Shiur Theatre: Religious Coercion: A Modern Defense of Rachel

This Shabbos, Gd-willing, our Beit Midrash will present a new installation of Shiur Theatre during our "Matriarchs" Shabbaton.

We'll look at the story of Rachel and Lavan's terafim (working with the standard understanding that terafim were a form of humanoid idol), and attempt to offer a modern version of the story, and a defense of Rachel's attempt to dictate her father's religious practice.

Here is the source sheet I expect to distribute after the presentation:

Act Two: Does Halachah Require Coercion?

1.         Sefer haChinuch 239

להוכיח אחד מישראל שאינו מתנהג כשורה, בין בדברים שבין אדם לחבירו או בין אדם למקום

To instruct a Jew who does not act properly, whether in a relationship with others or in a relationship with Gd…

2.         Rabbi Yaakov Kanievsky, Kehillot Yaakov 10:54

ואמאי אסור לשנאותו? ונראה דלא מיירי ברשע ממש שחוטא חטאים מפורסמים, אלא שאינו נוהג כל כך כהוגן הראוי לפי ערכו...

Why is hating him prohibited [per Erchin 16b]? Apparently, this is not a wicked person who sins publicly; it is someone who does not act entirely properly, based upon his level…

3.         Rabbi Bentzion Uziel, Mishpetei Uziel 4:3:1

חיוב התוכחה, לבד מצות עשה שבה עוד מתחייב בבטולה בעבירה על לא תעשה דלא תעמוד על דם רעך, ובעשה דוהשבותו לו לרבות אבדת גופו וכל שכן הצלה מן העברה שיש בה אבידת הגוף והנפש

The obligation of rebuke, aside from its active mitzvah, also involves a transgression in its failure: You shall not stand by the blood of your brother. It also involves the mitzvah of ‘You shall restore it to him,’ which includes loss of his body and certainly, in saving a person from sinning, loss of his body and spirit.

4.         Talmud, Shevuot 39a-b

כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה...

All Jews are guarantors for each other…

5.         Nachmanides to Vayikra 19:17

"הוכח תוכיח את עמיתך" - מצוה אחרת, ללמדו תוכחת מוסר, "ולא תשא עליו חטא" שיהיה עליך אשם כאשר יחטא ולא הוכחת אותו.

"Instruct your peer" – This is another mitzvah, to teach him ethical instruction, "and you shall not bear sin for him," for should he sin and should you fail to rebuke him, you would bear guilt.

6.         Pirkei Avot 2:4

ואל תדין את חבירך עד שתגיע למקומו

And do not judge another until you reach his place.

7.         Tosafot Avodah Zarah 26b ולא

אף על פי שסתם כנענים עובדי כוכבים ומזלות הם ועוברין על שבע מצות מכל מקום אין מורידין

Although normal Canaanites are idolatrous, and they violate their seven commandments, still, we do not punish them.

8.         Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Melachim 8:10

מי שלא רצה אין כופין אותו לקבל תורה ומצות, וכן צוה משה רבינו מפי הגבורה לכוף את כל באי העולם לקבל מצות שנצטוו בני נח...

We do not compel someone to accept Torah and mitzvot if he does not wish to do so, and so Moshe instructed, in the name of Gd, to compel all who enter the world [only] to accept the mitzvot commanded to Noachides…

9.         Talmud, Eruvin 63a

כל מקום שיש בו חילול ד' אין חולקין כבוד לרב

In a matter involving desecration of Gd’s Name, we do not show honour to the great.

Act Three: Is a Coerced Religious Act Worthwhile?

10.      Rabbi Meir Simchah of Dvinsk, Or Sameach to Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Divorce 2:20

זה שהוא רוצה להיות מישראל, ורוצה הוא לעשות כל המצות ולהתרחק מן העבירות יצרו הוא שתקפו, וכיון שהוכה עד שתשש יצרו ואמר רוצה אני כבר גירש לרצונו 

This person wishes to be a Jew, and wishes to perform all of the mitzvot and distance himself from all transgressions, but his yetzer overpowers him. When he is struck to the point that his yetzer weakens, he says, "I wish to do this," and then he has divorced willingly.

11.      Roger Williams, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, pg. 249-250

If persons be compelled to forsake their religion which their hearts cleave to, and to come to the church… and this all their days, I ask, whether this be not this people's religion, unto which submitting, they shall be quiet all their days, without enforcing them to the practice of any other religion? And if this be not so, then I ask, will it not inevitably follow, that they not only permit but enforce people to be of no religion at all, all their days?

