I feel in my work in the Jewish community, and even during geeky conversations with friends, I have often struggled to articulate my view that at the heart of being Jewish and the Jewish imperative to fight for social justice, is a sense of being the other and a sensitivity to otherness.
Some parts of Jewish tradition I most connect with, and I think explain this, are Parshat Lech Lecha, the Exodus, and the story of how Israel gets his and our name.
Midrash teaches us thar Avram was a questioning soul who after asking if many other phenomena are all powerful gets a sense there is another explanation, develops an iconoclastic streak smashing holes in the unethical teachings of his upbringing, and begins his journey to becoming Abraham ha-ivri – a man in touch with the divine who is also from the other side (ha-ivri). Abraham then begins to challenge the ways of others whilst always opening his tent to encounters with them.
Within all the weirdness and wonder of the Exodus story – the role of the midwives, the saving of those who kept their Hebrew names, the power and frailty of faith – the enduring message for our people has been the conditioning of being strangers, which makes our sovereignty conditional on treating the stranger as one of our own.
Way way back many centuries ago, Jacob was anything but a fine example of a family man. After deceiving his brother of his birthright and showing favouritism towards one wife and son, Jacob builds the tribe that eventually becomes the people originally known as his children – Bnei Yisrael – except he first needs to get that name.
In anticipation of meeting his brother Esau, whom he still fears seeks to kill him, Jacob has a vision or dream, in which he wrestles with an angel (some say God). Yisra-El literally means to struggle with El (a name for God in the Torah). It can also mean wrestling and struggling with the beyond, the above, the transcendental, or simply that which is outside your realm of immediate experience and comprehension.
It is by understanding our inner otherness (being ha-Ivri) that we can ensure we always welcome the stranger and fight for their equality. By wrestling with that which is beyond or above us, we can be children of Yisrael that seek to make our forefathers and four mothers proud of how we pursue a fairer and more sustainable world.
jewishgeekandproud 