UNITY
Has there ever been
UNITY AMONG US?
WHAT DOES JEWISH UNITY LOOK LIKE? IT’S AN
incredibly simple, but important, question.
The only recorded occurrence of unity
among us took place at the time that we
were encamped at Har Sinai (Mount Sinai)
preparing to receive the Torah, where we
are described1 as being k’ish echad, b’leiv
echad (like one man with one heart). Some
of our Sages point to other periods in our
history where unity – that elusive unicorn
– supposedly existed, but even that, as we’ll
see, is debatable. But, if we don’t know
what that unity looks like, then how can we
really be expected to achieve it?
On a recent walk home from shul on an
unseasonably warm winter Johannesburg
Shabbos evening, I raised the question with
16 JEWISH LIFE
ISSUE 86
Rabbi Moshe Kurtstag, Rosh Beth Din of
the Beth Din of Johannesburg, and I’d like
to share his novel perspective. Rabbi Kurtstag maintains that there hasn’t been unity
among the Jewish people since the famous
rebellion of Korach against Moshe and his
brother, Aharon (which, to put this in perspective, wasn’t very long after those brief
moments of unity that we experienced at
Har Sinai). Rabbi Kurtstag believes that
Korach actually added a new trait to our
Jewish DNA – a gene of machloikes (argument), where people fight simply for the
sake of fighting. When I noted that there
are Sages2 who suggest that the entire
foundation for the Second Beis HaMikdash
(Temple) was the unity that existed among
the Jewish people at that time (and the absence of that unity the cause of its destruction), Rabbi Kurtstag shrugged his shoulders, noting that the writings of the
Nevi’im (the Prophets) are full of examples
of machloikes – deep and large divisions
that resulted in many civil wars between
Jews – and that rabbinic literature, from
the very beginning until the present day, is
replete with appeals for unity and the setting aside of sinas chinum (hatred for others based on no good reason). Accordingly,
he believes there has not been unity among
the Jewish people since the days of Korach
and that only the Moshiach (the messiah)
himself will be able to bring about unity
among the Jewish people.
PHOTOGRAPH: STEVE BUXTON
The arguments that divide us can be traced all the way back to Korach’s
rebellion I BY ROBERT SUSSMAN