Parashat Va'etchanan - Tisha B’Av Reflections and the Shema

רפואה מן התורה

Healing from the Torah

Parashat Va'etchanan

Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
By Rabbi Adam Ruditsky

     Jonathan Haidt in his book “The Righteous Mind” writes about what he calls the “Rider” and the “Elephant,” two aspects of moral psychology that I feel can be supported from the words of Torah. In short, morality prior to the 1960s operated on a Darwinian model that was about superior intellect, the strongest ruled, whereas after the 1960’s the emotive part of mankind should also be held in equality (heart and head).  Through his own study Haidt would come to recognize that contrasting the categories of cognitive intellect and emotions was pointless, although he continued to see morality as a matter of cognitive judgment.  In this case Haidt would come to hold that cognitive judgement is about the partnership of reason and intuition as opposed to the intellect and emotion being just related.  The cognitive that is “moral” operates as reason and intuition, the former speaking to processes while the latter is reactionary based on innate values.
     These two, reason and intuition, also represent for Haidt the “Rider” and the “Elephant” that are two separate cognitive pieces that must work concurrently.  Here the elephant functions in reaction to its animal intuition whereas the reason of the rider functions to guide the elephant for the best outcome.  Regarding Torah we read, נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָע (na’aseh v’nishma), “we will do and hear,” and בְּצַלְמוֹ (b’tzal’mo), mankind is created in “God’s image.”  נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָע has to do with “reason,”  we hear and therefore think before we act, whereas בְּצַלְמו is tied into “intuition,” or mankind’s sense of existence and inner convictions on a profound level that must also be guided.  In the end the rider and the elephant according to Haidt are two separate cognitive pieces that must work in tandem, just as “we will do and hear” and being created in “God’s image” must also work in tandem.  What we will learn from the relationship of reason and intuition is that they are foundationally operative in the words of the shema from this parsha in Deuteronomy 6:4; “Hear (שְׁמַע, shema), O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one (אֶחָד, echad).”
     Expanding on the connection to reason and intuition, while the shema is understood to be the Jewish declaration of faith, it is also about social bonding for a healthy community.  We will return to that in just a moment but first let’s look at the shema itself.  The word Shema (שְׁמַע) is an imperative, or command, which is why some will interpret “shema” to mean “obey” as opposed to just “hear,” or as my Rabbi says “listen up Jews” given that the passage in context is speaking to Israel.  In the Aramaic Targum, like in the Hebrew, the word used is also שְׁמַע (shema) with the added meaning “to understand.”  Certainly as an imperative that would seem obvious, but later on we find the word לְהַקְשִׁיב as well (l’hak’sheev, cf. Proverbs 2:2), which conveys the idea of needing to pay attention.  This is a causative form of a word that means to “incline” or “attend,” perhaps suggesting that the word shema alone was not enough in certain situations so l’hak’sheev was used to reinforce that active listening went beyond just hearing.  The Zohar teaches that when we say the shema we unite the upper and lower worlds, meaning that when we accept what we hear we have indeed listened; or per Haidt, it is when our reason (saying the shema is an act of  intellect) works together with our [spiritual; my addition] intuition (or higher values).  Then there is the word “one” (אֶחָד, echad) that is often translated as “alone,” more than likely as a way to affirm there is only one God in Judaism.  The word “alone” is not in the Hebrew while in the Aramaic the word is חָד, chad, aside from meaning “one,” can also mean “particular,” which tells us that early on “one” in this context was understood to mean “alone.”  But it has to be more than just a theological statement about the nature of God, therefore it should also be read as a statement about community.  Dr. Carol Ochs (Dir. of  Graduate Studies at HUC) draws that conclusion by looking at the relationship between Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5:6-18 from this parsha.  As such, in Exodus 20 we read the “ten words,” the basis of all laws, which is then restated here in Va’et’chanan and has an intrinsic communal purpose.  Ochs speaks to the relationship between the parents and grandparents who stood at Mt Sinai and their children and grandchildren who are about the enter the land, forever linking them together via those “ten words,” or L’dor vador (from generation to generation).  This would then make sense why Moses, also from this parsha, recounts the Exodus and Mt. Sinai  (see Dt. 5:1-6), thus the shema is saying that you are one with those who went before you, one with those who come after you, and one with those whom you stand here with today, notwithstanding differences.
     This is why the shema is also about social bonding for a healthy community, which is furthermore why the shema means that hearing and listening must also work in tandem. We also are a community, one people together from diverse backgrounds, Jews and gentiles, black and white, liberals and conservatives, and so forth.  Over this past couple of months in particular I have come to realize even more so than before that only hearing is not good enough.  The social rage that is inescapable right now (violence and/or verbal, political and/our social) has forced me to become better educated about ideals that may differ from how I see the world.  Reading Martin Luther King’s work from 1963, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” it is quite obvious that he burned with rage over what was happening to the black community of his time.  It could even be easily read that he advocated for violence to further the cause of civil rights, but that would not make any sense given the larger corpus of his writings and spoken words that always sought peaceful means for change.  MLK understood why, but he did not advocate for violence more so than he asked others to listen as opposed to merely hearing.  Do not get me wrong, I am not condoning of, nor turning by back, on the hate and/or violence, chas v’chalilah, God forbid, but with the help of others I am seeking to a better listener beyond just hearing even if my initial reaction does not fully comprehend and/or agree.
     Per the words of Bob Dylan, I am not trying to sound the battle charge or remake the world at large, yet I am advocating for just not hearing the convictions of intuition but with reason also listening carefully to the words and concerns of others, dismissing the cacophony of noise that may interfere with truly needed change.  On Wednesday night into Thursday of this week we observe Tisha B’av, where according to Jewish tradition the second Temple was destroyed because of “sinat chinam, senseless hatred of one Jew for another" (BT Yoma 9a), which is why this is also Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of comfort.  Both in the Jewish community and in the larger community If we do not listen we may have to remember that hate spoke louder than love, and it is love that seeks and accomplishes tikkun (repair) as opposed to hate that just wants to dominate.  May we always aspire for our hearing (intuitive) and listening (reason) to work together as one.

Shabbat Shalom