By the rivers of Babylon, painting by Gebhard Fugel, c. 1920 (Wikimedia/ creative commons)
Recorded Rosh Hashanah 2023 - click above
In the 1930's the Rastafari movement was born in the slums of Jamaica. Like our own Rabbi Hanan, the Rastafari rejected -isms and saw what they were doing as a philosophy and way of life rather than a religion. Their experience of the African dispersions led these descendants of slaves to so identify with the Jewish Exodus and Diaspora they came to consider themselves to be the authentic Jews. They felt that we historical Jews had somehow dropped the ball on living the authentic Jewish Life.
One of the Rastafari’s sacred chants is The Rivers of Babylon, Psalm 137. In 1970 Brent Dowe of the Melodians adapted it to fit the new Reggae style that was becoming popular in Jamaica. He said he did this “to increase the public's consciousness of the growing Rastafarian movement and its calls for black liberation and social justice.” I want to offer a few reflections on why this song still resonates with many of us today.
After living over 6 centuries in the Holy Land, Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 597 BCE. The Temple was destroyed and about 10,000 Jews (especially those of high rank and influence) were forcibly marched to Babylon. One of the captives, the prophet Jeremiah, sang of their profound feelings of sadness and loss upon seeing the Tigris and Euphrates (the rivers of Babylon).
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Being forcibly evicted from our homeland must have been excruciatingly painful. The Temple in Jerusalem had been the center of spiritual life for 430 years. Within the Temple was the Ark of the Covenant containing the Ten Commandments. This was the holiest object of the Jews and represented God's physical presence in the Temple and in that Holy Land. After the destruction of the temple, the Ark disappeared and was never seen again.
The fall of Jerusalem represents the first historical catastrophe of the Jewish People. This was the beginning of what became known as the Jewish Diaspora. When the temple was broken so was our sense of belonging. The lingering wound has left a deep longing for our homes.
Only a small percentage of the Jewish population was forcibly marched out of their homeland. But others with their home occupied went to Babylon of their own accord. These Babylonian Jews were the first Jewish community to live in a foreign land.
Other emigrants were scattered throughout the region. Some went as far as Europe. One group went to what is now Spain. The very geography, the Iberian Peninsula, became known by the name of these people, the Ibri, or the Hebrews.
The Babylonians fell from power 70 years after the fall of Jerusalem. Some of the Babylonian Jews returned to Jerusalem. But can one really ever go back home when time has moved on? Zion in the song refers to the Holy Land in general. More specifically it refers to Jerusalem, as Zion is the Hill where King David built his capital. But, the time of Davidic Kings was over. Judea was now a protectorate of Syria and it would later be occupied by the Greeks, and then the Romans. The kings were replaced by religious zealots who set up a rigid theocracy. Sure, they rebuilt the Temple, but it never housed the Ark or the Holy Tablets, and it was not to endure either.
To the Rastafari, the term Babylon has come to represent all oppressive forces in our lives. But this was not the first or last time Jews had been displaced. Before living in Canaan, the Hebrews lived in Egypt for over four centuries. According to the Passover story they left of their own volition, however, it was not exactly a free choice. Even our origin story, Genesis, tells of our being expelled from the Garden of Eden. Since the fall of Jerusalem, our communities have been destroyed countless times. This back-and-forth is not just a circle, but it is a spiral of spiritual evolution.
What is most fascinating is not the oppression and pain that come from loss, as these are commonplace experiences of humankind. Rather, it is the soul’s response. With every new home, we have re-invented ourselves. It’s as though the tragedy of loss awakens in us a longing for the past that can transform into a dream of the future. Through history, we have expanded our sense of compassion, deepened our sense of justice, and extended our sense of the divine.
Our story has widened to incorporate universal principles and include all of humanity. We have developed concepts and stories that have deepened our awareness of self and others. We are not the only people to suffer displacement. It would be strange if in our 5,784 years of history not to have relocated a few times. Yet, perhaps more than most people this reality has become a central theme.
For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song;
and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
After the Captivity many of the Jews remained in Babylon, having adopted their more advanced culture. But living in a foreign culture was complex. So, they wrote probably the most important text of Judaism, the Babylonian Talmud. The Torah was no longer sufficient. No history or storybook was enough for the complexities of modern life. The Talmud was created as an instruction manual on how to interpret the Torah and apply it to the complexities of messy and novel lives.
