Al Reguel Ajat

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) was born in Warsaw into a distinguished family of Hasidic rabbis. He received his first smicha (rabbinical degree) from an Orthodox yeshivah in Poland and his second from a liberal rabbinical seminary in Germany. He escaped Europe at the beginning of World War II and came to the United States to teach, first at a Reform rabbinical seminary and later at the Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary, where he was classmate of Mordechai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism. He accompanied Martin Luther King on the famous Salem March, and said that, as he did so, it seemed as if his legs were praying for him.

Few rabbis have been exposed, throughout their lives, to such a wide variety of approaches to and experiences with Judaism as Heschel. Professor David Biale says that Heschel’s theology is based on his interpretation of Hasidic spirituality in the light of modernity. For Biale, his most important works are: «God in Search of Man» (1955); «The Earth Is God’s,» his elegy on the Jews who died in the Holocaust (1949); and «The Sabbath» (1951), a work that ignores the numerous rules governing Shabbat observance and leads us to meditate on the true spiritual significance of this holiday.

In “The Sabbath,” Heschel wrote: “The Bible is more concerned with time than with space. It sees the world in the dimension of time. It pays more attention to generations, to events, than to countries, to things; it is more concerned with history than with geography. To understand the teachings of the Bible, one must accept the premise that time has a meaning for life as important as space. Judaism is a religion of time that aims at the sanctification of time. The Bible senses the diverse character of time. No two hours are alike. Every hour is unique.”

Regarding Shabbat, Heschel says: Work is a craft, but perfect rest is an art. The art of keeping the seventh day is the art of painting on the canvas of time the mysterious grandeur of the moment when God completed his creation. It is the result of an agreement between body, mind, and imagination. Shabbat is delight: delight for the soul and delight for the body. You can observe Shabbat by mechanically following its rules. But observing the seventh day is more than simply obeying God’s commandments. Sanctifying the seventh day does not mean mortifying yourself, but rather, sanctifying it with all your heart, soul, and senses. We sanctify Shabbat with things as mundane as special foods or beautiful clothes, not just with prayers.

Heschel says: Unlike the Day of Forgiveness, the Sabbath is not dedicated exclusively to spiritual purposes. It is a day where the soul as well as the body, comfort, and pleasure are integral parts of Shabbat observance. It must be the whole person, with all his faculties, sharing in the blessing of the Sabbath. Celebrating Shabbat must be more than a mere mechanical ritual; celebrating Shabbat must be an art.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: «The Sabbath» by Abraham Joshua Heschel and «Judaism» by David Biale.

It is written in Exodus 19:17: “And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the foot of Mount Sinai.” But in the Gemara, in Shabbat 88a, the rabbis explain it this way: “Rabbi Avdimi bar Ḥama bar Ḥasa said: The Jewish people were actually standing under the mountain, and the verse teaches that the Holy One, Blessed be He, turned the mountain over the Jews like a tub and said to them: If you accept the Torah, excellent, and if not, there will be your burial.”

The rabbis’ explanation in the Gemara was very different from what we read in the Torah. Therefore, the rabbis asked themselves: «If from this point on there is a warning that it is obligatory to fulfill the Torah, how does this explain the moment of Na’aseh V’Nishma (we will do it and we will listen to it), in Exodus 24:7, when Bnei Yisrael accepted the Torah unconditionally? Rabbi Mois Navon explains it by saying that the Jews in the desert were like children with respect to their relationship with God and His Torah. When children are developing, they need definitions for appropriate behavior, boundaries, in short, a system of morality. On the contrary, others, such as Rashi and the Mechiltah, explained it by saying that the giving of the Torah was like a wedding between God and the Jewish people, where the mountain was the Chuppah that united them in love, just as the Ahava Rabbah blessing in the morning prayer says, which speaks of integrating the love of God with His commandments.

