Spring • Passover 5767/2007

38
Coming Home
(cont’d)
But in fact, our
real legacy isn’t a
biological one at all.
much enlarged, but still a tribe, with
common goals, and somehow united
even if the unity is obscured by a
great variety of individual expression.
The connections are so deep
that we are usually unconscious of
them, but they are there, and
sometimes it is as though we feel
that the clan is calling and then to
our surprise, we join.
This family
feeling is possibly
one of the
main reasons
why Judaism
as a religion
was never
very active
in proselytizing
– just
as a family
would never
go out into the
streets to grab
people to join the
family. It doesnt
mean that Jews feel
superior or inferior. Its
simply that from the very beginning,
it had its own pattern and way
of living. Even when members of
such a family are out of the family
house, when they are wandering far
away, they follow the life style, theologically,
sociologically, behaviorally. Of course,
members of the family can be severely chastised
and rifts can occur between individuals and
groups, but there is really no way of leaving the
family. You can even hate it, but you cannot be
separated from it. After some time, people,
younger or older, come to the conclusion that in
fact, they cant get away from it. And therefore, it
is far better that they try to find the ways in which
they are connected. Because the connection is
beyond choice. It is a matter of being born with it.
And it is far better to get to know where you came
from and who you are.
For some of our people its almost like the story
of the duckling who was hatched by a hen. Often
enough, our ducklings grow up in a different
atmosphere. They are taught to think and act in
ways which are entirely alien. Jews have adopted
a lot of other cultures, national identities and
sometimes religions. Sometimes there is a very
wonderful recognition and return. Frequently, it
comes as a very unpleasant discovery that I am
somehow different, that my medium is a different
medium. When I do indeed find water, I will swim
in it, even though those that raised me taught me
not to. Altogether, finding somehow ones family is
a familiar theme in literature, and in life.
Knowingly or unknowingly, each person begins to
discover it. If the discovery comes soon enough,
the person is not only able to acknowledge the fact
that he belongs somewhere, but also to make
his life, in a way, more sensible. Paradoxically,
freedom comes with the acceptance of a definite
framework from which one cannot move away.
To be sure, a family is usually a biological unit;
the Jewish family is and isn’t a biological unit.
We speak about ourselves as being the children of
Abraham, or the children of Jacob. But in fact, our
real legacy isn’t a biological one at all. Our tribe is
a very different kind of tribe. To quote an old
source, when we speak about the father of our
family, the mother of our family, we say that the
father of our family is G-d, that the mother of our
family is that which is called the communal spirit
of Israel. This is not just a mystical-theological
statement. This is the way our family is constructed,
it determines how the family behaves and feels.
When we speak about G-d our father, it is not
just an image, it is a feeling of integral belonging
to the source of the family. This makes for a
stronger family of course, but nevertheless, we
continue to behave like an ordinary family. Like all
children, we pass through periods of admiring
father and periods of fighting with father, even
hating father. We can never come to the point at
which we deny the existence of a father, our father.
Of course, some children may express this denial
as a mark of revolt and various members of the
family may react in different ways. Sometimes,
members of the family are very angry at such
blasphemy. Sometimes, they just wait for the
young blood to boil down a little. But always,
whether one hates or loves, whether one is an
ardent believer or a convinced heretic, one remains
his fathers child.
This basic connection is what is called the
Jewish religion; being a member of that family. We