By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
SAN DIEGO — In Parashat Re’eh, Moses charges the Children of Israel to obey God.
“See, this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I enjoin upon you this day; and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn away from the path which I enjoin upon you this day and follow other gods, whom you have not experienced.” (Deut. 11:26-28)
The disciples of the Ba’al Shem Tov once asked him: “In our day, far from the time of Mt. Sinai, how can we know that the path we are following is the correct one, the path of the blessing and not of the curse?”
The Ba’al Shem Tov answered them with a story:
There were two men in a forest who had lost their way. They wandered aimlessly, seeking the exit without success until one day, they bumped into each other. The first asked the second, “I am lost. Do you know how to get to the King’s Highway and the exit from the forest?”
The second responded, “No, I am also lost. But I know which paths do not lead out of the forest, as do you. Come, let us journey together. Since we already know what doesn’t work, perhaps together we will find a path that does.”
The Ba’al Shem Tov was reminding his disciples of the power of community. Each person serves as a teacher and guide to their neighbor of what is right and what is wrong. Even if we have failings as individuals, those around us can help us find the right path when we work together.
This is what Rabbi Solomon Schechter, one of the foremost thinkers of the Conservative Movement, meant when he said that today Jewish observance is shaped by what he called “Catholic Israel.” Catholic Israel are those Jews who hold Jewish tradition and halacha sacred, and who together seek out and define God’s expectations of us in the present and future, as much as in the past.
Although we can never perfectly know God’s Will, we can grow closer to Divinity by living and practicing Judaism within a congregation of believers and observers. Each of us can serve as guide and example to our neighbor, and together we can forge a path out of the forest.
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Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue. He may be contacted via leonard.rosenthal@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for the space below should include the writer’s full name and city and state of residence. (city and country for those outside the U.S.)