The title of this book reminds me of the words of my teacher of High Holiday preaching at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Rabbi Sylvan D. Schwartzman.
He taught, "Every time you stand up to the pulpit to give a sermon, you have a choice. You can speak about the timely or the timeless. Your job is not to get caught up in the one and not to get lost in the other."
In his book, Making the Timeless Timely, Rabbi Samuel M. Stahl shows that he has mastered this lesson. His breadth and scope of knowledge allow him to feel equally at home teaching ancient tradition as well as commenting on modern trends.
Rabbi Stahl is no stranger to Western Pennsylvania. Although he has been the rabbi at Temple Beth-El in San Antonio, Texas since 1976, he was raised at Temple Beth Israel in Sharon, where he was Bar Mitzvah and confirmed. He is also more than a pulpit rabbi, having earned his Doctorate in Hebrew letters in the field of medieval Bible commentaries.
Rabbi Stahl's book is composed of brief essays, some barely more than a page, in which he tackles issues of personal spiritual fulfillment, our social justice responsibilities as Jews, interfaith relations, Jewish practice and belief and the unique phenomenon of Judaism in America.
He is equally conversant with the writings of Mike Royko and Shirley MacLaine as he is with those of the Sages. He is outspoken in his defense of traditional values, although he readily accepts most of the changes Reform Judaism has made in traditional practice (and he has much to say on the shifting trends within Reform Judaism itself).
Rabbi Stahl writes with clarity, passion and energy. He occasionally waxes philosophical, but more often he is practical. In the chapter, "What I Learned From My Mother's Death," I expected to find a sentimental memorial. Instead, Rabbi Stahl offers down-to-earth advice: The unexpected is inevitable. Make a living will. Love each other now. Don't shut your children out from the experience of death and mourning.
He does not run away from controversy, either, in the secular or the Jewish worlds. He lambastes those who disguise their anti-Semitism in anti-Israel clothes. He has equally blunt words for parade concern for the unborn by violent anti-abortion protests.
He denounces JAP jokes as being not only anti-woman, but the mark of Jewish self-hatred.
On issues of Jewish belief and practice, Rabbi Stahl points out differences between the various streams of Judaism with no hint of self-consciousness or embarrassment.
For example, cremation is not allowed under Orthodox and Conservative Jewish practice, but he gives the rationale for it being permissible in Reform.
Although he champions liberal Judaism, he is the first to call Reform Jews to task for ignorance and apathy.
Rather than simply dispensing with ancient practices, Rabbi Stahl writes: "(We) must undergo an extensive study...of traditional Jewish literary sources...ln some way, we must know more, rather than less, about Judaism than our traditional co-religionists. Reform Judaism stands for an open mind, not a vacant mind."
One of the most delightful parts of Rabbi Stahl's book is his tribute to outstanding individuals. This section, titled, "Some Who Made A Difference," sums up the universal contributions of Jews such as Moses, Samson Raphael Hirsch, Moses Mendelssohn, Albert Einstein and Isaac Bashevis Singer.
He also gives us portraits of remarkable non-Jews, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt (who he does not forgive for not saving Jewish lives in World War II), Harry Truman, and Dr. Martin Luther King.
He manages to teach us new insights into people we think we already know. For instance, although I knew of I.B. Singer's traditional background, I did not know that he had taught at the Reform rabbinical school and had been impressed by both the school and its students.
Rabbi Stahl has written a book that is accessible to all, yet provides new and fresh insights for those who are Jewishly knowledgeable. It is the kind of book that one doesn't have to read in a sitting, but can simply pick up when one has time to savor one or two of the intellectual morsels Rabbi Stahl offers.
It is not always easy to make the timeless timely. Rabbi Stahl's book does so with clarity of thought, word and purpose.
In the beginning, there was Sodom. That's where a diffident but defiant Abraham argued with God over the texture of the relationship between heaven and earth. Learning that Sodom would soon be consumed, Abraham wondered if God intended to "sweep away the innocent along with-the guilty"-- would this be just? Would the Lord spare all if there were but 50 righteous souls in the benighted town? God agreed, Genesis tells us, an agreement that Abraham then tested by haggling further, coaxing the requisite number down to 45, then 30, and finally 10. At that was the line drawn, and when Sodom was still found wanting, it was destroyed. Divine grace had its limits.
