Friday, November 24, 2006
Friday, November 17, 2006
Friday, November 3, 2006
Reaching for Perfection - Parashat Lech Lecha, Genesis 12:1-17:27
by Rabbi Darren Kleinberg
Possibly the most fascinating aspect of the Torah - and one that distinguishes it from many other sacred texts - is its depiction of God as less than perfect. These imperfections are sometime elaborated within the biblical text itself and are sometimes found from within the context of our own lives as readers of the text.
A powerful intra-textual example of what appears to be an imperfect God is found in chapter two of the book of Genesis. In the first account of creation as recorded in Genesis 1:1-2:4, we read of a creation that is judged to be "good" throughout. God creates and then, upon reflection, deems creation to be good.
But there is trouble in Paradise.
In Genesis 2:28, the Torah states, "And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone ...'" Suddenly, the creation that appeared to be only "good" is, in fact, flawed in one critical area - God only created one individual.
And so it must be asked: "Did God not know that man would be alone?" Is God not, after all, all-knowing (omniscient)?
One answer that has been given to this question is that the Torah is teaching us a lesson that even God learns, and therefore, so should we.
Another more mystical approach suggests that God is in a process of reaching perfection and we are integral to that end.
However each individual comes to terms with this and other examples of God's apparent imperfection is not my purpose here.
My purpose is to use this example as a precedent for other possible imperfections in the Torah's rendition of God's original purpose.
In this week's parsha we read of Abraham's, and ultimately, the entire Jewish people's, election to the position of God's chosen. Abraham is told that he will be the father of a great nation and that through him (them) all of the families of the earth shall be blessed. This is the beginning (at least textually) of the belief that the Jewish People are God's Chosen People.
I would like to suggest that this idea - the idea that we Jews are the "Chosen People" - is another example of a moment of imperfection in God's creation and decision-making.
It is true that the idea of chosenness is not, in and of itself, a problematic idea; we choose people for positions of responsibility all the time. But the idea that the Jewish people are the chosen people to the exclusion of other peoples and that this status is transferred genetically, as it were, is problematic.
Imagine if we were to decide that, because George W. Bush has been democratically elected president of the United States, his offspring should always inhabit that office for the rest of history. This was, in fact, how leadership was transferred in the past and we have now, thankfully, evolved away from that model. Leadership is something that we each have equal access to and responsibility for (excluding the ripe-to-be-changed law that American citizens not born in the United States of America are not eligible to be president).
As we begin to read the stories of Abraham and his family, the founders of the three great religions of the West - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - it would be appropriate to consider each of our responsibilities to bring blessing to the world.
We must consider this awesome and wonderful privilege to be the inheritance of all peoples. There is no one who is exempt from this obligation. We have all been chosen.
Possibly the most fascinating aspect of the Torah - and one that distinguishes it from many other sacred texts - is its depiction of God as less than perfect. These imperfections are sometime elaborated within the biblical text itself and are sometimes found from within the context of our own lives as readers of the text.
A powerful intra-textual example of what appears to be an imperfect God is found in chapter two of the book of Genesis. In the first account of creation as recorded in Genesis 1:1-2:4, we read of a creation that is judged to be "good" throughout. God creates and then, upon reflection, deems creation to be good.
But there is trouble in Paradise.
In Genesis 2:28, the Torah states, "And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone ...'" Suddenly, the creation that appeared to be only "good" is, in fact, flawed in one critical area - God only created one individual.
And so it must be asked: "Did God not know that man would be alone?" Is God not, after all, all-knowing (omniscient)?
One answer that has been given to this question is that the Torah is teaching us a lesson that even God learns, and therefore, so should we.
Another more mystical approach suggests that God is in a process of reaching perfection and we are integral to that end.
However each individual comes to terms with this and other examples of God's apparent imperfection is not my purpose here.
My purpose is to use this example as a precedent for other possible imperfections in the Torah's rendition of God's original purpose.
In this week's parsha we read of Abraham's, and ultimately, the entire Jewish people's, election to the position of God's chosen. Abraham is told that he will be the father of a great nation and that through him (them) all of the families of the earth shall be blessed. This is the beginning (at least textually) of the belief that the Jewish People are God's Chosen People.
I would like to suggest that this idea - the idea that we Jews are the "Chosen People" - is another example of a moment of imperfection in God's creation and decision-making.
It is true that the idea of chosenness is not, in and of itself, a problematic idea; we choose people for positions of responsibility all the time. But the idea that the Jewish people are the chosen people to the exclusion of other peoples and that this status is transferred genetically, as it were, is problematic.
Imagine if we were to decide that, because George W. Bush has been democratically elected president of the United States, his offspring should always inhabit that office for the rest of history. This was, in fact, how leadership was transferred in the past and we have now, thankfully, evolved away from that model. Leadership is something that we each have equal access to and responsibility for (excluding the ripe-to-be-changed law that American citizens not born in the United States of America are not eligible to be president).
As we begin to read the stories of Abraham and his family, the founders of the three great religions of the West - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - it would be appropriate to consider each of our responsibilities to bring blessing to the world.
We must consider this awesome and wonderful privilege to be the inheritance of all peoples. There is no one who is exempt from this obligation. We have all been chosen.
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