Reading the Torah Out Loud: A Journey of Lament and Hope

by Marc H. Ellis

What religious values and ultimate vision would you wish to pass along to your children? How does one sort through what is authentic and inauthentic in a religious tradition today and forge its future? These are the questions Marc Ellis attempts to answer in this personal yet programmatic work. Ellis reflects on the encounters that have been decisive in his own religious realms: the personal and the political. His work is a meditation on what can be learned and retained from his encounters with the Catholic Worker movement, post-Holocaust theology, Latin America Liberation Theology, engagement with the Palestinian cause, and acknowledgment of Israeli violence.

Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

About the author

Marc H. Ellis is retired University Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University. Among his publications are Encountering the Jewish Future (2012), Reading the Torah Out Loud (2007), Practicing Exile (2001), Oh, Jerusalem! (1999), and Unholy Alliance (1997), all from Fortress Press. He is also a regular contributor on Mondoweiss: The War of Ideas in the Middle East with a series called Exile and the Prophetic.

Reviews

[Moti Rieber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marc Ellis a scholar, philosopher and theologian, the author (years ago) of "Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation." He is about a strongly critical of the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people as it's possible to be - a criticism I share. He and I have become friendly-ish on Facebook, having shared the experience (or perhaps it is jointly having imagined) being run out of opportunities by the Jewish Establishment. I asked him for a couple of his books to read and he recommended this one.

It's a kind of theological memoir, tracing the interactions (intellectual and personal, both) he's had during his life with both Jewish post-Holocaust theologians (Richard Rubinstein, David Hartman) and prominent liberation theologians (James Cone, Gustavo Guiterrez). Ellis' increased commitment to liberation theology applied _even to the Palestinians_ becomes a fork in the road: either understate it and be accepted and promoted by the Jewish Establishment, or ... expect to be attacked and vilified and misrepresented and challenged for the rest of your life. He chose the latter.

The bulk of the book is an extended thought piece applying the implications of a fully "conscience" based theology to Israel/Palestine. How much is permissible to the Jewish state in the name of the Holocaust, or chosenness, or God's promise the Abraham in the Bible? Why is the Palestinian perspective (my language, not Ellis'; even my language reflects their dehumanization; I would refer to "the blacks" in this way) so thoroughly suppressed and misrepresented. And worst, what does it say about our Judaism that it allows itself to be so manipulated as to defend the worst excesses of military occupation and oppression?

A chapter is dedicated to his interactions with the Palestinian scholar and "founding father" type Edward Said. I have seen Ellis refer to himself as having received rabbinic ordination from Said, and that story is told here.

The last chapter tells of his "reading the Torah out loud" with his two sons. Because of his alienation from Jewish community, this (aside from their home practice) is as much "Hebrew School" as the kids get. He doesn't use commentators, which is the usual means of interpreting Torah. He tries to experience what it says, unspoiled. Ellis' experiences, and contemporary political affairs, can't help but color how Ellis experiences the Torah.

For instance, in the Torah the land of Israel is promised to the Israelites. That's pretty straightforward. But,

there is little mention of the corollary threat. The stakes are high. The motivation for Baruch Goldstein and Yigal Amir comes from these biblical sources and from rabbinic interpretations that highlight these sensibilities. If I read the Torah out loud, should I then be with Goldstein and Amir? And how, if I side with Rabin against them, can I also be critical of Rabin's participation in the origins of the state of Israel when he and others cleansed the Palestinian population from the land? When I do support the state of Israel in its existence today from the perspective of the Holocaust rather than the Bible, is my support coming from my Judaism or from a secular humanism that recognizes a history of Jewish suffering and the need to secure Jews from that threat? [i.e., at all costs, despite the potential costs of "others." - MR]

My one critique of the book is that Ellis sometimes over-relies on an artful writing style exemplified by the use of rhetorical questions in the quote above. I find it annoying in his Facebook posts, too. I would have taken off half a star for it if Goodreads let me.

I relate very strongly to Ellis' self-perception as an exile within the Jewish community. I also relate to his conclusion that his life and purpose is changed, made more authentic, because of the way Jewish rejection forced him to include others, from all traditions, who share his values into his circle. Those are both experiences I share. And like Ellis, despite the pain, and the financial cost, and the damn inconvenience -- I don't know if I would have chosen this path if I had known what it would entail, but I hope I would have.