By Rabbi Fred Morgan
Recently, we at Temple Beth Israel celebrated the bat-mitzvah of a girl who attends Leibler-Yavneh College, a religious Zionist school. Her bat-mitzvah was a living example of what has come to be known as ‘pluralism’ within the Jewish world.
Pluralism is one of three approaches to the religious reality of diversity. It is a self-evident fact that the Jewish world today is a world of diversity. Pluralism is one such response: it claims that “there is more than one way to be Jewish.” The other two responses are the exclusivist and inclusivist approaches. Both claim there is only one way to be Jewish - the halakhic way - but differ in their attitude toward Jews who do not subscribe to that way of being Jewish.
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Exclusivism is the approach of those who claim their way is the only true path to Judaism. Exclusivists believe that only they understand what Judaism means, how Judaism should be lived, and what a Jew should believe. Since theirs is the only ‘authentic’ Judaism, all other expressions of Judaism are bogus.
To the exclusivist, there is no point in engaging in conversation with other Jews about their beliefs or lifestyle, since there is nothing of value in them. The exclusivist can only argue for his position and give reasons why it is true and opposing views false. In Melbourne, the Adas community takes such an approach. Within Chasidism, the Satmar sect is exclusivist in its outlook.
The second approach to Jewish diversity is the inclusivist approach. This approach is represented by a wide range of figures, from the late Lubavitcher Rebbe (and the Chabad movement) to the leaders of Aish HaTorah to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Like the exclusivist approach, inclusivism also holds that there is only one truth within Judaism, and that truth is expressed by halakhah, Jewish law. But it acknowledges that not every Jew is at the same place along the path of halakhah. For historical or sociological reasons, many Jews have been given only a partial or minimal vision of Judaism. Perhaps their understanding of Judaism has been diluted by foreign ideas; their Yiddishkeit may have been corrupted by the Diaspora, which contains values and notions that are alien to the truths of Torah. An example of Diaspora influence may be the scientific outlook, or the inclusion of teachings from other religions.
Inclusivists welcome all Jews, whatever their initial level of belief or observance, into their vision of a life of Torah. Inclusivism itself has many different expressions, and often it is presented with considerable subtlety. But it is a proselytizing form of Judaism. It sees all Jews as potential “Torah-true” Jews. Though inclusivists seem to accept other Jews and their views, in reality they simply tolerate other Jews and bide their time until the other Jews become just like them.
Inclusivists tend to be persuasive because they are filled with conviction and passion, seeking to share ‘authentic’ Judaism. But the reality is that inclusivists create a hierarchy of Jews according to their standard of frumkeit, or observance according to an halakhic ideal that they themselves oversee. In the view of inclusivists, all Jews are equal, but some Jews are more equal than others.
To my mind, this presents an unsolvable dilemma for the inclusivist approach to diversity. It offends democratic instincts and contemporary understandings of human rights. It requires us to accept that other persons, created in the divine image like ourselves, can determine what is authentic or not in our expression of Judaism. I feel it is my obligation, my mitzvah, to engage in personal struggle with Torah and Jewish tradition, as Jacob engaged in his struggle with the stranger, and so gave rise to ‘Israel’. And this is precisely what pluralism, the third approach to Jewish diversity, recognises.
The pluralist acknowledges that Judaism is not simply a set of practices or beliefs handed down from Mt Sinai. Rather, the pluralist sees Judaism as an ongoing relationship between individual Jews and Torah. What different groups and communities of Jews have brought and continue to bring to their understanding of Torah is the “chain of tradition” (shalshelet kabbalah) that represents a plurality of expressions of Judaism, each only a partial expression of the truth. The many branches of Orthodox, Progressive and other forms of Judaism are all only partial expressions of the truth that Judaism as a “tree of life” represents; and only God knows the ultimate truth. For this reason, it is not for any one group to say of another that it does not practice authentic Judaism. In short, “there is more than one way to be Jewish.”
However, we should not take this statement to mean that Judaism is a free-for-all. There are limits to what counts as Judaism. The difference is that, for the pluralist, these limits are not set by self-appointed “guardians of Torah.” In the pluralist model, these limits are understood to be set by the Jewish community as a whole. A claim to being Jewish that recognises Jesus as the Messiah or accepts Krishna as a divine avatar would not be accepted by the Jewish community at large. It is pure casuistry for inclusivists to argue that pluralism cannot deny a place in the Jewish community to “Jews for Jesus” or other such groups. It can, because it does – because the Jewish community at large does.
Within the limits set by the community at large, there is great latitude in the beliefs and practices that can be and are described as ‘Jewish’. The aim of the pluralist is not to ensure that all Jews practice in the same way, but on the contrary, that we listen to each other and so learn from each other, since the pluralist holds that each group has something unique and precious to offer to k’lal Yisrael, the people Israel as a whole. That sense of honest respect for the other Jew, what Jonathan Sacks called “the dignity of difference” (though he applied it only to inter-religious conversation, not intra-religious conversation as I am doing), is what Jewish pluralism is all about.
That is why a Leibler-Yavneh student celebrating her bat-mitzvah at Temple Beth Israel is so significant. It is Jewish pluralism in practice. Some might say, Oy vey, what is Judaism coming to? But I say, Thank heaven for pluralism.
Rabbi Fred Morgan is Senior Rabbi at Temple Beth Israel in St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia
