud (Jewish law and its people are there willingly, in a sphere of ex- multiple layers of interpretation and contro- perience where there might be, thanks to its versies through the centuries, mostly Michnah highly structured and ritualised routine, space and Gemarrah), Tanakh (the Pentateuch), the for a certain type of intellectual and spiritual post-biblical literature, and other issues such exploration. This sphere is cut from other as philosophy or liturgy, under the supervision worldly influences. The Yeshiva also provides and the authority of Rabbis. Students study in a social arena where young men (or women) pairs of “Haverim”, or friends, who give each with similar interests, background and aspira- other response or contradict each other’s inter- tions can meet; time and study and effort are pretation of a given text portion. A great part of shared with peers; a very particular emotional the study is linked to the identification and the and social atmosphere develops within the col- resolution of contradiction within the text, and lective study and prayer; no people who are the deduction of application of rules or part of strongly different are met during that time. the text to new hypothetical situations (Bil- The Yeshiva thus offers a protected frame, lig, 1987; Ouaknin, 1986; Steinsaltz, 1996). in which a rich human network enables reli- Also, religious Jews try to follow as much as gious people to live an everyday life which possible the 613 Mitzvoth, the 613 “laws”, is totally isomorphic with their internalised which include obligations (among which are hierarchy of beliefs, norms and rules. For re- imperatives to study, pray etc.) and interdic- ligious Jews, the study of the scriptures, the tions (among which the ones related to food laws and the traditions they gave birth to, is and hygiene), regulated and adapted to various one of the main ways through which one actu- situations by the Halakhah, the law. Yeshiva alises one’s reverence to God (an overarching life, which is collectively organised around rule, which can be considered as located at them, facilitates each person’s conformity to level 4 of the above-mentioned semiotic hi- these. Women are traditionally not submitted 8 to these obligations, but they have to respect but – and I mean – in a similar sort of way, perhaps there are some similarities, in a similar way that the interdictions. For a long time, scholar in Yeshiva people would spend all day studying, women have been very badly considered, and here people would spend all day doing, you know, religious Yeshiva for women are a relatively studying, or doing students’ things… (Eli) recent phenomena (“liberal” movements have created such schools and the status of Rabbi In contrast to Yeshiva, University life presents has been open to women for about 20 years) religious young people with a social environ- (see De Lange, 2000; Lawrence, Benedikt and ment which does not support the set of values Valsiner, 1992). they have internalised. The rupture can thus After one or two years of life in Yeshiva be described as a move from a sphere where comes the rupture. The students decided, for internal and external semiotic systems were themselves or more likely, to satisfy their par- isomorphic, to a sphere where these are dis- ents, to get a university degree, which would joined: religious persons now have to rely on give access to a remunerated profession, on the what they had internalised, without any ex- basis of which they could later on, as adults, ternal support. settle down and have a family, and continue Concretely, students first have to deal with their study of Talmud. Their choice of this a newly acquired autonomy – what has to be University comes from their previous knowl- done in everyday actions (laundry, cooking, edge that it has an important Jewish commu- sitting alone in one’s room), but also at the nity enabling a religious life. level of orientation and organisation. Do the University life is not constructed around students have the means to achieve actions that the same set of religious values as a Yeshiva, were until there guided by the external sup- and does not facilitate actions following from port of the Yeshiva? Have they internalised them. The Yeshiva does not prepare its stu- the rules at level 4 and 3, so to redefine by dents for such a change. Consequently, the re- themselves local intentions (level 2) and spe- ligious young people felt unprepared for life cific actions? Second, students are now con- in a secular University. The vocabulary used fronted with very different people, and they by some of them expresses the rupture felt: have quickly to define how to deal with them. a “split” between two worlds is experienced. Students make their choices – some decide to One young man thus tries to articulate this avoid non-Jews altogether, others try to relate rupture1: to them. A third difficulty is identified: how to conciliate their religious commitments with [After Yeshiva