REDEMPTION – PART 1

PERFECTING THE WORLD

            At the beginning of this series of messages entitled, “Reflections on Twenty-Five Years in the Rabbinate,” I wrote about God.  How does God relate to the world?  I spoke about the God of creation and the God of revelation.  Then I wrote,   “There is a third way that points towards God in this world of space and time.  I will admit that it is often the most difficult for us to see.  We Jews have always viewed the hand of God in history.  To the pagans, history was a great cycle, things never became any better, there was ‘nothing new under the sun,’ to quote Ecclesiastes.  Every human would die no better off than when he or she was born, there was little hope that anything would become better.  If you were born a slave, you would die a slave, that was your place in the universe, and it could never change.

“The Hebrew Bible gave the world a brand new paradigm for the universe.  (See Thomas Cahill=s wonderful book The Gift of the Jews for a fuller treatment of this idea.) History has a direction.  Slaves could become free.  And the world could become a better place over the course of generations.

“I look at human history and see the hand of God.  God acts by redemption.  The world is far from perfect, but it is certainly far better today than it was for our ancestors.  And I believe it will be even better for our progeny.  In human history I see the hand of God.”

To the pagans of the ancient world, and even to pagans today, life is a great cycle.  Nothing ever really changes.   It is as if we humans are trapped in an animal world.  Ten thousand generations ago, lions lived pretty much as they live today.  Disney’s The Lion King reflects this cyclical view of history.  A new generation of lions is born as the beautiful Elton John song plays, “It’s the cycle of life.”  There is no progress and no change.  There is hopelessness to this vision of living in a great cycle where there is no progress.

The gift of the Jews is that history has a direction.  Reality evolves towards a better world.  Humanity’s life in the world is not simply a random series of events.  The ideal time is in the future.  We are moving towards a better time, towards redemption.  And God is the ultimate source of that redemption.   

Such a futuristic vision was the lesson of the great literary prophets.  For example, Isaiah spoke of a future time when “He shall judge between the nations and shall decide for many peoples, they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”  (Isaiah 2:4)  Amos could say, “Let justice well up as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”  (Amos 5:24)  And Jeremiah could write, “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”  (Jeremiah 31:32)  The glorious days are in the future.

If time has a direction, then we humans can be optimistic about the future.  Such optimism is built into Judaism.  In fact, this optimism is reflected in this week’s calendar.  For three weeks we have read haftarahs (prophetic passages) dealing with sadness and destruction.  Now, for seven weeks, we read haftarahs of hope and comfort.  It is almost as if there must be twice the amount of hope and optimism, plus some extra, than pessimism and sadness.  It is small wonder that we Jews made our national anthem Hatikva, “the hope.”

The idea that history has a direction with better days in the future has affected all of Judaism, from the most rational reformers to the most orthodox mystics.  Rationalists can speak of Judaism’s mission to the world and its vision of social justice.  Mystics speak of tikkun olam, repairing the world and lifting up the divine sparks.  The emphasis is that the best of times are yet to come.  And here is the deep and powerful insight – we humans have the ability and the responsibility to bring about this perfect future.  God needs us to repair the world.

REDEMPTION – PART 2

THE MESSIAH

            Last week we said that time has a direction.  Life is not simply an endless cycle where nothing ever changes.  History moves towards a brighter future.  Our job, as human beings is to work towards that ideal time which lies in the future.  In fact, God needs us to be partners in the perfection of the world.  We have the power and the responsibility to bring about this better future.

            The notion that time has a direction and the ideal time is in the future has affected Western thinking in profound ways.  Some have argued that the whole idea of evolution could have only been conceived in a world where this view of redemption was prevalent.  In the ancient pagan world, that saw the universe as never changing cycles, nobody would have perceived an idea like evolution.  Change over time for the better is vital part of the religious, and some would say the scientific outlook of the world.  We are moving, often too slowly but inexorably towards an ideal time.

            In Jewish tradition, this ideal time in the future is symbolized by the messiah.  The word messiah (mashiach in Hebrew) literally means “anointed one.”  A king or political leader was symbolically anointed with oil.  So too shall the messiah be anointed before beginning his role of bringing about the ideal future.  The messiah will be a scion from the house of David, and will bring about an age of peace.  Most Jewish thinkers have taught that the days of the messiah will be no different from the present age, except peace will reign and the Jewish people will no longer be ruled over by other nations.   However, some have seen the days of the messiah as essentially different from our current age, with lions lying down with lambs and the whole nature of reality rebuilt.  All this teaches that we do not know exactly what the messiah will bring.

