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Traditional
Congregation Phone: (314)576-5230 Fax: (314)576-1162 Rabbi Seth D Gordon |
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Articles by Rabbi Gordon: September 2007 |
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September 2007 Rosh Hashanah 5768 The new year of 5768 has begun, Rosh HaShanah marked, observed, and celebrated, and at Traditional Congregation we begin anew. In some ways, the first two and a half months since I arrived in July has been a warm-up for 5768. I had a chance to speak with many of you from New York, and once in St Louis, have met many of you at services, and have worked with a number of you in committee meetings planning for the upcoming year and years ahead. By the time you receive this newsletter, I hope we have spent an excellent Sukkot together as well. It has been a good few months. We now turn our attention to this New Year. My primary role, as I see it, is as a teacher. Whether through formal classes, divrei Torah on Shabbat, brief lessons at minyanim, informal learning of all kinds, and newsletter articles like these, teaching is primary. But what type of Jewish life do I represent? I whole-heartedly subscribe to the UTJ motto – “Genuine faith with intellectual integrity.” This concise phrase encapsulates my approach to Jewish life. “Genuine faith” -- Faith in God through Torah and Mitzvot is a sine qua non – it is primary and non-negotiable. It is for me the first measure of authenticity. “Intellectual integrity” -- My approach, as is the UTJ’s, is rational, rather than mystical. We embrace modern scholarship –from the hard sciences to social sciences, including historical and legal disciplines. We do not casually dismiss modern university studies when they appear to conflict with Torah as alien intrusions; rather we engage them, learn from the questions they ask and challenges they pose, and employ them to better understand our Torah and Mitzvot. For this reason, there is one towering Jewish teacher to whom I will most often refer – the Rambam (Mainmonides). That I revere the Rambam, am inclined to his teachings and approach, and will cite him often, should not be confused with deifying him. If I were convinced that his legal ruling or philosophical teaching is unconvincing, I would differ with him, though reluctantly and cautiously. The model of the relationship of a humble student to a great scholar is expressed in both Jewish and Greek sources: We are dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. I am awed by giants, but I am, as they were, first responsible to God. We do not deify humans, nor do we give allegiance to a particular person – yet, we respect and sometimes revere the best teachers, we listen and reflect to render our best considered understanding of the law as an expression of God’s will. My reverence for the Rambam is primarily a consequence of five elements: (1) his fidelity to the law from the Talmud, (2) his rational approach to Torah, (3) his love of God, (3) his service to humanity, (5) and his great, uncommon intellect. Let me begin with this last quality. After Moshe’s (Moses) death, the Torah leaves us with this tribute – “Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moshe, whom the Lord singled out, face-to-face.” (Devarim 34:10) The Rambam’s name was also Moshe – Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (RaMBaM is an acronym). R Moshe’s greatness was so recognized that a popular saying emerged – “From Moshe (Moses) to Moshe (Rambam) there was never a greater Moshe.” Menachem Kellner, in his 2006 work, Maimonides’ Confrontation With Mysticism, put it this way: “In terms of his contribution to the Jewish tradition, Maimonides may be fairly characterized as one of the most influential Jews who ever lived … Aside from Moses and Rabbi Judah the Prince, it is hard to think of any individual whose career had such a dramatic influence on the history of Judaism as a body of laws and traditions … As a philosopher, … Maimonides has been influential in all generations and in all circles.” Kellner thinks the popular statement that I (and he) mentioned above, may be a humble understatement. The Rambam was faithful to Talmudic law, that is, the legal decisions that preceded him by hundreds of years and which themselves may go back thousands of years. There are occasions when his rulings cannot be found in the versions of Talmud that we have, or that his decision seems to be different, or when he adds his own decision, and they are discussed and debated among scholars. But he is remarkably faithful to Talmudic law, and when we apply the same analysis to others, his rulings show far fewer deviations. His labor was monumental. So that we would have direct access to halachah, the Rambam organized the thousands of pages of dense Talmudic law and discussions into 14 volumes, called the Mishneh Torah. He wrote clearly, logically, and orderly. Years before he had written a book detailing his enumeration of the 613 Mitzvot, in a philosophical order, with a brief explanation of each mitzvah. His enumeration of the 613 Mitzvot was later the basis of Sefer Ha-Chinuch, where a fuller explanation of the Mitzvot was presented (though in order as they appear in the Torah). Finally the Rambam was rational. Torah and Mitzvot are explained intellectually to the educated Jew and the educated non-Jew. In fact, the Rambam, as Kellner (and others) teach (note the title of Kellner’s book), was a vigorous opponent of mysticism. In his later years, the Rambam wrote “A Guide to the Perplexed,” a philosophical work designed to harmonize Jewish teaching and Greek (mostly Aristotle) philosophy for the so-inclined Jew and non-Jew. Finally, I offer a brief bio of the Rambam (1135-1204). He was forced to leave Spain around his Bar Mitzvah age due to the change in Moslem rule, which turned from a relatively benign Moslem setting to a harsh and intolerant one ushered in by the radical Moslem rulers known as the Almohades. After an arduous journey, he first came to Israel but then settled in Fustat (Old Cairo), Egypt. His life became even more difficult when his brother, a trader who supported his studies, tragically perished at sea. The Rambam became the primary physician for the Sultan in Egypt and his court. He recounted his own productive daily and weekly routine: he worked at the court during the day, studied and wrote during the night, and on Shabbat afternoon he would serve his community, listening for hours to their questions and offering answers and advice. The Rambam served God and helped man as a physician, scholar, and rabbi to his local and, in some cases, distant communities. It is unimaginable that we would not attentively listen (I do not mean blindly obey) to the voice of this great human, faithful servant, and prolific scholar of extraordinary intellect. I believe we live in an age when a faithful, intelligent, and rational Torah is desperately needed. I am among a number of other modern orthodox rabbis and Jewish scholars, who regard ourselves as philosophical disciples of the Rambam because we too believe in a faithful, intelligent, and rational approach to Torah and Mitzvot and God. I believe that he too would wholeheartedly endorse: “Genuine faith with intellectual integrity.”
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