| Dear {{first_name}},
Judaism is not the religion of the Torah so much as it's the religion of the rabbinic interpretation of the Torah. That means we don’t look at a literal word for word meaning of the Torah and then directly apply it to our everyday lives. We spend considerable time and effort looking more deeply at the words and trying to dissect what they mean to us… today. In our tradition, we have four levels of interpretation. They are remembered using an acronym from the word פרדס (Pardes) which means orchard and/or paradise. The four levels from this word are: פשט/Peshat, רמז/Remez, דרש/Drash and סוד/Sod.
The first level called “Peshat” is the plain meaning of the text, but explained a bit more. It requires we stick to what is written and not interpret it too greatly but rather explain it as simply as possible. The next level is “Remez,” which means hints and refers to the idea that we dig deeper to see what the plain text could be alluding to, but we still stay away from going too far into interpretation of the actual words. The next step is called “Drash” and this is the point in which we begin to compare different parts of the story or text to other parts of the Bible. It’s where we expound and bring lessons out to apply to our world today. The final level is “Sod” which means secret and is the highest level of interpretation when we are able to find the deepest of meanings in the text that’s hidden from us at first glance.
The four levels are each necessary and each help us to better understand our most sacred traditions and books. I’d like to look at this week’s portion, Toldot, with levels one and three. In Toldot we learn of the birth of twins: Esau and Jacob. In our worldview, we would normally say their names as Jacob and Esau but that is not their birth order, nor is it their story. For millennia the Jewish people have attributed awful things to Esau and made him a villain while attributing only great things to Jacob and holding him up as the hero. The problem with this interpretation is that the plain “Peshat” reading of the text is that Esau did nothing wrong and Jacob was quite wicked. The text does not paint a picture of an aggressive and oppressive Esau. At the same time, it does portray Jacob as a schemer and someone who lacked empathy for others, namely his own twin brother. All of us are fully aware of sibling rivalry and thus we should clearly see the exploits of this week’s portion are not all that significant or out of the ordinary. Brothers will harass each other and will bicker. Brothers will compete for their parents’ attention and love. That is the reality of the world and likely should be assumed into this text as well. What is clear is the vilification of Esau is overboard and lacks any textual evidence and the absolution of Jacob is a bit premature and also lacks any textual support. What we do know of the traditional demonization of Esau is that our tradition saw him as the ancestor of Rome, and ultimately, Catholicism. As our ancestors lived under the oppressive tyrants of the Roman Empire, it was necessary for them to vilify their oppressor. Since they saw Esau as being the “origin” of the Roman Empire, it was very easy to see he had to be evil as well. That is fine, but to be clear, that’s a giant leap away from the basic and plain meaning of the text.
I want to apply the third level, Drash, as well and I would like to apply this to the world in which we live. Our world today is as tribal as it’s ever been. People have decided they want to listen only to those with whom they agree. They only associate with those with whom they agree. And they refuse to acknowledge the depth of the arguments and motivations on the other side. We regularly vilify those we oppose. We can spend all day claiming the side we sit on is not guilty of this and point fingers in the other direction and which only proves my point a bit better. Rather than looking in the mirror and seeing our own faults, we insist on being right and them being wrong and bad. We insist on purity and consistency in our absolutist worldview and fail to see compromise as a praiseworthy attribute. We see this all around us: online, in elections and in our communications. A person on one side of the aisle is no more correct in vilifying someone on the other side than we were to vilify Esau. The more we treat other people as “other,” the further down this hole we will find ourselves. While the more we acknowledge the person on the other side as being entitled to their views and having valid arguments… the sooner we will be able to lift ourselves out of the hole and find some much needed light. Each of us needs to see the roles we play in the conflicts around us and not assume the other side is always exclusively in the wrong. Each of us needs to see we will never fix our community, our cities, our states, our country or our world if we continue to vilify those who are different and with whom we disagree.
The Torah is an eternal book and as such we need to find the layers inside it that will provide us with lessons big and small. When we are willing to learn from the Torah, we will leave ourselves open to great growth and thus the ability to reach even higher and higher.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Hearshen |
