I"
~ THE S& M SCENE Franz Rosenzweig and .. ~. Wechose each other in early history Reconsidered' .j & signed a covenant which bound us together eternally ' .. with Promethean torture chains.
For the past several years have been ~eaching :'a ·rf'll,I.:·I:r:,~p::·'!I'r After the rape of the honeymoon Modern Jewish thought . .As I approached the material"wltH.,:;r.mv,· he begat & begat & begat. students, we read both the original sources and some of the stclnalar~d!,.'.,i;::,:"/j critical essays on each of the thinkersstutJied. Each We wandered from place to. place. over the material my students were surprised by the In the cities-humiliation. accorded the work of Franz Rosenzweig.' and the severe In the villages-torment. directed tm,yard Martin Buber by Jewish critics. In the faraway Glmpsites-s~l\·agery. the relative importance of both men·, has reinforced '.
conviction that a reconsideration of the work of these twO +1-.', ..... 1/." .. " Our depraved desire was gratified quite appropriate at this time. In th isartic.le I will. by a cl(')set of whipcords & shackles. Rosenzweig's conception of the role of the Jewish people in is hopelessly and dangerously outdated and that I ignored the frantic warnings of neighbors: importance rests mainly on his personal stanc~ on return to Judaism. Furthermore, I will. contehd that in an "He'll cut too deep & kill yo 1I has experien~ed the collapse of normative structures ;(the, ~""~:+~: ';:.ll'I':;'~·, .. :,:;:···".::'.:';':':;:·i:;.;? or force you to turn the knife against him. ,family, the synagogue, and the school) or at ·I.east tHe Ca~t him off & take a gentle partner." irrele,vance of such structures, Martin Buber's much non-nomistic position on Jewish law demands ·"o''''l'\r'l('il~or·ati(jn'i''';:''':'·'''!''''::''i>.,·.: I savored those pleasureful pinpricks. Finally, I will. suggest that the debate between He adored my high-pitched screams. on Jewish law and, in reality, on the whole concept normative ex istence is being carried on today by two "o,.,"';"'·orv~" ,Each year we set an anniversary table younger Jewish community as they struggl~ with .. & tell the children about our wedding. Jewishness in' anage of moral anomie. We all stand up while an open door reveals a goblet of wine that is never emptied. ,. Buber, Rosenzweig, and American Jews Just after the death of Martin Suber a decade'agp, wrote a critical essay on "Martin Buber and the Jews."l Potok wrote of the bitter irony that the philosopher generation gap of the late sixti'es and rl)'ln moS); honored b y o~peoPles as an authentic representative of self-conscious Jewish com"munitybo;h on ~Jewishte9chings, is "today (March 1966) virtually incapable of cnu nter-culture have widened 'the gap betweerlnr~~~ti:~~;~:~~~;]~'~::~';i;;}\\\ entering .into dialogue with his own people."2 According to Potok, structures of Jewish traditiQn a:nd the life' P Buber'sworkwas regarded with great suspicion by orthodox Jews community. Furthermore, perha'ps th~,mostsigh . for its anomiariism, by Conservative and Reform Jews for the past decade has been the growing awareness of the, conS,E~Q{Jenl:ce~S:!~:Oit;:(} :mystical, non-rationalist bent of his thought, by Israelis for his the Holocaust for the American' Jewish'co~munity; cOlnse!ndp.rif~·E:f~:':::;)';;/'ii'2;.!r;;:{'!',i';'!;:";' \i, advocacy of a bi-national State and for his involvement with Ichud, wh ich threaten to further shatter the norms of the· 'CO'lrnl'11.ljrl,!i:t~Vi:::n:,ih'i:,""':,:i bysthol,ars of Judaism for the serious flaws within h is treatment of Theologically, this new consciousness has been seen in fhl~·,;,\:'Jnl~k,;LA·f::<;,:I.,·!t::ii:}"' Hasidism, by secularists for the religious focus of his thought, and by Elie' Wiesel, Richard Rubenstein, Emil Fack~n'heim .. many Jews for his Closeness to Jesus of Nazareth (as distinct from Berkovits. This concentration on the impact of the H()IOca:lust'i,ti,as';'::'f!iii{ . the Chri'stofGhristian faith). also been intensified by such political, developments In that same article on