Pursuing Inclusion: Equal Does Not Mean Same (Korach 5775)

Each summer as students engage their assigned summer reading, my school's professional community (educators and staff) also have assigned reading. 

This summer it's Beverly Daniel Tatum’s “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race.”  I selected this book to read as a professional community in order to advance our crucial Inclusion & Anti-Bias initiative.  It is essential that Jewish Community High School of the Bay fulfill its  pluralistic mission by actively pursuing inclusion and teaching that bias is corrosive to our community. Respect for difference and pursuit of inclusion also are at the heart of this week’s Torah portion and echo through rabbinic literature.  

In the Torah portion this week there is a serious leadership rebellion when Korach challenges Moses and Aaron.  Korach claims to be speaking on behalf of the inherent equality among the three of them.  But he fails to acknowledge the unique differences in their skills, abilities, relationships, and attitudes.  As expressed by Rabbi Bradley Artson Shavit, “Korach’s flaw was to confuse equal worth with equal skills. Korach was threatened by diversity.”

Much earlier in Torah the story of Creation itself actually opens with a profound celebration of diversity when the creation of all of the world’s vast variety of species, types, and forms are credited to a divine plan. Yet our behavior toward others - especially those who are different or strange in our eyes - seems to ignore this.  

As an antidote to the human impulse to treat strangers as dangerous, the ancient Rabbis offer a blessing.  They teach that when we encounter a person whose skin is darker than our own, or with wildly different hair or skin color, or who is unnaturally small, or deaf, or mentally impaired, instead of withdrawing in fear, we are to offer a blessing.  They teach us to thank the divine creator for making all creatures different.  (Tosefta Brachot 6:6)

In other words, all creatures are of equal worth even when they are not all the same because they were created by God.  A rabbinic legend further shows this: 

Once upon a time, Rabbi Eleazar son of Rabbi Simeon was coming from the house of his teacher and riding on a donkey.  The rabbi was riding along in joy because he had studied so much Torah. Then he saw approaching a man walking on the road who greeted him, "Peace be to you, Rabbi." But the rabbi did not return the greeting because he was so startled by the man’s appearance.  “How ugly you are! Is everyone in your town as ugly as you are?" The man replied, "Why don’t you tell the Craftsman who made me, 'How ugly is the vessel which You have made.'" At that Rabbi Eleazar realized his grave mistake.  He got off the donkey and bowed before the man saying to him, "I submit myself to you, forgive me!"  (Ta'anit 20a-b)

We diminish our own creation when we demean or insult the variety with which everything else was created.  

But even when this principle is clear, it is not easy to have conversations about these differences.  A recent “This American Life” podcast powerfully expresses this dilemma. Here is a link to the podcast transcript.  Chana Joffe, the parent of a 3½ year old son is learning from him during bath play that only Christians can share toys in his imaginary restaurant. Joffe stumbles over the realization that her 3½ year old son is serious about sharing the toys only with Christians.  

She reports, “‘No Jews allowed,’ says my 3 ½ year-old to my Jewish face. So here is my question-- what am I supposed to say right here? Because I should say something, right? I should say, ‘that is not OK, because’-- why? ‘Because I said so? Because you're a Jew? Because Jews like your great grandparents were driven from their communities by exactly the mentality you've just expressed to me, my 3½ year-old boy?’ Or ‘because we live in a majority Christian country, and I'm worried that I've clearly already failed to provide you with a positive relationship to Judaism?’ Or is the best approach not to say anything? He's just having a bath.”  

Joffe sums up her dilemma, “The problem with talking to [young] kids about anything that's actually important is that they don't know anything. It's your job to teach them about all of the stuff that matters most, but you have nothing to work with. They don't know religion. They don't know history. They don't know how to maintain proper hygiene. . . .We've all been on the kid side of this kind of conversation, where a grownup is fumbling through something that is clearly important. . . .These conversations are how we make our mark on the next generation. They're also, very often, how we learn how much we do not know.“(emphasis added)

That is why we selected Tatum’s book. We know a great deal about the values of embracing diversity and honoring differences, but there is a great deal we do not know about how these values are celebrated at times and trampled at other times by our professional community.  We will learn from Tatum’s book and return in August better prepared to support student learning and growth in this area. 

About Inclusion & Anti-Bias at Jewish Community High School of the Bay (JCHS): At my school there is a steering committee of other JCHS educators and an advisory board of students. As this work begins, my school sent an 8-person team to the day-long workshop on Jews and Privilege co-sponsored by Be’chol Lashon, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, and JCCSF.  (For more about the workshop and JCHS participation, see this article from the “J Weekly”:  http://bit.ly/TalkingAboutJewsOfColor.)