In a discussion about this week’s parasha, Rabbi Rick Jacobs (the president of the Union for Reform Judaism), speaks about the sometimes complicated relationship between Reform Judaism and the notion of obligation. Because Reform Judaism developed as an ideology of choice rather than commandment, it is sometimes accused of being a buffet of Judaism, where we pick and choose the things we like, or the ones that come naturally to us—and reject the commandments that are hard or inconvenient. It will not surprise you, I think, that this is a characterization that I reject, wholeheartedly. The Reform Jews—and Reform Judaism—that I love and try to teach is a rigorous one, a faith and an ideology that is continually trying to live an authentic Jewish life in a modern and complicated world. As Rabbi Jacobs says, we are trying to live Jewish lives of depth and courage.
But when it comes to living authentic Jewish lives in our modern world, this Torah portion alone has plenty to challenge us. Rabbi Jacobs writes about the duality of this parasha, this intertwining of the ethical commandments and the ritual ones. And as he notes, often the ethical commandments—the laws about how we treat one another— feel more intuitive. He says:
So the beginning of Chapter 23 of Exodus: “You must not carry false rumors. You shall not join hands with the guilty to act as a malicious witness. You shall neither side with the mighty to do wrong. You shall not give perverse testimony in a dispute so as to pervert it in favor of the mighty. Nor shall you show deference to a poor person in their dispute.” I’ve got to say, these feel like pretty relevant things. So I can’t carry false rumors, I can’t be the bearer of gossip. I can’t be part of some kind of malicious witness, telling, you know kind of, non-truths or “fake truths,” if you use the language of today. I can’t just join with powerful people to do wrong. I actually have to stand up for the poor, but I can’t show deference. When it’s a matter of right and wrong, I’ve got to do right.
But he goes on to discuss other commandments, and not just esoteric religious ones (and there are plenty of those). He actually highlights another one of the “ethical” commandments in Chapter 23, writing:
Verse four says, “When you encounter your enemies’ ox or ass wandering, you’ve got to take it back. When you see the ass of your enemy lying under its burden and you would refrain from helping out, you’ve got to raise the animal and help.” That’s an amazing teaching. You know, you’ve got to help your enemy? Again, doesn’t mean, in a, you know, in a war. It means the person with whom you disagree vehemently with, you’ve had bad interactions with. That person and their animal are in a moment of need — you must help. I’ve got to say, that’s something that I wouldn’t necessarily do on my own.
And so, I return to our confluence this week—of Black History Month and Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month and Repro Shabbat. I return to our multiple identities. And, I return to this teaching from Rabbi Jacobs, which inspires me and challenges me each and every day. He says:
I think part of what the Torah is doing here is telling us to do things that we wouldn’t do if left to our own devices. And that’s where it comes as a source and an obligating force to bring us to be the moral people that we could be, but that we’re not always, or not even mostly.
This might also be the reason we have these months dedicated to different communities and lived experience. We might not know how it feels to be Black in America, or to live with a disability in the Jewish community, or to struggle with fertility or to terminate a pregnancy. We might not know how to show up and be in community with people who have lived those experiences, and so our calendar—like our tradition—encourages us. It sends us reminders.
Rabbi Jacobs also offers this—which I carry with me—and offer to you: Friends, these are about the things that really demand us to act in ways that may not be intuitive, but will change the world if we do.
—Rabbi Sari Laufer