Punk Rock Judaism

 “God save the queen, she aint no human being, there is no future, in England's dreaming”- The Sex Pistols


To my regret, I haven’t actually made the connection between the above lyric and Judaism. Like you, I was utterly perplexed when told at the recent Jewlicious festival that, “Judaism is like so punk-rock man”. The conversation was tossed to the back of my mind and only reoccurred to me later in a moment of divine inspiration. Of course, “sticking it to the man” the “do it yourself attitude”, these must be Jewish characteristics!

What do I mean? Jewish tradition compels us to challenge the authorities!
Think about it; Abraham smashed his father idols, Jacob wrestled with the angel (symbolizing G-d) and we are required to recall the freedom from bondage in Egypt every single day! “Yetziyat Mitzrayim” can be translated on the simple level as leaving Egypt, but the word Mitzrayim can also be understood as bondage or constraint. Thus we are told on a personal level to escape the physical and mental limitations placed on our lives everyday; talk about anarchy.

You must be thinking; “Wait, aren’t Jews bound to a million laws? Isn’t that a restriction?” This answer depends on the definition of freedom. If freedom means living according to your self-desires, then that isn’t freedom, that’s being controlled by your instincts. True freedom is not doing what we want but the ability to do what we should. This can be understood by looking at the Shema where it says “I took them out of the land of Egypt to be a God for them”. The purpose of our freedom is to serve a higher purpose, in everything we do.

When it comes to our daily lives, religious tradition encourages us to take our own initiative. Being a Jew is about struggling, it’s not about drifting with the currents and passively accepting what you are told. In the “Ethics of our Fathers” we’re warned, “an embarrassed man can not learn” i.e. you need to have some chutzpa! To get any depth of learning at all, you must have questions. Even when one may seem to have the answer for you, deeper answers are out there. Never. Stop. Asking.

This is obvious for anyone who has ever studied the Torah; “How can we challenge the text we are presented with?” But we are not just meant to challenge our texts, but absolutely everything we are doing must be done with constant introspection. This is essential to understand the depths of yourself and your belief; you must challenge it, express doubts and realize that you have to penetrate layers and layers.

The unassuming approach, when it is believed that the laws must be kept blindly, is a reason student’s lose interest in Torah. On the contrary we said at Sinai, “Naseh Ve Nishma” (we will do and we will hear). The understanding must follow the action!  If a student doesn’t feel connected to what is being learnt or doesn’t agree with the teacher s/he may be put off Torah as a whole, thinking that’s all there is.

Without understanding the concept of Shivim Panim l’Torah (there are Seventy Faces to the Torah), I may have given up long ago. I’ve had teachers with such narrow outlook that I often left class depressed. But I was reminded that it’s up to us to choose our Rabbi and teacher, so I swiftly dropped out and found a new teacher. Yes, I had the chutzpa.

In replacement, I found a teacher radically opposite to the one I had. If my previous teacher said x was black and white, the new one would say, well it could also be purple, orange or green. We were never told a single answer; for the most part the students had to bring both the questions and the answers to the table. If not we would simply sit in silence, which was a lesson in itself. I had never imagined so much diversity; this time I left class baffled and utterly confused, the way I liked it. Yet, my friends never appreciated the class as I did, whilst they meaningfully connected to what was learnt in the previous class I so hated; there’s something for everyone if you put the effort to find it.

So what’s so punk rock? Judaism demands that you be an individual. As the 1st century Jewish philosopher Philo Judaeus said, “the natural philosopher should offer his physics, the moralist his ethics, the artist and the man of science the arts and sciences they know.” Why was Moses so humble? It was because he knew his greatness didn’t come from himself but was a gift, he was so awed by this foreign power he was given. In fact he supposed if someone else had his same blessings, they would’ve been even greater than him. But if one were to ask Moses, did you bring down the Torah? Did you speak to G-d face to face? And he would say no, that’s not being humble, that is lying. Moses never once denied who he was.

Not utilizing the unique talents and gifts you’ve been given to fulfill your potential, whilst conforming to others is seen as a sin against HaShem; we are denying that we are made in His image by not showing our own voice and individuality.

Final words of advice, forget the Jew-fro, it’s all about the Jew-hawk!

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