Should Halacha Be Used to Divide Us
Adapted from Rabbi Braun’s sermon in 5773
A couple of months ago, A wonderful rabbinic organization in Israel – Beit Hillel – published a responsa detailing how a religious Jew living in Israel could properly eat in a secular Israeli’s home. There are many issues to contend with, the food itself, the utensils used to cook and eat the food and the Israel specific issues of Tithing and the Sabbatical year.
The responsa relied on certain leniencies but the purpose was to connect religious and secular Israelis, to demonstrate openness and hopefully expose the secular Jew to the beauty of Judaism.
The response, even from within the non chareidi communities here was divided. Some were in favor of the approach and some were not. Those who were not, argued that the responsa contained some extraordinary leniencies which should not be relied upon.
You got the sense that they did not mind that the halacha was being used to separate Jews as opposed to bringing them together!
To be very clear, there are times when adherence to the halacha does separate groups of Jews and as tragic as it might be, we cannot veer from our commitment to the halacha. The different denominations of Judaism are separated both by divergence in Jewish though regarding the fundamentals of our faith and by divergence in practice and commitment to the halachic system. Here we can’t argue that the halacha divides Jews unnecessarily. Our commitment to our tradition both in terms of Jewish thought and practice must remain absolute, despite the tragic division of Jewry that results.
This morning I am talking about Jews using Halacha to divide us within Orthodoxy. We harp on areas of disagreement or focus too much on leniencies and stringencies and use them to keep us divided. That is not what the Torah had in mind and that his not good for us as a Jewish community.
This idea emerged from the parsha almost unexpectedly.
The first two verses of chapter 14 in Devarim detail the prohibition of desecrating your body.
א) בנים אתם ליקוק אלהיכם לא תתגדדו ולא תשימו קרחה בין עיניכם למת
ב) כי עם קדוש אתה ליקוק אלהיך ובך בחר יקוק להיות לו לעם סגלה מכל העמים אשר על פני האדמה: ס
1. You are the children of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
- For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a special people to himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
Most assume that this refers to self-mutilation in response to a death. That was an ancient idolatrous custom that God’s people are commanded not to do.
In addition to the obvious question of “what does being God’s children have to do with cutting?” I want to pose two more.
- What does the second verse add? If the reason is that we are God’s children then that is the reason. How does the fact that we are God’s people and chosen relate to the prohibition?
- This is really what pushed me to look at these verses. In the text, lo titgodedu means “do not cut yourself’. The Midrash adds a second meaning, and a second prohibition. The Midrash Tanaim reads the phrase as don’t cut yourself, the people, into different groups. From here they learn that two Beit dins in one city should not follow different halachic opinions. One should not pasken like Beit Hillel and the other like Beit Shammai! We should not allow the halacha to split us into different groups. The Midrash Aggadah (Buber) similarly writes that אל תעשו המצות אגודות – You should not perform the mitzvoth in groups. What is the possible connection between do not cut yourself and do not separate into halachic groups! How do you learn both from the same words in the Torah when there is no apparent connection between the 2?
Ralbag, Gersonides dispenses with the last question simply by writing that the text only means do not cut yourself. Everything else that you learn from there is an asmachta – the sages needed to find a connection to the Torah so they chose this verse but they never meant that we actually learn it from this verse.
To be fair to the Ralbag and intellectually honest, most of the primary medieval commentators so not quote the Midrashim about separate groups, Batei din and mitzvoth. They deal exclusively with the pshat, the simple meaning of the text, do not cut.
Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, in his commentary to the Torah argues that both “do not cut” and “do not separate” are learned directly from our verse, and are inherently connected. He specifically states that this is not an asmachta and believes that to be the Rambam’s position as well.
He then proceeds to answer both of my questions in a few short but powerful lines.
He argues that the common denominator for both halachot is בנים אתם ליקוק אלהיכם, you are God’s children. While he does not explain why we can’t cut to mourn as God’s children, other commentators offer many suggestions. He then adds that “as God’s children” you should not be divided by the Torah, by that which is meant to unite you.
That is how both laws derive from this verse and that is why there are two reasons in the Torah. The first verse focuses on the individual as God’s child and the second on the nation of Israel as God’s people.
As God’s people, who share a common parent (God) we are meant to be united. And we should not let that which is supposed to bind us, divide us.
I want to add one more point.
This is not the first time that the prohibition of self-cutting is recorded in the Torah. It is also found in the book of Vayikra (21/5). Why is it repeated here?
The Ramban writes that it was first recorded in the context of the Kohanim and is now repeated to teach us that the prohibition applies to all of us.
The Ramban explains why it has to be repeated but not why it has to be repeated in the book of Devarim.
I would suggest that the command is repeated here to add the second prohibition of lo titgodedu. The language used in Vayikra to prohibit cutting is ובבשרם לא ישרטו שרטת. Not only is the command repeated, it is also given using different words, ie לא תתגדדו. Maybe it is repeated here to add the second prohibition of separating the people specifically as they stand on the verge of entering the land.
In the desert there was no real concern of such a split. They were all God’s people and Moshe was the leader with final say on all halachick matters. The people could not really separate into different halachic groups. But once they entered the land and spread out and decentralized halachic separation could become a real concern.
That is why it is here.
If that is true then certainly today in Israel, and here in America our attitude must be – do not allow Torah and mitzvoth to keep us separated and divided! That which is meant to unite us should not divide us!