12.      Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason, Meikeljohn translation, pg. 422

Let each thinker pursue his own path; if he shows talent, if he gives evidence of profound thought, in one word, if he shows that he possesses the power of reasoning—reason is always the gainer. If you have recourse to other means, if you attempt to coerce reason, if you raise the cry of treason to humanity, if you excite the feelings of the crowd, which can neither understand nor sympathize with such subtle speculations—you will only make yourselves ridiculous.

13.      Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem, Bennett translation, pg. 7

A man feels his own worth when he performs charitable acts… when he gives because he wants to. But if he gives because he must, all he feels are his chains.

14.      Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Trespass 8:8

והמשפטים הן המצות שטעמן גלוי וטובת עשייתן בעולם הזה ידועה כגון איסור גזל ושפיכות דמים וכיבוד אב ואם, והחוקים הן המצות שאין טעמן ידוע, אמרו חכמים חוקים חקתי לך ואין לך רשות להרהר בהן

Mishpatim are laws with revealed reasons and known benefits from their practice, like the prohibitions against theft and murder, and the mitzvah of honouring parents.

Chukim are laws without known reasons; the sages said, "I have engraved chukim for you, and you do not have permission to challenge them."

15.      Sefer haChinuch 16

אחרי הפעולות נמשכים הלבבות

After deeds are the hearts drawn.

16.      R' Avraham Yitzchak haKohen Kook, Letters of the Ra"ayah II pg. 186

ומש״כ מר לתמוה עלי במה שאני מקרב את הכל, גם את פושעי־ישראל כדי להחזירם בתשובה, וכתבתי לו ברמז כונתי, שכל מי שהוא מוכשר לעסוק בפנימיות רזי-תורה הוא מתמלא יותר מאור־החסד של תורת חסד, ועליו החובה לעסוק בתיקון נפולים ובקירוב רחוקים

Regarding my practice of drawing everyone near, including Jews who sin, in order to bring them to repentance: I have written a hint at my meaning to his honour, saying that anyone who is capable of involving himself in the inner secrets of Torah will be filled with the light of the Torah's generosity to a greater extent, and is obligated to involve himself in mending the collapses and bringing near those who are distant.

17.      R' Avraham Yeshayah Karelitz, Chazon Ish, Yoreh Deah 2:16

בזמן ההעלם שנכרתה האמונה מן דלת העם אין במעשה הורדה גדר הפרצה אלא הוספה הפרצה שיהי' בעיניהם כמעשה השחתה ואלמות ח״ו וכיון  שכל עצמנו לתקן אין הדין נוהג בשעה שאין בו תיקון ועלינו להחזירם בעבותות אהבה ולהעמידם בקרן אורה כמה שידינו מגעת.

At a time of [Divine] invisibility, when faith has been cut off from the poor of the nation, punishment does not mend the gap, but only increases it, for it appears like a deed of destruction and coercion, Gd-forbid. Since our entire goal is to repair, the law [of punishment] does not apply when it does not repair. We are obligated to bring them back with ropes of love, to bring them to the radiant light to the extent we can.

Shiur Theatre: The Day After Liberation, Part 3

[This is the concluding part of a Shiur Theatre presentation from Parshat Ki Tisa. The first part, with an introduction, is here. The second part is here.]

ACT IV: SHIMSHON, MOSHE AND ADDAYA

SHIMSHON: Wow, that was an interesting witness. (pause, wipes forehead) So far, we have Aharon who wasn't authorized to truly lead. We have the historian who says the Jews were not educated, were not empowered, and had too much gold. And we have a Levite soldier who says the people were looking for authority figures rather than taking responsibility for their lives. (pause) That leaves one last witness: Addaya son of Thutmose, an Egyptian who joined us as part of the erev rav when we left Egypt.

Moshe steps in behind Shimshon, taps him on the shoulder. Shimshon looks up, sees its Moshe, and is startled. Stands back in respect.

SHIMSHON: Moshe, sir!

MOSHE: I would like to interview this witness, if you don't mind.

SHIMSHON: Certainly – but why? Have I not done a good job?

MOSHE: You've done a fine job, but I take responsibility for the erev rav, the group of Egyptians I personally brought out of Egypt when they wished to join us. So I'd like to speak with this Addaya.

Shimshon steps away; Moshe takes the lectern. Addaya steps to the other lectern.

MOSHE: Are you Addaya son of Thutmose?

ADDAYA: Yes, I am.

MOSHE: Addaya, son of Thutmose, what possessed you to lure my nation into idolatry?

ADDAYA: (laughing) Moses, Moses, Moses. (pause) Lure them? I hardly needed to do any such thing. Why, they came running to me!