Buber, Potok spoke positively about the Jewish Defense League, the, rightward swing of the entire 'attraction of .Franz Rosenzweig. He said: "Those who are inclined Jewish community, and the genera I sense of Israel'~, 'l.njr.r~::I<:,~(j':·:::':l; . towardex.istentialism find they have more in common with Franz vulnerability. ' ' . Rosenzweig, who took a more positive stand on Jewish law"3 (than The changes in our 'life styles and the events of history they do with Martin Buber). Milton H immelfarb echoed Potok's substantively altered our estimation of the theologicat'signifkanceof estimation of Rosenzweig less than one year later in his introduction Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig. Let us first begin with the ·""""", .. ,:,:,:":·,:,,:..,',[,,,,,,:',:<}",I , to the Commentary Symposium, liThe Condition of Jewish Belief."4 who was regarded as "the most significant influence on the 'elJ!::JidClS:},. Hlmmelfarb described the enormous influence of Franz Rosenzweig, thought of North American Jewry," Franz R6senz~eig, The single greatest influence on the religious thought of North American Jewry , therefore is a German Jew-a layman not a Judaism versus Christianity? rabbi-who died before Hitler took power and who came to Judaism s During the past several years the work of Franz from the very portals of the Church. become accessible to the English-speaking world. The Hosenzweig described by both Himmelfarb and Potok was whetted our, appetite for Franz Rqsenzweig With a Rosenzweig not yet read by the American Jewish community but publication of Franz Rosenzweig: His Life, and. one eloquently and heroically described to us by his disciple and publication of the correspondence between Rosenzweig and, ~~~~F!'t;!::',·>"',::'.::.:":::F:;;'\:,,f, 'yOIiJt;lger colleague, Nahum Glatzer,6 while the Buber described by Rosen,stock-Huessy in 1969 as Judaism' Despite po'tokwas ,read by the Jewish community but not yet understood ·followed by the publication in 1971 of Rose,nzwEHg's sincethe'community had yet to experience the collapse of normative The Star of Redemption,8 more than satiated that appetite. , structures and the anomie of unstructured existence. these works expose the precariousness of: ~osenzweig asa thleOIOQiical':,;',"':":"""""";:i';,',ii:/';' The last decade has brought many changes to the American figure, limiting the contemporary influence'of his work f Jewish community. ,The consequences of some of these changes are doctrines on Jewish law. Rosenzweig's' corr.espond~nce easily discernible while the consequences of others are still unclear. Rosenstock-H uessy had lo'ng enjoyed an exalted' ~'I'p', Jl:a:uqrp~I';};';:;, .. :<:,2',:;:'}!: The Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War have increased our own Anyone who studies the life of Rosenzweig ,knows sense of interdependence with the fate of Israel while they have also RosenStock~Huessy had on him, reaching. its dim'ax in Roser&~l~i;j~~:j,/?::;i,,~:~,:)%;,\:;I;i;;1 ",renewed our sense of Jewish vulnerability and limited freedom, The ,. 1913 decision to enter the Church and if1 his rQC~Qr\,/~Til'\,n to:dcii;,Sc:i:i,y:>,;,:j/;;";"~UUi'i collapse of faith in the vision of America that resulted from the only as a Jew; a reservation which 'resulted ',experience coupled with the rapid changes in sexual rediscovery of Judaism and ' pr'actices. the deCline of the family, the rise in divorce rates, the , ~ ...
These letters ~ere heralded as a momentous dialogue The task of the "synagogue is to .remai'n and C~ianitywhich would promote a mutual gaze' .upon eternity, and~elinquishing the of the roles both faiths were to play in the redemption Christianity. The latter must' n,m . the risk'of ·dSd1:cimirli:iii'o"n::iiifj,V' ~ of~\.humanity. Upon closer examination of the correspondence, history in order to convert the heathens to the f', 3~tr~rp?9P!·.:;:8:Jf.i·~~8;~~!y.:(;:i:f·; through the sonsh ip of Ch rist. ". .' ~.owever, one carlnQt fail to notice' that the dialogue is not merely , .' ·.between a faithful Jew and believing Christian but rather between The synagogue which is immortal but standswithbroken ",.;"'·Ht ...... ·;;,t':.':.