Over the course of a year our students will engage in numerous tzedek initiatives relating to many different areas of need in our community - housing, poverty, food insecurity, the list goes on. As we endeavor to infuse the work our students do with Jewish meaning, and help our students think about the choices they make about this work from a Jewish perspective, we will undoubtedly need to bring them into contact with texts and traditions about the specific areas that they are addressing. Before we enter this level of detail and specificity, we must also understand the framework. This text study is designed to examine some of the Jewish texts and traditions which serve as a call to action and a call to serve in our communities. As you work through these texts take note of the different perspectives present in each one. What are the challenges each seek to address? Where does each locate a source of strength to enable us to act? What wisdom do they provide about how we might act?
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I heard the following in the name of my teacher, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, "the Rav," of blessed memory: The Torah relates (Numbers 13) that God commanded Moses to send twelve men, each the prince of his tribe, to spy out the land of Canaan which He had promised to give to the Children of Israel. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb, came back with a positive report, affirming the promise of God to Israel and asserting that the campaign would succeed. Ten of the princes, however, were thoroughly discouraging and, in defiance of the divine promise, maintained that any effort to conquer the Land would fail. This report caused untold grief for generations thereafter. Remarkable: a whole nation witnessed so many obvious miracles--from the Ten Plagues to the splitting of the Red Sea, from the manna to the well of Miriam, etc.--and, despite all this, their faith in God was so thin, so fragile, that ten people out of a total population of probably more than 2,000,000 were able to sway them to doubt the divine promise. What demonic powers the ten must have possessed to cause such a tragic upheaval! But, the Rav adds, there is one more place in the Torah where we find the possibility of ten people to change the destiny of so many others: the plea of Abraham to save the sin-city of Sodom if at least ten tzaddikim (righteous people) would be found therein. So, ten people can overwhelm a vast number and lead them to physical and spiritual perdition, and ten people can save an entire populous city from utter devastation. To which I humbly add this explanation: Why ten? What properties does that specific number possess such that it can wield such enormous power both for good and for evil? The answer, I suggest, comes from the Halakha, where ten is considered the minimum number to constitute an edah (congregation) or tzibbur (community). If the ten are cohesive, if they are mutually dedicated to one overarching cause, they can overpower hundreds and thousands and even millions of individuals. A community of ten is almost omnipotent compared with far larger numbers of individuals who are unrelated and indifferent.
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1. What is Lamm trying to inspire here?
2. How does it happen that ten people can create so much change in people's attitudes? What has brought about changes in your own attitudes?
3. How can we utilize the power instilled by this text to bring others with us in our work for social justice?
4. How can we utilize Lamm's teaching to bring students involved in social justice into conversation with the Jewish tradition?
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| One should place the Hanukkah lights at the entrance which is next to the public area on the outside of the entrance. (Mishnah Berurah: This is required because of the need to publicize the miracle.) [AJWS translation] |
נר חנוכה מניחו על פתח הסמוך לרשות הרבים מבחוץ.[משום פרסומי ניסא]
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1. In what ways is publicizing a victory against discrimination an act of activism?
2. What is the significance of lighting candles to publicize this miracle?
3. What social justice themes emerge from this text?
1. This text is commenting on the verse 'If you see your fellow’s ox or sheep gone astray, do not ignore it.' How does Rashi's comment add to our understanding of this text?
2. Who are the players in this text - seen and unseen?
3. What power dynamics are at play?
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| “You are my witnesses, and I am God” (Isaiah 43:12) Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai taught, “Only when you are my witnesses, I am God, but when you are not my witnesses, it is as if I am not God.” [AJWS translation] |
ואתם עדיי נאם ה' ואני אל. תני ר' שמע' בן יוחי אם אתם עדי נאם ה', אני אל, ואם אין אתם עדיי כביכול אין אני ה'.
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1. Who are the players in this text – seen and unseen?
2. What does this text ask us to witness?
3. What is the impact if we do not witness, what might 'it is as if I am not God' mean?