Re-Narrating Judaism: The Case of the Ba'Al Shem Tov
A Rosh Hashanah Day Sermon 2002-5763
by Rabbi Burt Jacobson
Throughout our long history we Jews have had many disagreements and even quarrels with older Jewish narratives. But our teachers throughout the ages never hestitated in their pursuit of making the Jewish path relevant for their generation. They would re-read older narratives in fresh ways and sometimes they would replace outworn narratives with new ones. I believe that we can learn a great deal about how to renew Judaism for our own age through an examination of the process of re-narration in the Jewish past. So for a few minutes I would like to look at early Hasidism as a model for a mystical and humanistic renewal of Judaism.
Seventeenth and early eighteenth century Jewish life in Poland was dominated by fear -- fear of anti-Semitism, fear of demonic spirits, fear of God, fear of sin, fear of punishment, fear of hellfire. Extremely conscious of the power of human evil, large numbers of Jews gave themselves continually to repentance, making use of ascetic practices such as prolonged fasting, weeping, self-flagellation, and even rolling in the snow to atone for wrongdoing. They saw sexuality and physical pleasure as being sinful. The founder of Hasidism was a man by the name of Israel Ba’al Shem Tov. In his youth the Ba’al Shem Tov had also been an ascetic, very much aware of his sinfulness, and especially conscious of the sin of pride. But little by little he woke up to the fact that his ascetic practices were not working, that he needed to find another way. At some point he discovered the transformative power of ecstatic experience.
He had always prayed regularly, but he learned a new way of rapturous mystical prayer. He came to love God so deeply that he was able to abandon himself totally to the Divine. Then he experienced the immense bliss of the unity of existence. In his daily life the Ba’al Shem practiced a kind of mystical mindfulness. He would attempt to stay continually aware of the oneness and Divinity of the universe so that he encountered God in everything and in everyone he met. These spiritual practices lead him to a life of tremendous joy.
My teacher, Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote that the Ba’al Shem Tov "brought heaven down to earth. He and his disciples, the Hasidim, banished melancholy from the soul and uncovered the ineffable delight of being a Jew..." When Jews complained to the Ba’al Shem about their pain and suffering, he would tell them: You don’t have to live as victims. You always have a choice in how you respond to the difficulties that beset you. You can choose. One year just before Rosh HaShanah the Ba’al Shem came to a small out of the way town. Because he was contemplating remaining in this town for the holy days, he asked someone in the synagogue if he could meet the service leaders. He was told that the rabbi of the town himself led all the services.
"How does he lead the services?" asked the Ba’al Shem, "What’s it like when he davens?"
"Well, you can tell his whole manner of davening from the way he chants the vidui, the confession of sin on Yom Kippur. He’s not sad. He doesn’t cry, he doesn’t focus on how sinful our community has been during the past year. No, that’s not his way. Instead he chants the confessions in the most joyful tones you can possibly imagine."
"Hmmm. . ." mumbled the Ba’al Shem, "And where can I find your rabbi?" He was informed where the rabbi lived.
The rabbi opened his front door and the Ba’al Shem introduced himself, recounting the story he had heard from the villager. "I’ve never heard of anyone chanting the Yom Kippur confession in joyous tones. Your approach surprises me. What is your reason for this?"
The Rabbi answered: "A king has many servants to do his bidding. But the lowest servant of all is he whose task it is to sweep out the dirt from the entrance to the palace. Is this servant sad because he has such a lowly job? Certainly not! For he knows that he is serving the king. And so he sings a joyful song while he works, knowing that cleaning out the entranceway will make the king happy.
"Well, on the Days of Awe I see myself as that servant. I too am sweeping out the shmutz just to make the king happy. And this in turn makes me happy."
The Ba’al Shem thought about this for a moment and then he nodded. "And may my lot be with yours."
The Ba’al Shem taught that God dwells in the heart of every individual. And because of this our goodness is more essential to our identities than any wrongdoing we can do. In fact human goodness has the potential of actually transforming worry and fear and sinfulness and evil.
He counseled people to let go of their self-judging egos and to surrender to the divinity at their core. Give yourself to silence, give yourself to music, to dance. Give yourself to the spirit in your sexuality. Give yourself to rapture. Through the power of your ecstasy you can reclaim your spiritual core. And then you will witness the universe as it truly is, one vast organism continually pulsing to the music of a flawless indwelling spiritual Presence, the Shekhina. Therefore, everywhere you look, whatever you see-- it is really all divine.
As for feelings of sinfulness and guilt -- it is only your lack of love for yourself that allows you to identify so strongly with those negative valuations. Who are you really? the Ba’al Shem asked. In truth, you are God in disguise. How then can you possibly hate yourself when you are divine? When he met people who were overcome by feelings of guilt or shame, he would tell them: Your guilt doesn’t come from God; it comes from your yetzer harah, your evil urge. Do you understand? You have been deceived by your evil urge into believing that you are bad, and that is your worst sin! Believing your evil urge.
And to those who were depressed about their sins he said: "Don’t let yourself become downcast over your wrongdoings, for such dejection will make it difficult or impossible for you to connect with God. Your sadness is understandable because you’ve done something wrong but, when you’ve experienced your sadness, move toward happiness and joy in God. After all God gave you the power to regret your wrongdoing and the power to change. . .
The Holy One knows that you want to do your best but because you are only human, you can’t always manage to do this. The essence of life is to be happy and to rejoice in God."
In the Ba’al Shem’s time there were many Jews who despaired of being able to attain anything spiritual or divine in this world. Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi wrote that the Ba’al Shem would take such an individual, infuse him with spirit, show him the possibility was still there, and what is most important, show him how to become a spiritual person.
Reb Zalman was ordained as a Hasidic rabbi but later he became the founder of the Jewish renewal movement of which Kehilla is a part. Zalman himself has followed in the footsteps of the Ba’al Shem Tov, showing thousands of Jews how they could become spiritual. Zalman is 78 years old. We pray that he continues to live and to inspire and to teach for many more years to come.