Shabbat Ki Tetze

Written by Stephen Ross Thursday, 23 August 2007

There are apparently 72 mitzvot in next week’s Parashat Ki Tetze covering what might be called ethical social behaviour.

Included among them are the following two prohibitions against: 

·        Cross-dressing. As my 1930s Hertz comments ‘An interchange of attire between man and woman would promote immodesty and, in consequence, immorality. This law is probably directed against rites in Syrian heathenism, which included exchange of garments by the sexes and led to gross impurities’.   And also 

·        Wearing ‘mingled stuff’ – shaatnes. Hertz again - ‘The Rabbis class it with the prohibition of swine’s flesh and other chukkim, which provoke the ridicule of scoffers, Jewish and non-Jewish, but which the loyal Israelite nevertheless willingly obeys, because they are commands of his Father Who is in Heaven’.

Are these reasonable or ridiculous requirements? 

For Orthodox Jews the observance of mitzvot is non-negotiable; women do not wear trousers, and clothes are shaatnes free.   

Non-orthodox Jews face a different challenge of how to interpret the observance of mitzvot.  

The Liberal Judaism tradition for example, in accordance with Baeck’s teachings is ‘to emphasise ethics over ritual observance as the basis of holiness’. 

Yet we are all Jews and being a small minority can give the appearance to an outsider of a homogenous community. To Amalek we are all the same. This is however a misconceived perception; the reality is that we are defined by our diversity, and diversity if properly harnessed, is a great strength. Last year we celebrated 350 years of the Jewish community in this country – perhaps our great achievement is that we have integrated yet retained our identity.  

I would like you now to think yourselves back in time to the autumn of 1920, to a hall in Frankfurt filled with students, faculty and staff. It is an exciting occasion - the opening of the Lehrhaus. You have no idea of the fate that awaits most of you in the next 20 years.  Franz Rosenzweig has been explaining to you what he means by  

'A new sort of learning.  A learning for which - in these days - he is the most apt who brings with him the maximum of what is alien. That is to say, not the man specialising in Jewish matters; or, if he happens to be such a specialist, he will succeed, not in the capacity of a specialist, but only as one who, too, is alienated, as one who is groping his way home….  

It is not a matter of apologetics, but rather of finding the way back into the heart of our life. And of being confident that this heart is a Jewish heart. For we are Jews.  

That sounds very simple. And so it is. It is really enough to gather together people of all sorts as teachers and students. Just glance at our prospectus. You will find, listed among others, a chemist, a physician, a historian, an artist, a politician.  Two-thirds of the teachers are persons who, 20 or 30 years ago, in the only century when Jewish learning had become the monopoly of specialists, would have come together here as Jews. They have come together in order to "learn" -for Jewish "learning" includes Jewish "teaching". Whoever teaches here - and I believe I may say this in the name of all who are teaching here - knows that in teaching here he need sacrifice nothing of what he is …’

Rosenzweig continues then concludes as follows     

'At the opening of the new term in this hall, I bid you welcome. May the hours you spend here become hours of remembrance, but not in the stale sense of a dead piety that is so frequently the attitude towards Jewish matters. I mean hours of another kind of remembrance, an inner remembering, a turning from externals to that which is within, a turning that, believe me, will and must become for you a returning home. Turn into yourself, return home to your innermost self and to your innermost life.' 

In this reflective month of Elul I conclude by asking that we, as commanded at the end of Ki Tetze, remember what Amalek did to us on our way out of Egypt and not forget to blot out Amalek. So let us at the Leo Baeck College, and in the wider British Jewish community, also remember that we carry the legacy of our colleagues in that hall setting out at the beginning of term 85 years ago with all that innovation and hope. 

Let us learn from each other, work together and utilise the diversity of our different experiences and backgrounds to produce the Jewish leadership of the future. ‘Because they are commands of … Who is in Heaven’.

Stephen Ross LBC Director of Finance and Administration