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik said: «Religious coercion is an oxymoron.» (An oxymoron refers to something absurd or incoherent, such as saying «luminous darkness.») When a ritual act is coerced by an external force, it ceases to have religious value or spiritual significance and, in fact, only increases anti-religious antagonisms and pushes the person to the opposite side.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin says: In a secular society, within the scope of laws governing relationships between people, the authorities who seek justice can and should use coercion and even force to establish a just society. People understand that these laws exist to help them comply with regulations they know are for the good of all. However, with regard to laws between people and God, forced adherence will have exactly the opposite effect and will only lead to resentment and anti-religious feelings.

Riskin questions those laws enacted in the State of Israel that compel a secular society to fulfill religious commandments by force, with «the mountain» above them, rather than with love. He suggests a different approach. It’s not the enactment of laws that secular Israelis neither understand nor accept that will increase respect for and observance of the Sabbath. Rather, it’s through getting the religious community to love and respect them, and seeking to get the religious to do their best, not so much to enforce the commandments, but to inspire. With halachic creativity, there would be a way, for example, in which the sanctity of the Sabbath could be maintained, and the beauty of our traditions, through songs, music, and food, could be brought to a large secular audience. Because by force, you cannot make everybody keep them.

By Marcos Gojman:

Bibliography: Articles by Shlomo Riskin, Mois Navon, Hannah Cowen, and other sources.

Gerhard Scholem (1897-1982) was born in Berlin to a Jewish family assimilated into German culture. His father, Arthur Scholem, opposed his son’s desire to study Jewish subjects, but thanks to the support of his mother, Betty Hirsch Scholem, he was able to study Hebrew and Talmud with an Orthodox rabbi. In 1915, Gerhard entered Frederick William University where he studied mathematics, philosophy, and Hebrew. That year he met Walter Benjamin, with whom he developed a close friendship that unfortunately ended with Benjamin’s death during the Holocaust. At the university, Scholem met Martin Buber, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Chaim Nachman Bialik, Ahad Ha’am, and Zalman Shazar. Gerhard eventually specialized in Semitic languages, earning a degree from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. His doctoral thesis was on Sefer ha Bahir, probably the oldest known book on Kabbalah.

Attracted to Zionism and influenced by Martin Buber, Scholem emigrated to the Land of Israel in 1923, where he changed his name to Gershom. There, he devoted himself to the study of Jewish mysticism, worked as a librarian at the National Library, and eventually became head of the Department of Hebrew and Judaica. He later joined the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as a professor, where he taught Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, a position to which he dedicated the rest of his life.

Gershom sought to teach these subjects with a different approach than before. He disagreed with the approach taken by the followers of the «Wissenschaft des Judentums» movement, the Science of Judaism, who, he believed, presented Judaism from a strictly rational perspective, much in the style of German universities. Gershom criticized them for studying Judaism more as a dead thing than as a living organism, and for forgetting that the foundations of Judaism included a part that could not be rationally explained, and that this was what made it alive. He argued that the mythical and mystical aspects of Judaism were the truly living core of Judaism and were just as important as the rational part, even more so than the minutiae of halacha.

Gershom Scholem is known as the founder of the modern study of Kabbalah, the branch of Jewish thought that seeks the ultimate truth about the nature of God, good and evil, and humanity’s role in the cosmos. George Prochnik says that for Scholem, Kabbalah preserves the framework of monotheism while shattering the idol that there is a single monolithic truth. Scholem often quoted Isaac Luria, a 16th-century mystic, who said: “Every word of the Torah has 600,000 faces, that is, meanings, one for each of the children of Israel who stood at the foot of Mount Sinai. Each face, each meaning, addresses only one of them; only that child can see and decipher it. Each has his own way of understanding Divine Revelation.”

Gershom Scholem was convinced, David Biale tells us, that modernity, by viewing everything through the lens of reason, had caused Jewish mysticism to practically cease to exist. Just as in pre-modern times, Kabbalah had been a vital force within Judaism, especially among the Hasidim, today, with few exceptions, its presence in the Jewish spirit has been diminished. And Gershom Scholem fought against this all his life, because for him, mysticism is what truly gives life to Judaism.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Articles by George Prochnik, David Biale, and other sources.

