Parshas Behar
At the Mountain
The parsha begins with the word that defines its name – b’har – on the
mountain. The mountain naturally is Sinai and the Torah’s emphasis is to
reinforce Judaism’s core belief that our Torah is God-given and not the
work of a committee over centuries. This basic belief lies at the heart of
many of the contentious disputes that have marked Jewish life over the
ages.
While original splinter groups within the Jewish, such as the Saducees and
the Karaites, did not openly deny the validity of the Written Torah as
being godly in origin, they strenuously denied the holiness of the Oral
Law of Sinai and denigrated its rabbinic interpretations and decrees. This
led to serious splits within the Jewish people and to bitter
recriminations that lasted centuries. In all of these instances the
divinity of Torah and of its Oral Law always eventually won out. Deviant
movements eventually fell away from the main body of the Jewish people,
both individually and as a potent group in influencing Jewish life and
mores.
The “mountain” referred to is the one at Sinai where the Torah was given
to Israel. It is a difficult mountain to ascend, The Psalmist asks: “Who
can ascend the mountain of God?” But as difficult as it is to ascend the
mountain it is even more difficult to remain there. The Psalmist again
intones “and who can maintain one’s self in the holiness of God’s place?”
The struggle about maintaining the Jewish people on the mountain of God in
belief and faith has been the hallmark of Jewish life over millennia. It
has not abated in our time.
Jewish secularism comes in two different and divergent forms. One is
simply that the Torah’s way of life and value system does not harmonize
with modern society and its demands. Shabat, kashrut, etc. are all too
restrictive to be functional in today’s world. The Jewish people cannot
afford to be so different from the rest of the world. The mountain may
have had its purpose at one time but that time has now passed. New
ideologies and circumstances have rendered it obsolete. So, for them the
mountain no longer exists.
A second group denies the existence of the mountain altogether. There
never was a mountain – it is all an urban legend fostered by the rabbis
over the ages. In effect, our grandfathers were all liars or naïve
believers in legends and stories for which there is no current historical
scientific evidence. Aside from these two groupings there are groups who
wish to be included in the religion of Judaism and who do not see
themselves as being secular. But, in varying degrees, they follow the
ideas of the Saducees and the Karaites though they essentially also deny
that the mountain has anything to do with God and divine origins.
History shows that in the long run such philosophies and movements give
way to the pressures of time and circumstance and eventually lose their
influence and power. At the end of the day only the mountain remains as it
always has, challenging us to ascend it and maintain ourselves upon it.
Shabat shalom.
Rabbi Berel Wein