By the Muslim Conquest in the 8th Century, the Jews of Spain began to thrive and establish vibrant communities under Islamic rule. In the 13th century, perhaps in response to the displacement and loss stemming from the Crusades of the 11th and 12th centuries, Moses de Leon, wrote an unusual book. The Zohar offered a mystical interpretation of the Torah. It presented an understanding that our personal circumstances are intricately connected to the cosmos. From the point of view of the Zohar, our problems, in some sense, resulted from imbalances of cosmic energies. Human beings were cast as central players as co-creators with God. The Zohar immediately became a bestseller, influencing Jewish and non-Jewish thinkers alike.
The 14th and 15th centuries were periods of great antisemitism. The Moors of Spain were defeated and the Jews were forced to leave or convert to Christianity. The Spanish Inquisition grew strong throughout Europe. Displacement of Jews became the rule as the Jews were forced from one country to another.
Life improved in the 16th century, but the Renaissance and the scientific and cultural revolutions that followed led to great changes in society. In response, one student of the Zohar, Rabbi Isaac Luria, known as the ARI, told a new creation story. He taught that God created the world with a cosmic contraction and that Holy Vessels were placed in this resulting space. When these vessels were filled with cosmic energies a catastrophe occurred, causing the vessels to shatter. Our task now was to pick up the broken pieces and put them back together again. He called these healing processes Tikkun Olam, the mending of the world, along with its counterpart, Tikkun Atzmi, the mending of ourselves. These ideas would soon become the basis for modern Kabbalah.
By the 18th century, Political turmoil was tearing apart Jewish Communities in Eastern Europe. In response, scholars and Rabbis such as Israel ben Eliezer, known as The Baal Shem Tov, began a movement that quickly spread throughout Eastern Europe and then the world. They were heavily influenced by Lurianic Kabbalism and the idea of God’s Presence in all things; and the belief that every being, no matter how poor, is a child of God. The word Hasidism is derived from Hesed, the divine quality of Loving Kindness. Hasidism emphasized the importance of Joy and sanctification of day-to-day life and included the value of social action to improve the lives of the poor and powerless.
The 19th and 20th centuries brought organized violence, the Pogroms, to many Eastern European communities. Millions of Jews were displaced. This was followed by the Shoah, infamous for the six million Jews killed. But, probably at least that many were left homeless and impoverished.
The Jewish response to the Shoa still continues. Rabbis such as our own Hanan Sills, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and many others have created a movement of Jewish Renewal that seeks to find what it means to live an authentic Jewish Life today.
Some folks believe that to be Jewish one must have a particular belief or practice. But the spirit of Judaism is bigger than any specific idea. What is a Jew? Many of us probably have genetic ties to the ancient Hebrews, but many do not. So, it a really a spiritual lineage more than anything else, a connection to the ideas and struggles of a people over a long history. Out of this lineage, certain values emerge.
These values can only be pointed at as no words cannot contain them.
Some say Jews believe in a particular Jewish God. But perhaps it is more accurate to say that Jews wrestle with the concept of God. Rabbi Hanan’s teacher Rabbi Eugene Borowitz would respond to the question of where can we find God in such a terrible world with the quip, “God can be god, if we make God, God.”
The philosopher Baruch Spinoza rejected a personal or intervening god but saw God in the harmony of the world. Einstein when asked if he believed in God, said that he believed in the God of Spinoza. Einstein was not religious, yet the Nazis criticized his ideas as Jewish science. In an important sense, they were right. German science was based on absolute truths. Einstein sat alone with his books thinking up thought experiments, and like a Talmudic scholar, he realized truth is relative to circumstances, even time and space itself. The rest was just working out the math.
Even Freud and Marx who rejected a personal or interventionist god did not call themselves atheists. Marx’s ideas of humanism were informed by his understanding of people as co-creators of their world. The Jewish emphasis on justice in this life rather than focusing on an afterlife informed his philosophy. Freud’s understanding of the psyche was grounded in observing that energies can become imbalanced within us. His psychotherapy was based on the very Jewish ideas of repentance, and forgiveness as a way to transform our lives. The name Israel means wrestler with God. Jews wrestle with God consciousness in their eternal effort to understand justice, truth, and peace. Rabbi Michael Lerner has defined Judaism as the belief that the world can be better and that we are personally responsible for doing what we can to make it so.
Perhaps, the most important Jewish value is the unity of the creation. All is God. Our response to this unity is to live, speak, and act consciously. Out of that consciousness arises an imperative to treat all people, all animals, all beings, and our environment respectfully. Rabbi Hillel said, “What is hateful to you do not do to your fellow”; and Reb Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
What is your sacred song? The guards are not requiring of us a song for their amusement today. Yet the world, as messed-up as it is, requires of us a song; a song of Tikkun Olam, of mending the world, and Tikkun Atzmi, healing ourselves. Like the Rastafarians, we must find a way to sing our song in a strange land.