Text: The Jews, by Yehuda Amichai

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This poem offers meditations on the nature of Jewish People, with many rich metaphors describing the People and their relationship to God.

Some time ago, I met a beautiful woman
Whose grandfather performed my “brit” (circumcision)
Long before she was born. I told her,
You don’t know me and I don’t know you
But we are the Jewish People,
Your dead grandfather and I the circumcised and you the beautiful granddaughter
With golden hair. We are the Jewish People.
And what about God? Once we sang
“There is no God like ours”, now we sing “There is no God of ours”
But we sing. We still sing.

Yehuda Amichai

The full text of the poem is available at http://makomisrael.org

Explanation of Text

Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) wrote – or at least published – the poem “The Jews” in his 1989 collection “Even a Fist was once an Open Palm and Fingers”. In many ways the poem constitutes a reflection on the subject of the Jewish People, their history, their identity, their commonality, their relationship with and without God and their future.

So much of Amichai’s poetry, which he had been writing since the late 1940’s had dealt with aspects of these subjects from many different perspectives but it is fascinating that it took him forty years after beginning to write to pen a poem to which he gave the very imposing and obligating name, “The Jews”.

Amichai took names very seriously. He took his own name seriously. When he changed his name as a young man in pre-State Israel (he was born in Germany and he came on Aliyah in the early years of Hitler’s rule), he changed himself from Ludwig Pfeuffer to Yehuda Amichai – literally “Judah (Jew) my People lives”, a name of great power, resonance and obligation.

Not all of his poems have names: many simply take the first words as their name. Others are numbered. So when he called this poem “The Jews” (HaYehudim) one gets the feeling that he was not just calling it thus after the first word of the poem – HaYehudim – but he was making a very big statement on the subject that he had been examining and turning over for many years.

Thus it seems that a poem with this name, a statement on Jewish identity and fate made by one of the most important and singular voices in the modern Jewish story, should be a good text to examine and to consider, as we try and understand some of the major questions raised by the idea of the Jewish People and their existence – Jewish Peoplehood.

INTRODUCTION TO THE FEATURED LAST PART OF THE POEM

The piece we bring here is from the last part of the poem. Having built up through a powerful series of images the idea of the collective and the relationship of the individual to the collective, in abstract and associative terms, Amichai brings himself into the poem for the first time at this point. Up to now individuals mentioned have been distant, abstract, nameless. It is here that he gets personal.

He talks here of his meeting with a woman whom he discovers to be the granddaughter of the man who circumcised him more than sixty years ago, in a small town in Germany. He suggests to her that despite the fact that they have never met previously, nor known of the historical relationship between them, they constitute, in microcosm, the Jewish People.

“We are the Jewish People…” They don’t have to know each other to have a connection. They share a common past: perhaps he is hinting that all Jews, whether they know it or not, share a common framework, a common history, a common relationship. What is the basis of that connection?

In the autobiographical fragment, they are connected by the fact that the girl’s grandfather was the boy’s mohel (circumciser). Is this a random connection? Presumably not: the connection, it might be suggested, is elevated to symbolic status by the fact that their autobiographical connection is formed by the act of circumcision – Brit Milah.

Brit Milah is – ever since the story of Abraham – the ultimate symbol of the connection between a Jew and God. In addition, for males it is the key to membership of the Jewish collective. The text in chapter 17 of Genesis (Bereishit) tells of the importance of Brit Milah through the saga of Abraham.

And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you… And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations… shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.

Bereishit Ch. 17 vv. 7-13

This chance encounter between two Jews gains its special significance and special resonance from the fact that their connection is around the ultimate symbol of belonging to the Jewish people. The serendipity of their meeting is elevated to a symbolic height (“We are the Jewish People…”) by the fact that their connection derives from the ultimate act of connecting, of belonging. The woman’s grandfather was the agent of the man’s entrance into the historic community of Jews and into the whole Jewish story.

The last three lines of the poem – the end of the poem – are about God. The poem is about the Jews but God – or at least, the question about God – appears three times in the poem, each time introduced with the words “?ומה בדבר האלוהים”, translated as “And what about God?”.

The first time the words appear we hear that the Jews sense God who appears in their memory “like the scent of a beautiful woman” but they do not really see her. The second time the words appear we hear that God only very occasionally sees the Jews “only once a year, on Yom Kippur”. In other words, in the first two mentions of the relationship between God and the Jewish People, it is clear that the relationship has, for thousands of years since “the settlement of divorce from the Garden of Eden and from the Temple”, been tenuous at best.

Now, having elevated to symbolic status the circumcision – the symbol of the covenant between God and the Jewish People – as the ultimate act of inclusion in the Jewish People as manifested in the chance meeting of these two people, historically united by circumcision, Amichai finishes with his ultimate statement which raises a great and provocative question about the future of the Jewish People.