and its inclusive atmosphere] then the secular academic and social life, that is, you come to a place like this. And here, firstly, the opportunities for doing the things you were doing in are the values compatible, and how can one Yeshiva are obviously far far far less. Firstly there divide one’s time so as to fulfil both one’s re- are so many other things to do. And also the appa- ligious requirements and one’s study program? ratus is not really there so much; there are relatively In other words, students’ sense of continuous very very few sort of orthodox religious Jews; and identity is challenged, and the question is how there are not so many books, and everybody is SO to maintain it beyond the rupture. They ad- busy, and sort of stressed whatever – not everyone dress the situational demands (meeting new people, satisfying study requirements). They 1 Transcription conventions: italics designate the inter- also question the “appropriateness” (from a viewer’s interventions; …indicates an interruption in religious perspective) of living in such a place, the person’s discourse; - - are pauses in the discourse; CAPITALS indicate an emphasis in the discourse; and hence need to address the issue of the [comments]areaddedbytheauthor. meaning of the rupture itself. 9

Resources for the transition into The questions is thus, given these constraints, can people use the knowledge they have at a new sphere of experience their disposal as symbolic resources, and if After such a rupture, people have to engage in so, what for? Here, three sorts of resources processes of transition. To achieve such tran- used by young people are examined: social re- sition, people have to define new conducts. sources; cognitive skills and specialised forms These externalisations will require a combi- of know-how and knowledge; and symbolic nation of previous forms of knowledge, pro- resources which might support the work of cesses of accommodation to the new situation, meaning-making of the situation. and uses of new environmental opportunities. What types of resources do these students find Social resources: recreating an to maintain their identity, to adapt to the new inclusive sphere of experience demands of the situation, and to confer mean- A first very important element in the religious ing to the gap? students’ life at university is the Jewish So- Our psychosocial perspective invites to ciety and its chaplain, the Rabbi. It allows focus not on purely individual traits, but rather the students to meet three or more times a on forms of knowledge or conducts that have day – for the prayers, for study in the morn- been acquired in other, previous social situa- ing (shiour), for Kosher lunches, and various tions, and internalised. However, knowledge is activities, learning and celebration in the eve- not context-free. Social psychology has high- ning. It allows the 15 very religious students lighted the extent to which social structures to recreate around them the type of structure organise the circulation, dissemination and that had been offered in Yeshiva (or in their transformation of symbolic devices. People homes) – although it is this time spread out in are located in some spheres of experience, time and space, since the students have to run within some societal contexts, and social and through town a few times a day, from the syna- interpersonal dynamics give them more or less gogue, to classes, to the Rabbi’s, to classes, access to cultural elements, and more or less etc. The Rabbi meets the students during most freedom in what they can do with them (Du- of these occasions with his wife and children. veen, 2000; Falmagne, 2003; Moscovici, 1997; He teaches to the religious students and also to Perret-Clermont, 2004). a wider group of academic and non-academic In the sphere of experience provided by or- Jews in town. Hence, a partial yeshiva-like thodox Yeshiva, it seems that Rabbis strongly sphere of experience is created and maintained encourage their students to stay in, and to be- by the Rabbi. come eminent Talmudists, rather than going back to the secular world, negatively evalu- Know-how: religious conducts ated. Also, the study of the texts is done for the as resources for identity sake of the study of the texts, not to address Religious elements can become resources for external, real-life issues (this is contradictory these young religious students. These support with the original purposes of many of these identity, and confer some skills. Students are texts, which was to provide guidance to new reflective about their uses of religious actions everyday situations). Altogether, the “warden” in that respect. of the religious sphere of experience thus (a) First, their general attitude toward learning render illegitimate students’ move to secular is constitutive of their identity and part of level life; (b) restrict the use of religious texts as 3 metarules: tools to address issues internal to the tradition. 10

