Haskafa Versus Art: Shavuot, Incest, Gentiles, and the Messiah

Okay, so you can listen to a woman sing, so you may find Heterim to see movies, plays, or exhibits at the Met, but do these leniencies really address the larger issue here? How does the Halakhic Jew approach secular culture and the arts? This question is inextricably connected to how we are supposed to view the non-Jewish world; in particular, how we see our gentile brethren, our fellow man that just happens not to be Jewish. Do they just have a peripheral existence with respect to the major scheme of things? Is the gentile cursed in that he could never attain the level of spiritual and moral accomplishment that a Jew can? We know that there is wisdom among the nations, but does that include virtue and ethics? Are sociological mores like civil liberties, feminism, welfare and pluralism nothing more than meaningless guesses as to what may be aesthetically pleasing, or does modern man really have a natural intuition concerning moral righteousness in the eyes of the Lord? One can not deny the holiness found in the basic love between parent and child or the greatness underlying every act of human kindness, but how are these seemingly universal religious ideas manifested in Judaism? In an attempt to deal these problems, I'd like to share my understanding of Rav J.B. Soleveitchic's hashkafa concerning Judaism's relationship with the goyim. The following is my personal retelling (in mostly my own words) of the basic concepts taught in a shiur given by the Rav on May 25 1974, entitled "Shavuoth Motifs". The shiur examines the role of culture in kaballas ha Torah, galus, and Moshiach.

The Rav addresses four questions regarding the reading of Megilat Ruth on Shavuoth. The first, being the most common inquiry, 1)What does Megilat Ruth have to do with Shavuot.? The second and third questions are based on the chazal who learn that Ruth is read on this holiday simply due to the fact that the last posuk gives the lineage of Dovid Ha-Melech. The questions arise, 2) why is this particular ancestor of King David important? And, 3) what is the connection between David and Shavuot? Finally the Rav was bothered with, 4) why God chose A former Moavite Princess over one of the many bnos Yisrael to be grandmother of the Messiah?

Rav Soleveitchic begins by asserting that the most plausible interpretation amongst various hypothesis is the Vilna Gaon's learning of the story of Ruth. It is the story of geyrus; the courage of a young Pagan princess who joins a strange people. The story of Shavuot is the conversion of an entire people. The Gemara derives from matan Torah that geyrus requires tevilla, Millah, and kurban. From Ruth we learn another prerequisite for conversion (without which geyrus would be meaningless), kabbolat ol mitzvot (accepting the yoke of God's commandments). Using a typical Jewish approach, an individual is equivalent to a whole nation. Shavuot is a celebration of both historic conversions.

On Mount Sinai, the Torah was given to the chosen people who were charged with a certain responsibility. What about the rest of the world? Surely it is absurd to think that God abandoned the nations! God said, "You are the treasure of all nations but My relationship with the world will not disintegrate". Originally God did not want to give the Torah to only one people but as the Gemarah in Baba Kama explains, he approached the goyim before he gave the Torah to the Jews, but they said that it was in conflict with reality. The Jews finally accepted it, but what about the original plan? Did God just give it up?

The Rav insists the original intention of Hashem, that the Torah should be the property of every human being is steadfast and has not been terminated. The tactics have changed, not the goal. The Torah was not given to the non-Jewish community directly, but it was given indirectly to the entire mankind as an eschatological reality. The ultimate destiny of human fulfillment in the messianic age is for everybody to embrace the Torah, our faith. Our task as Jews has been and still is to teach the torah to Man kind, to influence the secular world and by that, save the world from profanity. We are the executers and messengers vis-a-vis the entire world; our task, to represent the moral outlook on life to which the Jew has committed himself. The gentile world should be able to watch the Jews and admire our way of living, for we bear witness to the unique relationship man has with God.

Contrary to what many might think, the Jew has a mission. Since we have not yet perfected ourselves, it is inappropriate to act on our mission, but the idea of this mission is still correct. We must be a "beacon of light" for all the nations to follow. This mandate, however, can not be attained in terms of teaching or writing Judaic philosophy; the mere publication of ethical books, no matter how brilliant, will not bring the world closer to God. People are not attracted to abstract morality. Traditional Judaism says we do the teaching by example.

