Rabbi Alex Lazarus-Klein’s talk given at our Slichot Service on Sat, Sept 21
According to Rabbi Malcom Gladwell, “nu” fits into the category reactive token, like “um,” “uh uh,” and well, “like.” Those are what are called neutral reactive tokens, expressions meant to indicate involvement to the speaker in as non-intrusive way as possible. The difference with our Jewish reactive token from the others is that it is most assuredly not neutral. It tells the listener to spit it out already. It is the perfect way to beckon a New Year that stubbornly refuses to come. I mean a September 29th start day, come on already!
I say this in light of the year 5779 has been for us Jews. Between a sharp increase in anti-Semitism throughout the globe, a double Israeli election, Epstein, Weinstein, and, of course, Tree of Life, enough already! No, this is a year we have a right to say, “nu,” even to God.
I think of the popular anecdote about the poor tailor who before the High Holy Days takes time to write down her list of sins, beside it she writes down all the calamities that have befallen her community and her world.
“Nu?” she tells God. “You settle your account and I will settle mine.”
This is what Rabbi Gladwell calls the American version of Chutzpah, as he outlines in the ninth episode of the fourth season of his podcast Revisionist History entitled “Chutzpah vs. Chutzpah.” Gladwell, is of course not a rabbi, nor is he Jewish, but because of the important insight he gives in the episode, I have bestowed on him the title (sometimes it takes an outsider, to really show us how our culture works).
The American version of Chutzpah is far milder than that of its Israeli cousin, Chutzpah (with an emphasis on “pah”). Our version is the equivalent of moxie, a willingness to break normal social norms to achieve a goal. It is not malicious, but can sometimes be annoying. Generally, it is considered a positive trait and often a necessary one.
The Israeli version of Chutzpah (emphasis again on “pah”) is far more insidious. Spoken to a child it often will generate immediate tears. It means that the person has really gone off the deep end and done something so wrong it is nearly unspeakable. Instead of being the tailor’s comment to God in the story, it is the list she wrote about God herself. This version of Chutzpah is saying “there are some fine people on both sides,” after a Neo-Nazi rally, not resigning after eighty-five percent of your followers demand it, or as Gladwell points out, having the first Columbus day parade intended to combat the charge to the Italian community of being gangsters actually having been organized by Italian gangsters. Now that is Chutzpah, in the true Israel sense of the word. True Chutzpah is hard to come by, but when you find it, you know exactly what it is.
As we near the start of 5780 we should brace ourselves for more of it. So, what can we do to combat it?
Well, more Chutzpah, of course, the American kind. We are the people who, as Rabbi Gladwell reminds us, argue with God. Jews, in general, live in low power differential societies, meaning nothing separates the followers from the leaders. Moses beware we are coming for you. Gladwell tells the story in a previous episode of a mother so determined to get her son home for Shabbat during the Lebanon war that she begins to call up the chain of command of the Israeli army, until she reaches the General himself, who she proceeds to yell at. He asks her if she knows who she is talking to. “Yes,” she replies, “And if you do not have my son home for Shabbat I will make your life miserable for you.” He, of course, relented.
Now that is the type of Chutzpah our world demands. This is the type of Chutzpah that 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg brought to a joint hearing a joint hearing of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Select Committee in Washington DC this past week. Having traveled across the Atlantic by sailboat to minimize her environmental footprint, Thunberg stood in front of the powerful collection of politicians and handed them a 2018 report on climate change.
“This speaks for itself,” is essentially what she told them, laying the report on their desks.
As Jews, we know exactly what this is called, pure, unbridled Chutzpah, the American kind.
So, we say to the incoming year 5780, “Nu! Come already!” Because we’ll be ready for you.
Shanah Tovah U’Metukah, a Happy Sweet New Year
Rabbi Alex
Last Updated on 11/03/2019 by Marc Slonim