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February 8 s 2007

don't like to brag, but I still
avenues to be filled with divine light.
remember the theme song to
The mistake of "idolatry" is to turn
Gilligan's Island.
them into gods, leaving them in the
That's because my head is a 1970s
dark, thinking it's the axe, not the lum-
television set with a beard. All the
berjack, that chops down the tree.
popular shows are playing in perpetual
Yitro was a guru of the network,
rerun. Carol Marol is still standing by
mistaking the pathways themselves
Door Number Two.
for gods, worshipping his
One magazine writer
own wisdom. But at Sinai,
called this mind clutter
he plugged the network into
"cultural debris" left
Torah, and the wisdom he had
behind like driftwood
of the world filled with light.
by the changing tides of
Today, we're like Yitro.
time. It's like strolling
Torah is designed to refine
along the beach and
and elevate the world, includ-
finding Maxwell Smart's
ing the world's wisdoms. But
shoe phone.
how do you refine wisdom
I call it raw material
like Yitro had? We're certainly
Rabbi Boruch
for a good speech.
not going to send someone
Cohen
This relates to what
out of yeshiva to study idola-
Special
to the
Kabbalah says about
try. The Brady Bunch would
Jewish News
this week's Torah read-
blow bubbie's mind.
ing. Yitro comes from
Instead, Divine Providence
afar to join the Jewish people at Mount
arranges for some of us to grow up
Sinai. When he arrives, says the Zohar,
without Torah — to watch hours of
heavens and earth fill with mystical
television, soak up strange values,
light and divine wisdom flows.
study at university, work in the world,
The key line comes after Yitro hears
amass experience in a given field
the details about the Exodus. "Now I
— then, later in life, to arrive from afar
know," he says, "that God is greater than to receive the Torah.
all the other gods."
Because of our experience, we are
Greater than all the other gods.
able to create new light in the world
That's comparative religion. From this
and contribute wonderful things to the
we see that Yitro was an expert in all
Jewish community.
the idolatries of the world.
Torah needed Yitro and Torah needs
This means more than bowing to
us.
statues. Idolatry in those days was not
How do you elevate Gilligan's
a religion for dummies, but a sophisti-
Island?
cated science, likely involving astrono-
How about mentioning it in an arti-
my, astrology, symbolism, cosmology,
cle about this week's Torah reading? El,
iconography and angelology, not to
mention armchair metaphysics while
Rabbi Boruch Cohen is the spiritual leader
puffing on a pipe.
of the Birmingham-Bloomfield Chai Center,
That's on an academic level. In terms
an independent neighborhood synagogue in
of popular practice, people at the time
Bloomfield Hills.
worshiped idols like we once watched
TV, or like people today use the com-
Conversations
puter.
In what ways have your areas of
Idolatry was the prevailing culture
interest
or experience become
— and Yitro was into it.
like
gods?
In what ways could
We think of it as old-fashioned
your
interests
or experience con-
foolishness, but "idolatry" in concept
tribute
to
the
community?
Does
still exists. Energy flows into the world
your
intellectual
background
through a vast network of created
or training give you insight or
pathways that we know as science,
vocabulary
that might help illu-
religion, medicine, art, business, law
minate
or
elucidate
a Torah story
and popular culture. These are all fields
or
concept?
of human expertise and endeavor,