gesher tzar me'od

[joshua0]

(x-post Mastodon)

I post Jewish stuff on main because 1) I only post on main, and, anyway, 2) it is part of my color on the world so it is kind of inseparable from who I am. I have been thinking a lot through that lens today.

A friend on the Internet noted that Rabbi Tarphon taught, "it is not your responsibility to finish the task [of mending the world], but neither are you free to desist from it". (I was very pleased to hear this quote materialize in the secular world. It seemed important of a message. I would be happy for more people to internalize that. Feel free to appropriate it to do good in whatever way it seems right to you.) But, uh, R. Tarphon, uh, ... how the fuck do you do that? How, the fuck, do you do that? How the fuck do you do that today? Easier said than fucking done, Tarphon. The world seems broken. I woke up and was not convinced that it was worth getting out of bed this morning. The anger has given way to sorrow, and I cannot describe how much sorrow I feel to know that this is not one guy, this is not the electoral college, this is... us. This is who we are, who 52% of us are, and who 48% of us have let the 52% become. I am sick, and sad, to think that this is who we are.

Let me provide another answer from post-Talmudic times, in case you are as lost as I am in how to continue the work. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (b. 1772, d. 1810) said a variant of, roughly, "the entire world is a very narrow bridge, and the most important thing is to have no fear at all" (Hebrew, transliterated into English: "kol ha'olam kulo gesher tzar me'od -- v'hayikhar lo lefached klal"). He said this in the context of, how do you continue to serve God (which I read as "to continue to do good in the world" -- your interpretation is up to you) when sometimes it feels like you are increasingly distant from the benefit that you were promised, more so by the moment, that your service gets you nowhere? He answers to say that the world is a narrow bridge, and you must have no fear in crossing it to do your work.

This seems like an even taller order. But he goes on to say, and provide concrete advice: one should "seek and search within oneself to find some merit and some good, and when one finds it, rejoice and encourage themselves" ... "and the main thing is to always be joyful. [Bring yourself to joy] any way you can, even with silliness -- playing the fool and doing silly things, or jumping and dancing to be happy, which is a very great thing".

Breslovers have taken this seriously for generations. They sing a lot because they have decided that the most important thing is to be joyful, so that they can continue to do their service. They turn everything Rebbe Nachman said into songs. The admonition from before remains: "the entire world is a narrow bridge, and the important thing is not to be afraid". With the fear in their hearts, they turn it to song.

Below, find one interpretation of that transition from fear to song. It sounds unbelievably joyful for a time like this by the end, almost cloying. Then, I remember what they are singing, and I understand what they are fighting off by doing it, and the extreme, dire, importance of it.

If you dare, try singing along. I was surprised to find a smile creeping onto my face, even today. Maybe you will be too.

Watch on YouTube

lyrics:

kol ha'olam kulo
gesher tzar me'od
gesher tzar me'od
gesher tzar me'od

v'hayikar, v'hayikar
lo le'fached klal

Comments

[ikeepaleopard]

I was looking at that translation the other day, since I'd heard that quote many times and it came to my mind as well, but I'd never actually read the Pirkei Avot. I think it's pretty clear in context that Tarfon's not talking about tikkun olam, but about learning Torah. I find it really interesting that I'd also always heard the quote as about tikkum olam, though did not then do the reading to find out how that swap happened historically. I sort of think our ancestors would have thought that all in devotion to Torah would be a healed world.

But I think it's interesting to imagine a Judaism where we have finished this swap, where we are not the people of the Torah, but the people of tikkun olam. And I think in some ways that transition is happening, at least in the progressive circles I move in.

[joshua0]

I agree, from when I read it too. But unsurprisingly, I have a bunch of thoughts about this! Here are some disjoint ones:

• I wonder about Tarfon's view of the possibility of "completing the work" each of tikkun olam and of learning Torah. It seems like learning Torah is an endless task -- not only is it not our responsibility to complete the task, but nor is it possible. But some more Messianic folks definitely would find that tikkun olam can be completed -- we do our job, then comes Moshiach, we finish planting our trees, gg to the Accuser.


• I think that being the people of Torah and the people of tikkun olam is inherently inseparable, even without the progressive-Judaism lens. Being the people of Torah implies a calling to being a people of mitzvah, and the liturgy (at least, of the high holidays) makes abundantly clear that the mitzvot that are between us and Hashem are equally (or less!) important than the mitzvot that are between us and the world.


• This rewriting process, also, I think is not unique to modern Judaism. The concept of lo bashamayim hi ("it is not in the heavens"; I interpret this as that we get to decide what Torah means to us together) is not just in the Pentateuch, but appears in Talmud -- the story of the Oven of Akhnai is a long debate over the concept that we interpret the law. Doing so would not make us "not the people of Torah" -- it would make us just as much the people of Torah as our ancestors, but it would make all the people of Torah the people of tikkun olam, too (if, somehow, we were not already).

[ikeepaleopard]

I don't think I disagree with any of that. And one of the things I appreciate about Judaism is its very long history of exegesis and interpretation. But what I struggle with is the baseline regressiveness of so much of the text. There's plenty of examples, but to use a recent concrete example, I was at a Shabbat a few months ago, and since the parsha was from Deuteronomy, and listed various mitzvot, the host thought it would be fun to use that as inspiration to make up our mitzvot. Which was fun and very in the sprit of the Judaism I was raised in. But I went to go look at the actual commandments and part of it was stuff like the proper forms for stoning your rebellious son. I don't need to be convinced that analysis and discussion and bringing into our own contexts is generally a good. But I would say why this book, why the concrete Torah and not the abstract concept of discussion, besides "we have always done it this way" which is a terrible reason to do something? And what is the priority? I choose to study less and help more, in moderation at least, that seems much better than studying more and helping less.

In typical Jewish tradition, I am not asking for answers, just sharing my own thoughts.