{ Visions of an Old-New

Ritual,Renewal, and Visions of an Prophecy Old-New { Age Among the numerous fine points of Jewish Law and ritual debated by the rabbis of antiquity was the question of public fasting. According to a text known as Megillat Ta’anit, there were thirty-five joyous historical occasions upon whose dates authorities could not ordain a one-time fast, in such cases as drought or other public calamity. Such festive dates ranged from the eight days of Hanukkah, beginning on the 25th of Kislev, to the 7th of that same month, which marked the death of Herod, master builder of the Second Temple but an insufferable despot nonetheless. { By JONATHAN GARB 42 | Vol. 1 Spring 2008 Ritual, Renewal and Prophecy /// Visions of an Old-New Age n the Babylonian Talmud (Tractate In other words, Hanukkah’s unique and Rosh Hashanah 18b), a tale is told of lasting status stems from the historical and I the residents of Lod who proclaimed sociological fact of its uniform acceptance by a fast on Hanukkah, thus abrogating the ritually observant Jewish community. Megillat Ta’anit. Two prominent rabbis, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua, promptly cancelled the fast, and went so far as to The excessive emphasis on order the fasters to fast on another day in nationalistic and militaristic order to atone for violating the festivity of Hanukkah! Whereupon Rabbi Kahana discourse at the expense of a seeks to generalize from their intervention, more traditional Jewish ethos, and preserve the festive nature of all the designated dates commemorating which is far more globally and events of salvation or relief, concluding intellectually oriented, has that one cannot ordain a fast on any of these days. But Rabbi Yosef disagrees, exacted a heavy price within arguing that “Hanukkah differs, because a Israeli society commandment is involved.” Thus Hanukkah’s special status stems not from the historical event involved, Such unity was normative in Rashi’s day but rather from the ceremony of lighting - but what about our own time, when “all of candles - the commemorative ritual itself. Israel” are far too fragmented to concur on Even if Megillat Ta’anit were overruled in the observance of the laws of the Torah, let other cases, Hanukkah, in Rabbi Yosef’s alone later ritual practices? Many Jews, of view, should remain sacrosanct. At course, live according to the Shulhan Arukh, which point the Talmudic sage Abbayeh the famous code of law authored by Rabbi retorts: “Let Hanukkah and its mitzvah be Yosef Karo, which achieved widespread annulled!” - a rather stunning response, acceptance in the Jewish world in the 16th even hinting at irreverence toward rabbinic century. Much as we may sympathize with law. But Rabbi Yosef has the final word: this loyalty to the past, we must today also “Hanukkah differs, because its miracles consider alternatives that accommodate the were made famous.” spiritual and practical reality of millions of In the event, over the centuries, many Jews who do not live by any strict code of of those thirty-five happy days of Megillat Jewish law. Ta’anit were trumped by tragedy time and Ecclesiastes teaches, “Do not say that the again, and public fasting was declared. earlier days were better than these.” And Mere historical memory carried no legal in the Midrash Kohelet Rabbah, our sages weight, and yet Hanukkah, as Rabbi Yosef interpreted those wise words as follows: had insisted, was considered immune. “Let the generation coming be in your eyes In the Middle Ages, commenting on this as the generation that has passed, so that intricate Talmudic debate, Rashi spoke of you should not say: ‘If Rabbi Akiva was alive the promulgation of the Hanukkah miracle then I would read before him, if Rabbi Z’eira by means of candle-lighting: “It is already and Rabbi Yohanan were alive I would study known to all of Israel, by their observance before them’; but the generation of your of its mitzvot as their custom, and they time, and the sages of your time should be have upheld it like the festivals of the Torah, like that of the generation that has passed and it would not be correct to annul it.” and the first sages that were before you.” HAVRUTA | 43 The notion of prophecy gives be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation. This is the room to individual religious mistake of people who are attached to past intuition, while maintaining, generations. They have no understanding of this point. On the other hand, people who indeed reinforcing, social only know the disposition of the present day awareness and dislike the ways of the past are too lax.” Indeed, this very need to move beyond nostalgia for the hallowed past, and to Or as the Japanese Samurai classic of address the fragmented modern (and post- mental and spiritual training, the 17th modern) situation, motivates the response century Hagakure, puts it: “It is said that offered by various present-oriented what is called ‘the spirit of an age’ is approaches, which seek to adapt Jewish something to which one cannot return . ritual and Jewish