Sermon: On Being an Un-Ethical Monotheist- Balak 2010

Written by Writings & Sermons by others — 27 June 2010

One of my favourite places on earth is called Paradise.  It is a study institute in Jerusalem which goes by the Hebrew name of Pardes.  It is open to everyone and teaches with a brand of respect for traditional texts together with a deep concern for the real world around us.  The word Pardes, as well as meaning Paradise, can be read as an acronym for the four traditional ways of studying a Jewish text – P’shat – the surface meaning, Remez – hints that you can find in the text to a deeper meaning, D’rash – the Midrashim which you can draw out of interpreting the text and Sod, the mystical meaning – trying to discern God’s inspiration behind the text.   At Pardes near Emek Refaim in Jerusalem you get to do all of these.  I have been there many times both physically and virtually through their podcast series, which is the most popular Jewish bible study podcast in the world.  Please do ask me if you would like to know how to obtain these half hour gems of Jewish learning in English.

The spiritual guide of Pardes is Rabbi Meir Shweiger.  Many young adults will spend a few months studying at Pardes.  Rabbi Shweiger helps them gain spiritual growth from the experience.  He writes of one young man who came to Pardes looking like any lightly observant Jew but who after a while began to wear a Cippah regularly to classes and around the institute and the cafes and shops around.  Rabbi Shweiger met him on a bus some way into his study stay at Pardes – minus Cippah.  No big deal – Pardes is not a co-ercive Yeshivah.  Back at the Institute Rabbi Shweiger asked the young man why he did not wear a Cippah on the bus.

The young man’s answer was this “ If I wear a cippah in public like on the bus and say an elderly disabled person gets on and I don’t give up my seat then I feel that I will be doing dishonour to religious Judaism – she will think badly of religious Jews because of my actions.”  Rabbi Shweiger did a double take at the backwards logic and then said back “You know sounds to me like you’d better wear the cippah on the bus– then you would actually get up and give up your seat!”

When appearing religious does not go with decent ethics it is a very straight breaking of the third commandment – do not take the name of your Eternal God in vain.   When an outside of ritual covers an inside of arrogance and thoughtlessness the basics of what it means to be a Jew are missing.   Balaam, the anti hero of our Torah portion is a case in point.  As Benji told us in his D’var Torah and Eden in his Torah portion – Balaam, ended up blessing the Children of Israel and being unable to crush their morale but before that he was prepared, for enough money to go and curse them as a hired prophet, and after that he turned against the Israelites and died in battle fighting against them in the army of the Midianites.  But, notes Rabbi Pinchas Kahn in the Jewish Bible Quarterly (Autumn 2007) there is something remarkable about Balaam beyond the donkey incident.

From the very first that we meet Balaam in the Bible he says that he is a follower of Adonai – God.  He uses the language of Jewish piety whilst doing a number of distinctly unethical things.  You could call Balaam an un-ethical monotheist.

Perhaps this is why the donkey is so important in his story – after all, just like Abraham in the story of the binding of his son Isaac and using exactly the same Hebrew words, Balaam wakes up early in the morning to curse the Israelites and saddles his donkey, just as Abraham wakes up early in the morning to follow the command of God , and also sadlles his donkey.  In Balaam’s story the donkey then needs to tell him what he should be doing – Abraham knows himself – no talking donkeys needed.  Whilst Balaam intends but fails to curse the Israelites and cause their destruction by the Moabite army, Abraham argues with God for the preservation of the people of Sodom and Gommorah even despite their rough treatment of his own family.  Arguing with God for the ethical thing to be done is the ultimate of ethical monotheism.

Ethical monotheism means that because there is God – and there is one God – that God commands a way of living where there is one standard of ethics – one decent way of treating people and the world around us.  The task of finding that way is tough .  It is very noticeable the places in which Progressive and Orthodox Jews interact and work together most comfortably is in those areas of Jewish life where we need together to discover the ethical way of living in the modern world – in Jewish Medical, Social, Environmental and Business Ethics.

There is another un-ethical character in the Bible who uses the name of God to establish his credentials as a religious Jew – that is Laban, like Balaam a wandering Aramean.  Laban is the man who cheats his nephew Jacob into marrying the daughter he had not intended to and nearly got away with employing him for twenty one years with no pay.  Laban too uses God’s name a number of times in his narrative – but he is also worshipping numerous idols and treats Jacob very shoddily.

Our rituals and piety have a feeling of eternity to them – it is straightforward to transmit tradition and love of God by lighting Shabbat candles, by reading and learning to read Torah, by saying our traditional prayers.  That is our monotheism.  What is more challenging is responding in the best way to the ethical challenges that we face pretty much every day – to trade fairly, to give up some of our best for the benefit of the disadvantaged, to make the right decision in the care of a sick person, to keep gossip to yourself, to give up a seat on a crowded tube train or a bus in Jerusalem when we see someone struggling.

When we struggle with the right ethical response and carry it though then we are serving God.  More so as Prophet Micah says in our Haftarah Portion today serving God than when we do some complex piece of Jewish ritual.  “Will the Eternal be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, every one of you, what is good; and what does the Eternal require of you, but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”  That’s the way to paradise.