“A Lifetim e of Learning” - Partnership for Excellence in Jewish ...

The Formation of IdentityIdentity is a delicate thing. It is reality internalized,how we see ourselves in relation tothe world around us. For most people atmost times, identity is not a problem. It isprovided by the surrounding culture and itsinstitutions. For Jews, however, it has beena problem at most times and placesthroughout our history. The reason is simple.Jewish identity was not provided by thesurrounding culture, for Jews were a minorityin a non-Jewish environment. Most minoritieseventually give up the unevenstruggle of maintaining their identities.Based as they are on tradition, memory,and habit, they gradually assimilate as traditionweakens, memory fades, and habitsare eclipsed by adjustment to the ways ofthe majority. It takes time - several generations- for this to happen. But almost invariablyit does.Jews were different, for they saw theiridentity not as an accident of history (whothey happened to be) but as a religious vocation(who they were called on to be).From the very outset they did not rest contentwith tradition, memory and habit, thelegacy of the past. They renewed and recreatedthe past in each successive generation.A Jewish child, on Pesach, tastes theunleavened bread and bitter herbs of Egyptianslavery. On Sukkot she joins her ancestorsin their tabernacles as they journeyprecariously through the desert. On Tishabe’ Av he sits with the author of Lamentationsand mourns the destruction of theTemple. In the most vivid way, Jews handedon their memories to their children.Not only their memories but their way oflife. Since the days of Moses, Jews hadlived distinctively according to the laws setforth in the Torah. Had this rested on habitalone it would slowly have disappearedonce Jews were exiled and dispersed. ButJews were never content with habit. Theybelieved not only in keeping the law but instudying it as well. Rabbinic Judaism is theonly civilisation in the world in which everycitizen is expected not just to obey the lawbut to become a lawyer, a student and exponentof the law. Jews were - to use DavidReisman’s terms - not tradition-directed butinner-directed individuals. The “thou shalt”sand “thou shalt not’s of the Torah were notan external code but an internalised discipline,part of identity itself. That is howJews were able to hand on their way of lifeto their children.Even this might not have sufficed were itnot for one other thing. Perhaps the mostprecious heritage Jews gave their childrenwas hope. From the outset Israel has beena remarkably future-oriented people. Thestory of Abraham begins with the promiseof a land, but by the end of the book of Genesisit has still not been fulfilled. The bookof Exodus begins with the Israelites leavingEgypt and travelling towards the landof milk and honey, but by the end ofDeuteronomy they have still not arrived. Incontrast with almost every other faith, Judaism’sgolden age lies not in the past butin the future, just over the horizon.As a result, at every moment of crisis - theBabylonian exile, the Roman destruction,the Spanish expulsion - prophets, sagesand mystics were able to rescue a peoplefrom despair by messianic intimations.Jews remembered their future as activelyas they recalled their past. They prayed towardsJerusalem and mentioned it constantlybecause they knew it would one daybe rebuilt, and they or their children wouldreturn. It is said that Napoleon, passing asynagogue on Tisha be’ Av in 1806 andhearing sounds of weeping, asked whattragedy had just occurred. He was told: thedestruction of Jerusalem seventeen centuriesbefore. He replied: a people that canmourn a city for so long will one day have itrestored. He was right. Jewish memory, becauseof its peculiar character, kept Jewishhope alive. This too led Jews to live for thefuture, which meant for and through theirchildren.Jewish Identity in theDiasporaThere is nothing inevitable about Jewishidentity in the diaspora, and there neverwas. In Israel things are different. There,one is Jewish by living in a Jewish state,surrounded by a Jewish culture and Jewishinstitutions. The language is Hebrew. Thecalendar is Jewish. The days of rest andcelebration are those of the Bible. “The airof Israel,” said the sages, “makes onewise “, because the very air of Israel is saturatedwith the Jewish past. Here are thetowns in which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacobpitched their tents. There is Jerusalem, thecity of David. And there beyond is the landscapeof the Psalms. Only in Israel doesbeing Jewish mean going with the grain ofpublic culture. Only in Israel is Jewishnessa matter of what you can see and touch andbreathe.In the diaspora, being Jewish has alwaysmeant going against the grain, beingcounter-cultural. The most natural form ofidentity is to say, I belong to the here-andnow,to the people around me and the landscapeI see every morning. Jews chose amore complex identity, and had they notdone so they would have disappeared.Since the days of Jeremiah they knew thattheir responsibility as citizens was to “seekthe peace of the city to which I have carriedyou into exile, and pray to the Lord for it,because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”So, whenever permitted, they enteredinto the life of Cairo and Cordova, Vilna,The secret of Jewish continuity is that Jews cared about it.They created continuity by making the transmission oftradition their first duty and greatest joy.P A G E 12 • C O N T I N U I T Y M A G A Z I N E