And what about God? Once we sang
“There is no God like ours”, now we sing “There is no God of ours”
But we sing. We still sing.

The language is playful but the idea is very serious. “There is no God like ours” is the opening to one of the most common and best loved of all Jewish “prayers”, the early medieval piyut (liturgical poem) Ein Kelohaynu אין כאלוהינו, said in many traditions on a daily basis both on weekdays and on Shabbat and holidays.

Now, according to Amichai, this has been replaced (at least for many) by a phrase which symbolizes atheism and nihilism, the very things that should undermine the idea of covenant, of Brit milah, which he seems to have already identified as the key to Jewish belonging. The whole structure of Jewish peoplehood should clearly fall apart if this becomes the mantra of the Jews today.

If the whole collective owes its existence and its internal connections to the idea of the covenant with God, then in the absence of God, there should be no future – perhaps even no present – for the Jews. Who can say “We are the Jewish People…” if there is no God and if the central symbol of belonging is circumcision – Brit – which demands God as a partner to that covenantal relationship?

But Amichai does not seem to despair. We have two reasons for suggesting that. Firstly the last line: the Jews go on singing. The song might be different, the words might have inverted themselves, but the song still exists – “We still sing”. Secondly, if the Jews’ relationship with God has been compared to the scent of a beautiful woman, the woman in the autobiographical piece is described precisely as that – “a beautiful woman”. The exact same words “אישה יפה” are used.

Perhaps, for Amichai, God – always tenuous – sensed but not quite present, has got lost or become meaningless for much of the Jewish people. Some would see this as a tragedy and insist that this is the end of the Jewish People in any meaningful way. Perhaps Amichai (his name itself means ‘My People lives!’) – who himself came from a deeply religious background, is making a different suggestion, namely that human beings are now capable of maintaining that relationship, to which God was a partner.

Do you agree?

Some will agree with Amichai: others will be deeply opposed – even offended by what they see as his blasphemy. But we suggest that the discussion is one of the most important that needs to take place within the Jewish People today. That is why discussing this text of Amichai is so potentially rich as a framework for addressing this vital issue.

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Text: Building a Community – the central institutions of a Community, Sanhedrin 17b

In this short piece from the Talmud, the rabbis list the ten core elements of an ideal city. What should our cities look like?

A Torah scholar (talmid chacham) is not permitted to live in a city that does not have the following ten attributes:

1. A court empowered to punish the guilty
2. A communal tzedakah fund, monies for which are collected by two people and distributed by three (to ensure honesty and fair distribution)
3. A synagogue
4. A mikveh (ritual bath)
5. Sufficient bathroom facilities
6. A doctor
7. A blood letter [i.e. a popular healer]
8. A scribe
9. A butcher
10. A Torah teacher for children

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Explanation of Text

In this excerpt from the Tractate of Sanhedrin, in the Babylonian Talmud, the rabbis list for us the ten components that every city should have, and that reflect a healthy and thriving Jewish community. Take a good look at the different components mentioned here.

There are different types of institutions and people, some of which are clearly religious in nature (a synagogue, a mikveh, a teacher, butcher) while others contribute to a thriving social structure (the court, scribe and welfare fund) and others result in a healthy lifestyle (bathroom facilities, a doctor).

It is clear from these different categories that the rabbis envision a city in which all aspects of a person’s needs are taken care of, not just their religious needs.

Interestingly, the rabbis specify that these constituent elements of a good city are particularly relevant for Torah scholars, who are not permitted to live without them. This implies that other people may live in places where these facilities are not available.

What might this mean? One way to look at this is that Torah scholars are the ideal in Jewish life (even though they were always a very small minority) and therefore the rabbis are saying that the ideal type of Jews should hold themselves to the highest standards and only live in the best types of cities.

It might also reflect the reality that these cities were aspirational, but not realistic for everyone, just as not everyone is able to become a Talmid Chacham, for lots of good reasons. Today, perhaps everyone can reach the level of a Torah scholar, and these requirements can be most broadly applied.

According to Mordecai Kaplan’s approach to Judaism as a civilization, community institutions are core elements of Jewish Peoplehood. They function to maintain Jewish life, and they also continually re-create Jewish Peoplehood in their own image.

Thus, as institutions have changed over the centuries, so has the Jewish People. Today, as we look at our current institutions, we can reconstitute them to serve our needs, and to drive the Jewish People into the future.

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Additional Resources

For more comparison between the Talmudic concept and its expression in contemporary Jewish life, see BJPA Publications.

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KEY EDUCATIONAL QUESTIONS FOR THIS SECTION:

• How can understanding Judaism as a civilization be generative for our students?
• What does framing Judaism as a civilization rather than just a religion means to us as individual Jews?
• What is the role of the individual in building Jewish civilization?