Firstly, truly I am a religious Jew. And it is a Mitz- also know that accomplishing these practices vah to learn Torah, as much as possible. So that’s contributes to their psychological well-being why… that’s a main reason I want to learn. (Eli) (level 1 becomes diffuse as a result of the ap- The content of what I do is irrelevant. No. But it plication of level 4 commitments) (see Geertz, is less less relevant. – It is more the fact that I am doing, rather than WHAT I do. I mean… Ideally 1972; Valsiner, 2005): I try to understand what I am doing, and trying to I feel better; immediately afterwards, but also internalise that, I suppose, to the next time. So it generally if I put in on a more general pattern of is important in THAT sense. But I think it is more learning, I feel more steady, and more happy, and the fact that I am doing it – which IS important. more focused. (Eli) (Abraham) You said that studying Jewish texts is "meaning Second, their voluntary commitment in the of your day", can you explain that? If I wouldn’t study is part of who they are: study then I would feel kind of empty… Erm – I also think it is kind of… it is based on a) the fact By fixing certain times to learn, I think it shows that I feel it is important to do. I also think it is im- that you… it shows a certain amount of seriou… I portant to stay connected to… to Judaism, to God shows that you attach a certain amount of serious- essentially. Because studying His texts, or studying ness to… to it. Or of devotion as I said before. Jewish texts its what keeps you… it what connects Rather than just saying oh I have three hours… I’ll us. – So without this kind of… it would be a kind study a bit now. That it is something that is fixed, of statement, saying that I don’t care anymore, it is important, I think. (Abraham) which – would be quite a [failure] from my point of view. (Abraham) Third, they are aware of the identity-constitutive After the rupture, studying religious texts power of practices and activity (level 1): acquires a reconstructive value. Not only do students act in conformity with deeply interio- Essentially, Judaism is a very pragmatic religion. rised before the rupture; but also, they become I mean… you’ve got to do this in a certain time, you’ve got to do this in a certain time, you know, reflectively aware of the constitutive power of you’ve got to eat Matza then, you have to sit in these conducts. They know that level 3 rules the Succah then… I mean, It’s a religion of doing, are not only theoretical ideas; if they lead to it’s… it’s also a religion of enquiring, it is less a intentional study (level 2), and guide concrete religion of separation. It is also… as I said, it is a activities (level 1), they enable them to feel religion that’s alive, it is not dead on the page, it who they should be. They thus can be said to is not one of these necrophiliac religions. I mean, you’re sort of living it, doing it as well. (Eli) reconstruct on an internal plane the system that was previously externally supported (Vy- They also are aware that their identity is gotsky and Luria, 1994). highly linked to a group in space and time, The problem is, still, that these aspects of and that their practices are reaffirming their their life are defined within the field of reli- location within sociocultural and temporal gious activities, these are not formulated in a frames. Students insist on their place in a way that would encompass the confrontation tradition; they recognise the value of their with otherness. predecessors and of their Rabbis, and express their intention to carry on this knowledge and Know how: heuristics of thinking to transmit it – for example through teach- There are other ways through which the re- ing positions or as counsellors in summer ligious symbolic system offered bridging re- camps. sources: skills developed within the traditional As a result of their awareness of the re- learning might be transferred to secular stud- ligious means to achieve their identity, they ies. As is described in the literature on Jewish 11 learning and reported by the students, vari- of the question, discuss the question rather than discuss the book, as such. (laughs) I suppose that ous psychological operations are commonly is my background of Gemarrah. – - – I found out… involved in religious studies. First, specific I don’t know because of my nature or… I found modes of reasoning, dialogical and non-strictly out that I have quite a logical way of thinking, I logical – ways to question the question, to de- think, as well, to reason with idea, or to structure compose the problem in other problems, or to an argument. (Benny) change perspectives – are required. A second aspect of this study mentioned by the students It is a way to address and question, to structure is the root-seeking part, as in the study of et- an argument, point per point, and to organise ymology in the Houmash (the Pentateuch). reflection it in a particular dialogical manner. It The study of etymology