'In pursuit of justice'

Jewish texts provide precious precepts

VICKI CABOT
Contributing Editor

Participants in a lunchtime class on Jewish law include, from left, Dan Ziskin, Leonard Durr, Edlyn Durr and Neal Kurn.

Photo by Vicki Cabot

Nu?"

Aaron Scholar prods the roomful of mostly lawyers at his weekly class on Jewish law for responses to a pointed question about the biblical story of Tamar. It is the starting point for this week's discussion in his series on Jewish law, and Scholar, whose experience as a teacher of Jewish texts is clearly evident, deftly nudges his class of about a dozen adults to reflect on the legal principles and their contemporary applications.

"What's the message about responsibility?" he asks.

The students chime in, and the discussion moves from Tamar's predicament - a widow who uses devious means to invoke communal strictures to assure her protection and support - to similar dilemmas in contemporary society.

Scholar makes the case for the application of one story to another, adroitly reinforcing the enduring relevancy of the biblical text to the continuous unfolding of the human story.

This week, Jewish News, too, looks at both the text and the story to address Jewish law in the second story in a series on ethics. Local attorneys, rabbis and teachers discuss legal precepts that come from Jewish sources, look at how they have impacted the development of our American legal system and talk about how they influence not only the practice, but the everyday lives, of local attorneys.

"Every law has a story," begins Temple Chai's Rabbi William Berk, ruminating about Jewish law and making an elegant argument for its essential place in Judaism.

In less than an hour, he takes a visitor from Egypt to Sinai, eloquently arguing that the rationale for law comes from the quintessential Jewish story we relate each year at the Passover seder and recall again on Shavuot.

"We know what it was like to live in chaos as slaves," he says, referring to the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt. "Therefore we understand the need for law and order."

At Mount Sinai, with the giving of the Torah, marked on Shavuot, the community received the law that would guide it and entered into a divine covenant to uphold it.

"We created a community so there had to be norms, rules," he explains. "But," he goes on, referring to the covenantal relationship, "this is just not any kind of community, but a holy community. Therefore, ethics has to be at its core."

Rabbi Rachel Sabath, who along with Rabbi Kerry Olitzsky, is the author of "Striving Toward Virtue," a book on Jewish ethical values, underlined Berk's point.

"The foundation of our tradition is ethics," she said during a visit to the Valley to teach at Temple Chai. "And the Bible is the book of ethical values."

Sabath, a Reform rabbi currently teaching and studying in Israel, believes that the way to develop ethical character is through an ethical community.

Torah study is essential to that endeavor, she says.

Scholar, with his weekly offerings, seeks to engage lawyers in the ongoing discussion. While helping them discover the richness of the Jewish legal tradition, and how it pertains to Western law, Scholar, director of the Bureau of Jewish Education, an agency of Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, emphasizes that his overriding purpose is to provoke dialogue.

"The strength of Judaism is in the discourse," he holds. "And the more voices you have, the better opportunity you have to understand God's word."

Berk, along with the Reform congregation's Shalom Center, took Scholar's approach one step further and provided a weekend retreat, March 22-24, replete with opportunities to study text, reflect on it and discuss its relevance. "We wanted Jewish lawyers to get in touch with the original idealism that led them to the law," he says, "and expose them to Jewish idealism."

A dozen lawyers joined Berk along with Shalom Center Director Sharona Silverman, and facilitator, Dr. Howard Silverman, for the program, which also emphasized Shabbat observance.

Berk shared with Jewish News some of the texts used at the retreat and the legal principles they illustrate.

The group began with a Talmudic teaching that elucidates the high priority placed on law in Jewish life.

"R. Yishmael said, 'One who wishes to become wise, let him deal with civil law, for there is no branch of the Torah greater than it, for it is like a gushing spring.' "

"Why a 'gushing spring'?" Berk asks, echoing the approach used in yeshiva study halls where one question elicits another.

"Wisdom comes from making distinctions and finding new distinctions," he explains.

"Deciding what is fair in a situation necessitates making such distinctions."

The use of the metaphor "gushing spring" underlines the vitality of the law, he suggests, and the need for new interpretations.

"As the story evolves," he explains, referring to the new legal conundrums that are manifested in contemporary life, "the law has to be responsive."

Other principles Berk explored on the retreat included the need for lawyers to be attentive and compassionate listeners. He chose the text from Babli Hagiga 3a-b, ". . .make thine ear a hopper and get a perceptive heart," to elucidate that point. He also suggested that active listening among adversaries is as important as that between attorneys and clients. It helps attorneys "hear" both sides of an issue, he said.

"Good lawyers should be able to argue both sides," he says, "so when they hear a position, they try to see where the other side is coming from."

Asking questions, enjoying the process, seeking creative solutions - these were all positive values that Berk sourced with Jewish text.

He makes one critical distinction between Jewish law and Western law.

"The Jewish system has to do with community and is not rights based (as is the American system) but obligation based," he says. "The best legal system is a hybrid," he holds.

David Kader, a professor at Arizona State University College of Law, who teaches a popular class on Religion and the U.S. Constitution at ASU, suggests that there are "two big ideas" that came out of the Jewish legal tradition and are integral to American jurisprudence. First, he says, is the notion of pursuit of justice - "Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you." (Deuteronomy 16:20)

He cites the Torah portion Yitro, where Moses' father-in-law counsels him to delegate his authority, to illustrate the second big idea, the need for the establishment of a court system.

