בס''ד
Parshat Terumah
1 Adar 5772
February 24th,
2012
Yesterday might have contained my greatest moment of 5772. A 78 year-old
African-American preacher grabbed my arm, looked me in the eye, and said with
considerable charm, “Ich bin a Yid in my heart.”*
I must admit, it was awesome.
The irony of my pleasure in this moment is that I get quite touchy when
non-Jews claim Jewish identity or affinity. I have seen some very strange
appropriations of Judaism over the years: non-Jews at Krakow’s klezmer music
festival, wearing hassidische clothing, quoting stories of the rebbes, with
interest only in Jews long dead; Christian biblical fundamentalists who
mistakenly believe that they share our essence because they are Old Testament
focused (they’ve never heard of the Talmud); Messianics claiming ownership over
Torah, including the disgraceful “coronation” of Bishop Eddie Long with a Torahscroll.
At issue is the nature of
identity, and the question of how people relate to identities that they
partially share, but do not wholly inhabit.
In our time, each of us is an
amalgamation of identities. It’s true: our global culture exposes us, quite
felicitously, to external identities in such a way that they take residence in
our soul. There is a part of me that is an American at the founding of this
country, a part in a yeshiva in Lithuania .
There is a part of me that is black, a part that is gay, a part Latino, Asian,
Eastern European, Southern, East Coast, and so on. The nature of our era is
that we exist as hybrids.
But I am nonetheless conscious of
my central identity: a Jew in America .
And though I may inhabit others in a partial way, it is only as an American Jew
that I am an arbiter and influencer – only in that realm where I can speak to
the destiny of my identity.
With the contemporary sharing of identities has come arrogance: the fallacy
that because I am influenced by another culture, I have a right to define that
culture. This is why Jews get uncomfortable with outpourings of Evangelical
love – it comes with a definition about us and our future (eventually coming to
love Christ) that we reject. We do not want to be known as future converts. It
is invasive.
Therefore, the response to the identities shared with us must be humility.
When others share their identities with us they give us a gift, not a commodity
to be consumed and controlled. Ultimately
this is why I loved my preacher friend, for in his eyes was kindness, not
ownership.
“Words of Torah can only exist in one of humble mind.”
-Talmud, Masekeht Ta’anit
* Yiddish for “I am a Jew.” It loses something in the translation.