of the words and also includes usually a worry for the etymology their interpretation makes salient one of the of terms. Hence, talking about a recent essay, principles of Judaism – as regulated as it is, Benny spontaneously mentions the etymologi- every one should find his own voice, or place cal issue: within the tradition. The third aspect of Jew- And if you are not careful, you know, if you are not ish study mentioned is the way it supposes careful with the etymology of the words, like you one’s personal and psychological engagement know, just now, I am discovering that the etymol- in the content; studying religious text is a way ogy of the “self” doesn’t mean the inner [but just to learn something about human beings, and the appearance] In English? Yes, this is what an to reflect upon oneself. Finally, a fourth par- author I’m reading on Shakespeare says. (Benny) ticularity of the study of Jewish texts is their proximity to actions; understanding a point, Talking about the content of the studies, the or respecting an argument, leads to “better assumption of the students seems to be that actions”. they must be meaningful – rather, there is a How can level 3 meta-rules organising Jew- particular epistemological attitude toward the ish studies, the intention in front of each text text, which reflect rules at level 3, and inten- (level 2) and specific skills and practices of tions facing a piece of text (level 2): it is not questioning a text (level 1) be organising one’s so much the text’s contents that matter, but action and thought in the field of secular stud- one’s active use of them and assumption that ies? Here, I will rely on students’ (guided) self- it will teach something. Dinah tries to describe reflections, and also make a few inferences on this epistemological attitude, of which she the basis of non-reflective discourse. became aware when confronted with secular This influences students’ ways of ap- students: prehending their secular studies in various But I suppose the way I always learned and, the ways. Here, it guides specific heuristics of way I have always having learned in religious set- thinking: ting, with people that had a religious approach, might change the way I am learning English. Be- Does the way you have learned to analyse Jewish cause I … because I come with an assumption that, texts influence the way you look at modern texts? that … I want as much as possible to get from it I think so… Certainly my approach t… to writing an understanding of other things, something else, essays is… Yes I do find that I – approach texts or to change my state of mind in a good way, or like I however would, say Gemarrah [Jewish law] help me learn how learn about things that people or something. Anyway, my supervisor often com- say. Judaism has that approach, that if you don’t ments that my approach is legalistic. Which is, understand, or you think it’s weird or it is rubbish, I guess, from my background. Because I tend to it must be that … (laughs) you don’t understand, look at the question, and then to define the points and it is far more clever than you are. And you 12

have to try harder. I am hoping that, I don’t know, We all should learn to function like the heart – be- that studying English, would … I mean, part of cause the heart, the way it works, is one third of the what I’d like to learn is to- – to listen to texts, but time physically pumping, and two third of the time I hope that it might help me somehow to listen to resting; so the way you should may be structure a people better. (Dinah) day, 8 hours your doing your work, 8 hours your due – for yourself, whatever it is, and 8 hours a day General religious orientations and commit- sleeping. So: you know, that has been a quite useful ment can thus shape one’s attitude toward model, that I try to integrate. (Abraham) texts within non-religious fields of experience, and shape specific practices – here, a form of The metaphor of the heart is used by Abraham transfer of skills. This extended religious epis- as a resource to reassemble the split parts of temological attitude (to accept the text without his life; the problem of being a religious Jew questioning its source or socio-historical loca- and a secular student becomes redefined as a tion) is quite different from the one developed problem of everyday time-management. in secular studies; the danger is that the stu- Eli, too, came around the issue of different dents will be negatively judged for this attitude values and worlds of experiences in an indi- by the institution. Additionally, Dinah appears rect way. When questioned about his literary to follow this logic of transposability: study- choices, he develops: ing Jewish texts changes her attitude to litera- Now, I was talking about this sort of… difficulty ture; but, ultimately, studying literature might somehow in getting a balance between all the as- change her attitude to the secular world. pects of life. The Glass Bead Game [by Herman