··:i::'·;:,,·,.:. two Jews; one who has. chosen to complete the final stage in the bound eyes, must renource all work in th'is worl'dand ...... :;";.+,,·... ~:lII· .•.. · her strength to preserv~ her life andkeep'herself u~tijinted process of assimil·ation by conversion, and the other who, when And so she le'aves the work in the world to the . forced.: to the brink of conversion and when faced with strong recognizes the church as the salvation for all heathens. in . lJarental opposition,l 0 chose reintegration into Judaism and a radical . The synagogue knows that what the works of its ritUal do qqnd~mncHion of assimilation. Despite th is condemnation and the works of love do for the world outside of Israel. despite the attractiveness of the form of Rosenzweig's major claims synagogue refuses to admit that the strength with which 'the performs her works of love is more than "divine," that this <"T .. '''"'''... .,··.···· concerning the relationship of Judaism and Christianity, Rosenzweig is in itself a power of God .. Herein the synagogue g~z~S . could not reject the Western Christian culture that had so attracted the future. And the church, with unbreakable staff and eyes him. It is my contention that Rosenzweig betrays his assimilationist the world, this champion certain of victory, atwaysfacesthe ~eritagein his uncritical adoption of Western and Christian cultural of having the vanquished draw up laws for her. Sent to· all. men, she . biases. must nevertheless not lose herself in what is common to .alln1en. The' form of Rosenzweig's discussion of Judaism and Her word is always to be "foolishness and astumbling block.,,13 .. Christianity. is terribly attractive to some in this ecumenical era. Without denying the uniqueness and the importance of Judaism, Rosenzweig's views are seriously flawed not only imperialistic biases and for transformation of an "is" situaitib'ni:i;",:-;;:/ Rosenzweig assigns to both Judaism and Christianity a necessary role ~heir in redemptive history and uncritically accepts them both. into an "ought" (the naturalistic fallacy) but above all for the Rosenzweig appears t6 fully and unambivalently accept his Judaism. and truncated existence to which they consign the Jewish ...... 'oJ ...... ; What is most objectionable in- Rosenzweig's 'positio'n "","(~);'~Zi;\:;/:j1;,\ He writes of the Jews: transformation of the real ity of the Jewish situation a. . . (1) that we have the truth, (2) that we are at the goal, and (3) that irit~ nelce~;sit·\I::;:,··'I;: any and every Jew feels in the depths of his soul that the Christian he transformed the "is" of Jewish existence into relationship to God, and so in a sense their religion is particularly Rosenzweig recommends that the Jew accept . _and extremely pitiful, poverty stricken, and ceremonious; namely, deems it necessary for the redemption of humanity .. ;~·:·that asa Christian one has to learn from someone else, whoever he ex i Ie, powerlessness, land lessness, isolation, and may be, to call God "our Father." To a Jew, that God is our Father are all considered necessary and indee'd Dr"t3ISE~Wlor1'hv is the first and most self-evident fact-that what need is there for a l third person between me and my Father in heaven. 1 liberate the Jew from his concerns w~th history and Yet, according to .Rosenzweig, the mediated relationship that service of God in eternity. (Rosenzweig used the term '.'an .... ,,·+ ...... ;..1··· ... "· :·.·:··:·.··.·: ... ··1,:;:,',: the Christian enjoys between himself and God is most necessary in o life which is in the deepest sense unethic'al"14\ln ·..... "fn .. ,,",,,,, ...... ,+~; order for Christianity to convert the heathens and put an end to socio-cultural situation of the ostjuden, and in· his C:6rre:sDlonldeI1.cE~):>:·'·· paganism. The Christian pursuit of power history and the Jewish with Rosenstock-Huessy he all too read ily conceded this aeIJra-Vlt'II'i.,:' .• "'.,· rejection of that history are both necessary for the salvation. without even adding a disparaging word about a n ...... n. The synagogue bows to this anguish of denying the world for the civilization.) The factuality of the Jewish 'situationls not c,O,n~i~jt~~e.}U~2:::'i: sake of the same ultimate hope that impels the Church to bow to the creation of human history and thus subject to ' the anguish of affirming. the world ... 12 Jewish people, but rather some d ivine~ master-plan in ".4