Not so the human quest for justice, a point implicit in Abraham's persistent and stubborn queries. Upholding this Abrahamic tradition remains a defining element of Jewish spirituality, Rabbi Samuel M. Stahl affirms in Making the Timeless Timely, a collection of essays and sermons published to mark the 25th anniversary of his ordination. Indeed, Stahl, one of Texas' most distinguished rabbis, suggests that this continual grappling with the nagging dilemmas of the human condition may explain Judaism's survival in an often hostile world.
It has had much to survive, too. Yet while Stahl sifts through the layers of oppression, ranging from the Crusader rampages in which a third of the European Jewish population reportedly was destroyed, to the fiery violence of the Spanish Inquisition, and then on to the years of Nazi decimation, he does not make a cult of this bloodied past, and has no interest in furthering a "Holocaustomania." A tragic history based solely on a narrative of martyrdom -- vital though those martyrs were -- cannot sustain a healthy spiritual life, he observes. That's why, for instance, he argues that "if understood and properly handled, the Holocaust can also provide us with a way to grapple with anti-Semitism, to confront bigotry, and to regain faith in human nature." Out of the death camps, comes a reverence and passion for life.
Life is nonetheless a constant struggle against injustice; the millennium is not at hand. But we are required to give it a hand -- each generation must fight its evils, each must work to promote the commonweal. This obligation to repair a broken world, (in Hebrew, tikkun olam), "gives us a demanding and aggressive agenda," Stahl writes. He then demonstrates the depths of his commitment to it by his response to some of the hot-button items dominating the contemporary political agenda, such as AIDS, abortion, and school prayer.
He does not hold with those who seek to ostracize men and women who are HIV positive, and rebuffs those who seek biblical sanction for treating its victims as pariahs. Admitting that there are texts which would support such hostility, he counters these claims by drawing upon what he calls the Jewish "tradition of compassion." Central to this is the story of Job, the dark account of a man of integrity and righteousness who lost his reputation and family, and who was "disfigured with a vile skin condition." If we learn anything from this disheartening tale, Stahl concludes, it is "that tragedy is not the result of sin," an interpretation that sustains his staunch support of those agencies within the Jewish and general communities that undercut “the curse of public ignorance," combat discrimination and "reach out to AIDS sufferers and their families who feel alone, ignored and, rejected."
His justification for his support of abortion rights is an equally complex weave of theology and politics. Unlike antiabortionists, for whom life begins at conception "Jews, regardless of denomination, agree that life starts at birth," Stahl asserts, an assertion based on analyses of relevant biblical and Talmudic teachings. This research suggests further that a fetus is deemed "the equivalent to a limb of a woman's body," and, as a limb can be amputated if necessary, so abortion is not murder. But neither should it be construed as a "casual method of birth control," he cautions. "As a spiritual container, a woman's body has a certain sanctity" which makes the decision whether to have an abortion or not a matter of considerable "religious magnitude." There are political considerations but none that Jerry Falwell would appreciate: a woman's difficult choice can only "be made without the involvement, the interference, or the intervention of the state."
That's his position, too, on the public exercise of religious devotion, a contentious issue, of course, particularly in the evangelical atmosphere of San Antonio, where Stahl serves as spiritual leader of Temple Beth-El. From his pulpit, in letters to the local press and in negotiations with school districts he has consistently argued that public institutions must adhere to and maintain the Jeffersonian "wall of separation between church and state;" a wall that at once protects and encourages all forms of worship, mainline and minority alike. Stahl' s arguments are not for everyone, and neither are they uniformly provocative – a collection of essays originally written to be heard does not always read easily or well. But the volume's strength lies elsewhere in any event. Taken together, these words and ideas are important markers of Rabbi Stahl's attempt to define the moral content of his life and of liberal Judaism, and, by extension, to challenge that of his community.
“Why Texas Jews Love Texas” may seem a curious chapter in a book filled with rabbinic contemplation, yet Rabbi Samuel M. Stahl makes the topic as absorbing as social justice, Torah, personal loss and religious growth -- and no less important: Intelligent yet unpretentious, clear yet not at all condescending, the rabbi communicates the most complex ideas in a palatable, entertaining way. Perhaps that's why congregants of Temple Beth-El in San Antonio, where the rabbi has been spiritual leader since 1976, refer to him as their “beloved rabbi.”
