Tuesday Study With The Clergy

Governments Just and Unjust in the Sources of Our Tradition
March 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, and April 7th at 6:30 pm
with Rabbi Emeritus Frederick L. Wenger

Rabbi Wenger Wonders… if he can engage in some shameless advertising: You know I had to postpone my Yom Kippur and November discussions. That was a blessing in disguise because I’ve had five months tor rethink them. Here are my most recent reflections:

Akiba Ernst Simon (1899–1988), Jewish philosopher and educator, joined Martin Buber in his relentless struggle for Arab-Jewish understanding. Simon settled in Palestine in 1928 as a teacher and co-director of secondary schools. In 1934, he accepted Buber's call to initiate programs of teachers' training and adult education for Jews under Nazi rule. That effort was short lived, of course.

Simon called his philosophy religious humanism. He believed we Jews must give the Arabs equal economic rights in Palestine/Israel and accept Arab nationalism as valid. He recognized Arabs’ fear of Jews. He held up the ideal of a bi-national state shared equally between Jews and Palestinians. Though this ideal is a chimera, one quote from Simon resonates for Jews, Israeli’s, and for all humanity. Robert Alter, Bible translator and literary critic, shared this translation:

The remarkable power of the survival of Judaism is rooted in the no it knew how to say to every call of redemption that does not fit the image of true redemption. Through the strength of this negation, the people of Israel remained the people of redemption and preserved the hope of redemption in the world which remained unredeemed. The zealous guarding this criterion is a prerequisite for the continual advance of the people of Israel.

Professor Simon is right. I’ve come to realize that no political or social ideology by itself will bring about an ideal world, a world of new hope, a world of Jewish redemption. All our past visions have led us to the end of all ideologies: Democracy (of any party), capitalism, socialism, communism, Zionism, or whatever—all have led us to dead ends.

These options remain: We fight or crawl towards the best possible choice for a broken world or withdraw into nihilism, not choosing at all. The first leads us by imperfect steps towards a better life. The second toward surrender to apocalypse or worse. Judaism, however, teaches us to keep the vision of genuine redemption always before us. We are to reject any idealistic rhetoric promising pie in the sky. We must rather learn from Amos, Rabbi Akiba, Maimonides or Herzl who held up their visions of justice in a world just as unjust as this one. They didn’t lay a single road before us. But all believed that hard times require a Jewish perspective God has unfinished business for us Jews. For us, hope is a duty. That’s why, when all the previous world civilizations have fallen, we’re still here.

What will we do with our choices? Does Jewish history and its sources have anything to teach us? Please join me in our Tuesday discussions this March. Our general theme is: Governments Just And Unjust In The Sources Of Our Tradition. Readings and Discussion for Us 21st Century Jews.

Here are the topics:
I. Governments in the Five Books of Moses, March 3
II. Governments During the Days of the Prophets and Writings, March 10
III.Governments in the Time of the Maccabees and the Romans, March 17
IV. Governance During the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment, March 24
No meeting on March 31 - it’s my birthday
V. Jews and Governments After the Holocaust and Today, April 7

See all Tuesday with the Study offerings and register.

L’hitraot/See you then
Rabbi Fred Wenger