Text: Judaism as a Civilization

Judaism as otherness is thus something far more comprehensive than Jewish religion. It includes that nexus of a history, literature, language, social organizations, folk sanctions, standards of conduct, social and spiritual ideals, esthetics values, which in their totality form a civilization. (Mordechai Kaplan, Judaism as a Civilization, 1934).

Explanation of text:

One of Kaplan’s key points in his extensive work was the understanding that Judaism is far more comprehensive than just a religion. It is a civilization. Framing Judaism as a civilization allowed Kaplan to integrate multiple dimensions of the Jewish collective enterprise into what is perceived as Judaism. It allowed him to present a much broader and richer concept of Judaism that includes as he frames it, “that nexus of a history, literature, language, social organizations, folk sanctions, standards of conduct, social and spiritual ideals, esthetics values, which in their totality form a civilization”. To be sure Kaplan saw Judaism as a religious civilization with the religion at its core, but he aspired to create an integrated approach that would broaden the scope of Judaism to meet the challenges of modernity.

The concept of civilization that connects between social and spiritual values and a desired social order and conduct through social organizations was much more relevant to Jews in the 20th century. It could bridge over different religious approaches and speak to non-religious Jews as well. It highlighted the rich Jewish cultural creation, humanistic social and spiritual ideals and the role and power of the Jewish community. It would also place Judaism in a category that would enable it to better measure and understand both the secret of its continuity and its contribution to the world.

The notion of a civilization also explained the dynamism of Judaism and the role Jews played and play in its development. The components of civilization Kaplan offers are not just human made but also dynamic and evolving. Judaism as a civilization is a human creation. This approach emphasizes the fact that its destiny is in the hands of the Jews. In that sense one can interpret Kaplan’s framing as an invitation to Jews, regardless of their religious orientations, to join the Jewish enterprise.

KEY EDUCATIONAL QUESTIONS FOR THIS SECTION:

• How can understanding Judaism as a civilization be generative for our students?
• What does framing Judaism as a civilization rather than just a religion means to us as individual Jews?
• What is the role of the individual in building Jewish civilization?

Text: Global Jewish Peoplehood

The future of Judaism greatly depends on its ability to offer a unique, meaningful and inspiring way of life to individual Jews. Historically the Jews answered that challenge collectively and implemented their responses through the network of Jewish communities throughout the world. Those communities became in the process not just the local embodiment of Jewish Peoplehood, but also its source of renewal and regeneration. In many respects they hold the key to the Jewish future. (Shlomi Ravid, The Peoplehood Toolkit)

Explanation of text:

This text explores the relationship between the global Jewish Peoplehood and its local expressions. What is unique about Jewish civilization is that it is at the same time local and global. As locally focused as the Jewish community may be, it is still, by definition, a local expression of the global civilization. This is expressed not just in terms of the common culture and social habits but in the deep sense of shared fate and shared destiny with the entire Jewish people. So when Moishe House creates modern Jewish cooperative housing and, G-dcast develops cartoons on Parashat Hashavua, and Sara Silverman does Jewish comedy they do it very much in the spirit of their time and community but also as potential contribution to the global civilization.

This dialectic relationship of expressing and nurturing Jewish civilization on the local level and in turn contributing to its development globally, places the local community as the central arena for developing Jewish civilization in the modern age. It contributes to the diversity and dynamism of the Jewish conversation.

The involvement in the local Jewish community is constituted, consciously or not, by the drive to be a part of the Jewish people and its civilization. The notion of Jewish civilization provides the context for and meaning of the local creation. In a sense they represent the two sides of the same coin.

KEY EDUCATIONAL QUESTIONS FOR THIS SECTION:

• How can understanding Judaism as a civilization be generative for our students?
• What does framing Judaism as a civilization rather than just a religion means to us as individual Jews?
• What is the role of the individual in building Jewish civilization?

Text: Jewish People’s Future

Whether the Jewish people is alive, moribund, or dead, depends upon the extent to which individual Jews, not only wish but act upon the wish, to perpetuate Jewish life, Jewish association, and Jewish co-operation for common objectives. (Mordechai Kaplan, A New Zionism, 1959)

Explanation of text:

In this short paragraph Kaplan lays out what will decide the Jewish future. It is the decision of individual Jews not just to wish but “to act upon the wish to perpetuate Jewish life, Jewish association, and Jewish co-operation for common objectives”.

What is most notable in his framing is that the future is in the hands of the Jews. But the challenge is in engaging them in the collective spirit and inspiring their desire to take responsibility for the Jewish future. The key factor here is the commitment to perpetuate Jewish life and to act collectively.

The second key challenge that Kaplan points to is how should we inspire within individual Jews commitment to act? Their engagement is not a given, nor is their commitment to act. Kaplan reminds us that today’s Jews are Jews by choice and that unless we succeed in making the Jewish enterprise meaningful and central to their lives, they will not act upon it. And without the commitment of individual Jews the Jewish People and its enterprise are moribund.