Mordechai Kaplan, one of the great Jewish figures of the 20th century, said that every Jew could express their Judaism through what, in English, are the three «B’s»: belong, behave, and believe. Belonging is the most common way of identifying as Jewish, through being part of, or a member of, community organizations. Practice is especially demonstrated by observing the commandments and customs, such as celebrating Jewish holidays or eating kosher. But believing is, for many, the most difficult way to express their Judaism because it involves defining what we believe and what concepts define us as Jews.

The matter of systematically defining a group’s religious beliefs is what scholars call theology. Rabbi Neil Gillman (1933-2017) was a rabbi who dedicated his entire life to the study of Jewish theology, especially Masorti or Conservative Judaism. Gillman was born in Quebec City, Canada. He studied philosophy at McGill University and was later ordained as a rabbi at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. In 1975, he earned his doctorate from Columbia University. He taught Jewish philosophy at JTS from his ordination until his retirement. He also served on the committee that drafted «Emet Ve Emunah,» «Truth and Faith,» the official statement of principles governing Conservative Judaism. In 1990, he wrote «Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew,» which won that year’s National Jewish Book Award.

Gillman was a student of Mordechai Kaplan at JTS. In one of his classes, he heard his teacher say, “Judaism is whatever the Jewish people say it is.” This phrase sparked an essay that led to a long conversation between him and Kaplan. That conversation led Gillman to seek his own definition of what he believed as a Jew. Gillman said, “How can I teach Jewish theology if I don’t understand it myself?” Every year, at the beginning of his course, he asked his students to write an essay about their personal Jewish beliefs, and at the end of the course, he asked them to do the same. Some continued to do so even after graduation.

Gillman said that sacred texts had to be understood beyond their literal and even historical interpretation. The Bible had to be viewed from a rather poetic and metaphorical point of view. He spoke of being a bit “naive,” not like a child or like his grandfather who believed that everything written in the Torah had happened exactly as it was, but like someone who understood that these myths had a much deeper meaning. For example, he said that one cannot believe that the dead will rise again, but at the same time, one cannot stop believing in a God who has the power to do so, because otherwise, he would be impotent in matters of life and death. The same is true of the Exodus from Egypt, Gillman said, a legend that has not been historically proven, but whose significance in Jewish theology is enormous.

With this approach, Gillman sought in each of his classes to awaken in his students that need to define their own Judaism, a task to which he dedicated his entire life.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Video lectures by Neil Gillman at JTS.

Kalonymus Kalman Szapiro (1889-1943) was born in Grodzisk, Poland, into a family of great rabbis. He was orphaned at the age of 3, and it was his mother, Hannah Berkhaha, who instilled in him a love for his Hasidic roots. He married at 15 and had two children. In 1909, after the death of his father-in-law, he became the chief rabbi of Piaseczno. In 1923, he founded the Daas Moshe Yeshiva, one of the largest Hasidic yeshivos before World War II. As head of the yeshiva, Kalonymus was concerned about young people dropping out of traditional education, assimilating into Polish culture, or joining secular Jewish movements such as Zionism and socialism. During those years, Hasidic schools had lost their creative spirit and had assimilated the rigid study format of Lithuanian yeshivot.

Rabbi Polen comments: Kalonymus, in his book Chovas haTalmidim (The Responsibility of Students), said that a child should be imbued «with a vision of his potential greatness» and be «an active participant in his own development,» and that teachers «must learn to speak the student’s language and express vividly the delights of a life close to God.»

In September 1939, after the invasion of Poland, Rabbi Szapiro was interned in the Warsaw ghetto, where he ran a secret synagogue. After the ghetto uprising in 1943, Rabbi Szapiro was taken to the Trawniki camp near Lublin, where on November 3 of that year, the remaining Jews there, including Rabbi Szapiro, were murdered.