The index to Making the Timeless Timely: Thoughts and Reflections of a Contemporary Reform Rabbi reads like a compendium of the hottest Jewish issues of the day: “How Much Should We Emphasize the Holocaust;” “The Non-Denominational Synagogue Jew;” “Why Fast on Yom Kippur;” “The Synagogue and the AIDS Crisis;” “Jews and Blacks: Can We Revive the Old Alliance.”
There is an examination of Judaism's effect on other religions and their impact on Judaism. Issues range from Martin Luther's anti-Semitism, the Jewish affinity for Christian Science, and the growing evangelical Christian movement Jews for Jesus.
Rabbi Stahl also examines areas of belief that differentiate Reform from other branches of Judaism: taking the Bible literally, cremation, abortion, heaven and hell, reincarnation, angels, the Messiah.
Rabbi Stahl devotes a chapter to the tantalizing question, "When Will the Messiah Come?" In 1885, Reform Judaism abolished the concept of a personal Messiah and replaced it with the notion of a Messianic Age. "We should avoid sitting around and waiting for the coming of the Messiah," Rabbi Stahl writes. "In fact, the ancient rabbis advised that if one is planting a tree and hears that the Messiah is coming, he should first finish planting the tree.
Unproductive waiting is strongly discouraged," he continues. “We have so much good to do in the world that we should not waste our time with Messianic preoccupations....Instead of waiting for the Messiah, we (Reform Jews) believe that each day is a time for doing our duty, for bringing and lighting candles.”
This chapter is one of several that clearly exemplifies Rabbi Stahl's strong admiration for the tenets of Reform Judaism. In fact, he is called one of its ablest defenders.
Yet the rabbi is well aware of what he terms "the ascendency of Orthodoxy," even among Judaism's most Reform members, those he terms "non-observant Jews who embrace Orthodoxy."
Actually, Rabbi Stahl says Reform Judaism owes the return-to-Orthodoxy movement, or ba’al teshuvah, a debt of gratitude because it shows Reform Jews that spirituality in Judaism is possible. For so many generations, he writes, Reform Jews “have taken our religious identity for granted. Our motto seems to be, ‘I am a. good Jew, but I am not religious.’ ”
Spirituality, discipline and education has always had a place in Reform Judaism, he adds.
Rather than diminishing the Reform movement, the returnee to Orthodoxy can strengthen it by bringing “these historic Reform values into focus for us.”
Rabbi Stahl is the brother-in-law of Denverites Nancy and Paul Oberman.
By the way, there's a very good reason why Jews love Texas and Texas loves Jews. Jews have participated in every aspect of the development of the Lone Star State since it was founded in 1836. Jews “were massacred at Goliad,” writes Rabbi Stahl. “They fought at San Jacinto.” Texas has had Jewish mayors, senators and representatives at both the state and national level. "Texas-Jews," the rabbi concludes, "ardently love Texas." The love is mutual.
One does not have to agree with everything Samuel Stahl thinks or writes, to appreciate this fine collection of sermons, essays and articles on a variety of contemporary topics. Rabbi Stahl of the Reform Temple Beth-El in San Antonio, Texas, has put together a superb selection of his reflections and utterances gathered over the course of many years from a variety of sources, both contemporary and classic. His interests range over a wide spectrum, including aspects of personal growth, social justice, relations with other religions, perspectives on particular miztvot and doctrinal beliefs, ruminations on the Jewish condition in America, and a number of fascinating biographies of a number of Jewish and American personalities.
By way of illustration, we can refer to a charming essay in the book on so-called “Jap Jokes,” wherein the author describes the malicious, hurtful, and immoral effects of this contemporary fad. He documents incidents and trends, and quotes a number of social scientists on the subject. But not content to "curse the darkness," he also describes how a number of men and women have responded to the problem, and in so doing, he provides constructive advice to his community, and now to his rabbinic colleagues, on positive action to combat the problem.
The author's writing is always lucid, the structure admirably organized, the anecdotes invariably to the point, and the sources well documented. This volume will surely be a source of much useful material and perspective for many colleagues, Reform or otherwise.
"Whatever the question, whatever the issue, Rabbi Stahl has an answer that is original, refreshing and within the context of Jewish classical sources. These essays are crisp and well-crafted...This book reminds us of why we are in the debt of Rabbi Stahl, one of the leading American pulpit rabbis of our day."
Rabbi Herbert A. Yoskowitz
Congregation Beth Shalom
Wilmington, Delaware
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