{"id":64781,"date":"2019-10-26T09:46:08","date_gmt":"2019-10-26T06:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64781"},"modified":"2023-05-21T15:15:22","modified_gmt":"2023-05-21T12:15:22","slug":"isaiah-in-heschels-house-of-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/isaiah-in-heschels-house-of-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah in Heschel\u2019s House of Study"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[656,940,410,782],"acf":{"old_id":"64781","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64462,"related_cahpter":"336","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Dialogue will transform swords into plowshares","content":"

I imagine the prophet Isaiah sitting in the last row at the Beit Midrash of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who is conveying to his class the concept of \u201cRadical Amazement\u201d. Isaiah looks through his notes, raises his hand and says, \u201cI know of Radical Amazement, it\u2019s in my book, chapter 2.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The vision of Isaiah 2 transports\u00a0 the audience towards the \u201cdays to come\u201d, a messianic era preceded by the majestic \u201cMount of the Lord\u2019s House\u201d from where the teachings of Torah will have emerged: \u201cThe instructions of Torah will come forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Is there more than one Torah? Besides the different academic developments that point out the many biblical texts anchored in various traditions, this question addresses the distinctive ways we receive our Torah, seeing it through the lenses that portray the endless possibilities of interpretations. So is there more than one Torah? Is there more than one Zion?<\/span><\/p>\n

The vision of Isaiah leaves room for interpretation. As Rashi explains on Isaiah 2:3, <\/span>El Beit Elohey Yaakov<\/span><\/em>, The House of the God of Jacob, is not about Jacob as an individual. Jacob called it <\/span>Beit El<\/em> <\/span>(the House of God), Abraham called it <\/span>Adonai Yireh<\/em> <\/span>(God will see)<\/span> and Isaac called it <\/span>sadeh<\/span><\/i> (field). The presence of God in our patriarchs\u2019 lives was characterized by different dimensions of understanding. God appears in different modes and we, as seekers, constantly look for God\u2019s presence, in a dynamic process of approaching our relationship with the divine.<\/span><\/p>\n

The interpretation of Torah allows us to maintain a dynamic process and not to petrify the Book as a piece in a museum, dry and closed to fresh understandings. In the marketplace of ideas, individual elucidations contribute to the ecosystem of narratives, together enriching the variety of thoughts that make up the collective narrative. Together, we constitute the body of the collective narrative of the Jewish people by adding our views with fresh eyes to the ocean of possibilities. We might be sympathetic to other ideas, or we might disagree with them, but we should certainly embrace disagreement as a springboard for the higher purpose of learning from each other and with each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Torah is alive and well, God is alive and well, once we give room for respectful conversation. In the disagreement we might find the path to new interpretations. Dialogue and mutual understanding will transform swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.<\/span><\/p>\n

I imagine Isaiah sitting in Heschel\u2019s Beit Midrash, and the twentieth century <\/span>Rebbe<\/em> <\/span>smiling with awe as the prophet raised his hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

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