TWO-HANDED JUDAISM

In this week’s parasha, G-d tells Moses to appoint Joshua as his successor, and he instructs him to lay his hand on Joshua’s head. However, when Moses carries out the instruction, he places both his hands on Joshua’s head. (Bemidbar 27:23)

The late Rav Joseph B Soloveitchik (d. 1993) explains that Moses wasn’t simply being generous and wholehearted in investing his successor. He was expressing the fundamental idea that there are two components in the transmission of Judaism from generation to generation. First, there is the Mesora or tradition of Torah study. Second, and equally important, is the Mesora or tradition of Torah experience. To understand the essence of Torah is not simply to comprehend its contents. We have to live and taste its experience.

I experienced the power of this distinction when I had the privilege of visiting Moscow in 1984, then under Communism. I say privilege, because I was part of a rota of rabbis who were sent, in pairs, every fortnight, to teach Torah to a group of refusniks. Our operation had to be clandestine, as teaching Torah was forbidden under Soviet law and could lead to arrest. The missions were organised by a philanthropist from Hendon, Ernie Hirsch, together with the late Dayan Ehrentreu zichrono livracha. The experience was humbling as I had never encountered before or since such a thirst for Jewish knowledge. The group of refusniks we met there were under the leadership of a remarkable individual named Eliyahu Essas. Essas had grown up in a completely secular environment and had found his way back to Judaism through heroic self-determination. Essas was as knowledgeable as someone who had spent a few years studying in yeshiva. He told me that he found books and texts and studied day and night. He had mastered the laws of Shabbat but had never experienced a Shabbat. He then heard that there was a Jew in Riga who had kept up religious Jewish life throughout the decades of Soviet rule. He travelled to Riga to spend Shabbat with him and to experience it at first hand. Now, he could pass it on to his group. The refusniks we met wanted to glean from us every drop of Jewish life in the limited time that was available. I spent an entire Sunday afternoon recording every single Jewish song I knew.

Ultimately, the narrative of Eliyahu Essas and the Moscow refusniks powerfully illustrates the profound yearning for both the intellectual and experiential dimensions of Judaism. Their heroic pursuit of knowledge, coupled with an insatiable desire to live and feel Jewish tradition, serves as a poignant reminder of “Two-Handed Judaism.” In stark contrast to the scarcity faced by Essas, contemporary Jewish society now offers an unprecedented abundance of opportunities for learning and experience. From one-on-one engagement with rabbis and educators to easily accessible online Torah classes; from vast digital libraries of Jewish texts to vibrant community programs, and countless avenues for hands-on engagement with Jewish rituals and life, the modern Jewish landscape is rich with resources. This contemporary reality empowers us, but more importantly, it challenges us to fully embrace both hands of our Jewish heritage.