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During Shavuot, I taught from Rabbi Donniel Hartman’s book “Who Are the Jews and What Can We Become?” As a brief summary of the themes, Rabbi Hartman is teaching about qualities within communities, the qualities of Pluralism, Tolerance, and what he calls deviant. Each of these qualities must be in balance with each other for a community to be in a healthy relationship with itself. Too much pluralism and you have moved to relativism where everything is ok even if it harms others. Too much intolerance and you move towards totalitarianism or authoritarianism where you cannot even question ideas or actions. He teaches that Deviance is a category that can change over time, so there is even a balance of tolerance and deviance which allows for society to grow, change, and have new perspectives. Things which were once deviant might become tolerated or even normative (such as women wearing pants) while things which were once tolerated might become deviant such as harassment and racism.

For the Jewish Community, Rabbi Hartmen offers the lens of two covenants; what he calls the Genesis covenant and the Exodus covenant. Genesis is peoplehood, you are a Jew because your family is Jewish, it doesn’t matter what you DO, a Jew is a Jew is a Jew. Exodus covenant is the practice of Judaism, Jews behave in certain ways because of Mitzvot, commandments from God, because of community expectations, because to be a Jew requires something of you. These two covenants are historically ebbing and flowing but always balancing with each other. Sometimes the balance comes from the outside, such as antisemitism which doesn’t care if you practice Judaism, you are still a Jew. Sometimes it comes from the inside, such as conversion which necessitates certain behaviors, practices, and beliefs be wrestled with in order for someone to become a Jew. But we are always both a people (Genesis) and a Religion (Exodus).

So I’ve been thinking recently about what we as a Genesis people might owe to each other? I grew up with a notion of communal pride and communal shame. When a Jew won a Nobel prize or was honored with fame or an award, the community owned them.

“Look at what Jews can do and become in this world.”

It didn’t matter if that person was a practicing Jew, it might not even matter if that person owned their own Judaism, if they brought honor we wanted to claim them. Conversely, if someone was splashed on the front page of the paper for being a criminal, and especially guilty of financial crimes, this brought shame to the community. This played into the negative stereotype that Jews were greedy and money-grubbing: and here is Bernie Madoff arrested for a Ponzi scheme. Never mind that most of his victims were also Jewish because of the Jew to Jew relationship trust, he brought shame and was a stereotype realized to be true to us Jews as a community. 

This sense of communal ownership is due to Genesis Judaism, we are… together, alike, one, related…. Because we are a Jewish family. But the lesson from my community was also, YOU have a responsibility to the community because your actions can bring communal pride or communal shame. That expectation was an Exodus expectation, we are bound together as family which necessitates behavioral expectations. Like a superhero in our Marvel movies, whether we liked it or not this was true. Actions of other Jews might affect us, and our actions might affect other Jews, a burden and responsibility. Fair or unfair it has been seen as at least partially true throughout Jewish history.

So what is it that we owe to each other, is there some kind of loyalty owed by virtue of the fact that we are Jews? Is that right? Is that racist? Can it even be enacted if we wanted to?

Generally speaking, I don’t like terms like loyalty, if someone is asking for your loyalty they probably don’t deserve it, but perhaps you are loyal to something even though it hasn’t been asked specifically of you. On the other hand, oaths are somewhat like loyalty, we swear oaths toward the Constitution in certain jobs, we make oaths and vows towards our marital partners. Does being born a Jew or created a Jew by choice necessitate you into loyalty to other Jews “just because”? What might that really mean?

Here in Omaha, we have a very unique Jewish community, we seek to be in a relationship despite denominational differences. As a community, many of you help support more than one part of the Jewish community, which enables all of us to succeed and prevents us from viewing the other synagogues as competition. But we still have strong differences. Whether it is creating a Jewish community statement after the October 7th attacks or choosing to show up in each other’s spaces for communal programming, each clergy and each community makes choices to be loyal to the Jewish community of Omaha over any specific custom or difference. And each of us is asked to compromise for the sake of the community.

But what about the larger Jewish world? Do I owe loyalty to Jewish strangers from New York, Clevland, or Israel? From Morraco, France or Australia? We may have very little in common, we may not even speak the same language, we may have different theologies, different Jewish customs, and not even recognize the Jewishness of the other… and yet… somehow when you’re on vacation and you meet other people and you discover that they are also Jewish…you feel more connected, a slightly closer bond, even a sense of trust or “in tribe” towards them that you don’t have with the other strangers on your trip. Or maybe that’s just me? I learned it from my mother so maybe you don’t experience that connectivity with Jewish strangers. Maybe you connect more closely with other types of strangers. Now this sense of connection, this doesn’t mean that we automatically like each other, agree with each other or even want to be friends, but there is a baseline connection, a starting place for conversation.

So if I feel some innate connection with people simply because of our Genesis Jewish family nature, what is my obligation to them if it turns out they behave appallingly? Are they like any stranger: you tolerate them until you can get away? You confront them if you feel safe doing so? You call the authorities if they are behaving illegally or dangerously. Or are they like family: where you perhaps protect them from themselves? Make excuses for their bad behavior? protect them from the intolerance of others?

I see this question of Jewish loyalty and obligation playing out right now. People tell me they feel disconnected from the community because we are too pro-Israel. People tell me they cannot be part of our community because it is not pro-Israel enough. People say…because I am a Jew I stand with this Palestinian encampment. People say…because I am a Jew I stand with my brothers and sisters in Israel. 

I feel connected to Israel and I mourn the loss of her citizens killed on October 7th and stolen as hostages, because they are Jews, because they were attacked AS Jews, because it didn’t matter if they were peace activists, soldiers, rave attendees or even Muslim Bedouin, they were attacked because they are part of the Jewish state. 
And I also feel connected to shame and to rebuke when I see the destruction caused by Israel. Is it my obligation as a Jew to stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself? Or is it my obligation as a Jew to stand up against Israel and fight for her to behave with ethics and morals as I understand my Exodus covenant? What is the space for pluralism and tolerance? What qualifies a deviant? What behavior by Israel is deviant? What behavior by Jews in support, or opposition is deviant? What does it mean for us as a community to be loyal or disloyal to other Jews because of their loyalty or connection in reciprocity?
 
I don’t have an answer to these questions, but I would ask that you think about them and help share your answers with me. I am very disturbed that the Jewish community seems to be fraying because of a litmus test around Israel, what is our future as a people if we fail to see the Genesis covenant in each other? And yet, what is our obligation to our own red lines, our own tolerance our own limits if we compromise our ethics for the sake of unity or for the sake of communal peace. I don’t know where the line ought to be. I don’t know that we all need to be on the same line, or perhaps this is precisely what pluralism helps us find. But I implore you, if you find yourself thinking that your community no longer welcomes you, I implore you to have a conversation, and reach back out in obligation that the community not go astray or leave you behind. Reach back out, you might find others who feel similarly, or you might find a reason outside of this one disagreement to reconnect to the community despite disagreeing about this important issue or that one. 

Rabbi Hartman’s teaching on Genesis and Exodus covenants implores us to find balance between them, to know that sometimes we find ourselves in a relationship just because we are all Jews, even as very little binds us together in actions and belief; and sometimes we must seek out the communal ties to strengthen our connections just to continue to feel part of that Genesis covenant ourselves.

We are Yisrael, the people who struggle with God, and with each other. We are Jews because it is who we were born to be, and we are Jews because it is who we choose to be. What might we owe to the community and what might we ask of it in return?

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Temple Talk is a recap of sermons given from the Bimah for those who missed a Sermon or who wanted to revisit the words spoken at a previous sermon.