Translating Texts in Postmodern Judaism

“A sacred text is a text that haunts me all the time – but it doesn’t paralyze me.” – Rabbi David Hartman

There is no dispute that Jews love to argue about our ancient texts. We crave the rigor of scholarship, which is why for millennia now, we have sustained our intellectual contributions by examining even what seem to be the most picayune aspects of our holy texts. Yet, for all the spiritual succor that studying Biblical and Talmudic passages can provide, texts written in different eras and geographical areas naturally can feel foreign to us; their assumptions, context, and values are often different.  Whether written in 3rd century Babylonia, 11th century France, 19th century Germany, or 20th century Manhattan, the texts need to be translated into the 21st century and this is no easy task.

There is no doubt in my mind that these texts are enormously valuable and rewarding. But to gain access to the latent sagacity that supports the texts, we must do the hard work so that their potential for personal meaning-making is manifold.

Stanley Cavell, professor emeritus of philosophy at Harvard University, explains how complicated it is to interpret texts and how much is at stake:

Think of it this way: If the thoughts of a text such as Emerson’s… are yours, then you do not need them. If its thoughts are not yours, they will not do you any good. The problem is that the text’s thoughts are neither exactly mine nor not mine. In their sublimity as my rejected – say repressed – thoughts, they represent my further, next, unattained but attainable, self [emphasis added]. To think otherwise, to attribute the origin of my thoughts simply to the other, thoughts which are then, as it were, implanted in me — some would say caused — by let us say some Emerson, is idolatry (Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome, 57).

Orthodox Judaism has, in some ways, struggled to engage fully in processes of re-interpretation. Segments of Orthodoxy claim to engage in neo-hasidut but it is mostly relegated to surface level singing and dancing approach in the style of Hasidic troubadour Reb Shlomo Carlebach. These expressions of external practice can surely be meaningful, but as they are rendered currently it is not a truly holistic rigorous re-interpretative renewal process of that revives the texts to their spiritual grandeur. In every generation, Jewish scholars have seen their holy task as translating our holy books of the past into a relevant language of the present and even of the future. If we are to be committed to being the vanguard generation of Jewish expression, we need to be more expansive and ambitious in the way we approach our translation process. This is needed more today than ever. We dare not shirk this sacred responsibility in the name of piety or humility.

There have been many scholars engaged in “modern” approaches to halakhic re-interpretation, but many have been insufficient in finding an elucidating thread in their work. There are usually two ways this turns out: through the rewriting or dismissing the halakhic process (aka the throwing baby out with the bathwater method) or simply re-state what has already been said. And because as Robert Alter wrote “literature in general, and the narrative prose of the Hebrew Bible in particular, cultivates certain profound and haunting enigmas,” the tradition demands more of us.

Recently, I asked Rabbi Dr. Art Green, a leading scholar in Hasidic thought, about the principles that guide his work to translate the traditional Hasidic texts through a neo-hasidic paradigm. He offered five precepts that guide his own thoughts on translation:

1. Universalizing – Texts are about and relevant to all humans, not just Jews
2. Gender Neutral – men and women are treated equally
3. The evolution from self-punishment and guilt to focus on joy and positivity
4. Emphasis on serving God through all we do in life. – mitzvot as a paradigm that illuminates the way we should live all times.
5. Attracting seekers – Treasure ideas that further an ongoing imaginative process of creating and seeking – hasidut is not an end in itself, but merely a rich example of the ongoing creative process.

While Rabbi Green’s interpretive choices may not work for everyone, they represent a model of cohesive and deliberate intentionality to revive 21st Jewish life through an engaging and welcoming interpretive process.

In our more complex and interconnected era, we must increase the responsibility we take for our religious lives (our moral decisions, our textual translations, our communal choices, and our personal boundaries). To do so, we must embrace the increased personal autonomy and concomitant authority that is demanded in our time.

The work in our postmodern era is re-translating texts that we struggle with into meaningful and relevant vehicles for thought and change. Michael Fishbane, a professor at the Universtiy of Chicago Divinity School has written that, “the spiritual task of interpretation…is to affect or alter the pace of reading so that one’s eye and ear can be addressed by the text’s words and sounds – and thus reveal an expanded or new sense of life and its dynamics (A Note on the Spirituality of Texts).  It is in this way that holy texts have the normative ability to agitate us to think more broadly and deeply about our existence, responsibility, and potential. These new interpretations are deeply informed by the tradition but must evolve to be actualized in our time as Rav Kook taught:  “The old shall be renewed, and the new shall be made holy.”

Martin Buber warned of the “leprosy of fluency” when it comes to analyzing the scope of Jewish sacred texts. What he was suggesting in that the obsolete methods of interpretation have to be purged, making ways for innovative reading and novel understandings. Having a strict regimen for understanding Jewish texts will rob them of their power to inspire. It is our duty to vouchsafe    the continuing relevancy of our ever-evolving oral tradition by taking long-understood meanings and adding fresh vitality to ancient wisdom. It is not only our sustained interest in our tradition that is at stake but the very vitality of that tradition in the 21st century.

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Executive Director of the Valley Beit Midrash, the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Founder and CEO of The Shamayim V’Aretz Institute and the author of seven books on Jewish ethics.  Newsweek named Rav Shmuly one of the top 50 rabbis in America.”