Between Preservation and Renewal
When From Sinai to Ethiopia was published in Hebrew by Yediot Publishing, no one estimated the extent of its influence on interreligious dialogue within and without the Ethiopian community. It was clear to Yediot, a well-respected publishing house in Israel, that this book was targeted to the Ethiopian sector. But we were greatly surprised that the concepts the book presents attracted the interest of many Israelis, religious and secular, from many sectors. On first analysis, we might ask, why should such a book meet with success, engaging a wide spectrum of groups and ages in such a modern, free society? Apparently, Israeli society is deeply interested in questions about the identity of the Beta Israel community. The questions of identity that engage Beta Israel represent an additional facet of the questions of self that concern many members of Israeli society. In other words, this book addresses the dilemmas of immigrants in carving out a new path in their new home, and in a new age – in other words, it delves into the tension between preservation and renewal.
Between Modernity and Tradition
In the past two decades, the world has taken a dramatic turn, unlike any previous change. Electronic communications technology has transformed people around the world who were previously disconnected from each other into participants in the information age and consumers in the global market. Still, when we say “village,” we mean a small settlement, and when we say “global,” we refer to something that encompasses the entire world. A conflict is created between the small village and the global one. People do not remain in the place where they began their life’s journey, but migrate to wherever they think they will be well-off and comfortable. Today, 20–40 percent of the populations of most Western countries were not born in their country of residence.
The revolution of modernity has led to rejection of an entire world of tradition – a world that upheld the ideal of following ancestral tradition. Human beings now view their environment as subject to their own design, and assert that they are permitted to change it. Individuals do what they think is best for them. The free, modern individual no longer fears threats and bans as practiced in the Jewish world in the past, or persecution and censure as once practiced by the authorities of the Catholic Church. Against this background, we face the challenge of defining the boundaries between local and universal culture. Tensions arise between the aspiration to preserve the culture of origin and the desire to integrate into the new one, between assimilation and integration, between nationality and religion. Questions such as these occupy millions of people in Israel and around the world.
Still, despite the freedom of citizens of the modern world to make autonomous decisions about their lives, the decisive majority prefer to view themselves as part of something continuous, as belonging at the root of their souls to something larger. Many times, it seems that grasping onto tradition is the solution for this existential need. From Sinai to Ethiopia has succeeded in touching on these questions, in a significant manner. From the reactions to the book in Israel, it is clear that these questions interest substantial numbers of people, from all sectors.
Difference, Equality, and Responsibility
The Bible describes the creation of the world, the heavens and the earth, light and darkness, land and water, and animals. Then it tells how God created all of humanity in His image: “And God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:28). In the Jewish world, the concept of the creation of humanity in the image of God is one of the foundations of faith. As Rabbi Akiva would say, “Human beings are beloved because they were created in the image of God, as in the verse, ‘In the image of God He made man’ (Genesis 9:6)” (Mishnah, Avot 3:14). From Sinai to Ethiopia expresses this concept in a straightforward manner: in all the ways of worshipping God there is no one truth, but rather a variety of equal truths. Each person must discover his own way of connecting to the God in Whose image he is individually made.
This book adopts a pluralistic understanding, supporting integration but not the annulment of different cultures. In my opinion, difference between human beings is a priori ontological, just as it is in the natural world. It is in this sense that we may comprehend the blessing Hakham ha-razim (“The Knower of all secrets”) – “One who witnesses 600,000 Jews gathered together should recite the blessing Hakham ha-razim, for just as each of their faces is different from the others, their personalities are also different from each other, and each one has his own individual personality.”1Midrash Tanhuma (Buber), Parashat Pinhas, par. 1b. This book calls for integration and mutual, egalitarian respect, and a renewed kind of melting pot that is not destructive. Pluralism accepts difference as part of human nature, with each individual facet expressing itself in an equal manner.
In Jewish sources, the individual is considered, first and foremost, as bearing responsibilities, and not enjoying rights. The Torah educates us for personal responsibility in every situation. On one hand, minorities bear responsibility toward the majority. What is considered to be prejudice against minority groups is actually damaging to the personal responsibility of that group. On the other hand, the majority bears responsibility toward minority groups, and what is considered assistance to the weak may in fact be damaging to them.
A Call for Pluralism
The Mishnah asks, why was Adam created alone – why did humanity begin with one person? To teach us, the Mishnah explains, that a person should never say, “My father is greater than yours,” as we are all descended from the same person (Sanhedrin 4:6). We thus have a firm basis to argue that a person who considers himself greater than another is committing a serious error, which borders on immorality. It follows that a person who does not value himself, who considers himself significantly inequal in value to other human beings who were created in the image of God, is also in error, and approaching immorality. The common denominator is that both are harming the image of God. The fact that a person is white, black, short, disabled, Jewish, Christian, or Muslim says nothing about whether he or she is a person who reflects the image of God. Everything is determined by the manner in which a person understands himself as a person created in the image of God.
This is not a call for monolithic religion or society, but rather for multiculturalism anchored in individual responsibility and mutual respect. The call for pluralism does not mean anarchy, as in the verse “There was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his eyes” (Judges 17:1), or blurring of the lines that divide groups, but rather preservation of uniqueness along with mutual personal responsibility. The Torah’s dictum “Love your neighbor as yourself” is an expression of this personal responsibility. “As yourself” means that you should be capable of looking at the world through the eyes of the other, just as you have become accustomed to looking through your own eyes. We find an example of this in the relations between non-Jews and Jews in Ethiopia. The Jews of Ethiopia strictly upheld the custom of avoiding contact with non-Jews. Yet at celebrations and public events, they invited their Christian neighbors, just as the Christians invited the Jews to their events, without any bias. The groups sat separately and each group slaughtered according to its custom, but Jews and Christians respected each other. This custom teaches us that the Ethiopian Jews’ customs were based on a moral foundation, according to which all individuals are equal before God. Perhaps this is another reason that many readers have identified with the theological spirit of this book, in which uniqueness is not the opposite of unity, but rather its synonym.
Toward the Next Book
There is a story about a certain rabbi who used to receive a constant stream of followers throughout the day. One day, the shamash asked him, “Why do you sweat so much when you receive people?” The rabbi answered, “Each time I meet someone, I try to strip my emotional clothing and don his, so that I can truly understand him. I do this for each and every person. That is why I sweat.” In today’s reality in Israel, we aspire to achieve a reality in which “Each person takes upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven, one from another” (malkhut shamayim zeh mi-zeh). According to Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, this means that Jews will accept the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven through their relationships with each other – in other words, their openness to each other brings them closer to God. In this manner, everyone wins. People develop a sense of belonging; they feel that they are contributing and that others trust them. Thus they are educated for strong, healthy interpersonal relations, free of jealousy and competition, firmly anchored within an atmosphere of responsibility and tolerance. From Sinai to Ethiopia was written out of a deep sense of faith in the concept that both sides are the words of the living God, and that there are many channels for worshipping God. How do we create such a theological-social reality? How do we create a society founded on trust and mutual respect? How do we form a society based on pluralism and egalitarianism? How do we form a consciousness based on the deep understanding that human uniformity is contrary to nature and outside of morality? And through this, aspire to human unity? In my next book, we will attempt to contend with these questions.