;' } as.. withe. sse~ to.. f te.·.rn. ity.while Christianity conquers the converts it. ~~zweig also refuses to ask the critical the truncated existence of the Je~, which must be asked if history is taken as some indication concede, as a way to remain 'untainted'. by the. seth.rt:t:k)ri bfthe Torah, and ~her Israel was invited to co-produce the content as it attempted or whether God created the Torah alone. Nevertheless, Buber is not so much opposed to.the attempt at bQ' jec:Ji'fie~~iJ:)Q"~j~;~JP~:~r' is a\.rvare of its dangers. Objectification runs '. common to all these theological positions is the conviction that the the between the person and God and erecting encouhter at Sinai was not a formless encounter but a transaction abarrier~'ii~i(m'~H~~~~i~:q:~tc~~,:l~{f~ between I.srael and God. for encounter. Rules, rituals, laws, and normativesth,Jcr~'~l~~~~~~~~~~~alrt:~l,i;; only provide us with false security and with guidelines us from the unpredictable, they also run' the ri·sk of hplr(ll'liir'in.';:id'ji'~":·;' The Buberian Risk an object wh ich we possess rather than a veh icle for encou.r.ller,";r.};;::i::i'::}i:"'<:::'.:!::,'i\:i;,: BUberstrongly dissents from th is transactiona I vISion of the . Form is a mixture of You and it too. In faith 'and'cult itcan fr'e,ezeii,::/{r "'),I.r~·::i;);2:' encounter at Sinai. For Buber, the encounter at Sinai was the I-You into an object; but from the gist of the relation thatsLirVives :in·, .\ encou:nter pa~ excellence in wh ich I srael encountered God's Presence turns ever again into presence. God is near to the forms .as I(')n'd' ~s:'!",';:·§?iU\<:;i':i!I' and sensed the reciprocity of relationship. The religious laws which man does not remove them from him ... Degeneratjon ofj-eJigi~~:~<:j::I:~!;i:I;\.;:':)'\':'I:ic.:,;,;\i;';:;':;:!"':j emerged in the wake of Sinai were not the commandments of God means the degeneration of prayer in them: the rel·.ational , .... ,... :.:,.,." .. '.'j.::,,:::.'i:.\:::... ,.'::':,:' ...,.:, . but were Mosaic 'translations of the people's experience.! 8 For them is buried more and more by objecthood: they find jt .ii·., .... ,' .• ".. " ...... ' more difficult to say You ... and eventually man must leave then: ,:,,,C' .j:1,::::'.;"':'.;,;".':,:1:;/:,<::);" Bub~r, . God's presence was revealed at Sinai rather than an false security for the risk of the infinite in· order to recover this' articulated law. Israel encountered God as Eternal You, the You who ability, going fro~ the community over whiGh one sees only th~ . .' ...... :'. "." .. ;,;, .. ", .. ".::.:'1',,"::,:, could not become it. Israel committed itself to the spiritual struggle vaulting dome of the temple and no longer the firmament' illtothe . 21 not to retreat from God but to stand ready to encounter Him. Yet, ultimate solitude. . as the Biblical tale describes so well, the people proved unequal to 1\ the task; Israel not merely retreated into the domain of it, but, For Buber the religious life is one of risk, one of paradox, ., frightened by the Presence of God, proceeded directly to idolatry in marked by essential and indissoluable antinomies, antinomies.w.bi¢h' . creating the it of a golden calf. The period of latency, the period can only be lived, "lived over again unpredictablv, withoutaulY ...... ,...... ,.. ::" .. :.,. when the. encounter has passed, is the period of danger, but for possibility of anticipation ancj prescription."22 Most of ·usrv.::·I.,.'.0;;", .. 