Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 47, No. 20, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 20, 1993 Page: 3 of 24
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IN OUR 47TH YEARI-THURSDAY, MAY20, 1993, TEXAS JEWISH POST
3
Feature
has a choice: To love and marry or
not, to become a parent and care-
taker or not. But if freedom is exer-
cised not to relate, then one never
becomes a lover or a parent. Then
one’s life and freedom are impover-
ished.
If one chooses to love or relate,
then the commitment generates ob-
ligations. Then one’s life and free-
dom are changed. The relationship
cannot endure if I resent the restric-
tions or demand the right to start
anew, without obligations, every
week.
__ The same holds true in relation-
ship to God. Freedom gives a person
the right to accept the covenant or
not. But if one rejects the covenant,
then one chooses death (see Deut.
30, v. 15-20).
On the other hand, the covenental
—> commitment must grow and be in-
ternalized as autonomous will or it
will harden and become a burden.
Without voluntary identification,
obedience will dissipate and die.
Acceptance of the covenant is no
unconditional surrender of freedom
to God. Personal liberty, dignity and
equality continue within the rela-
tionship of loving obedience to God.
Improperly applied, this means to-
tal surrender of self. The constant
n re-presentation of that moment of
| choice on Shavuot, on Pesach, in the
daily Shema ritual, testifies to the
ongoing freedom out of which Israel
chooses to serve God.
This paradox—that freedom leads
to restraints — confuses people.
Some religionists conclude that free-
_J dom must be surrendered in abso-
lute obedience to God.
This “slave psychology” creates a
law so prescriptive that every act is
predetermined. But when every
choice is governed by pro-pro-
I grammed behavior, this is legalism,
I not service of God.
Conversely, some people experi-
The Torah...Shavuots message of renewal.
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ence every commandment or obliga-
tion coming from without as inher-
ently violative of freedom.
But no one is born — or lives — in
a vacuum. Israel approaches Sinai
already under obligation for God’s
gracious act of Exodus-liberation as
well as for the inherited Abrahamic
covenant — for whose sake God re-
membered to save them.
There is no pristine self that is
invaded by external commandments.
My freedom is built on the care and
structure that others felt bound to
give me.
My ongoing freedom — as Israel’s
— is expressed in accepting my re-
sponsibility or rejecting it, in choos-
ing life or choosing death. God chan-
nels my freedom by commanding me
to act; God respects my freedom by
letting me choose. Freedom is the
undetermined, the open-ended, not
the unbidden and the unstructured.
The fate of Russia and that of new-
born free countries is riding on the
capacity of people to move from sla-
very to freedom. In religion as in
politics, the key to freedom and re-
demption is the willingness to pay
the costs of commitment without re-
treating into one of two equally irre-
sponsible patterns — obedience to
tyranny or anarchy.
The will to be free, the joy of the
choice and the continuity of the com-
mitment are commemorated every
year on Shavuot when the Jewish
people recollect the moment at Sinai
when Jews took up the never-ending
task of tikkun olam, perfecting the
world.
Then, the children of Israel freely
chose to be obligated. Now, it is our
turn.
Irving Greenberg is president of
CLAL - The National Jewish Center
for Learning and Leadership and is
author of “The Jewish Way ” (New
York: Summit Books).
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 47, No. 20, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 20, 1993, newspaper, May 20, 1993; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth753774/m1/3/: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .