As we begin our chevruta learning in the UnYeshiva Certificate Program for the year, our first set of texts is about what Benay Lappe of Svara, a queer yeshiva, calls "Crash Theory" -- what happens when a long-told story "crashes" and we have to begin anew? With your chevruta, you'll be exploring three sources: (1) Benay's 18-minute ELItalk on Crash Theory, (2) An essay of your choosing from Svara's "Crash Theory" page, and (3) the talmudic story of Time Traveling Moses. Feel free to discuss these texts independently with your own questions or to use the discussion questions provided below. When you're done, send a short message in the #chevruta-learning channel with a couple sentences reflecting on your takeaways from your discussion!
(1) Benay Lappe's "Crash Talk"
(2) Read an Essay from Svara's "Crash Theory" Page
Read one essay of your choosing from Svara's "Crash Theory" page, written by various thinkers from their yeshiva. These essays can be found at the bottom of the webpage: https://svara.org/crash-theory/
(3) The Story of Time Traveling Moses
This Talmudic story is a midrash, a creative biblical interpretation, from Tractate Menachot (written between 3-5th century AD). In the story, the Talmud details an interaction between Moses and G-d, where Moses watches G-d writing the Torah and asks why G-d has included all the crowns on the letters. G-d replies that it's because generations later, a Talmduci sage named Rabbi Akiva will reveal meanings from even these small details. Moses wants to see, and G-d teleports him through time and space to Rabbi Akiva's beit midrash, his study house. Moses can't understand any of what's being said and becomes distressed at how unrecognizable this tradition is - until Akiva cites Moses as the original source of all of these teachings.
A note about reading Sefaria texts in translation: direct translations are bolded in English, while non-bolded text is inserted by scholars to provide more context, either based on translational clarity or other textual sources.
אמר רב יהודה אמר רב בשעה שעלה משה למרום מצאו להקב"ה שיושב וקושר כתרים לאותיות אמר לפניו רבש"ע מי מעכב על ידך אמר לו אדם אחד יש שעתיד להיות בסוף כמה דורות ועקיבא בן יוסף שמו שעתיד לדרוש על כל קוץ וקוץ תילין תילין של הלכות
§ Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: When Moses ascended on High, he found the Holy One, Blessed be He, sitting and tying crowns on the letters of the Torah. Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, who is preventing You from giving the Torah without these additions? God said to him: There is a man who is destined to be born after several generations, and Akiva ben Yosef is his name; he is destined to derive from each and every thorn of these crowns mounds upon mounds of halakhot. It is for his sake that the crowns must be added to the letters of the Torah.
אמר לפניו רבש"ע הראהו לי אמר לו חזור לאחורך הלך וישב בסוף שמונה שורות ולא היה יודע מה הן אומרים תשש כחו כיון שהגיע לדבר אחד אמרו לו תלמידיו רבי מנין לך אמר להן הלכה למשה מסיני נתיישבה דעתו
Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, show him to me. God said to him: Return behind you. Moses went and sat at the end of the eighth row in Rabbi Akiva’s study hall and did not understand what they were saying. Moses’ strength waned, as he thought his Torah knowledge was deficient. When Rabbi Akiva arrived at the discussion of one matter, his students said to him: My teacher, from where do you derive this? Rabbi Akiva said to them: It is a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai. When Moses heard this, his mind was put at ease, as this too was part of the Torah that he was to receive.
Conversation Questions with Your Chevruta
- What crashes are you experiencing in your own Judaism or Jewish story right now?
- Of the three options of how people respond to a crash, what approach do you feel most drawn towards?
- The story of "Time Traveling Moses" is meta and a bit like fanfiction: the sages are writing stories about themselves and their favorite characters in Torah. When the sages wrote the story of Time Traveling Moses into the Talmud, what crashes do you think they were addressing and what was their goal in writing it? How does this midrash (or midrash in general) represent an approach to a story crash?
- What crashes are you seeing in Judaism writ-large today?
- How is your understanding of Unbound Judaism in dialogue with the idea of a story “crash”?
- Benay Lappe says that concepts like “svara” that allow for radical change get suppressed, precisely when we need them most (9:26). What concepts or systems do you see being built now that allow us to keep moving through a crash? Are they being suppressed? What would it look like to apply or reveal those concepts through your work in the Certificate Program?
When you've finished with your discussion, send a short message in the #chevruta-learning channel with a couple sentences reflecting on your takeaways from your discussion so everyone can benefit from your learning!