The sermons Szapiro wrote during his time in the Warsaw ghetto survived thanks to Emmanuel Ringelblum and his group, who began gathering as much documentation as they could. They hid it in metal milk cans and buried them so that the world would know firsthand what had happened there. The collection of sermons was found and published under the title Esh Kodesh, Holy Fire.

Shaul Magid, in Esh Kodesh, distinguishes three groups of Kalonymus sermons: the first, where Szapiro is the rabbi who offers words of encouragement to his congregants, telling them that what was happening there was categorically no different from other times of suffering for the Jewish people. In the second group, Kalonymus has the difficult task of teaching his people to die with dignity and that despite the incomprehensibility of the situation, they were part of that divine drama. The final group shows us a radical theologian, especially when reading a note inserted in a sermon, where he writes that what he and his community were experiencing was unparalleled and unprecedented.

A student of Szapiro who survived the massacre said that Kalonymus had taught them that the best thing in this world was to do someone a favor. Thus, every time he thought about committing suicide or giving up fighting for survival, he remembered that he needed to do someone a favor and moved on. Kalonymus didn’t understand what had happened to God, but he knew that one thing that could save a person was to stop trying to explain divine behavior and do someone a favor.

By: Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: The Holy Fire by Nehemiah Polen, article by Shaul Magid, and other sources.

Tevilat Kelim is the halachah that regulates the immersion of culinary utensils in a mikveh. It originates in the Torah, in Numbers 31, when God commands Moses to wipe out the Midianites, a pagan people who were spreading their idolatry to the Hebrews. After the battle, Moses instructs the warriors to purify themselves and do the same with “all garments, leather articles, goat products, and wooden vessels.” And verses 21-23 say, “Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to battle, ‘This is the statute of the law that God has commanded Moses (referring to the spoils of war): Gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead, everything that can withstand fire, will pass through the fire and will be clean, but it will be purified with water for impurity. But everything that cannot withstand fire will be passed through water.”

The Mishneh, in tractate Masechet Avodah Zarah, interprets this passage as follows: Whoever buys a utensil from a pagan (“haoved cochavim,” one who worships the stars), one that is normally immersed in water, must be immersed; one that is normally boiled, must be immersed in boiling water; one that is normally heated in fire until red-hot, must be heated in fire. And the Gemara says: And all require immersion in forty seahs (the amount of water).

The Shulchan Aruch, in tractate Orach Chaim, in chapter 37, lists the rules regarding Tevilat Kelim, including the blessing that must be said upon doing so. And these rules go into detail: for example, they distinguish what must be done depending on the material from which they are made, as glass and metal utensils are immersed, but wooden ones are not. This also applies to items purchased and/or made by pagans. (are dipped) or by Jews (are not dipped), or whether they were purchased (are dipped) or only borrowed (are not dipped). And they explain that not all culinary utensils must be dipped, among other things.

And the rules of the Shulchan Aruch were later further expanded by Orthodox religious authorities. The website Halachipedia lists more than 40 rules for Tevilat Kelim: it specifies in detail the procedure for dipping, when to say the blessing, which utensils require dipping, what to do with disposable utensils or electrical ones like a toaster or coffee maker, or when we buy food packaged in glass and consumed directly from the container, such as soft drinks or fruit juices. Furthermore, these sites no longer mention utensils made by idolaters, but simply by anyone who is not Jewish.

The Conservative Rabbis’ Law and Standards Committee, after a unanimous deliberation, concluded that Tevilat Kelim is not required, at least that the object is suspected of having been made by an idolater, as would be the case with a vessel from ancient Rome. They conclude that it is practically impossible to know who made the utensil, that they are now made by mixing materials that may or may not require immersion, and that the rule was for warriors and not for the entire people. In contrast, Orthodox Judaism is adding new and increasingly detailed rules. The result is an extremely complex tangle of rules that are difficult to follow. And this happens when we forget the true meaning of the commandment.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Resolution of the Conservative Rabbis’ Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, article on Tevilat Kelim from Halachipedia, and other sources.

