by Rabbi Yisrael Rutman

The tumult in Israel about alleged ethnic discrimination in the religious girls’ school in Emanuel needs some Jewish perspective.

(For a factual rundown of the case, see “The Sledgehammer Approach” in The Jerusalem Post.)

What is the approach of Jewish tradition? Surely Judaism does not condone discrimination?

I think the best answer to this question is found in the Shulchan Aruch. The code of Jewish law, written in the sixteenth century by Rabbi Yosef Karo, was a masterful distillation of the rulings of the Talmud and commentaries up to his time, and it continues to serve as the definitive work to the present day. When it first appeared, however, it had one notable shortcoming. The approach taken was representative of the Sephardic rabbinical tradition; the Ashkenazi rabbis got somewhat short shrift. This was not due to ill-will or disrespect for Ashkenazim (nobody to my knowledge ever made so silly an accusation); it simply reflected Rabbi Karo’s own orientation.

Still, correction was needed. Fortunately, it was not long in coming. A contemporary Ashkenazi halachist by the name of Rabbi Moshe Isserles, otherwise known by his acronym, the Rema, provided it. His compendium of normative Judaism based on the great Ashkenazi authorities, answered the need.

But Rabbi Isserles did not do what would have been the normal and perfectly acceptable thing, which would have been to publish his work separately for the Ashkenazi community. Instead, in a remarkable act of humility, he published his composition as an addendum to Rabbi Karo’s work. Since the latter was titled Shulchan Aruch (The Set Table), he called his the Mapa (The Tablecloth). The two have been studied together ever since. The Sephardi Jew who sets out to learn the halachic rulings for his community, inevitably meets with the Mapa; and the Ashkenazi student who wants to know what the Ashkenazi poskim say will first encounter Rabbi Karo’s presentation. Each learn the laws and customs of the other.

Thus, for over 450 years, the two major ethnic groups of world Jewry have been brought together in the world of Torah study. Not a melting pot in which distinct traditions blend into a single, undifferentiated mass; but a joint spiritual quest in which various communities retain their integrity while forming an indivisible bond.

Indeed, the Jewish people have never been homogeneous. The patriarch Jacob perceived the need for individualized blessings for his twelve children. Moses too gave separate blessings to the twelve tribes descended from Jacob’s children. During the travels in the wilderness after the exodus from Egypt, they traveled and encamped by tribe, each proudly flying its own flag. When they divided the Land of Israel under Joshua, the Divine inheritance was apportioned by tribe and family.

There continue to be references to the 12 tribes in present-day Judaism, as well. The Talmud states that it is preferable to pray in a room with windows. The Zohar says that ideally one should pray in a synagogue with 12 windows. Those windows represent the 12 tribes, and the reason is that one should always pray with all the Jewish people in mind

And there is a custom to bake 12 loaves of bread (challot) for Shabbat. This is in remembrance of the lechem hapanim, the 12 loaves of bread that were displayed in the Holy Temple every week. Twelve, again, to represent the 12 tribes.*

Ten of the twelve tribes were dispersed and lost to history; by the time of the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, only Judah and Benjamin remained. (We are called Jews after Judah, the larger tribe, and the one from which King David came.) One part of the Jewish people found its way to Europe (Ashkenaz is the Hebrew word for Germany); the other went to Spain, Portugal and North Africa. The former became what are today known as Ashkenazi Jewry, the latter are the Sephardim (the Hebrew word for Spain is Sepharad). It is, to be sure, an oversimplification. Within each there are numerous sub-groups. The biggest split among Ashkenazim is between Hassidim and Lithuanian Jewry and their respective subgroups; among Sephardim there are likewise many different communities, the customs of Syrian Jews differ from those who hail from Iraq, those of Iraq from those of Egypt, and so on.

The expression of God’s will for the Jewish people, then, was that each branch of the family should retain its identity through the long and torturous process of exile and redemption. That original intention has been retained, if but partially, through the modern Sephardi and Ashkenazi groupings. Certainly, it does not justify discrimination of either against the other. Rather, let it be our mission to work together, with mutual respect and admiration, in common quest for the word of God.

* This custom comes in various forms. It is said that the reason for the sixfold braiding the challot is that two loaves times six is twelve. Alternately, two long loaves, even unbraided, resemble the Hebrew letter vav, which has the gematria, the numerical value of 6; and two times 6 is 12. (Minhag Yisrael Torah)

Sources: The Early Acharonim, Artscroll; Brochos 34b, Shulchan Aruch 90:4; Yonason Rosenblum, Rabbi Sherer,
P. 583; Minhag Yisrael Torah, Volume II.

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