What can be said? Another week passes and another list of names to mourn.
But I agree with a recent article which stated that we can’t close our eyes. It is time to fight not to duck. If anything, the recent tragedies mean that we need to take off the gloves and stop holding back our punches.
What does it mean to fight as a Jew? This is the power of voice. The power of the “voice of Jacob.”1 Not the hand, the physical sword (warfare) of Esau, and not the terrorism of Ishmael.
It means to speak up.
This article therefore contains my contribution towards Jewish activism. Hopefully each of you will be inspired to at least comment below or write your own Facebook post or article.
Living with the Times
The first statement that I thought to pronounce is the need to understand headlines through the lens of the Torah portion for that week. The importance of this undertaking was first taught by Rabbi Schneur Zalman, founder of Chabad. If you want to anchor yourself from the surge of headlines and news feeds, anchor yourself by sourcing these headlines within that week’s Torah portion. The Torah is not a book to put on the shelf but the blueprint of creation, which includes everything that happens in creation. Nothing is by chance, and lessons can be learned, meaning can be gained, through understanding the headline according to the Torah.
To clarify, this does not mean searching for “codes” or other tricks to predict events or to explain why something occurred. Neither are beneficial activities to our Divine service. Instead the intent is simply to gain lessons and meaning to better ourselves and the world, not to play the role of either a prophet or God Himself.
Freedom of Expression
Prior to looking into the Torah it’s helpful to read a few headlines to see what concepts stand out. Essential to keep in mind is that we honor the victims by doing our utmost to live our lives–as the writer at the beginning wrote, with our “eyes wide open.” While only God knows why they were taken from this world, our mission now is to further repair the world they left behind.
For me personally the topic that stood out from the Charlie Hebdo attack was the topic of free expression. That freedom of speech and expression should be supported and only increase as a result of the attack. The staff at Charlie Hebdo picked up on the importance of this concept, and so they have announced their plans to print more than twenty times their usual circulation run this Wednesday.
Thus a clear result from the tragedy is that it is an opportunity to redefine what true “freedom of expression” is. And while many articles were written about the changing role of a journalist in the digital age, the role of satire, the need not to be silenced or to self-silence ourselves in the face of terror, nowhere did I find an article that attempts to explain this term according to the Torah.
The need to relate this term to the Torah was further strengthened after the terrible attack at the Kosher supermarket this past Friday. This was a terrible loss, and to state clearly once again, we cannot know the reason why God took these four precious souls from us. But in their merit, we can take positive steps and make positive resolutions. Right now this means once again, using the power of speech as our activism, and our “sword” to change the world.
Sourcing the Concept
Even before meditating on the relationship between the tragedies and last week’s Torah portion of Shemot it was apparent that meaning would come from clarifying this “freedom of expression” term. To be able to speak and express ourselves is not yet a Jewish concept. For instance, there are many negative or harmful thoughts that come to mind throughout the day, many negative and harmful pieces that were published in Charlie Hebdo, etc… But nowhere will you find in the written or oral Torah that it is good to scream at your friend or heap curses upon someone who cuts you off while driving. Self-censorship takes us past our initial reactions, the reactions of an offended ego or wayward mind, and helps to focus and direct ourselves to more appropriate conversations and conduct.
Thus, to state clearly, carte blanche “freedom of expression” is not a Torah concept, and while it is good that many articles have been published to analyze the current place of this concept, this only shows that journalists now sense its importance. But the complete answer, the complete analysis comes through sourcing the concept of “freedom of expression” in the Torah.
Speak Your Faith
In an effort to keep this article brief the correspondence to the Torah portion of Shemot will also be kept brief. For a fuller explanation, I encourage you to read the “Speak Your Faith” transcript of a Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh class delivered close to nine years ago in Zurich.
The Torah portion of Shemot recounts the onset and hardships of the slavery in Egypt and of the preliminary steps toward redemption from Egypt and the receiving of the Torah. As Rabbi Ginsburgh explains in the class, there is an integral correspondence between faith and speech. Without going into the Kabbalah mentioned there, activism, true activism for a Jew occurs when what we believe inwardly is expressed outwardly through speech. The essence of what was exiled in Egypt was our “freedom of expression;” specifically the freedom to express our faith.
To quote:
“In Chassidut, we are taught that before the exodus from Egypt, the power of the soul that was truly in exile was the essence of our faith. Not that we did not believe in the existence of God, for this we believed in. We are even taught that because of the basic foundation of faith that we had, we were redeemed. Nonetheless, this was not the absolute faith of the Jew, for that remained latent during the exile in Egypt… During our years of exile in Egypt, we were unable to pronounce this essential aspect of our faith. True freedom of speech is called in Kabbalah: ליבה לפומא גליא, meaning that the innermost part of the heart can express itself through the mouth.”
God too wants “Freedom of Expression”
As we have sourced “freedom of expression” in last week’s Torah portion, and also introduced the Torah term for it which is “revealing the innermost part of the heart,” we now add that God too wants “freedom of expression!” What do we mean?
Again we’ve been learning about “freedom of expression” according to the weekly Torah portion of Shemot when the Jewish people were prevented from freely expressing themselves, from expressing their faith. What is God prevented from speaking out? The Redemption. Presently, the outer reality of a world in exile doesn’t reflect the inner desire for how God wants the world to be. There’s a disconnect between inner desire and outward speech; between a world in exile and the speech needed to announce the Redemption. Why then hasn’t the Redemption come? If God wants it and we want it, then what’s the delay?
For this we can defer to the approach taken by Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, the advocate of the Jewish people, and simply state that this itself is the answer. That if there is any lack on our part it is because of the exile that God Himself has placed us in. And if we find ourselves unable to articulate our faith to the world, this is also only because of the “constricted spirit”2 of exile and the harsh labor of our daily challenges and obstacles.
What about God? He wants the Redemption too. He too wants “freedom of expression,” to articulate the Redemption. So then what’s the hold up?
There is activism and there is activism. Activism where we express our faith and the truth of God and His Torah to the world, and activism where we scream to God: “Ad mosai!?” How much longer?
Since our belief in God is so strong, we can also scream at Him. And like a loving Father, He listens. Even if He doesn’t answer right away, He listens….