It is written in the Talmud, in tractate Eruvin 13B: “Rabbi Abba reported that Shmuel said: For three years, Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel disagreed. These (Beit Shammai) said: Halacha is in accordance with our opinion, and those (Beit Hillel) said: Halacha is in accordance with our opinion. Finally, a Divine Voice arose and proclaimed: Both these (those of Shammai) and those (those of Hillel) are the words of the Living God.”

Rabbi Shlomo Luria, known as the Maharshal (1510–1574), explained his approach to study and teaching thus: “I always strove to seek out, down to the last source, the origin of some halacha, a search which I used to discuss with my colleagues and students. I would sometimes spend up to a week in deep research and reasoning until I found the root of the matter, finally to write it down in my book. And I always had the habit of citing all the opinions of the sages who preceded me, according to their rank of authority, in addition to the decisions and rulings of those who compiled the responsa, in order to avoid suspicion of plagiarism or the reproach that I had overlooked the opinion of some great authority.”

And Luria said, without fear, publicly: «Do not pay attention to the decisions of those who dare to define the laws, when most of them have only read the Tur Orah Hayyim of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher, as if the opinion of this rabbi had been transmitted to him directly from the mouth of Moses on Mount Sinai.» In this sense, Luria went so far as to question the opinions of his own father, Rabbi Jehiel Luria. And Joseph Caro himself, the creator of the Shulchan Aruch, was not spared from his criticism, whom he accused of having occasionally expressed superficial opinions in his effort to harmonize conflicting laws, as well as of having sometimes based his decisions on the reading of texts that were not faithful to their original.

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo tells us: “One of the Talmud’s greatest contributions to Judaism is its indeterminacy, its frequent refusal to establish a single law. Talmudic discussions consist mainly of opposing positions, often without a clear decision as to which point of view is correct.” And Luria said that the Kabbalists explained the origin of these differences of opinion in the fact that every Jewish soul was present at Sinai and that each understood the Torah from its own perspective, according to its intellectual capacity, its nature, and the uniqueness of each.

Lopes Cardozo comments: “For the past five hundred years, great rabbis have questioned the overwhelming authority of Yosef Karo’s Shulchan Aruch and the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah. They felt that these works do not reflect authentic Judaism and its halachic tradition. The reason is obvious: These great codes of Jewish law go against the spirit of Judaism. They present Halakha in ways that oppose the heart and soul of the Talmud and Judaism itself. They deprived Judaism of its halachic tradition of being multifaceted. The problem is not the works themselves, but rather this desire to codify and finalize Jewish law, to present a Judaism with a single face.”

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: The Jewish Encyclopedia, Nathan Lopes Cardozo: “The In-Authenticity of Codifying Jewish Law.”

Shabbetai Tzvi ben Mordechai was born in Smyrna on July 23, 1626, the 9th of Av on the Jewish calendar. He studied Talmud at the Yeshiva of Rabbi Joseph Escapa. He was not drawn to the study of Talmud, but rather to mysticism and practical Kabbalah. At that time, it was believed that the Messianic era was imminent, an idea promoted by groups of English Christians with whom his father had contact, as he was the representative of an English company.

These ideas, coupled with calculations based on the Zohar, influenced Shabbetai’s restless mind, and at the age of 22, he proclaimed himself the Messiah before a group of followers, whom he had convinced with his knowledge of Kabbalah, his personality, and his strange behavior. The rabbis of Smyrna expelled him from the community. He arrived in Constantinople, where he met Abraham Ha-Yakini, a preacher who helped confirm his messianic dreams. To this end, Ha-Yakini prepared a manuscript, imitating the ancient writing style, in which he declared that in the year 5386 (1626), a son would be born to Mordechai Tzvi, who would be called Shabbetai and would be the true Messiah. With this forged document, Shabbetai went to Salonika, where he again proclaimed himself the Messiah to new supporters, impressed by his mystical tricks, such as «marrying the Torah.» The rabbis of Salonika expelled him, and after traveling through several cities, he arrived in Cairo, where he met Raphael Joseph Halavi, a wealthy Jew from Aleppo who, despite his wealth, led an ascetic life. Halavi used his fortune to help young Talmudic and Kabbalah scholars and soon became one of the most enthusiastic promoters of Shabbetai’s messianic plans.