Hesse]- basically, there is a sort of college on a hill, Traversing the gap: symbolic resources completely isolated from everything else, where the Can the religious resources confer meaning to people there are very involved in a sort of esoteric the rupture itself, and promote a life in a non- learning, which is difficult to understand what is Jewish context? As explained by the Rabbi, and what sort of impact it has on anything else, and then again on the outside world obviously. And Yeshiva masters do discourage people to leave there is one character in it, who is really firmly in to the secular life. In some sense, it might be one world, and he feels the tension between the one thought that this renders illegitimate any mo- world and the other world. And that, I mean I could bilisation of religious symbolic resources to really, I really read that, in terms of having been address secular issues. Also, although the Jew- to Yeshiva and coming to University, obviously ish tradition of interpretation potentially offers there weren’t exact parallels, but I could relate to that very strongly. Erm – and, I don’t think the powerful tools (the texts) and methods (herme- book actually helped resolve the conflict, the ac- neutic reasoning) to redefine meanings to any tual conflict, it didn’t really help, it sort of more… new situations, traditional orthodoxy seems it demonstrated the differences, I think – - but it to envisage only historical or Talmudic cases helped. It is nice to know that other people are for these hermeneutic explorations. Thus, the thinking the same things you are. (Eli) students seem not to mobilise by themselves the texts to address real events that affect them. In the Glass Bead Game, the main character Hence, to think their relationship to the secular is a brilliant student chosen to enter a remote world, they spontaneously mobilise external, school, where an obscure, but esoteric knowl- non-religious symbolic resources. edge is studied. The main character eventually Abraham explored self-help and psycholog- decides to return to the mundane world, and ical literature. Berne’s transactional analysis there is a long way for him to define both his was useful to address the issue of structuring place there and the status of his special knowl- time: edge. Similarities can be found between Eli’s 13 story and the novel: structurally (the return them acceptable from a religious perspective. story), semantically (being chosen to be the These discussions are quite striking, for the holder of a rare knowledge), and emotionally students get very involved – some at the level (anxiety, pride, loneliness) a strong resonance of the Talmudic texts, but quickly, drawing between life and text can be created. The text examples of their everyday situation – which might be invested, and provides Eli with its they are not supposed to do in traditional transformative structure. Hence, the text offers spheres of experience. a narrative line that links two split worlds. The One might thus say that the Rabbi tries to text appears as a symbolic resource used by Eli create a transitional structure between the Ye- to elaborate his experience of coming back. shiva and the secular world: a structure that acknowledges the richness and the rules of Using religious resources to think the gap the former, yet opens it to the latter; a space Yet the Jewish tradition is very rich, and it that does not judge what is right or wrong, and would provide with a very important reper- where consequences of actions are suspended. toire of potential resources. This is where the Finally, traditional cultural elements – texts action of the Rabbi as a mediator becomes and practices – appear to easily provide re- fundamental. In the Jewish Society examined sources for supporting identity and developing here, the Rabbi tries to create a social setting competences. However, the content of such of a good enough quality, where using Jewish elements cannot be easily used as symbolic texts as symbolic resources is legitimate to resource to confer meaning to new forms address secular issues. He exerts his mediation of life, as long as such uses have not been at various levels. First, he proposed to redefine legitimated. the confrontation with a secular world and the articulation of the “two worlds” as a positive Studying uses of symbolic experience, in a Jewish perspective (as the duty of being open to the world). He hence creates resources and their constraints the possibility of the “bridging” by entering at This paper has examined cultural change from the level of students’ meta-discourse. Second, the perspective of the person unwillingly mov- he studies texts in a traditional way – which ing from an inclusive sphere of experience to recreates the intellectual, social and emotional an open one. Based on the case of religious ambience of the Yeshiva – while addressing is- Jews coming back from Yeshiva, it has focused sues directly relevant to the problems