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Writing Our Own Torahs
Author shows how to develop a personal theology.
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Special to the Jewish News
he current period in Jewish histo-
ry has been compared to the time
after the destruction of the Second
Temple, when Jewish leaders looked
around at their strange lands of exile
and wondered how Judaism would sur-
vive and interact with the new world.
Modern Jews, for the most part, no
longer have state sponsored anti-
Semitism to define them and, especially
in the United States, represent the most
prosperous, assimilated generation in
Jewish history. The Holocaust is fading
into past history, and Israel is no longer
the central focus of American Jewish
attention. Where can Jews find meaning?
To author Carol Ochs, the answer lies
in their personal stories. In her new
book, Our Lives As Torah (Jossey-Bass;
$24.95), Ochs argues that those who are
searching for God in modern life should
not only look to ancient biblical stories
but to the narrative of our own lives as
nothing less than biblical parables.
So, what elevates a personal story to
the level of personal theology?
For that, Ochs says, we need to
almost remove ourselves from our own
life, float above it and see it as a biblical
story, even as a movie scene, broken
apart into its components — lighting,
scene and time period.
Then take the narrative of your life
and search your story for God's pres-
ence. In that way, the Bible has more
resonance, as we create our own per-
sonal Torahs.
"God's presence may turn us off,
except that we have probably not
defined what we mean by God since"
Jewish religious classes, Ochs writes.
"For now, let's say
that we are seeking
the aspect of the
story that suggests we
are part of something
larger than our own
life and effort. "We
are looking for the
element that turns
our daily life into
something of infinite
worth. We search our
own memories to
discover where there
has been wonder."
We use our memo-
ries to find who God
is to us, and not neces-
sarily who He was to
biblical heroes or even
our parents, Ochs explains. We "locate
`the more' — the part of the story that
cannot be accounted for by all the usual
modes of explanation. Ultimately, we dis-
cover that every carefully recollected
event, in addition to being whatever it
purports to be about, is also a story of
God."
It's a point that has been made by
other modern Jewish thinkers, includ-
ing Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of the
New York-based CLAL: The National
Jewish Center for Learning and
Leadership, and Rabbi Irving "Yitz"
Greenberg, chairman of the United
States Holocaust Memorial Council.
They have delved into a concept they
call "holy secularity."
"The rabbis, in response to the
destruction of the Temple, expanded the
concept of kedusha (holiness) from the
Temple to the home," Kula told an
interviewer last year. "The table
becomes the altar, as does the hospital
1; ;3
,
room when you visit
the sick, or the bed
when a couple make
love, etc.
"There is a constant
expansion of kedusha,
or covenantal con-
sciousness," Kula con-
tinued. "Where peo-
ple are living their
lives, in the so-called
secular domain, that's
the place where there
is the most divine
energy."
The wonderful
thing about Bible sto-
ries is that even the
■
heroes have severe
flaws and human
frailties, just like the rest of us. Your
flaws, your strengths, your triumphs,
your failures, your suffering, your joy
all are part of the narrative of your life.
Have the "camera" pan back and
your life is seen in the context of your
family's narrative, your community's
and the Jewish people's. Then look
closely, and you'll see God in there.
Viewing our lives as a kind of biblical
narrative may work in our relatively
comfortable lives, when we can step
back from our emotional peaks and val-
leys, and greater meaning can be given
to them. But what about times of true
suffering, of suffering without cause?
The author provides inadequate
explanation — especially for the
Holocaust.
You can see your successes and fail-
ures in career, in relationships, as part
of a larger narrative, but when we get
into epic tragedy and unspeakable suf-
fering on the level of the Holocaust,
it A 111, 1. 4 VY P.1 3,C E
.1 N E is