MICHAEL, WYSCHOGROD
MICHAEL WYSCHOGROD The fate of the Jewish people brings credit or discredit to God. We must take extreme measures not to give the appearance of impropriety. Not long ago, I was standing in a slow...
...He writes on fewish theology, history and philosophy...
...Not for your sake will I act, Oh House of Israel, but for my holy name, which you have caused to be profaned among the nations to which you have come...
...The last person in my line was a young man wearing a kipah (scull cap...
...When Israel is doing well, God's reputation is riding high, and when Israel is brought low, God is also brought low...
...Many Jews get intensely angry when they perceive that the Jewish people or Israel is judged by different standards than others, particularly neighboring Arab states...
...But no other people's conduct and well-being or lack thereof reflect on God...
...The Jewish people bring credit or discredit on God by their actions...
...8* Michael Wyschogrod is professor of philosophy at Baruch College of the City University of New York...
...For reasons not entirely clear to me, God has taken up abode in the Jewish family...
...Appearance of improper conduct should be enough to sound the chilul hashem alarm in the Jewish soul...
...Noteworthy about this scheme is the degree of intimacy between God and Israel that is presupposed...
...Nasty things done by Israel's neighbors are accepted as a matter of course while much smaller Israeli misdeeds elicit the sharpest condemnation...
...He is the author of The Body of Faith: God in the People Israel (Harper, 1989...
...Isn't it time that Jews be seen like all other people, neither better iior worse, as human beings with the usual blemishes and virtues, one people among others...
...He insisted, on it...
...The shameful acts of any family member bring shame on the whole family and the praiseworthy acts of any family member bring honor to the whole family...
...But," continues God, "when [the Jewish people] came to those nations, they caused my holy name to be profaned, in that it was said of them, 'These are the people of the Lord, yet they have to leave [God's] land.'" God promises to return the exiles to their land, but not because they deserve it...
...Not long ago, I was standing in a slow moving supermarket check-out line...
...When God permitted Auschwitz, God caused a chilul hashem...
...Of course, nothing is wrong with the power and faithfulness of God...
...Jews should be able to bring credit or blame on themselves but not on God...
...People identify the impotence of the Jews with the impotence of God...
...I had the distinct feeling that they noticed he was wearing a kipah...
...Certainly the Israeli government must be concerned with political and security issues...
...Suddenly, the adjoining cashier opened for business...
...When people all over the world perceive an Israeli policy as immoral, a chilul hashem occurs even if, in fact, the policy is not immoral...
...This time it didn't work that way...
...therefore, the Jews can bring honor or shame on God and God can bring honor or shame on himself, depending on how he treats the Jewish people...
...No other people can perform kiddush hashem or chilul hashem (the rabbis reached a consensus that these categories apply only to Jews...
...God's acts with respect to the Jewish people also bring God credit or disrepute...
...A gentile's misdeed is not chilul hashem not because the gentile is not dear to God nor because God does not expect moral behavior from gentiles but because the world does not see the gentiles as the people or family of God...
...A kiddush hashem occurs when a Jew acts in a way that arouses admiration and redounds to the credit of God...
...But when the Jews appear as exiles among the gentiles, God's name is made mud...
...These thoughts run through my mind when I hear the double standard argument...
...Isn't God far above human beings, including Jews...
...Ezekiel tells us that God is prepared to redeem the Jews because their sorry state in exile is making the nations question the power and faithfulness of God...
...In Ezekiel 36:1(>28, God reports that when Israel was sinful, God expelled the people from its land...
...Usually in these situations, the last person in the old line ends up as the first person in the new line...
...He was indeed first to get to the new cashier, but instead of taking advantage of his good fortune, he saw to it that the persons who had been ahead of him in the old line remained ahead of him in the new one...
...But because their condition makes it appear that God is powerless or unfaithful, God is willing to end the exile...
...So, as the saying goes, it is difficult to be a Jew...
...I also had the feeling that I had witnessed a minor (or maybe not so minor) kiddush hashem (sanctification of God's name...
...We can only pray that God will cease to tolerate as much discredit as God has tolerated in this century...
...are being justly punished for their wrongdoing and that is why they are in exile...
...In contrast, a chilul hashem (desecration of God's name) occurs when a Jew acts in a way that arouses condemnation and therefore brings God's name into disrepute...
...I often wonder whether the categories of kiddush hashem and chilul hashem play any role in the deliberations of the Israeli cabinet...
...The way it works, it seems, is this: As a punishment, God exiles the Jews...
...That is the true interest of Israel and of the Jewish people...
...But why should the good or bad deeds of Jews bring credit or disrepute on God...
...For this reason, this family cannot be like any other and cannot be judged by standards applicable to the others...
...It is not only the acts of Jews that bring credit or blame on God...
...To salvage God's name, God will redeem the Jewish people not because they deserve it but because it is how God can rescue his reputation...
...Isn't it amazing how much one can learn in a check-out line...
...People were pleasantly surprised...
...Isn't holding Israel to a higher standard anti-semitism...
...With the creation of Israel and the 1967 war victory, God brought about a kiddush hashem...
...So God and the people Israel are closely bound to each other...
...God or the Jew can cause kiddush or chilul hashem...
...But as the government of a Jewish state, it must also be concerned with kiddush or chilul hashem, and that concern cannot be one of its lowest priorities...
...It is something like the Middle Eastern notion of family honor...
...The members of this family, like any other family, can bring shame and honor on each other...
...God, it would seem, has chosen an earthly family of which God has, in some sense, become a member...
...Superficially, there is merit to this complaint...
...Appearance even without reality constitutes chilul hashem...
...The appearance alone is enough...
...In this family, one of the members is God...
...The people behind me rushed to the new cashier...
...The same must be true of human actions...
...Israel's defeat, its being brought low in the world, reflects on God...
Vol. 16 • August 1991 • No. 4
