Beth Shalom

How is this Torah??

I regularly listen to NPR’s “This American Life” show on the radio. I generally enjoy the stories, often learn something from them, and also, almost always there is a ‘Jewish element’ in it. The host and many of the regular staff happen to be Jewish, many stories involve Jewish people, Jewish themes, and even plain old Jewish stories (even though the stories gathered from Shalom Auslander’s “Foreskin’s Lament” might not always be called ‘plain old’ Jewish stories).

Last week what caught my attention wasn’t a Jewish story, but a very Christian one. It had to do with a conflict in a large agro-processing plant where the owners and managers did not allow and actively prevented the workers from forming a union to advocate and protect collectively for their rights and conditions. But the focus of the story was around the role of a church minister, who happened to be the pastor of both the anti-union manager and of the pro-union organizing worker, as both were members of the same church. In the end, the workers efforts were at defeated by the manager. But at one point the pastor was asked by the worker to approach the manager as his pastor and talk to him about what Christianity has to say about treatment of workers, and caring for others as for oneself, hoping to influence the manager to see this not just as a ‘bottom line’ business decision he has to make, but also as a question of fundamental human values and behavior he must act on as a good Christian. The pastor did this in a very gentle and non-adversarial way, and without any success.

This is what caught my attention: the manager, reflecting back on these events, said how he started to distance himself from that church, and how he saw the pastor’s ‘advocating’ for the workers as ‘out of place’ and inappropriate for a minister. In his words, “what does a pastor have to do with my business issues? I didn’t come to church to hear from him on what to do with my workers, but for him to be my pastor”.

I think I understand the manager’s feelings, and his personal frustration with the pastor. He wanted a minister to ‘minister’ to his needs, not to tell him how he should be caring for the needs of others. He joined a church to be saved, and to practice religion, not to hear from the church how to run his business.

The pastor understood the manager’s feelings and frustration too. But he still saw his job to be not just to keep the manager happy and comforted, but also to keep him honest and behaving at the office on Mondays by the same values he professes at the church on Sundays.

I do not how many beliefs I share with the pastor, but we certainly do agree on this one. Our religion, our synagogues, and our rabbis are here to provide us many things, such as ceremonies and rituals, learning, community and personal services, comfort and support. But no less important than all these, is to provide some guidance and guiding principles for our real life. This is what the word Torah means: a teaching, a lesson we learned and which instructs on what we should do next. We do not remember Egypt just because our ancestors had a really bad time there once – we remember it because we learned how it feels being an alien in a foreign land, how it feels to be slave to work every day with no rest, and how it feels to have little but a poor-hard bread to eat. Torah starts with remembering Egypt, so that we have a Shabbat of rest for us and for all whether rich or poor, so we see the aliens in or midst with better eyes than the Egyptians saw our fathers, so we do what we can to help the poor and oppressed be helped.

Torah is the memory of the event, the lesson learned, and the rule and guide to how we will apply it best today in our daily business.

Jewish tradition speaks of Torah as Torat Hayim – a Torah for Life. This means that if our Torah and our religion are not applied in our real life, then we do not have much of a real Torah. The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh has Torah displayed in one of its windows. Torah might be seen by others as a relic from the past, as a dry museum exhibit isolated from life in a humidity and temperature-controlled capsule. But for us, and for me, Torah is not a museum piece, but a Torah for Life, the memories, the lessons, the values and the guidance for how I am called to behave in my daily business.

When I am at the supermarket, there are Torah values and guides to what I should be abstaining from buying, and what to look for. When I talk, chat on-line, or text somebody, there are Torah values and guides to what I should not be saying and how I should speak. I haven’t found a situation yet for which there aren’t any of these Torah values to inform it and guide our behavior. (Can you think of one?)

We have spoken and discussed often the implications of a Torah for Life in our daily businesses. Still, as in the story from the radio, we can be surprised when a rabbi or a synagogue or a religious movement addresses an important social issue being debated to share what Torah values and lessons apply to it. “Worker’s rights? Unions? Universal health care? How is this Torah?!”

These past weeks we have been exploring, led by David Zonderman, the connections between Jews and Judaism and social justice in America. Several hours provided just a small glimpse into how important and central to our tradition are the issues of social justice, economic justice, and of balancing freedom with fairness and equality. From the most ancient laws in the book of Exodus, to the latest resolution of the Union of Reform Judaism, we have an amazingly extensive, wise, and very relevant Torah for Life with plenty to say (and still discuss) on every issue.

We explore the Torah for Life not only in our Adult Education sessions, Shabbat sermons, and social action initiatives – we do this with our children, and this month especially, with are tweens and teens. Who can benefit more from a Torah for Life, values and clear guidance for life’s challenging situations more than our growing children, who are nowadays becoming adults and exposed to the adult world earlier, more rapidly and extensively than ever? Our Jr. Youth Group (6 & 7 graders) and their parents will begin to explore some of the key issues and challenges of becoming a teen on this day and age, and will find together the values and guidance that the Torah and our tradition offer for these challenging real life situations. “Internet safety? Texting ethics? Trying to be cool, sexy and famous? How is this Torah?”

By now you know the answer: if it is happening in our real life, then there is a real Torah based value and guidance about it, and we need it, and it is our duty to be aware and educated about it.

This month we’ll celebrate Hanukah, kindling the lights of Judaism and Torah in our living-rooms, our kitchens, our homes. May we also be able to always bring the light of the lessons and values of Torah into our kitchens, our homes, and every situation in our life.

Have a great and happy Hanukah! Hag Urim Same-akh – happy festival of lights, may the light of a Torah for Life shine in your home and your life.

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