The Legacy of Rabbinic Judaism

What's the meaning of a chance encounter between old friends? We would only know if we were one of those acquaintances. What's the purpose of a grasshopper? No one knows except it plays some integral role in the local ecology. Words are merely symbols of what exists in nature, taught the early Rabbis, and consequently the words themselves must have meaning too. That's what the early sages understood when they attempted to infuse meaning into God's Torah. In that spirit they began a process of dissecting verses, sentences, words, even letters of the holy document which led to the composition of our vast ocean of Jewish literature.

The sages comprised an elite group of scholars that grew out of Pharisaic politics—the perpetuation of Judaism through the interpretation of the oral tradition. They were the adversaries of the priestly class who ruled with Temple ritual and animal sacrifice. Among the illustrious scholars we find such notables as Yochanan Ben Zakkai, the hero who saved Judaism by convincing the Roman authorities to allow him to open a yeshiva
 in Yavneh, where Jewish learning could continue amidst the destruction; Rabbi Akiva, Shimon bar Yochai and the celebrated cast of characters in the Talmud.

What did the Rabbis accomplish in their attempt to decode God's message? First, they championed a determined Judaism that withstood the discrimination, the hostility and the hatred of the host countries for over two thousand years in Diaspora. In their efforts, they forged a portable faith that would enable Judaism to survive despite the dispersion to far off lands. There was intuitive genius in those early master's endeavors. Five hundred years before the destruction of the Temple, they anticipated the future foreseeing destruction and exile. Their writings formed the basis for all of Jewish tradition we know today, regardless of our denominational differences. The underlying motive of deciphering the Torah led to the development of the Mishnah, the precursor to the Talmud; the Midrash, imaginative rabbinical forays into the text; the celebrated medieval commentaries of sages, the likes of Rashi, Maimonides and Ibn Ezra; and the vast body of exposition on current issues, the responsa literature.

Perhaps equally as important as survival Judaism, the Rabbis hit upon something that addressed the soul directly, a methodology to aid all Jews in finding meaning in their life situations. I was called upon recently to address an adult group on the subject of Jewish mysticism at a nearby synagogue. I came down with the flu a few days earlier which prevented me from adequately preparing for the talk, assuming I could piece the presentation together with bits and pieces from old notes. At the last moment, I chose to begin my talk with a story about someone from my past who unknowingly served me well as a mentor. Before long, I asked myself, "why am I telling this story"? It didn't seem to have anything to do with the subject at hand. I managed to get through it and then continued with the presentation. Afterwards a young lady come forward to declare, much to my amazement, that the story of the mentor struck such a deep chord that she now found the courage to move on with her life. Stories are like that!  That's the way it is with Torah too. The Rabbis sought explanations for the lapses of time in the narrative, like what happened during the years when Jacob left his parent’s home and reunited once more with his brother Esau at the River Jabbok.

That sensibility impelled the authors of the Midrash-- not a single text but a collection of sermons and homilies on biblical verses—to close the gaps left untold. They felt that those lost spans of time shed further light on God's intentions for mankind. The same remains true today for psychotherapy. Therapists assist clients in recalling not only past events, but in finding forgotten connecting links which help in unifying conflicting emotional or behavioral patterns. Jews always have had access to these healing tools. Today’s rabbis—the scholarly descendants of the early sages-- are trained to help us find significance in the text; we subsequently benefit by searching out personal meaning from our own past experiences.

What do all these writings teach us? At first glance, it seems to be irrelevant to the problems of a modern society. We want to know how to bring up our kids, how to maintain peace and harmony within the family, how to deal with our distressing negative emotions. We want an educated understanding of modern anomalies, like what's the Jewish position on surrogate parenting, gay rights, genetic engineering and so many other perplexing issues that face us today.  Deeper scrutiny reveals questions that arise in us, just as they arose for the Rabbis, which demand earnest contemplation. Real knowledge originates from our deep unconscious and only the obstinate exploration of the minutiae of Torah and of life reveals authentic teaching.
I think we owe the ancient Rabbis a debt of gratitude. We can begin to repay it by embracing their thoughts more seriously. We can look into reorganizing our lives in accordance with rabbinical teaching, not necessarily becoming observant overnight, but to realize that our spiritual dimension which they address, motivates every aspect of our lives. It would be to our benefit just to inquire, even on an intellectual level, into the thoughts, the meanings, and the mental processes our forefathers lovingly bestowed upon us.