Born Perfect

I must admit I have been addicted to the song “Take me to Church” by Irish singer, Hozier. It’s one of those songs of the season by a new artist that has been sadly overplayed and you can’t stop hearing it on almost every radio station. Jumping on the bandwagon of an overplayed popular song is not a new thing for me, but what really attracted me to the song besides the haunting melody are lyrics that, as a Rabbi and theologian, really spark my interest.
Some of the lyrics at the beginning of the song include, “If the heavens ever did speak… she’s the last true mouthpiece… Every Sunday’s getting more bleak… a fresh poison each week… ‘We were born sick’ You heard them say it… My church offers no absolutes…” The idea of ‘we were born sick’ is talking about the religious idea that we are born imperfect. These words are a struggle that we who are religious leaders wrestle with in our understanding of God and our place in the universe. The question has been asked, “Are we truly born sick or are we born perfect?”
This concept of original sin that our Christian brothers and sisters have comes from the sin of Adam when he and Eve ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge in the book of Genesis. The idea that we are born imperfect and need atonement through God to make us well is not a new concept, but it is not a Jewish concept. In Judaism we thank God not only for his love, but also for the evil that he gave the world. It is when we wrestle with evil/sin and overcome it that we help make ourselves well.
In the Jewish concept of sin we recognize the imperfection of the world, but it is not humans that are born broken. The world is broken and it is our duty to fix it through our love of God and our performance of Mitzvot (good deeds). The idea of a broken world comes from Kabalah, which uses the term Tzimtzum.
Tzimtzum tells the story of the Sh’virat Ha-Kelim, or the “breaking of the vessels.” The 10 glowing vessels in the void eventually cannot contain the Divine light flowing into them, so they explode, breaking into myriad shards.
In the study of the Kabbalah, the shattering of the vessels is part of the cycle of creation and destruction that began long before this universe. The idea is that the light of God could not be held together so there was a great shattering at the act of creation that created a broken world and thus evil in our world. The idea of this shattering is that good and evil were combined in a volatile mixture that exploded and allowed for an imperfect world. This idea contends that the first emanation of the Divine light was a means for God to purify himself of the evil that was mixed in with the good. Evil is therefore construed to be an original part of the Divine, and was released when the vessels broke.
In the Book of Isaiah 45:7. God says, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”
The Jewish concept is that we are born perfect with the light of God’s eternal light but the world is imperfect with the shattering of the vessels and thus it is our duty as Jews to repair this brokenness of the world through our act of Tikkun Olam or ‘repairing the world’ with the mitzvot that God gave us in the Torah. The acts of kindness, charity and love repair a broken world and bring the perfection and holiness we need to a better, Godlier world.
We are born perfect, but we struggle to make the world perfect. This brings me to my final thesis of this week’s Parshah (torah portion), Achrey Mot, when we are famously introduced to the section of Leviticus that is commonly quoted in 20:13 against homosexuality. I don’t think that section speaks of the issues of homosexuality but this verse is commonly quoted as a club against equality of LGBT individuals. I find that use of my holy book offensive not only as a Rabbi, but as a human being tasked with the duty of Tikkun Olam, fixing a broken world.
I have often studied this text and, at face value, it seems clear in its intent, but I believe it is not really clear. Judiasm teaches that all human beings are born perfect, and thus someone different in any way is pure and perfect as he or she is. One of the tasks of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) is that we are to bring love into the world. When we embrace love, we fix a broken world, we cause hate to cease, and we spread light into the world that shines on all human beings. Love is God’s gift to us and it is our tool to heal this broken world.
This week the Supreme Court is hearing the case regarding legalizing same sex marriage in the U.S. Often, quotes from Leviticus 20:13 are projected in front of the world for all to see the condemning of our LGBT brothers and sisters. The purpose of the book of Leviticus was to help us Jews develop strength to take on the task Tikkun Olam and bring light into the world through bringing God’s word into humanity’s heart.
I believe God’s word embraces love and stands for the right of all to marry who they love. At this time, let’s always find a case for love and recognize that God made all human beings perfect. Now let’s work to heal this broken world with love.
Rabbi Jeffrey Lipschultz is the spiritual leader Beth Judah Temple in Wildwood. He welcomes your comments at dvjewish@rof.net.