1.,:: . .),., ...:: ....:.,:~~;.;;:::.:::.:::;.' Buber the human situation is lived between moments of actual ity from this life of relationship. We prefer th~ stable, the pred·.·._ ~~_· .. ·.v"·· .." .. and moments of latency. He writes: the controllable world of th ings to the frighten ing and exp Love itself cannot abide in a direct relation; it endures, but in the dimension of relatio.nship. For Buber the Sinai encounteri'fa " .... ·H.·iI'*.~\."., •.. :,:: .. i:".i" .. ::.:'.:. .I.c:,., alternation of actuality and latency. Every You in the world is ';compelled by its nature to become a thing for us or at least to enter -risk, a call to reencounter, a call to presence and a call to again and again"into thinghood. We can see clearly now why Buber's' work ea'rned him., ,""j:+,1-:1.".::.':;'.'0".:.':',: Only in one relationship, the all-embracing one, is even latency . popu larity with the representatives of normative·structures.and . actuality. Only one You never ceases, in accordance with its nature those who had yet to experience the collapse of normative _... - .... _.L.',:. ....;..;:, ... ..,.". to be You for us. To be sure, whoever knows God also knows God's which has been our experience in the past de~ade. Buber~s'ca\lJs:qQ'e:,::; remoteness and the agony of drought upon a frightened heart, but to the risk of lived actual"ity rather than -the 'ceftitl,Jde of; r"lfe'! ;cnllJJed. not the loss of presence. Only we are not always there.! 9 According'to Buber, Israel and God encountered one another at paths. Clearly, the philosopher who one decade ago ~as;consld""'".""I,.I.i·,:.,c.:,:.i':: .....:.;:.·:.·!F'?·' incapable of entering into dialogue with his people SinaL. I n the wake of that experience I srael retreated from the nowh~s rilljcfl:i:lfcj'::.·!;i:fi:}·:~}}ql<;.' say to our own spiritual situation, to our own life in unctlar,t·h;';i!~r-I':';:i,/:':\i:'."':;:' actuality of the encounter into a period of latency and tried to give content to an experience which was inherently contentless. Israel waters. strove to devise rules and dogmas which, according to Buber, were an III to make comprehensible the unconditional that the people Rosenzweig concurs with Buber that the 20 'o"'nt:>.. i~~nl·'arl within themselves. Israel gave the revelation its experience of I srael at S ina i ." It is a path which many of our generation ...... resp~n~that encounter took the form of Jaw. and which many of the non.orthodox: Rabbis "'rllhor;o+L<",I>:il.r,I/':It~.• ·.~·~'.~I~:~l(!:t:r disagrees with Suber over the boundary-line between not in theory. Stylistically, Rose~zweigleaves . human andwhatisdivine. For Rosenzweig this boundary-line which we can reenter the tradition and se'ective:'y aplptf):grj~y:lt:'~J~~:,;i bee/e.arly defined. The human response which took the form path for ourselves while theologically, he is I.aw can often become a vehicle for reencounter with the moment agreement VII ith Suber . . a~ which I~rael sensed itself commanded by God. LaIN must. again become commandment which seeks to be IV tr~msfwmed into deed at the very. moment it is heard. It must again The dialogue between Suber and RosEmzweig did . regairithe living reality in which all great periods have sensed the with their'deaths. I n the contemporary scene the r;~ligious ~SSIJ~~I:~nl~!::::':i,'.. i;i%·::;i!;~:;i,i:;i'·:i.: guarantee of its eternity? 3 . divided them have been revived. The resurgence of " . . . Wfthin his own. personal religious life, Rosenzweig sought to Jewish community both on campus and within rnl·... nltp.I:-~lil:flilrF!<;:.::::j. observe more and more of the halachah in order to sense for himself has led to a renewed struggle with' the norm~tive the sacredness of its,origin in the moment of command encountered traditional Judaism. To some- who come to Judaism . at Sinai. When,through the observance of a law, he reencountered its and to others who were raised in traditional hoines .most sa~red origin, he chose to continue its observance for he had encountered a challenging hete"rodoxy of .. 