ANIIIINIMPIPPIPOMORAMMOINNEIN, :-.111110-
I COMMENT
A Jewish View
Of Rushdie Affair
It is harder in Judaism to blaspheme our
heroes because they are all fallible.
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HAROLD SCHULWEIS
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Special to The Jewish News
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16
FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1989
AMERICAN
glIP CANCER
SOCIETY'
had thought long and
hard about the Rushdie
affair, the barbaric judg-
ment of the Ayatollah, the
angry censorious cries of the
mob, the charges of
blasphemy, the tumult
around the release of Martin
Scorsese's film The Last
Temptation of Christ, and of
our own tradition. What has
the blasphemy in common?
It was that a prophet, a
hero, a messenger of God, a
son of God was portrayed by
authors as possessed of the
foibles associated with the
human spirit. They were men
of flesh, tempted by seduc-
tion, tempted by violence.
But none of this could sur-
prise Jews. It is harder in
Judaism to blaspheme scrip-
tural heroes or heroines. Not
because Jews are more
liberal, more tolerant, but
because the Torah they revere
has instructed them well. For
every one of its heroes,
patriarchs, princes, prophets,
priests is portrayed as flawed,
fragile, fallible human beings.
Abraham, he with the
courage of a lion, acts like an
uxorious husband obedient to
Sarah's insistence that
Hagar, the maidservant, be
driven from their house.
Isaac, the traumatized in-
fant bound to the altar, is
later depicted as a father
favoring Esau, the hunter
who brings him venison.
Rebeccah the matriarch
conspires with Jacob to wrest
the blessing of the first born
from blind Isaac.
The deceit and conspiracies
of Jacob are followed
throughout his life.
Simeon and Levi of the 12
tribes are revealed for what
they are, slayers of innocents,
and Reuben is identified as
unstable as water.
The Bible harps at Moses'
anger, striking the rod
against the rock to force
water from it. Because of his
hubris Moses will not enter
the promised land.
Aaron, the High Priest, is
revealed for his compromise of
principle and his surrender to
the howling mobs around the
Golden Calf; his sister
Miriam is stricken with
Rabbi Schulweis is spiritual
leader of Temple Valley Beth
Shalom in Encino, Calif
leprosy, a punishment for her
gossiping.
David, King, Psalm singer,
ancestor of Judaic royalty and
messianic redeemer, is ex-
posed by the prophet — "Thou
are the man." This man is
adulterer and murderer.
Even God is revealed in the
Bible as less than perfect.
Ever and again, we are in-
formed that God regrets of
His acts or intentions. The
great model of humanity is
God who learns, grows and
Selman Rushdie
has the grace to repent of His
ways (Genesis 6:6-7) (Exodus
32:9). The broken tablets of
law are placed in the Ark of
Holiness together with the
whole ones. Fallibility, too, is
sacred.
So the Bible has virtually
robbed the writer of
blasphemy. What can the fic-
tion writer do to the holy men
that the Bible and rabbinic
literature have not already
done? Why are some so shock-
ed, so outraged? Did they ex-
pect that saints and holy men
are supra-human? Did they
expect that annointed kings
and priests are exempt from
sins . . ." Not "if," but "when"
they sin (Leviticus 4:22). The
principle is unambiguous.
"There is no righteous person
who does good and does not
sin" (Ecclesiastes 7:20).
We are wisely taught by our
tradition. The deification of
man is the blasphemy of God.
In our times, Jonestown, the
betrayals of television
evangelists, the Ayatollah's
death sentence review of
Rushdie's Satanic Verses are
reminders of the Torah's
wisdom. Wherever men or
women who walk the fact of
the earth seek apotheosis or
are divinized by others, they