It is written in Midrash Tanhuma (ed. Buber, Nitzavim, pp. 48-49): “If one takes a bundle of rods, will you be able to break them all at once? But if you take them one by one, even a small child can break them. In the same way, you will find that Israel will not be redeemed until it becomes a single bundle.” Isaac Abravanel said: “All that is good about Israel and its very survival depends on their being together and united.”

There are many examples in the Bible of calamities that have befallen the Jewish people and that have been attributed to a lack of unity. For example, the story of Joseph and his brothers, that of the ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel that were lost, and even the destruction of the Second Temple, which the Talmud (Yoma 9b) attributes to the sin of “sinat hinam,” senseless hatred.

It is clear that Jewish tradition seeks unity within the Jewish people. And one could easily conclude that the best way to achieve unity is through uniformity. If we all think and act alike, then we will be united. But our sages taught that plurality is essential in studying the Torah, in relationships with other people, and in Jewish law itself.

Our sages say that “the Torah has seventy faces” (Bemidbar Rabbah 13:15-16) and “just as a hammer breaks a stone into pieces, so a verse of the Bible can have many explanations” (Sanhedrin 34a). Similarly, the house of Rabbi Yannai said: “He who learns Torah from only one rabbi will never see a sign of blessings” (Avodah Zarah 34a).

For example: What kind of tree was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that stood in Paradise? People imagine it was an apple tree, but the rabbis offered other interpretations. Rabbi Yose said it was a fig tree, for after eating its fruit, Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves. Rabbi Judah bar Ilai said they ate grapes, Rabbi Meir said it was wheat, and Rabbi Abba said it was an etrog tree.

Tractate Berachot (58a) of the Talmud says: “Our rabbis taught: If one sees a crowd of Jews, he says: Blessed is he who deciphers secrets, for the mind of each one is different from the other, and the face of each one is different from the other.”

After the disappearance of the Sanhedrin, the assembly of rabbis that made halakhic decisions, in 425 CE, there was no longer a group of sages who approved anything by majority vote, so Jewish law became more pluralistic. Rabbi Isaac Abraham Kook, the Chief Rabbi of Eretz Israel, said: “The multiplicity of opinions, which originate from the variety of souls and educations, is the true thing that enriches wisdom and makes it expand.” The sages say the Torah has seventy faces, but I believe it has more: one face for every Jew.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Articles by David Golinkin, Allen S. Maller, and Elliot Dorff