MOSHE: What do you mean?

ADDAYA: Moses, you ought to comprehend, from your own experience when you fled to Midian. You went from life in the royal palace of Ramses to herding sheep in the wilderness, from a world of being waited on hand and foot to fighting off those who would abuse you, your wife, her sisters. Did you not feel the trauma of dislocation? Now imagine the lives of the millions of people you led into the wilderness, whose world has been turned upside down in every way imaginable.

MOSHE: I see.

ADDAYA: But see further, for there were three revolutions at work in the lives of this nation. One, when they ceased to be slaves and became free. Two, when they left the Egypt they knew and entered a frightening wilderness. And yet a third revolution, in the very rules of life. Food no longer came from the ground, but from the sky. Clothing did not wear out. Shelter came from the very vapour in the air.

MOSHE (protests): But these are wondrous changes, amazing gifts!

ADDAYA: True enough – but also scary. Look, Moses, ahead in the future, to the 58^th century, to Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, the Soviet satellites of Eastern Europe, the mixed bag that was their liberation. Have you read the work of Anna Porter?

MOSHE: The Canadian woman who will write "The Ghosts of Europe"?

ADDAYA: Indeed. She will point out that the populations of Eastern Europe suffered during their transition to democracy from the lack of an intermediate system, a bridge.[1] Surely the same could be said for these Jews you led into the wilderness. A brand new way of living, a brand new religious system, and no follow-up after that great Hollywood scene at the mountain for the next six weeks… Yes, Moses, they came running to me.

MOSHE: And what of your own identity – Ten times you have seen the miracles of the Lord, and still you have no faith! You came out to the wilderness with us, pledging loyalty!

ADDAYA: Yes, but I was not ready for a new national identity, especially as I quite enjoyed my previous identity until you shredded everything about it. Again, it's the same as the transformation of that Eastern bloc; you cannot expect a culture to adopt a new identity, when they felt much more security in the old one, and no bridge is offered.[2]

MOSHE: Then the blame lies with me? Or with the Almighty?

ADDAYA: This is hardly for me to say – I am but a newcomer, and member of a rejected nation. But heed the words of your brother Aharon. Heed the words of the historian. Heed the words, even, of that Levite colonel. Freedom is not a gift, unless accompanied by the proper tools.

MOSHE: Many centuries from now, an Egyptian Jew, also named Moshe, will declare, "Accept truth from whoever offers it.[3]" I suppose he is correct.

EXIT STAGE LEFT

EPILOGUE

NARRATOR:

And so Moshe Rabbeinu approached G-d to plead on behalf of the Jewish nation. As we read in this morning's parshah, the Torah's text describes several claims he made upon Divine mercy:

• He pointed to the covenant G-d had made with our ancestors, the founders of our nation.
• He pointed to neighbouring countries, and what they would say.
• He put his own life on the line, declaring, "Wipe me out of Your book" if You will not have mercy upon the Jews.

The Talmud, though, describes another claim from Moshe, far harsher than those that appear in the pesukim. As the Talmud[4] tells it, based on a pasuk in Sefer Devarim, Moshe said to G-d, "This situation may be compared to a man who had a son. He bathed the son, anointed him with oil, fed him well, gave him fine drink, hung a wallet around his neck – and placed him at the entrance of a brothel. How, then, could this son not sin?"

Moshe claimed that the Jews were innocent, like a child who had been set up for failure. The naïve child in his allegory was given every opportunity to sin, and he was left in a situation of great temptation, without any protection. So, too, the Jews were put in a position of great temptation, without protection.

Many have struggled to explain Moshe's point. How could Moshe compare the Jews to the child in this story, didn't the Jews have leaders in Aharon and Chur and the elders? Didn't they have the miracles in Egypt and the spiritual experience at Sinai? Were they not rescued from Egyptian slavery, and granted ultimate freedom?

But seen through the lens of our interviews, Moshe's insight is powerful and on the mark.

• As the Colonel said, citing George Washington and Jack Nicholson, these former slaves were like young children, they had not been given the chance to understand freedom;
• As the Egyptian Addaya explained, quoting Anna Porter on the Eastern bloc countries, the Jews were a fish entirely out of water, entering a brand new existence which, for all of its positives and freedoms, still required significant adjustment;
• As the Professor explained, citing the problems of the American South after slavery, the Jews were not well-educated in their new monotheism, lacked the empowerment to take charge of their religious lives, and had plenty of gold without a sense of how to use it – quite like the boy in Moshe's parable;
• And as Aharon pointed out, the leaders were not licensed to be proactive at the time of the Golden Calf, just as the world's moderate leadership has watched the Arab Spring largely from the sidelines. The Jews of that time were truly abandoned.

