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This week we will be reading from parashat Va’et’chanan. There is a lot going on in this Torah portion including both the restatement of the 10 Commandments as well as the text of the Shema and V’Ahavata. 

We often refer to the Shema as the ‘watchword prayer of our faith.’ This is a curious phrase ‘watchword prayer of our faith.’ As Cantor David Fair argues, “We say it every morning and night and it's placed inside the frame of our doorways on our mezuzah scrolls. It says who we are as a people in relationship to God.” 
That being said, one thing that has always struck me about Judaism is that we are not a dogmatic tradition, for the most part. True, in some more traditional communities, there is the expected adherence to Moses Maimonides 13 principles of faith. However, even then there are disagreements over how these are to be interpreted. 

For our purposes, the one statement of faith, if you will, is that there is one God. However, even with this, there is not a statement about what God is, or even, what God is not. This is in part why, we as Jews, spend so much time debating and wrestling over both the nature of God as well as trying to understand what God wants from us. So, in a way, all the Shema really is asking of us is that we be in dialogue willing to both argue and listen.

And because there is no universal agreement in our tradition over the nature of God or the paths we should be walking, how much the more so, there is a great deal of space for us to disagree over just about everything. 

In our tradition, there are a couple of useful concepts when it comes to sacred disagreement. The first is: mahloket--as conflict, debate, disagreement, controversy. The second is l’Shem Shamayim / Lo L’Shem Shamayim: An argument considered 'for the sake of Heaven' or 'not for the sake of Heaven.'[2]

Sadly, in today’s world, especially in social media, but not exclusively, any makloket is mostly lo l’Shem Shamayim, not for the sake of heaven. It is for the sake of winning, for the sake of ego, or the sake of simply wanting to be right. Rather, our tradition teaches, sacred arguing should be focused on uncovering greater truths and greater understanding, or l’Shem Shamayim, for the sake of Heaven.

I mention this because I have had multiple conversations as of late from members of our community of how to best navigate their thoughts, feelings, and their Jewishness in public and social media spheres.

This is a very difficult and sensitive topic because, though Jews have often been viewed as the ‘other,’ until recently, there were many spaces where we were welcomed and invited to join in the conversation. And nowadays, we are being told that we are not welcome, or only conditionally welcomed at the table if we hide, deny, or at least we must be able justify our presence before being allowed a seat at the table. It is all very heartbreaking, and yet, all too predictable.

As Dara Horn explains in her book, People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted present, “what Jewish identity meant to those people, it turned out, was simply a state of non-being: not being Christian or Muslim or whatever else other people apparently were … being alienated, being marginalized …” 

I wish I could say it was simply about Israel or Zionism or the War in Gaza, but based on our history and experiences, all too often, these feel like simple excuses. Part of the challenge is that we have never fit into a neat category. We are not a race, yet there are ethnic components to being Jewish. We are not a religion, yet there are customs of practice and observance. We are not a theology, because as many of us know, Jews believe and act in a wide variety of ways, and yet, we are all still Jewish.

One can convert into Judaism, so one does not have to be born into it. In our community we welcome family members and friends who are Jewish-adjacent. We are a Diaspora people with historic and religious ties to a particular land in the Middle East. But because of this Diaspora, we have spread out all across the globe adopting languages, customs, foods, and even music from our surrounding communities. There is a depth and breadth to Judaism and being Jewish that is not easily defined or compartmentalized.

Yet, if there is one thing our world does not like right now, it is complexity. It seems every argument, every meme, every statement is about reducing complexity and embracing simplistic understandings of complex issues, histories, beliefs, and so much more. These concepts run counter to our aforementioned concepts of mahloket--as conflict, debate, disagreement, controversy. And l’Shem Shamayim / Lo L’Shem Shamayim: An argument considered 'for the sake of Heaven' or 'not for the sake of Heaven.'

Overly simplistic statements and beliefs, our tradition would argue, is lo l’shem shamayim, not for the sake of heaven. Instead, it narrows or contracts the space and removes the opportunity for genuine dialogue and debate. 

So, what advice do I give when I am asked about how to navigate social circles, social media circles and professional circles. 

The first is: figure out if the space is a space where you can genuinely be yourself and accepted for who you are, including the length and breadth of who you are. Here at Temple Israel, we very much strive to create that space acknowledging the complexity of political and social beliefs that many of us hold can be in conflict with those of others. But that does not mean we always get it right, and it does not mean that all spaces are like that. 

Second: ask yourself, what do you hope to accomplish. I have found that most social media is about monologues not dialogues. People like to show how smart they are over and over again and beat down any demonstration of disagreement. Therefore, for me personally, I stay out of any argument of substance. I stick with arguing about such topics as sports and pop culture and stay away from real dialogue because social media is not designed for such endeavors.

And third, it is good to ask yourself the cost of such engagement. When you put yourself and your core beliefs out there, you are open yourself up to both understanding and attacks, which can often turn personal and be filled with hate and vitriol. I do believe in the importance of representation and of presence, but sometimes the cost can just be too high for one’s on mental health.

But the news is not all bad. Some of these arguments, especially within our community are l’shem shmayim, for the sake of heaven. They are helping us navigate what it means to be Jewish in a post-modern world. Many of these questions have been put on the backburner for the sake of survival. And I would argue, we need to continue to have them for the Jewish world, like so much of the ‘religious’ world is rapidly changing. We are now focusing on questions like observance, engagement and education, just to name a few.

It is also helping us navigate the question of what ally-ship can and should look like. When one puts conditions on a relationship or comes up with the argument that you have to agree with me about everything in order for us to be partners, this diminishes the power and uniqueness of partnerships. We have this Commons and what it can represent not because we agree on everything, but because we are working to create space for sacred disagreement.

And third, and this may sound a little strange, but I have found people really do care about us or at least they care deeply about what we have to say and what we think. According to rough estimates, there are anywhere between 12-17 million Jews in the world, in a sea of 7 billion people. That percentage is infinitesimal. Nonetheless, it seems like so many are obsessed with us. We continue to have an oversized influence relative to our population, which means we also have a platform. 

So even with all of the aforementioned challenges, there are still opportunities to elevate the conversations and make them less about arguments and more about arguments for the sake of heaven. And if they are for the sake of heaven, they could also potentially be for the sake of shalom, peace as well.

Ribbono Shel Olam, help guide our words and our deeds in ways that help to elevate our conversations, and may those words and deeds be like the Shema, and heard and received in the manner in which they are intended, for l’shem shemayim, the sake of heaven. Cayn Yehi Ratzon, may this be Your Will. Amen.

Shabbat Shalom. 

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Watch the entirety of Friday’s service here.

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.