            Throughout Jewish history, numerous individuals have claimed to be the messiah.  Bar Kochba, the general who led a revolt against the Romans in the second century C.E., was considered the messiah by the greatest rabbi of his age, Akiba.  Others told Akiba that grass will be growing over him and we will still be waiting for the messiah.  Akiba’s hopes proved premature when Bar Kochba was soundly defeated, and Akiba himself was tortured and killed by the Romans.

            Of course, Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the messiah.  The word Christ is Greek for messiah, and Jesus Christ means Jesus the messiah.  Jews have rejected this Christian teaching, and do not refer to Jesus as Christ.  The Christian view is that with Jesus, the messiah has come.  But his role is different.  He will bring about a personal redemption and allow people to enter heaven.  The image of peace of earth will only come when Jesus returns a second time.  So Christians wait for a second coming, while Jews still wait for that first coming.  Both see the age of redemption in this world as off in the future.

            The most famous of the false messiahs was Shabbatei Tzvi, who convinced most of the Jews of seventeenth century Europe that he was the messiah.   People sold all their belongings and prepared to follow him to the Promised Land.  Their hopes were cruelly dashed when Shabbatei Tzvi converted to Islam.  Today many Lubavitcher Hasids claim that the Menachem Shnairson, the last rebbe, is the messiah.  He was certainly a great man and a charismatic leader, but the predictions of the messiah have not come true since his death.

            Meanwhile, Jews still wait and pray for the messiah to come.  However, it would be wise to be careful about any predictions.           “R. Zera taught, Three things come unexpectedly, the messiah, a lost article, and a scorpion.”  (Sanhedrin 97a)  The Reform movement has given up any prayers for a personal messiah, speaking instead of a messianic age.  They have changed the prayerbook from “He will bring a redeemer” (mavi goel) to “He will bring redemption” (mavi geula).  Talking about an age rather than a person seems less mystical, more modern.  And yet, as a traditional Jew, I still love the language of the messiah.

            Whatever one believes, Jewish tradition has empowered humanity in general and the Jewish people in particular to bring the messiah.  We have to prepare the world for his coming.  Numerous legends tell of the messiah waiting until the right moment, when we humans are ready for him to make his appearance.  This puts the burden of perfecting the world directly on us.  God gave us the power to bring the messiah.  Are we ready to exercise that power?

REDEMPTION – PART 3

THE MESSIAH WOULD HAVE COME

            There is a true story about the Ari, Rabbi Isaac Luria, the most famous of the mystics in Jewish tradition.  The Ari founded a school of thought known as Lurianic Kabbala which is still influential today.  He lived in the sixteenth century in Safed, high in the hills of the Northern Galilee, and a visit to his old synagogue is still the highlight of a trip to Safed.

            One Friday afternoon the Ari suddenly announced to his followers as they were singing Lecha Dodi, “My friends, let us go immediately to Jerusalem.  The messiah is coming.”  Some agreed at once.  But others hesitated; there was not enough time to reach Jerusalem before nightfall and the onset of the Sabbath.  The Ari was distraught.  “If you all believed with perfect faith, the messiah would have come immediately.  Because you hesitated, we are condemned to live in exile.”

            This is one of a multitude of such stories from Talmudic, mystical, and Hassidic tradition.  The messiah is waiting to come.  If only we Jews would do exactly the right thing, the messiah would come immediately.  The Talmud teaches that if only Jews would observe two Sabbaths in a row, the messiah would come immediately.  (Shabbat 118b)  A Hasidic story teaches that the messiah stands among beggars, changing bandages on his wounds, ready to go redeem the world at a moment’s notice, if only we are ready.   Again, the Jewish people, or perhaps all humanity, have the power to bring the messiah.  But we cannot passively wait for the messiah to come.  The messiah is waiting for us to be ready.

            The key idea is that we humans have the power to bring the messiah.  In more modern terms, we have the ability and the responsibility to redeem the world.  God made a world that is incomplete, that needs perfection.  And God made us humans God’s partners in the perfection of the world.  The modern Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig described this through a fascinating image.  Imagine a six pointed Jewish star.  Three of the points say creation, revelation, redemption.  And three of the points say God, the world, humanity. Creation is between God and the world.  Revelation is between God and humanity.  And for our purposes, redemption is between humanity and the world.  Rosenzweig called this the Star of Redemption.

