Hudson Valley Weddings – Rabbi Douglas Kohn

Dear Friends,

Diversity in our minds…?  Let’s see!

Torah teaches: “There shall be no needy among you -since the Eternal your God will bless you in the land that the Eternal your God is giving you as a hereditary portion.”  (Deuteronomy 15:43)

Really?   No poor among us?! 

Even the grandest optimist – myself – would not buy that line.  Contrariwise, there has always been poor, and they have been found in every land.  Israel, even in the biblical day, still had its share of impoverished people.  Otherwise, what was the purpose of collecting and disbursing tzedakah? 

At first glance, this week’s Torah portion appears Pollyana.  That is, until one reads a few verses down…

“If, however, there is a needy person among you, one of your kin in any of your settlements in the land… do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kin.  Rather, you must open your hand and lend whatever is sufficient to meet the need.”  (Dt. 15:7-8)

Torah knew that there would be insufficiencies, and that some would suffer.

So, what is the complex message of the Torah in these seemingly at-odds statements?

Perhaps the Torah is asserting either an idealist/realist composite, in which it wishes to believe and drive to the ideal, but it understands that either the real is not attainable, or is not yet attainable, and that temporary measures must be enacted. 

Or, the Torah holds that we can be both realists and either pessimists or idealists simultaneously.  It may be possible to hold two apparently divergent truths or ideologies in our mind concomitantly.  Differing views are not impossible, and we do not have to paint ourselves into corners of strident positionality, simply to buttress our thoughts or opinions. 

Either way, Torah is using the example of the existence of needy persons, and the ideal schema of perfect provisions, as a challenge to our attitudes and self-awareness.  It uses a down-to-earth, tangible and present reality, contrasted to the perfection sought in an ideal world of Torah, to remind us to nurture and harbor diversity in our minds. 

If we do not have diversity in our minds, we can only see one reality.  But, it appears, reality is far more complex and nuanced.  We need diversity in our minds!

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Douglas Kohn