Shabbetai decided to go to Jerusalem. There, he recruited new followers through a theatrical display: singing psalms all night, praying at the tombs of pious sages, mortifying his body with fasting and other penances, and even weeping profusely. Shabbetai returned to Cairo, where he learned the story of Sarah, a Jewish girl who had been a victim of the Chmelnitsky pogroms in Poland. Sarah was rescued by nuns and imprisoned in a convent, from which she escaped and ended up living in Amsterdam, where she led a rather eccentric life until the idea occurred to him that she was destined to be the bride of the Messiah. Shabbetai decided to send for her to marry her. As his wife, Sarah’s charm helped him gain more followers. On the way to Jerusalem and passing through the city of Gaza, he met Nathan Ghazzati, who became his confidant and assumed the role of the prophet Elijah.

With Halavi’s money, a charming wife, and many followers, he arrived in Smyrna in the fall of 1665, where he publicly declared himself the long-awaited Messiah. This took place in the synagogue, with the sound of the shofar and a crowd shouting «Long live our king, our Messiah!» His popularity grew incredibly rapidly, and his fame spread to many countries.

He went to Constantinople, where he hoped to be crowned the Messiah, but was imprisoned by the Turkish authorities. Even while in prison, his movement grew in strength, which worried the Turks, who eventually brought him to trial. Someone advised him that the only thing that could save his life was to convert to Islam. And Shabbetai did so. The disappointment among his followers was enormous. Shabetai was another of those false leaders whom people believe.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Article by Kaufmann Kohler and Henry Malter and other sources.

Midrash is the way sages explain difficult-to-understand biblical texts. One of the best-known is the Midrash Rabbah, composed of 10 collections, one of which is the Midrash Eicha, or Lamentations. Poem 24R of this midrash, based on Jeremiah 31:15 and narrated by Rev. Shmuel ben Nahman, seems to be written like the script for a play:

The scene: The heavenly court after the destruction of the Temple. The characters, in order of appearance: Abraham Avinu, the Angels, God, the Torah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Rachel. The plot begins when Abraham appears before God, his garments torn and with ashes on his head, walking through the ruins of the Temple, lamenting and weeping.

Abraham: “Why have we been treated differently than all other peoples, that we have come to this shame and contempt?”

The Angels: “King of the Universe, the covenant made with the patriarch Abraham is broken, through which man acknowledges that You are God, the Creator of heaven and earth. You have despised Jerusalem and Zion, despite having chosen them. Have you rejected Judah?”

God: “Why these funeral dirges?”

The Angels: “For Abraham, Your friend who came to Your house and mourned and wept, why is he indifferent to You?”

God: “Because the day he left for his eternal home, he did not come to My house.”

Abraham: “Why have you exiled my children and handed them over to pagan nations who have exposed them to all kinds of unnatural deaths and destroyed the Temple, the place where I was to sacrifice my son Isaac?”

God: “Your children have sinned and violated the entire Torah and its twenty-two letters.” Abraham: “Who is the one who testifies that Israel has transgressed Your law?” God: “Let the Torah come and testify against Israel.”

The Torah appears. Abraham to the Torah: “Do you remember the day when God wanted to give you to many nations and none would accept you, until my children came to Mount Sinai and accepted you and honored you? And now you come to testify against them?” When the Torah heard this, it did not bear witness against him.

Abraham to God: When I was 137 years old, did you not ask me to sacrifice my son Isaac?

Isaac: “When my father took me, was I not willing to let myself be bound and even stretched out my neck under the knife?”

Jacob: “Did I not work for twenty years in Laban’s house, and when I returned, Esau was ready to kill me and my children, and I risked my life for them?”

