D'var Acher: Even a Common Language and the Same Words Can Be a Barrier
October 19, 2009
Torah
(1 comments)
by Aaron M. Petuchowski
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)
How distressing it must have been when God confused the speech of those engaged in building the Tower of Babel! The common language of our early biblical generation, as Rabbi Evan Moffic eloquently points out, was a threat not to God, per se, but to the self-perception of those who wanted to build. The dispersion of humanity all over the earth eliminated the immediate concern.
Yet even for those who do "speak the same language," a common language can also itself be a barrier when we attempt to place religious concepts into human words. Perhaps nowhere is this clearer than in our attempts to talk about God. As explained by my late father, Dr. Jakob J. Petuchowski, "The ancient rabbis . . . when they talked about God . . . frequently prefaced their remarks with the word kibheyakhol. This is shorthand for: 'If one could possibly say so. But you and I know that one cannot really say so. However, if we do not say so, then we cannot communicate at all. This is why I am expressing myself in an image, in a metaphor--with confidence that you will understand that what I am about to say is not to be taken literally,' " ("Speaking of God," in Jakob Petuchowski, Studies in Modern Theology and Prayer, Elizabeth Petuchowski and Aaron Petuchowski, eds., [Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1998], p. 80).
How often we hear that God-language is a barrier, not a conduit, to deepening our understanding of the Divine! This is especially during the High Holy Days when our liturgy is replete with images and metaphors that, alas, are prone to be taken too literally. Yet to grow as individuals and as a people, we need to wrestle within the confines of human language. Here we need remind ourselves: kibheyakhol. The Divine is beyond the limitations of human language, but it is our language that we must employ to speak with one another. Just think how much more difficult it would be if we did not, at times, speak the same language.
Rabbi Aaron M. Petuchowski, D.D. is senior rabbi of Temple Sholom in Chicago, Illinois.
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Rabbi Petuchowski alludes to the barriers that God-language creates -- although possibly these are barriers built by us pesky Jews in the pews when we are confronted with the need to deal with images and metaphors. And, speaking of speaking the same language, the truth is that some of us find it easier to deal with God-talk in Hebrew than in English, while others want to limit their Hebrew God-talk to the Shma.
Yes, sometimes we do have to speak the same language -- and even then, what you say may not be what I hear.
So Rabbi Petuchowski's provocative dvar leads us to ponder the problem of language, plus the problem of communication, plus the problem of metaphor. Aaron, we need more than three paragraphs to deal with all that!