0 experien'ce,: personally exp.eriencedits commandedness. suggested by Rosenzweig is enormously attractive. . Inan essay entitled "Religious Authority and Mysticism"24 seen fit to criticize Rosenzweig's. thought for its rll.c ...... +.. rH implications, two aspects of his thought that he shares in (Y\lmhnnIA,·::i:::;:::··:,·:,':.ii;.:;;'·· ·Gersh~n. Scholem argues that the gap between the religious authorities and the mystic who is prone to trust his own experience with Martin Buber are still of substantial inte.rest; namely., more than traditional forms of authority is bridged by training (the emphasis on religious experience and his rejection of thepritiJafck:ie initiate mystic usually works under the guidance of a guru or a claim of the law to normative power even as diverse from . Rebbe),~y conceptual vocabulary (the mystic is usually a product of experience. . the community and hence his experience tends to be articulated in While Rosenzweig disciplined his religious life, to reengage, LI.I,~~::.!:.,.,::;;:,i't:;:j::~:."i .·thecommonly accepted language of the community even if he gives nomes of Jewish law, Buber more radically transcended' . that. language a ,radically new meaning), and finally by the religious particular forms of the Jewish religious life in search of an.e nC4JUll1:~,.f.":,, .., ..... experience of the mystic itself in which he recapitulates the original with God and an experiential base for his own religious exp:~~e?ce that inspired the tradition. Rosenzweig's own religious Rosenzweig and Buber challenged the normative. .' . :'!iiexperienc~ and the path that he chose for himself was designed to Judaism and therefore have been embraced by manyof;the ·.bridge the~gap between his own religious experience and the Jews. Most of the young Jews that I encounter o'n the!' . normative teachings of the halachic community. He sought within his many of my own contemporaries substantiyely . ~eligi:ous' life to reappropriate the moment of encounter and normative teachings of American Judaism: in personal transaction ,in which the people first sensed the binding quality of o socio-religious outlook. I ri terms of family .. models, . the ha lachah... ; sexual practices, and aesthetic - or spiritual Ros,enzweig's. attitude toward the law suggests a path for the experieQce a marked disparity between ourselves and re(ns(~o\,p.n of Judaism by one who returns to it' from the outside. Many of us have broken with Jewish traditio.~jn :one and see that the Lord is good, Happy is the man who cleaveth dimensions of our experience and find it· impossible to , -normative fold. For some this break has taken theJorm says the Psalmist. Rosenzweig suggests a process of o.f··.a,lt,erfl&tj~~i:''\,.::/X".:::::\';:.il{ experimentation, of coming into contact with the tradition sexual practices; homosexual, extra-marital pr premaritaL F~:rt~\!,~;~r"~!!;i,ii!)t:::;'~:~':!,:!i;';.I';; .·.e)(Pc:)sina o.neself to it and subjectively appropriating its sacred origin~ ,f;.' . ·traditionhascbme. witha.newunde'rstanding of one's multi-dimensional, multi-centered· heterodox df:":hJ6'~:~if;1;1t')?i\;'~M~fl::H qua man or w~n and with a break from the family most remarkable, though, isth~tthese Jews ,'0 dhsider::'a:Ytei~:Gtilo'i1:fp of .'Judaismincludingeither marriage or the re,sponsibilities :Y,'}i,V'iji.;;'i:~';f!b;atterrls the traditional boundaries not ~s a nioraltran a normative transgression'Tesu Iting from an. 'erltf:a:niS~R~',\;~rHOfN:;':,::a dimension which cannot be confined by tradition;.a..II:".I.n.,( )rnris:lw~1:,tl Norms, Modernity and Tradition an essential falsification of these norms and .a fun9am,ehtcillbr'eacl A conservative example of this n~:m-normative posture of many continuity. , ,. , committeeJ young Jews can be seen in the which Jewish Catalogue The peculiar dialectic between tradit,ion and.normles:sm!SS\VVrHCtX:1( has, en-joyed a remarkable popularity, I believe that Marshal Sklare in the editors of the Catalogue maintain has I;>eel) .exp .. d, ;·bivt"~~rtlj:i:Ji~:., his Gontr9versial review of the catalogue, most appropriately W~skow in his courageous articleonl'Sex~ M~~irriage;'th pul?lisQed in. Commentary, the most establishment of establishment and Halacha" which .appeared in the Havurahnewsletter'K."e., .. s,I.1 •... l•••.