Moses: “Was I not a faithful shepherd of Israel for 40 years, and I ran after them like a horse in the desert. But when my time came to enter the Land of Israel, You decided that my bones should be scattered in the desert.”

Moses: “You wrote in Your Torah: ‘Whether it is a cow or a sheep, you shall not kill it and its child in the same day,’ for they have killed many mothers and their children in the same day, and You have remained silent.

All to God: Do You not remember all this on our behalf, so that You will have mercy on our children?”

Rachel: God, do You remember that Jacob loved me, but my father chose to give him Leah instead? I had compassion on my sister and taught her the signs so that Jacob would not realize it was her.” I even lay under his bed, and when he spoke to her, I answered in his place. If I was able to overcome my jealousy so as not to shame my sister, why are You jealous of false gods that aren’t even real? How can You allow Your jealousy to cause Your children to be killed and exiled?

And God was moved by Rachel’s argument and said, «For you, Rachel, I will restore the House of Israel to its place. The exile will one day come to an end.»

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Poem 24r of the Midrash Eicha Rabbah, based on Jeremiah 31:15.

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was born in Prague, today the capital of the Czech Republic and then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His parents were middle-class Ashkenazi Jews. His father, Hermann Kafka, emigrated from Ozek, a Czech town with a significant Jewish population. Although Franz’s parents spoke the western dialect of Yiddish, pejoratively called Mauscheldeutsch, the “Moses German,” they eventually substituted it with German and Czech.

His parents were not very observant Jews and attended synagogue only on major holidays and celebrated the Passover Seder at home only. The limited Jewish education Franz received ended when he celebrated his bar mitzvah. Kafka completed his primary education in 1893 at an all-boys German school and attended high school at the Imperial Secondary School located in the Kinsky Palace on Old Town Square. In 1901, he entered the University of Prague, where, urged by his father, he completed his law degree in 1906. It was there that he met Max Brod, who became his closest friend throughout his life. In 1908, he began working in the legal department of an insurance company, a position that also allowed him to write.

The tense relationship he always had with his father shaped his almost nonexistent Jewish identity in his youth. In “Letter to His Father,” he wrote: “Judaism hasn’t saved me from you either. In itself, on that ground, it would have been possible to conceive of salvation, but even more so, it would have been possible to conceive that in Judaism we would both find ourselves, or, even more, emerge from it together. But what kind of Judaism did you bequeath to me! As a child, I, like you, reproached myself for not attending the temple regularly enough, for not fasting, etc. I didn’t believe I was doing myself any injustice, but rather an injustice to you, and my ever-vigilant conscience tormented me. You went to the temple four days a year; there you were, at best, closer to the indifferent than to those who took things seriously; you performed the prayers as a matter of formality, … and, furthermore, as long as I was in the temple—that was the main thing—I could slip away wherever I wanted.”

Kafka was influenced not only by his relationship with his father, but also by the antisemitism of the Czechs. In 1897 and 1920, he witnessed two violent pogroms and saw how the authorities had to protect the Jewish population. But in 1911, his attitude toward all things Jewish began to change when he met Yitzhak Lowy, a Yiddish theater actor. He liked his performances so much that he attended every one of them that year. He soon became interested in Jewish mysticism and religion, and especially in Zionism. His contact with this group of Jewish actors was like a conversion to Judaism. It was then that he met Dora Diamant, a Jewish girl from a Hasidic family, who became the love he had always yearned for. However, his plan to emigrate to the Land of Israel with Dora was thwarted in 1917 when he suffered the first symptoms of tuberculosis. Before his death in 1924, he asked his friend Max Brod to burn all his writings. Fortunately for everyone, he ignored him. Today, the term «Kafkaesque» is applied to situations that are very complex, bizarre, or illogical. Franz Kafka undoubtedly had a «Kafkaesque» Jewish identity.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Walter H. Sokel «Kafka as a Jew,» Encyclopaedia Judaica, and other sources.