            Who actually is the messiah?  Last week I described various false messiahs.  Someone sent me an email asking, is it possible that the messiah will be a woman?  Although this does not fit the traditional image, I suppose anything is possible.  We do not know exactly what the messiah will look like.

            There is another radical idea as to the identity of the messiah.  Robert N. Levine authored a book recently published by Jewish Lights – There is No Messiah and You’re It.  I have not yet read the book although it is on my list to read.  But the idea fascinates me.  Maybe we Jews, or perhaps all of humanity is the messiah.  Each of us has a little task in bringing about redemption.  If we each do our particular job, together over the generations, we can transform the world.  Perhaps all these years we have been waiting for the messiah, while God has been waiting for us.  Our job is to transform the world.  And as Rabbi Tarfon so wisely taught, “It is not your task to finish the job, nor are you free to avoid it altogether.”  (Avot 2:21)

            Whether there is a personal messiah still to come, we should act as if the messiah is us.  How can we each do our part to transform the world?

REDEMPTION – PART 4

BEYOND THIS WORLD

            For the past three weeks we have spoken about redemption.  God is a redeemer, and God will send a human redeemer (the Messiah) to help perfect the world.  But we are God’s partners in the redemption of the world.  Our job is not to wait for God; rather God waits for us.  God needs us to perfect God’s world.

            Nonetheless, there is another way to understand redemption.  Redemption is not about perfecting this world, but reaching life in the World to Come.  Redemption is not something that happens to the community as a whole, but rather to us as individuals.  Redemption is about heaven and hell.  Christians tend to be concerned with the question “Will I make it into heaven?” more than Jews.  Sometimes people oversimplify, saying that Christianity is concerned with the next world while Jews are concerned with this world.   So perhaps we ought to ask – what do I learn from my own tradition about the world beyond this?  Does Judaism believe in heaven and hell?

            Judaism believes that life does not end with death, that there is a world to come.  The Bible teaches that “the dust returns to the earth from where it came, and the soul returns to God who gave it.”   Our soul goes into a world to come, and we reenter a spiritual existence, the place we came from before we were born.  A description of that spiritual dimension is kept deliberately vague.  The Rabbis speak of heaven as gan eden, literally the Garden of Eden, a perfect place.  They also speak about gehinnam, the valley of Hinam, an awful place where the ancient Canaanites used to sacrifice children.  Even gehinnam has a maximum twelve month stay; there is no eternal damnation in Judaism.

            The emphasis of Judaism is on how to live in this world and descriptions of the world to come remain deliberately vague.  This material world is where the action is.  In the world to come, we cannot serve God.   Hasidic tradition speaks of a rabbi known for his acts of kindness and charity.  He dies and his followers all are certain that he is in heaven.  One day one of his followers has a dream where the rabbi appears.  He asks him, “You must be in heaven.  How is it?”  The rabbi answers, “Awful.  Heaven is a beautiful place, but there are no opportunities to do acts of loving kindness.”

            So, do I believe in heaven and hell?  To answer the question, let me share a parable told by the Baal Shem Tov, which will appear in my new book The Kabbala of Love.  Once there was a peasant from a small village who, in a moment of anger, cursed the king.  Unfortunately, the king’s soldiers heard the peasant, and had him arrested.  He was sure that he would be put to death, or perhaps thrown into prison for life.  The peasant was brought before the king, who sentenced him to live on the palace grounds and work in the king’s garden.

            The years went by.  The peasant was skilled at gardening and soon he had become the chief gardener for the king.  Then one day he was invited into the palace to be an advisor to the king.  As more years went by, he became one of the king’s closest advisors.  He saw how hard the king worked for his kingdom and the difficult decisions the king had to make.

            One day the king spoke to him.  “How do you feel about your job?”  The peasant answered, “I am miserable.  The closer I come to you, the more I remember how I cursed you on that day.  I wish I had behaved differently when I had the opportunity.  How wrong I was and how guilty I feel.”

            Heaven and hell are part of our spiritual being.  When we go to the next world, we will have to give an accounting?  Heaven means to stand next to God and saying, we did God’s work in our years in this world.   Hell means standing next to God knowing we failed to do God’s work in this world.  Even heaven and hell are tied to the question, how do we redeem this material world as a kingdom of God?