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Can the Jews achieve unity? The question is serious. Is there anything that could unify the entire Jewish community? We disagree on religious practice, on politics, on theology. We disagree on the macro and on the micro. What idea or feeling could unify us? It would take a miracle.
That miracle, argues Rav Shmuel Bornsztain (1855-1926, Poland), in his Shem MiShmuel (Acharei Mot, 1915), is hardwired into the Jewish nation.
This remarkable statement has an innocuous source. The Torah, this week, juxtaposes two surprising topics. Parashat Acharei Mot begins with a description of the dramatic Temple ritual of Yom Kippur. Immediately following this is a seemingly pedestrian prohibition on bringing sacrifices outside the Temple or Mishkan. How, asks the Shem MiShmuel, are these linked?
In explanation, he cites a Torah of the Maggid of Mezeritch (R’ Dov Ber of Mezeritch, 18th c. Ukraine). Some things in the world, the Maggid teaches, are both natural and miraculous simultaneously. The Temple is like this. The Mishna (Avot 5:5) tells us that worshipers stood crowded in the Temple courtyard (natural) but, somehow, still had plenty of space to prostrate themselves on the ground (miraculous). Yom Kippur is like this too. It depends on the בית דין, the Jewish court, with regard to the calendar (natural). Yet it is also called Shabbat, a day beyond nature, i.e., miraculous.
This fusion of the natural and the miraculous, is true of the nation of Israel as well, argues the Shem Mishmuel. He writes,
בא הענין בישראל נמי שיהיו שני הפכים בנושא אחד. היינו שאף היותם בגופים מחולקין כל אחד בפני עצמו, מ”מ הם כולם כאיש אחד ממש אף בגופין, וע”כ בשביל היותם נמי גוף אחד ממש נאסרו הבמות שהם ענין שכל אחד הוא בפ”ע…
This matter appears in Israel as well, that they represent the fusion of two opposites. That is, that even though they have separate, individual bodies, they are as a single person, even in their bodies. Therefore, since they are a single corporate body, they are prohibited from using individual altars which would indicate that every one of them is individual…
In other words, the Jews are all one body, in the most physical way possible. Thus they can’t offer sacrifices wherever they want, they have to bring them to one place!
This assertion of radical, physical unity is so extreme that it’s hard to understand exactly what the Shem MiShmuel means. But it’s clear that he believes that the peoplehood of the Jewish nation exists naturally in separate bodies and simultaneously, miraculously, as one corporate body.
Knowing that the Shem MiShmuel believes that unity is a physical aspect of our peoplehood, I am inspired to think again about what things could really unify us.
Consider the Pesach Seder. According to the 2021 Pew Study,[1] 6 out of 10 American Jews attend the Pesach Seder. They may be wise, they may be wicked, but they come. It is not universal but the fact is, most of us are unified in this observance.
The Pesach seder is a hard fact. The next point of unity is aspirational. It is unity in connection to Torah. Not observance or even regular study, but connection: the sense that the Torah is at the heart of our cultural heritage. Every Jew should have access to the Torah, certainly the Bible, but the Oral Torah as well, even if only to grapple with the things they disbelieve and reject. Jews touch their collective unconscious by engaging with the Torah.
Finally, there is the land of Israel. For better or for worse, the modern State of Israel does not unify us. I believe, however, that connection and care for the land of our origin might be something we can unify around. Our history points us to this land. Regardless of what we think of the politics of Israel, all of our stories begin there.
Pesach ended this week and now we begin to anticipate מתן תורה, the giving of the Torah. As we count the weeks until Shavuot, let’s work to actualize the miraculous unity of the Jewish people. Let’s find a way to make Torah accessible to Jews who feel alienated. Let’s work to stretch the unity we enjoyed at the Pesach Seder to further develop relationships with Jews who are different from us. If we work hard enough, who knows, maybe we can find a way to unite around Israel as well. Let’s move unity from the realm of the miraculous to the natural world.
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-practices-and-customs/
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