spirituality to the needs For this reason, although one would like to of the present. We should not, by the way, change today’s world back to the spirit of assume that this is much truer of the non- one hundred years or more ago, it cannot Orthodox movements than of the Orthodox 44 | Vol. 1 Spring 2008 Ritual, Renewal and Prophecy /// Visions of an Old-New Age world. All Jews, in today’s world, are facing of today’s cultural elites. this challenge with mixed success. Let us Whatever the undeniable achievements take a closer look. of Zionism in terms of the well-being and Chaikhana, teahouse /// Krasnaïa Sloboda, morale of the Jewish People, I for one am Kuba, Azerbaijan, uncomfortable with the widespread view USSR, 1990 of Zionism as a source of spiritual renewal. Three Flawed Remedies Such a position, of course, was famously Contemporary Zionism, both “religious” espoused by the religious philosophers and “secular,” has sought to adapt Judaism Rabbi Avraham Isaac Kook, Chief Rabbi of into a nationalistic set of practices. Thus Palestine during the British Mandate, and Israel Independence Day, Yom Ha’atzma’ut, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, the dominant is not only a civil holiday but a religious one, voice of American Modern Orthodoxy on which many traditional Jews recite the in the 20th century. And yet, these days, Hallel prayer during morning services. Some the spiritual and moral flaws of Zionism Jews, however, consider this approach to be are becoming increasingly apparent. The overly ethnocentric and increasingly out of excessive emphasis on nationalistic and step with the more globalized environment militaristic discourse at the expense of a HAVRUTA | 45 I do not wish to belittle the popular techniques and fast cures offered by the “New Age” are usually variants on this genuine spiritual yearning consumption-oriented pursuit. that motivates many In the context of ritual, the lures of the “New Age” and its discourse of individual ‘New Age’ seekers, but we and eclectic “spirituality” make it very cannot ignore the cynical difficult for its adherents to commit to any specific tradition, to any difficult path, or to manipulation of any concrete ritual observance. Again, I do their spiritual thirst by not wish to belittle the genuine spiritual yearning that motivates many “New Age” endless gurus, public- seekers, but we cannot ignore the cynical relations experts and manipulation of their spiritual thirst by flat out charlatans. endless gurus, public-relations experts and flat-out charlatans. Furthermore, one should heed the cautions of many authentic more traditional Jewish ethos, which is far mystical teachers, of the East and the West, more globally and intellectually oriented, who have warned against “the spiritual has exacted a heavy price within Israeli materialism” entailed in the search for fast, society. In the area of ritual, the negative easy and common answers. approach on the part of the religious Finally, we have Jewish feminism, which Zionist establishment toward the customs seeks to adapt many details of ritual to and practices of the communities of the the demands of the dominant egalitarian Diaspora has impoverished Jewish practice, ideology. This is mainly a Western- and undermined Jewish unity. Ashkenazi development, which fully Another more recent development participates in the ideology of individual is the “New Age” phenomenon. In our self-fulfillment. As the Austrian social communities, this is represented by the critic Ivan Illich has shown, feminism, “Jewish Renewal” movement, which for all the benefits it has brought with it, attempts to adapt Jewish life to a globalized is ultimately an expression of the era of “spirituality,” which blends Eastern, the “homo economicus,” which interprets Western, traditional and contemporary the concept of equality in terms of sources in a spectacularly eclectic mixture. individual “advancement,” primarily of As several sociologists have noted, the an economic nature. Without entering underlying forces behind this ever-growing into thorny theoretical issues, I think it movement are late capitalism, and its close may be safely said that this interpretation ally, post-Freudian psychology. fairly characterizes the liberal feminist According to many social theorists, mainstream (or at least the way it is late modernity and post-modernity have construed in the popular mind). created a “consuming subject,” an individual A more sympathetic reading is that who pursues personal satisfaction in an feminism is an attempt to alleviate the increasingly alienating and disenchanted profound dehumanization of women in the world via the consumption of the very alienated capitalist world that was built on technology that, ironically, accelerates the the ruins of traditional structures which, rootlessness of his or her “empty self” by though often misogynistic and oppressive, the destruction of nature and the erosion did afford a modicum of social support and of social bonds and commitments.

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