"Jethro tells him to set up a system where he takes only the hard cases (delegating lesser cases to others)," says Kader. The story reflects an understanding of the need for a hierarchical judicial structure.

The issue of due process, where the ends do not justify the means, is intrinsic to Jewish law, he says.

Other big ideas include fairness, mercy and compassion.

" 'An eye for an eye' is one of the most misunderstood texts in Judaism," he says. The text is not meant to be taken literally.

"What that text captures is the fairness idea," says Kader, who is a member of Temple Beth Sholom of Chandler and president of the Phoenix Holocaust Survivors' Association. "It says that no matter what the status (of the person in the community) there will be equivalence. There is human equality under the law."

Local attorney Joyce Geyser says she was amazed to find the roots of so much of American jurisprudence in Jewish text.

Geyser, of counsel to Coppersmith, Gordon, Schermer, Owens and Nelson, says she gained new insights when she had the opportunity to study at an Orthodox yeshiva in Monsey, N.Y., while visiting her son and his family there.

"I was sitting in Talmud class and felt like I was in law school all over again," she recalls.

Geyser, a founding member, with her late husband Michael, of Temple Emanuel of Tempe and currently a congregant at Beth Joseph Congregation, says she was astounded to find that so many principles from English common law are based on Jewish legal precepts.

Too, what impressed her, was the method for Talmudic discourse, with its focus on case study, similar to the approach in law school.

"The discussions (of law) would start with a situation, offer a majority opinion, a minority opinion and see how people reasoned (to get to the result)," she says.

Of particular note, says Geyser, was the emphasis on ethical conduct - how people relate to each other.

The text study reinforced the concept that the practice of law is not an isolated process, but an integral part of societal life, she says.

Most compelling, she says, was the emphasis on treating people kindly and fairly and being of service to others.

It brings to mind some words of the prophets that Geyser recalls.

"Love goodness and establish justice,'" she recalls the teaching which actually comes from the prophet Micah, "He has told you, O man, what is good. And what the Lord requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness." (Micah 6:8) "Pretty good precepts," she said.

Jere Friedman, who helped to organize the Temple Chai lawyers' retreat, boils the essence of Jewish legal teachings down to one simple rule: "Be a mensch and treat others the same way."

Friedman, of counsel to the Scottsdale office of Kutak Rock LLP, a national law firm, hails from Mobile, Ala. Practicing law since 1993, he specializes in corporate transactional work dealing with security offerings and mergers and acquisitions. He credits his parents with teaching him what he refers to as the Jewish approach, which he aspires to both professionally and personally.

"The guiding principle is be honest and fair and try to do the right things," he says.

Friedman says that he came to the retreat hoping to step back and take a look at the aspects of the practice that were not satisfying.

Howard Silverman, who facilitated some of the group discussions, notes that for many professionals approaching the midpoint of their careers, there is a need for reassessment.

"Once they get past the spilkes (nerves), about 'am I doing it right' they go to 'why am I doing it.' "

The retreat hoped to help lawyers look at the tradition and make that connection between life and meaning, says Silverman.

One way to do that was through the Shabbat experience.

In a profession where time is money and days are measured in billable hours, it is often hard for lawyers to take time out for those activities that nourish the soul.

"If you do Shabbat right, it creates a zone," says Silverman. "You can see things from a different perspective," he says.

Particularly for lawyers, whose work is by nature adversarial, Shabbat is a real equalizer, says Berk.

Geyser, whose practice focuses on business transactions and corporate law, says she is more aware of her spiritual needs and the time necessary to meet them. Shabbat observance, she says, can be like having a vacation every week. "You have to treat yourself." she says.

Friedman says that attending Kabbalat Shabbat services at Temple Chai on Friday nights has become a high point of the week for him and his wife, Ellen.

"Even if all I do is go to services and have Shabbat dinner at home, relax and spend time with my family, I turn off the rest of the week," he says.

Friedman notes that understanding the laws of Shabbat and their prohibitions allows him to take advantage of the weekly respite from the practice.

"It gives you permission," he says of Shabbat. "You can recharge those batteries."

Contact the writer at vicki_cabot@jewishaz.com.

Go Study

There are innumerable texts and popular how-to books on Jewish ethics. A few choices:

"The Pirke Avos Treasury, Ethics of the Fathers, the Sages' Guide to Living" (Mesorah Publications Ltd., $59.99, hardcover)

"The Genesis of Justice," by Alan M. Dershowitz (Warner Books, $25.95 hardcover)

"Does the World Need the Jews?" by Daniel Gordis (Scribner, $24, hardcover)

There are also abundant class offerings across the Valley and spanning the denominational spectrum. A few include:

Bureau of Jewish Education, a wide variety of classes on subjects ranging from Torah and Talmud study to Jewish law. Call 602-234-1645.

Chabad Learning Centers, located throughout the Valley, offer a variety of classes on Torah, Talmud and Jewish law, ethics and values.

Information:

Chabad Lubavitch of Phoenix - 602-944-2753
Chabad of Scottsdale - 480-998-1410
Chabad of the East Valley - 480-753-5366
Chabad of the West Valley - 602-375-2422

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