/ articles for review

 

Click here to view full curriculum online.  (Editor’s note: If you follow this link, you will find the curriculum material is on the left-hand side of the Gann Academy page Spitzer has created. A full list of the subjects with links also is shown below)

 

Each morning and evening, traditional Jews recite, in the first berakha (blessing) before the Shema praise for God who has created and ordered and renewed such a wonderful world. Twice in the morning and once in the afternoon, Jews recite psalm 145 (Ashrei), highlighting the verse, "You open up your hand, and satisfy the needs of all life according to Your will." Yet, three times each day, at each of the daily serices, traditional Jews also recite in the prayer "Alenu" the words "to repair the world under the sovereignty of the Almighty."

 

If God created such a perfect, well-ordered world, and God actively provides for "the needs of all life" (and note the use of the present tense!), then why does the world need repairing? However we answer this question, the effect of concluding each daily service with a call "to repair the world" has had a profound effect on Judaism.

 

As heirs to a prophetic tradition, Jews have traditionally seen the world through a lens which focuses on what can be and what should be, and not just on what is. It is that particular vision that encouraged Jews to champion the cause of the downtrodden and oppressed. Jews were founders of the labor unions which gave the ordinary worker a voice against the power of the faceless corporation. Jews learned from modern prophets like Abraham Joshua Heschel to "pray with our feet" by marching for civil rights.

 

 

On the other hand, Jews have also recognized that our abilities to effect change are somewhat less than our grand visions; while the task of repairing the world is one that is incumbent upon each Jew, Jewish tradition has been careful to define our specific requirements and obligations very carefully. Throughout this course, we will see how Judaism and Jewish legal texts keep the practical and the feasible in the foreground, in the background lies the vision of the ideal.

 

For example, while the laws of tzedaka define the obligation to provide food to maintain life, the goal of acting with hesed, which includes the obligation to welcome people with hospitality, is never given a specific, defined obligation. When dealing with the good of maintaining society and human life, our obligations are clear. When dealing with improving the quality of society and imbuing the lives of the needy with a sense of holiness, the goal is clear, but the specifics are left undefined.

 

Tzedaka is about correcting what is wrong and doing that which is right and good. Hesed is about perfecting our actions, about envisioning what can be and acting to effect real changes that can make ours a more perfect society.

 

As we work through this course together, keep this distinction between the good and the perfect in mind.

 

 

7 conclusion