It is now clear how the redemption of the world (Messianic age) is connected to man inheriting the Torah. Matan Torah initiated the Messianic process of universal conversion. Judaism predicts that at some period in the future all man kind will not only come close to God and embrace or faith, but also join the sacred community dedicated to the service of God!

Har Sinai represents the private covenant between the Jew and the all-mighty, while King David represents the Messianic age, where matan Torah is a universal affair. David will fulfill what was anticipated by the Almighty at Sinai. The full realization to matan Torah will be achieved at the time of the Messiah. It is no wonder we read Megilath Ruth on Shavuot, announcing the birth of Dovid and the realization that the Torah will be the property of all mankind.

It is no coincidence that on Shavuot we are introduced to Dovid through Ruth. The Meggilla provokes us to ask if it is right that the King Messiah should circulate the blood of a pagan princess. A Moavite girl should be the mother of eternal kingship? Certainly a nice Jewish girl could have been introduced to Boaz instead. This phenomenon only begins with Ruth...how many Pagan mothers did King David have? Remember that Dovid's grandmothers also include the daughter of Lot and Tamar, Judah's daughter in law/ bedfellow. Chazal even learn that God was thinking about Dovid when he sent the angel to save Lot. Why did God consistently look outside of the Jewish nation, when compiling the gene pool for our savior?

What was Ruth doing in the field of Boaz? She was performing Leket, gathering ears of corn. She gleaned and picked up. Leket is a halakhic and metaphysical institution, Hashem gleaned and gathered beautiful inclinations and virtues from people all over the world in order to weave the soul of the king Messiah. God was preoccupied with the Messiah's personality. He disregarded race and religion and instead looked through all of mankind to find special qualities and capabilities. This is the Almighty's approach to culture, to sift and glean through the nations of the world noting outstanding moral traits and ethical accomplishments.

Ruth was chosen because of her unique heroism. She came from pagan royalty, a life intoxicated with orgiastic pleasures and unlimited luxury. Ruth sacrificed all this to identify with a strange and mysterious people, to adopt a religion that demanded

superhuman discipline. The heroism manifested itself with her joining a people she didn't know and separating herself from the outside world; she chose loneliness, over sociological acceptance.

Lot's Daughter was indeed a primitive idol worshipers. She committed incest with her father! And from that carnal copulation came the mother of the Messiah! Yet, God saw an incredible character trait in this young girl. Chazal learn that her intentions were truly sincere. She was determined to rebuild the world and raise a new humanity. Lot's daughter was willing to forgive her own cleanliness, to perform the ultimate sin, in order to save the universal community. While Ruth abandoned the world to help her own life, Lot's daughter in effect corrupted herself in the name of human kind. This very dialectic reflects the typical life of the Jew, concerned on the one hand with a private somewhat secluded existence, on the other hand he is concerned with his relationship with the entire world, as a teacher. We withdraw then move forward, then move back once again.

Tamar was also from a pagan background. She was the daughter-in-law of Judah and a great grandmother of Boaz. She waited all her life. Judah told her to remain a widow until Shelah would grow up, but chazal said that he never actually thought to marry her off to Shellah. She was left to wait and was eventually forgotten until finally she re-met Judah. Her virtue was the ability to wait and keep waiting. She is the personification of Knesset Yisroel. We've been waiting for Moshiach through the most trying of circumstances ever since Matan Torah, and while waiting derived laughter and derision. We inherited this ability from Tamar. The Messiah is also waiting , waiting for the sinner to come back. He will patiently wait for the nations to do teshuvah instead of killing them off first.

The Rav has taught us the proper approach to non-Jews and their culture. We must view the gentile as a potential and impending Jew. They are still Hashem's precious children and were created in the same image of God that we were. Furthermore, our treatment of secular culture should imitate that of God's. To right off secular culture as being devoid of any moral, ethical, or religious value would be ungodly. Hashem took the time to glean, sift and gather positive qualities from worldly culture. How much more so should we follow the perfect example of our maker and instead of ignoring "Goyish" Arts and Culture, embrace and cultivate it's many virtuous attributions. Secular culture offers so many wonderful and beautiful ideas; granted there's a lot of garbage out there too. The task of the YU Commentator Arts and Culture section is to sieve through the artistic expression of the nations and to reap what we can for the betterment of Judaism.

We should follow the perfect example of our maker and instead of ignoring "Goyish" Arts and Culture, embrace and cultivate it's many virtuous attributions.