Liberty must be more than a state of freedom. To be able to take advantage of liberty, one must be:

• guided gently into this new existence,
• offered a framework and education for using it,
• empowered to act as an owner, and
• given leaders who will proactively help him along the way.

So it is that Moshe approached G-d with a remarkable claim. As the Talmud says, הטיח דברים כלפי מעלה, he impudently blamed G-d for the events of the Golden Calf.

Moshe's claim is not only upon G-d, though; it is upon us as well. We are blessed with extreme liberty – we can say what we want, live where we want, eat what we want, marry whomever we want, and so on. The same is true for our children. And so Moshe's claim - Aharon's claim, the Professor's claim, the Colonel's claim, the Egyptian's claim - is upon us: How do we approach our liberty, and that of our children? Are we educated? Do we take charge of our Judaism and our lives as owners? Do we empower leaders to help us along the way? The story of the Golden Calf is not history; it has important messages for us, more than 3,000 years later, as well.

---

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQv8Fgy9Ypk

[2] ibid

[3] Introduction to Shemonah Perakim

[4] Berachos 32a

Shiur Theatre: The Day After Liberation, Part 2

 [This is the second part of a Shiur Theatre presentation from Parshat Ki Tisa. The first part, with an introduction, is here.] Part Three comes next!

ACT II: SHIMSHON AND YITZCHAK

SHIMSHON: I would like to call the second witness: A prisoner, charged and sentenced for his role in the celebration of the Golden Calf, Professor Yitzchak, son of Asher.

YITZCHAK steps to the second lectern.

SHIMSHON: Do you affirm as the previous witness did?

YITZCHAK: I do, your honour.

SHIMSHON: And would you recount for the assembly your role in the Golden Calf?

YITZCHAK: My role was not great, your honour, which is why I escaped death at the hands of the brutal Levites. My guilt was in dancing on the fringes of the celebration. (pause) I wasn't really dancing, actually. Sort of clapping and shuffling. Like someone dancing around the bimah at Lecha Dodi of a Carlebach minyan.

SHIMSHON: Do you agree with the previous witness that this grievous sin could have been averted with the presence of a proper leader during the forty days our master Moshe spent atop Mount Sinai?

YITZCHAK: I am just a simple man, I cannot say.

SHIMSHON: A simple man? Your papers indicate that you are a professor, a historian of 57^th century North American culture; has that era something to teach us, something that might be of use in defending our nation before the Almighty?

YITZCHAK: I suppose it might. I specialize in the era of Reconstruction in the American South. Have you seen the film, Lincoln?

SHIMSHON: With Daniel Day Lewis? He is rumoured to play our master Moshe in an upcoming Spielberg film. But enough of him; what is your point?

YITZCHAK: Your honour, in America of that day, former slaves were liberated, but the system of schools lacked the funding, infrastructure and political will required to absorb the tens of thousands who needed to develop literacy. To take the state of Georgia as an example: The state developed public schools in 1870, five years after the slaves were emancipated, and for decades afterward white Georgians tried to limit public funding for black education. Teachers in black schools received lower salaries than those in white schools, regardless of the teachers' race, and construction and maintenance of black schools were neglected.[1]

SHIMSHON: So, Professor, you assert that with greater education, the Golden Calf could have been averted?

YITZCHAK: Well, something beyond the 49 day Aish haTorah crash course in Judaism, yes. Monotheism isn't simple, you know. To take a nation reared in Egypt's pantheistic society and convert them to the idea of one G-d, invisible and indivisible, and to do it that fast? Impossible.

SHIMSHON: So you would not have done your little hora on the outskirts of the celebration, with but a little spiritual education?

YITZCHAK: This, and some empowerment of the population.

SHIMSHON: Is empowerment also a lesson of the former American slaves?

YITZCHAK: Yes – there were hundreds of African Americans who held communal office during Reconstruction,[2] but few of note and not many per capita. Within our nation, our master Moshe appointed judges, but not legislators, people who would actually create structure for our society.

SHIMSHON: Structure? The Torah provided structure with its laws, did it not?

YITZCHAK: Those are laws, I am talking about leaders. A society benefits when its citizens are not limited to a rulebook but are empowered to lead, themselves. Then they do not come looking for statues of calves; instead, they fill the vacuum themselves, and positively. Moshe knows it – months from now, two men, Eldad and Meidad, will defy Moshe and become public prophets, and none will be happier than Moshe himself.[3]

SHIMSHON: You and Aharon seem to be branches of the same shoot; you would defend our nation before the Almighty by sacrificing our leaders, claiming those leaders abandoned the nation to ignorance, without the power to plan for themselves.