~.i~:~;.;/I.I~\'/a . journals, ,has. 'hit on the key to both the attractiveness of the report dealing with one of the communal, retreats,W ...... ', ...... •• ,.:: .. ,; . catalogue to the contemporary generation and to his own dissent out that serious questio ns, about sexual ethics were on,Jhe m,i.rids;bfx:)',:ii'i:i':.i.;':;\::t,.;:: I frOm, it (a dissent 'which many other Jews who still maintain an almost everyone. The normative practices of o:rthodo)(,.'J·:··I.U·.. id.l.a.... ,i.. ,S.,.i.h i.n,'),:/i;U?: (I.); .a"egiance to normative structures share). Sklare wrote: during the past three centuries is quiteexpl icit with regard t•..... <.:>., , .:'i: tSit·'e',::;'};,!yW; The attitude of the Catalog's editors to Jewish religious law or sexual teaching. The discussion which·Waskow documents revea . halac,hah is the first and most obvious case in point ... the editors widespread rejection of these no~ms among Jewish 'young.n. p..:,ntillp.:\ exempt themselves from the central feature of Jewish rei igious law-its' normativeness. According to Saravan and Siegel, "The Waskow notes that relatively easy~ agreement could be fo~~d . halacha is there to inform and set guidelines, to raise questions, to respect to the acceptance andencpuragement. of pr~~~na· ~""";':";"!;""'···.·i!·:,.: offer solutions, to provide inspiration-but not to dictate behavior." intercourse in a variety of circumstances but that thequestlp , In most areas of life discussed within the pages of the Catalog, homosexuality and especially the questions of,extra-marital r~I,"'... '.+. i""ri;~:':·>·:'!;;:'ii':'·.;,:· the relevant Jewish law is scrupulously reported where applicable, were extremely perplexing. The general acceptanceof~. but the dominant stress quickly shifts to the experiential side of the relationships already indicates a rejection .. of.. normQ~lVe:;j ..; .. :.·,,; ..•.. < ,; ..•• ,.'.:.... , subject in question, the side connected with issues of personal style, of taste, and aesthetic pleasure. (italics mine)2 5 teaching, but the further discussion of both homose~uallty: extra-marital relations indicates that the familial restrictlons:·V'!:!~:;.~rp;.;.;;;;n;·;:::,}'; Sklare goes on to suggest that the ed itors of the 'Catalogue viewed the trad ition have been breached. Waskow reports: ".' ...... It:,: •. ; '.' halachah as a life aesthetic rather than as dictating normative The workshop on sex in marriage and on extra-marital sex,gE!nera;IIYj)':;;?:/, .. ' .religiQus practice. Though the sources of this position are traced back agreed that marriage as presently understood is not w~rking:(fo~:/,:" ,by Sklare to their sociological origins in the Ramah experience and social psychological or spiritual wen,being) in most .of American , . 26 '. the inherent conflict in the praxis (if not the theory) of Conservative and American Jewish society. Judaism, the real source for this position is theological and is reflected in· both the positions of Buber and Rosenzweig and echoed This remarkable' and important con¢lusion~eerps,: ip:i·\~;g';;/':',.~~'§il;!ii: in the suggestion of Mordecai Kaplan that tradition be given a voice substantiated by almost all of the recent stati'stics, q~.div:? rather .. tha'n a vo!e. separation, and by the large number of marital coLJnselhngsi.t L1a1:iollS/i/:,+},j!/J;:, The Jews addressed by the Catalogue are Jews seeking a which many Jewish professionals encounter., Waskow : . with tradition but who are unwilling to submit to it search for models within the Jewish tradition bywhichto,·"np;;tt( .•. ·['J''I'''' either because. of the,ir experience as strangers to the , - the new normative structure for a "new halachah.". He(~.is;co1~e.t,s no retreat from the abyss, from the void. ..