students on the symbolic resources actually used by face. Here, the text is pushed slightly beyond people to support the required processes of his context of validity because the students are transitions – identity redefinition, skills and exposed to new forms of experience. Within knowledge learning, meaning making. this protected space, they experience the pos- The initial cultural element these young sibility of bridging their “yeshiva” type of people have access to, is Orthodox Judaism, activities, with their worries about pubs and which has been analysed as a complex hierar- parties. Third, he proposes meeting around a chical semiotic organisation. One could have secular topic, for which he proposes a selection expected that this system, offering sets of de- of short abstracts from a range of Talmudic duction rules, would facilitate the definition of texts; these are discussed in large assemblies actions in new fields of experience. It appears of religious and non-religious Jews. The rabbi that young people use religious symbolic re- thus seems to reformulate current issues in the sources to maintain identities and to develop terms of a traditional argument, which renders some skills; yet when it is about meaning 14 construction, they seem to use symbolic re- how people can engage in creative mobilisa- sources from outside of the religious symbolic tion of other symbolic resources available in system. their cultural environment. These resources Why can an inclusive religious system not then can become means to symbolically bridge be used as resource when a person is exposed otherwise exclusive spheres of experience. to a situation to which she has not been pre- Finally, through a case study, this paper pared within her religious environment? An has proposed conceptual tools for examining analysis in terms of social legitimation can how inclusive cultural systems could provide be proposed. On the one hand, our psycho- people with symbolic resources which they logical perspective assumes that people have can use when they face an imposed rupture. a particular and unique life story; their past The perspective proposed here can thus help us and current ruptures and spheres of experi- to reflect on the more general issue of cultural ences, and the significant others with whom translation in cases of migration, be it from they interact, mark and determine possible one country to another, or from one scientific uses of available symbolic resources. On the tradition to another. It proposes to examine other hand, a given sphere of experience – here the homeostasis between internalised symbolic the Yeshiva – defines the extension of validity systems and the one constituting a person’s of the rules it promotes; here it dismisses the sphere of experience, and supported by institu- “outside word”. More specifically, research tional, social and symbolic means. It suggests on learning indicates that it occurs in social, that, in order to overcome disjunctions, mean- interactive and emotional settings, structured ing making requires protected spaces, tolerat- by high level rules, which are concretised in ing ambiguity, double sense and plays with actions and thinking, and structure identi- codes, sometimes with the help of a legitimis- ties (Perret-Clermont, 2001; Perret-Clermont ing mediator. It finally indicates that, in such and Carugati, 2001; Pontecorvo and Pirchio, spaces, people might use symbolic resources 2000). These high-level rules become deeply facilitating such exploration, translation and part of people’s worldviews, and stay with distancing. them across contexts. In contrast, specific expertise (including knowledge and skills) is easily lost in new spheres of experience, when Acknowledgements a person is confronted with new problems, or I would like especially to thank the members when her identity is put at stake. Transfer of of the Jewish community who accepted to be knowledge hence requires the possibility to interviewed by me. The study reported here “bridge” spheres of experience. As seen above, has been supported by a European Marie Curie mediating adults can support that bridging Research Fellowship, a Corpus Christi Col- (Heath, 1996; Zittoun, 2004). Thus, if this lege Research Fellowship (Cambridge, UK), paper shows how people can find and use sym- and the Swiss National Research Foundation. bolic resources to support transitions, it has The paper has been enabled thanks to the kind also suggested that uses of symbolic resources hospitality and stimulations of the Department require dynamics of social acknowledgement. of Psychology at Clark University (MA); I fi- When these lack, then people cannot mobilise nally thank Alex Gillespie and an anonymous symbolic resources and expertise deeply at- reviewer for their useful advice. tached to a specific sphere of experience. Nevertheless, when such a symbolic system cannot be mobilised, we have also seen 15

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