Long post: I find myself today thinking about Rabbi Yitz Greenberg (what else is new?), and particularly the challenge he poses to me and to us all when it comes to seeing Gods presence in history. His very first published talk, given to a Yavneh convention in 1962, opens with an entertaining parable about everyone in the world failing to notice the presence of the Messiah in their midst--everyone except an old man in the Beit Midrash, euphoric that finally all his unanswerable questions will be answered. I fear that our generation is illustrating this story, Yitz said. We are living in messianic times, yet our motto seems to be business as usual. This was before 1967, before the messianic streak pervaded so much of religious Zionism. (bit.ly/1xCWvSK) One might have expected that Yitz would follow that path to its logical conclusion, and wind up somewhere near the worldview of Rabbi Meir Kahane--justifying violence on the basis of our witness to Gods presence in history. Yet Yitz emphatically rejected Kahanism and Kahane, famously debating him at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (video below, with youthful appearances by my teachers Rabbis Avi Weiss and Chaim Marder). In reflecting on the debate two decades later, Yitz wrote, Kahane tapped into the great truth of needing to learn from the Holocaust the lessons of Jewish particularism, self-interest and Jewish power. By pushing his insights far beyond their proper limits and by dismissing the dialectical truths of universalism, moral responsibility to the other and self-restraint, Kahane twisted the Holocaust into a force for abusing others. He underestimated the capacity of the Jewish people to endure frustration and suffering without losing its moral compass and its ability to persist with firm hope until it wins a true peace. This ethical steadfastness is apparent after 55 years of Israel living with intransigent Arab hostility. (forward/articles/7470/orthodo-x-men-on-screen-and-off/) I worry today that the scales are tipping, that, provoked by extremists among our enemies, the moderate voices in religious Zionism will give way to an unchecked messianism. I worry that Kahane may yet prevail, and that the dialectical humanism of my teacher, R Yitz, will lose. I hope, pray, and work to avoid these fears. Those of us who share them must do the same, and publicly speak up in the name of human life, moral responsibility, and our continued vision for a peaceful path to a redeemed future.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 15:02:34 +0000
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