< ..' The Pathlessness of Unstructured Encounter Footnotes .. , .. . •. .. ~ .' would suggest that the initial reluctance of the Havurah 1, Chaim Potok, "Martin Buber and the Jew" in Commentary,. Vol. 41,' NO.: 3 . movement to discuss sex (a reluctance clearly visible with its absence 1966), pp._43-49. Martin Buber died in June of 1965. . ~ from the Catalogue) is rooted in its unwillingness to face its 2. Ibid., p. 49. i 3. Ibid. . 'sh B r f'" C mentaryVdrl42 .·ra: n:· \.it.,,:':··::",i.'A'i movement from the Rosenzweigian to the Buberian position, in its 4. Milton Himmelfarb, ed., "The Condition of Jewl e Ie .In pm .... ;.~ .. '. unwillingness both stylistically and as a movement to confront the 2 (August 1966). pp. 71-160. . ..' 'i'fi.:,'.:.,:.;,:,".'.:';:';;'.':"!'!; 5. Ibid., p. 72. T"h . h (N ·Yo k' Schocken n[)llK.",·.', .... ··,·":."',, ..... pathlessness of unstructur-ed encounter. I contend that the values 6. Nahum Glatzer, Franz Rosenzweig: His Life and" oug t ew. r...... ~:. which inform the Havurah movement are Buberian. The emphasis on 1953). . C' .. '· .. ·t· .. (The· U ... ".' 7. Eugen Rosenstock-Huessv, ed., Judaism Despite . "n$tlam r,: . .. ,.':' ...... religious e~perience, the heterodoxy of approaches to that Alabama Press, 1969). .. . . h" d.W' Ii,., .experience, the commitment to encounter, and the retreat from the 8. Franz R osenzwelg,'7ihe Star 0 f R. edemption.', (New. York. 'W:. Holt, HRme n art an..') .. ". .1. i.... ' 1971), tran~lated from the second edition of 19,30 by WIlliam. . . a ,~.~ .. :. ... ···i"b'i:ii~ ·~Dili!:'i::i:',:it:!':'t; world of things into the domain of the interpersonal, all reflect the 9 For an accessment of the dialogue see the mtroductory essays m ,inher-ently Buberian orientation of the operative values of the . Christianity by Harold Stahmer, Alexander Altmann.and Doroth,v E·""p··s"'~rLci'h.. ;)t'~·ln··~I~!i(~a.I.11'1:\::.;<:: .. i'£! 10 B th Arthur A. Cohen and Richard L. Rubenstein have wrrtu:n ..' havurOf:"Nonetheless,"Waskow and the movement as a whole resist . 6~ented essays which probe the conflicting influences a~ warm.R ose,~nZ\.",ei!!I.;:'~hile)'i< In the firialstag~ of Buber's teaching which presupposes the collapse Cohen emphasizes the influence of Franz RosEmzweig'sf~ther, RubenstEl diml3l"l~,i()ns:';;,:.,:i;:::i{, influence of his mother. Both essays are inst.ructive ~nd both reve~1 .... ·-'·A,.,.;;';"''';''::'',,,,,,,.,:,;,,,,:;,,.::,::,'''.:':':i:::::;'', •.. 6 and the real inadequacy of normative structures. of Rosenzweig's experience. At the same. time thelr.appearance i ... ' ...... i.' . Buber knew· that the dynamics of encounter were unstructured, makes us acutely aware of both the promise and them;ks of .. n,' .. , , ~~;~·i·~"i::'j:·ri Ii' I, ;/i~~'i;".:.:U/)!i.;I)j:; Arthur A. Cohen, "Franz Rosenzweig's The Stpr of Repemptl?n. ft;nJ< ...... •... unpredictable,uncohtrollable, arld risky. He knew that our instinct Psychological Origins," Midstream, Vol. XVIII No. . .2 (February.1~?2), an~.,nIlWI.I"I.~."'''''·'.;'''':·::·.''''··:.;'JI, ..i.'' to retreat from tliefluidity of encounter into the set and Rubenstein, "On Death in Life: Reflections on Franz RO!jenzwelg, .$~Undl"!!S'i'I'·' .i'.;,.>j/i,;:}i0;j;,;::i.J:,il';:i{' world of things and structures, yet he also knew that the No.2 (Summer 1972), 11 Judaism Despite Christianity, p. 113.. (1 .. ... Ehlrenlb.eh~'~r..<,8:.r/.:·I<\ ·\·/"··,·.;';',r.::>~I· moments of life, the moments at which we were most present, 12: Glatzer, Op.Cit., p. 342. (EXcerpt from a letter written to. Rudolph '. actual, were the moments at which structures were 13 Ibid., pp. 342-343...... '.." f··· ..' 135~1.3~I.ijc,t:qlhe::. 14: Judaism Despite Christianity I p. 136. In ~h~ entire dlsc~ssl~n rqll'l PPo··is·e:n·; zV\le!i!;l;.'::,/:'~i><' constraints were overcome, and the radical sense of disparaging wprd about the dominantChnstlan culture IS "olced~y ~s·;'()ul.~':lrepri.n1ted.l.in::!;:' •... '.• ::n:i;r freedom. and hu~an committedness were strongly 15. For example see Martin Suber's essay, ':TwoFoci of the JeWish Martin Buber, Israel arid the World (.New York: Schocken Books~1941:mpp~ ~~8':41.an~ .. especially pp. 28-29.