27 Aug RE’EH: A CONVERSATION BETWEEN A RELIGIOUS & PROGRESSIVE JEW RABBI SCALES & DR. FINS DEBATE JEWISH CONTINUITY

The Fight
A Jewish congregation
was arguing over
whether one should
stand or sit during the
Kaddish prayer. Half
of the congregation
said one should sit,
while the other half insisted one should stand.
Every time the Kaddish was recited they
shouted at each other, “Sit down!” “Stand
up!” The fighting became so bad that the
congregation was split in two, each half
contending that they knew the proper
tradition.

Finally, the rabbi decided to visit a one-
hundred-year old member of the synagogue

who was living in a nursing home. He took a
delegation from each of the arguing sides with
him to see the oldest member of the
“shul”. “Now, tell us,” said the rabbi, “what is
our tradition?” “Should we stand during the
Kaddish?” “No,” said the old man. “That is
not our tradition.” “Well, then,” said the rabbi,
“should we sit during the Kaddish?” “No,”
the old man, “that is not our tradition.” “But
we need to know what to do,” said the rabbi,
“because our congregation members are
fighting non-stop over this. “That,” said the
oldest member of the congregation, “that is
our tradition.”
Two Signs
“This may you eat of all that is in the waters:
Everything that has fins and scales, may you
eat. But anything that has no fins and scales,
you may not eat,” The Torah states in this
week’s parsha, Reah.
The Mishna states an interesting fact: “All
[fish] that have scales also have fins [and are
thus kosher]; there are [fish] that have fins but
do not have scales [and are thus unkosher].”
This raises the big question, as the Talmud
itself wonders: Why are fins presented as an
identifying sign for kosher fish when they are
redundant, since scaled fish inevitably have
fins? The Torah could have given only scales
as an identifying kosher sign, and that would
have automatically included fins?
The Talmud’s answer consists of three words:
“Yagdil Torah Veyaadir,” to make the Torah
larger and bigger. In order to enhance the
Torah, it adds the kosher sign of fins.
This answer seems strange. How does the
unnecessary sign of fins make the Torah larger
and greater? Does this single extra word
“fins” really add something significant to the
Torah? Besides, the Chamisha Chumshei
Torah are well known for their conciseness,
and the Talmud often searches for the reason
behind a seemingly superfluous word. Why
can’t the Talmud simply state, “Yagdil Torah
Veyaadir,” to make the Torah larger and
greater, as it does in this case?
Journey of a Nation
Here we discover, once again, how a single
extra word in the Torah (“fins”) and a single

thought in the Talmud, reflects a millennia-
long saga and captures a timeless lesson for

the Jewish narrative.

The Talmud relates how the second century
great Talmudic sage Rabbi Akiva taught
Torah to the masses at a time when the Roman
government, under the Emperor Hadrian,
prohibited such activity with the threat of
death. Another sage, Pappus ben Judah,
warned Rabbi Akiva that he was endangering
his life. Rabbi Akiva replied with the
following parable:
A fox was once walking by the bank of a
river, and saw fish darting from place to place.
“What are you fleeing from?” he asked the
fish. “To escape the nets of the fisherman” the
fish replied. “In that case,” said the fox,
“come and live on dry land together with me.”
“Are you the one they describe as the cleverest
of animals?” the fish asked the fox. “You are
not clever but foolish. If we are in danger here
in the water where we live, how much more
so would we be in danger on dry land, where
we would surely die.”
Torah is to Jewish survival, said Rabbi Akiva,
as water is to fish. Yes, we are in danger, but if
we were to leave Torah, which sustains our
existence, to enter the dry land of the Romans,
we would certainly perish.
The long, complex and extraordinary journey
of the Jewish people throughout history is
thus compared to the life of a fish in water.
Our survival and success in the waters
requires two components: we must have
scales, but we must also have fins.
Armor and Progress
The scales are a thickened layer of “skin” that
is designed to protect the fish, to ward off
external dangers, such as sudden changes in
temperature and water pressure or other
attacking fish. Scales are the “armor”
protecting the body of the fish.
Fins, the wing-like organs that propel fish
forward, allow the fish to move along in the
water, to make progress and advance to great
distances, to journey in different directions,
and not to remain in one space and location.
For thousands of years Jews have been
arguing about many issues. But if you want to
sum up the quintessential Jewish debate, you
might say that it is the dispute between Rabbi
Scales and Dr. Fins. In today’s Jewish
geography, Rabbi Scales might be residing in
Boro Park or Jerusalem, and Dr. Fins in
Greenwich or Tel Aviv.
Remain in the Orbit of Judaism
Rabbi Scales’ argument is simple. To endure
the trials and tribulations of thousands of
years of exile and all forms of persecution, we
must develop “scales,” a “thick skin” to shield
us from dangerous external influences. We
managed to survive because of our ability to
resist change and to limit our interaction with
the outside world.
“Modernity,” our esteemed Rabbi Scales
argues, “is the enemy. Progress is dangerous.
The walls of the ghetto may have come
tumbling down, but we will rebuild them, if
not physically, at least socially. Let us remain
behind our ‘armor,’ let us dwell in our cocoon,
and then we will be kosher and pure. We will
survive and thrive.

