By Aaron Torop
“JUDAISM. IS NOT. A RELIGION.” Anyone who has had the privilege to speak with Avraham Infeld will be able to hear these words echoing in their mind loud and clear. But his message goes much deeper than a definition of what Judaism is (or is not); he believes that we must “re-oralize” the Torah in order to allow the Jewish people to continue to flourish.
The Oral Torah, also known at the Mishnah, used to be just that: oral only, until Yehuda ha-Nasi wrote it down after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. From this initial writing down of the Oral Torah, the Talmud and the vast expanse of laws that follow. Mr. Infeld believes that this writing down has created problems for Judaism because it has prevented the Oral Torah from continuing to be interpreted in different ways as our understanding of society and the Oral Torah changes.
If we accept Infeld’s charge, the results could be radical and scary. This phrase, “re-Oralize the Torah,” calls into question thousands of years of Rabbinic Jewish thought, laws, and customs. It calls literally everything we know about Judaism, from leadership to prayer to holiday rituals into question: what stays and what goes?
These questions are new for some, and old news for others. My progressive background has taught me to question everything, invent what I don’t find, and teaches that the prayers and rituals we create today are equally significant as those created in the time of the Talmud. But this can be frightening for those raised in Jewish homes that shunned ritual innovation, believing instead in the wisdom of our ancestors.
However, maybe this concept is not so formal. The Prayer for the Welfare for the State of Israel was only composed in the mid-20th Century with the founding of the state. In many non-Orthodox communities the Amidah was amended to add in the Imahot. Rav Moshe Feinstein wrote in 1984 that it was the duty of American Jews to vote, even though Pirkei Avot says “do not become familiar with the government” (1:10).
I think that it is drastically important to re-Oralize the Torah. In a world that every day is experiencing great technological, cultural, political, and economic change, Judaism too must try to understand its place in this world. While this may be scary, it is also terribly exciting. The work that has been done over the past twenty years, and for the next twenty, could, possibly forever, change the way Judaism is thought about and practiced.
Our Jewish future may depend on it. And isn’t that what The Nachshon Project is all about?