YITZCHAK: Well, yes. But another element was a circumstance determined by the Almighty rather than human hands. Leaving us with all of that Egyptian gold at Sinai was really an invitation to disaster. With such wealth, with the influence of generations of slavery as part of Egyptian culture, with the presence of Egyptians in our very midst, with the absence of the leader who mediated our covenant with the Almighty… well, it was only a question of when this would happen.

SHIMSHON: Then you blame… the Almighty?

YITZCHAK: I don't know that 'blame' is quite the word. I sometimes wonder…(hesitates) but I do not wish to be presumptuous, my guilt is already known.

SHIMSHON: Please, speak.

YITZCHAK: Well, what if – what if the entire incident was intended by the Almighty as a lesson of sorts? A lesson in sin, and perhaps even in repentance and mercy?[4]

SHIMSHON: You echo the previous witness, and even I begin to doubt. (pause) I am done with your testimony.

Yitzchak steps down

ACT III: SHIMSHON AND COLONEL JACK

Colonel Jack son of Nikol steps to the second lectern, wearing a military jacket decorated with medals. His chin is up, his shoulders thrown back. He glares.

SHIMSHON: Colonel Jack son of Nikol: Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

COLONEL (defiant): Am I being charged with a crime? I did my job, and I'd do it again. Now let me go back to my base.

SHIMSHON: You are not being charged with a crime, this is just an investigative hearing. I simply asked: Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

COLONEL (contemptuous): Of course I do.

SHIMSHON (annoyed): Thank you. Colonel, you have been called here to answer some questions about the events of the seventeenth of Tammuz, when it is alleged you executed a Code Red as part of the Levi Platoon.

COLONEL: And what questions do you have about that?

SHIMSHON: Who issued the Code Red?

COLONEL: My commander in chief, Moshe Rabbeinu. His exact words were, "Who is for G-d, come to me."[5]

SHIMSHON: And who responded?

COLONEL: You read the report. We did our job.

SHIMSHON (annoyed again): Did you carry out the Code Red?

COLONEL (strong): We saved lives.

SHIMSHON (frustrated): Did you carry out the Code Red?

COLONEL: I told you, we saved lives.

SHIMSHON (explodes): You don't even know what lives of Jews are like, you Levites weren't even slaves in Egypt. I was a leader of suffering slaves, I took responsibility while you sat and studied and meditated. That's how I came to hold this position as judge.

COLONEL: Ooh, a judge. Your honour, let me tell you something. I eat breakfast eighty yards away from 4000 Amalekites who are trained to kill me. So don't think for one second you can come around here, flash a badge, and make me nervous.

SHIMSHON: You ought to be nervous; I can put you in prison, or worse, if you won't give me answers.

COLONEL: You want answers?

SHIMSHON: I think I'm entitled to them.

COLONEL: You want answers!?

SHIMSHON: I want the truth!

COLONEL: You can't handle the truth! (pause) We live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Judge? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for those three thousand men and you curse Levi Platoon. But deep down, in places you don't talk about in beit din, you want me on that wall. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the clouds my merit provides, then questions the manner in which my merit provides it. I'd prefer you just said Thank You and went on your way.

SHIMSHON: Did you carry out the code red?

COLONEL: You're gosh darn right I did.

SHIMSHON: And now three thousand lives are ended. Why did you do it?

COLONEL: Because Freedom isn't for everyone. Those idolaters you feel bad about, those Jews who made a Golden Calf, they weren't ready for freedom. You think to defend these people before the Almighty, but they don't deserve it. As George Washington will say, "Until the mind of the slave has been educated to understand freedom, the gift of freedom would only assure its abuse.[6]" (pause)

COLONEL: They wanted to have a Calf to worship because they remembered what it was like to have a master, to abdicate responsibility for their existence and rely on an authority to care for them, and they liked it. They were still Egyptian, unable to adjust to the Almighty's religion in which you take personal responsibility. In this they weakened the nation, and made us vulnerable to attack. Don't you tell me about ending lives, I saved them, and I would do it again.

SHIMSHON: I have no further questions.

COLONEL (muttering, as he steps down): Punk.

---

[1] http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-634

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_officeholders_during_the_Reconstruction

[3] Bamidbar 11

[4] Avodah Zarah 4b-5a

[5] Shemot 32:26

[6] http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/articles/hurrelbrinck.html