In the Image of God, For the Love of God, & Yitro

Since last week, I have become completely obsessed with the idea of love as a central value and theme in Judaism.

I began reading Shai Held’s latest book, Judaism is About Love, and a particular idea hit me (which—wait ‘till the end…).

Rabbi Held begins with the concept of Divine Grace as a Jewish concept; it is our Torah that stresses that God loves us, not because we are deserving in any way, not because we have earned God’s love, but—just because.

We don’t have to do anything, be anything, act in any way—in order for “God” to love us.

But! The Jewish God does make demands on us!

The Torah, and later, the ancient rabbis, gave us a code of ethics. Thus, the laws we are so well known for (again, last week).

In fact, Held points out, Judaism has tremendous faith in humanity; it never gives up hope in the possibility that we are actually capable of creating a just and fair society through the way we treat each other and the land—guided by the demands made on us through our laws!

In this week’s Torah portion, the Israelites come to Mt. Sinai, and receive their first lesson in laws: the Ten Commandments—more accurately called, the Ten Utterances (dibrot in Hebrew).

As I read them this time around, I saw them in a completely differnent light. Especially the one about not making graven images of God—the very third one.

It occurred to me that God not having an image is connected to the idea that we are made in God’s image, as the Torah tells us from the beginning (b’tselem elohim). We are all different—every single human being, Jews and non-Jews—yet equally loved and cherished by God.

God puts conditions, not on God’s love for us, but on our right to the land we are meant to inherit, depending on how we behave towards each other and how we treat the land.

I was reminded of the text that says, ”Let not the land spew you out for defiling it, as it spewed out the nation that came before you (Lev.18:28).”

Taking this a step further, another Jewish value high on our list is that we as humans are not to be silent in the face of the suffering of our fellow humans, Jews or not.

Moses is a perfect example of this, as he intervenes in the face of injustice in at least three instances, as Rabbi Held points out: first, when he sees his own people being abused as slaves; then, when he witnesses two slaves fighting with each other; and finally, he rises to the defense of Midianite women who are being driven off by local shepherds.

We can imagine that Moses is full of outrage when he witnesses injustice.

Between his sense of justice and his drive to act on it, Moses is the paradigmatic Jew, and thus the one chosen for the mission of freeing the Israelites!

Moses is chosen precisely because of who he is ethically and his willingness to act on his values.

With what feels like outrageous injustices that seem to be piling up so quickly week after week in our present day, in our country and the world, a sense of outrage seems to have taken over so many of our lives.

“If you’re not outraged, then you’re not paying attention,” has almost become an adage.

Perhaps true.

In this week’s Torah portion, Yitro (Jethro), Moses’ father-in-law, comes to meet Moses in the desert where he hears of all the wonders the Israelite God has performed in helping free the people. As Israelite society is beginning to establish itself, Moses becomes its only judge. And Yitro notes that Moses is overwhelmed and depleted in trying to meet the entire community’s needs, helping settle disputes in small matters as well as large, sitting from morning ‘till night. Moses is losing himself—losing his core—in this work, as worthy as it is.

Yitro gives him advice that carries tremendous wisdom: delegate; place other wise elders in charge of smaller matters, and take on only the largest matters yourself.

Whether you believe in God and God’s love or not—for those of us who are proud to be Jewish, and purport to live by Jewish values, what is happening in the Jewish world, actions being taken by the current Israeli government and by our U.S. Administration regarding immigration, American birthright, and in its unconditional defense of Israel’s actions, among other things, should, at the very least, give us pause.

Whatever was done to us in the past does not give us license to do the same to others—lest we be spewed out…

That is, if we believe truly in our core, or at least try to believe, that all humans are equally deserving of respect, dignity, and life, no matter their personal beliefs or identity, no matter what they might have done or what we think they believe or have done, then we should be outraged—as Jews.

And we should at least be speaking up, if not acting as well, despite possible and frightening consequences, as Moses showed us by example, and as countless people demonstrated during WWII whom we now hold up as heroes. At the very least, we should be pressuring our institutions not to give in to executive orders that are not even law!!

But while we are to stand up for injustice, inspired by our love for humanity, we too must be careful not to lose ourselves. Most importantly, we must stay connected with our hearts and the love that is within. Like Moses, if we lose ourselves—our core—we cannot be effective on our mission of creating an ethical world.

May it be so.

And please say Amen.