“’If it was good for our grandparents it is
good for us’—that is my motto,” declares
Rabbi Scales. We will continue doing the
same things Jews have been doing for three
thousand years: Wrap Tefillin each morning,
keep Shabbos, pray, study Torah, give our
children a thorough Jewish education, keep
kosher, use the Mikvah, etc. This will secure
our future.
Leave the Shtetl
In contrast, we have our prominent Dr. Fins,
a graduate from an Ivy League University and
a man of the world. “Rabbi Scales, with all
due respect, it is time to use your fins and
swim to the other side of the Atlantic. You are
not living in the shtetl any longer; we have at
last crossed the ocean. We must advance with
the times, and become part of the modern
conversation. Our key to success is “fins,” the
flip-flap wings which help us advance with
history, to become progressive, to join the
larger culture.
“If we want remain relevant and fresh,”
argues Dr. Fins, “we must integrate rather
than isolate; we ought to become players
within the world arena.”
The two Jews never stop arguing, even if they
rarely meet each other. Fins continues to
accuse Scales of being an isolationist, a
fanatic, an old fashion fundamentalist; Scales
accuses Dr. Fins of being an ambivalent,
feeble, self-denigrating, and assimilated Jew.
As it turns out, none of these voices capture
the full calling of Judaism, as we shall see.
The Key to Survival
Comes the Mishna and states this fact: All
[fish] that have scales also have fins [and are
thus kosher]; there are [fish] that have fins but
do not have scales [and are thus unkosher].”
What does this represent symbolically?
As Rabbi Akiva understood so well, even if
our nation was to develop the most effective
fins, a most canny ability to integrate into the
larger society, it will not necessarily produce
scales—the armor we need to ensure our
continuity and retain our identity. Assimilation
is natural and inevitable. For the Jewish
people to survive there is only one way:
through our millennia-long “scales,” our
Torah and Mitzvos. Why?
When a scientist seeks to discover the
essential properties of an element of nature,
he must undertake a series of experiments
under the most varied conditions to discover
those properties which are alike under all
conditions.
The same principle should be applied to
Jewish survival. We have been around for
over three-thousand years. In the course of
this time, Jews have lived under extremely
varied conditions. They were dispersed across
the world; they had multiple languages and
absorbed an assortment of cultures. Is there
any single “property” common to all of Jewish
history? Is there one phenomenon that
pervades all of Jewish history to which we
can attribute our survival?
It is not its land, language, or culture—these
have varied from age to age and from place to

place. The only constant single factor that has
linked the Jewish people across space and
time from Sinai to the present was the Torah
and its Mitzvos. It is through the Torah way of
life that the key to our eternity lies. We must
secure our scales if we wish to survive. Fins
alone will not do the trick.
Conversely, if we develop scales, if we
remain tenaciously connected to our spiritual
heritage, to the study of Torah and the
observance of its Mitzvos, then we will have
“fins” too, we will possess the ability to
advance and grow with the times and make a
true impact on the world as well. The more
entrenched we are in our Judaism—the deeper
and broader our universal impact will reach.
It’s like with love: the more you love your
wife and children, the more you can love
other human beings outside of your family.
Saturating the World
If so, asks the Talmud, why was it necessary
to give the sign of “fins” at all? Would it not
suffice to define “scales” as the exclusive
identifying kosher sign of fish? To define the
question in the above context: to be a “kosher”
Jew and to ensure the “kosher” status of the
Jewish people, it seems, all you need are
scales. Why then does the Torah also add fins
as an identifying kosher sign?
The answer is: Yagdil Torah Veyaadir, to
make the Torah larger and greater. For a fish
to be kosher, for the Jewish people, compared
to the fish, to fulfill their mission in life, it
must have scales, but they must also have
fins. And the latter is also essential to the
kashrus of the fish. Because Our mission in
life is not only to maintain our own spiritual
and moral integrity and to shield ourselves
from the negative influences of the world; our
role is also to saturate the entire world with
the light of Torah; to transform the entire
universe into an abode for G-d. It is not
enough for us to remain protected behind our
scared armor. Rather, we must acquire fins,
and broaden our sphere of influence to the
furthest possible places, and each of us has a
sphere of influence—our family, community,
business associations, and all other contacts.
The truth, the depth, the light of Torah must
permeate all of the Jewish people, and all of
humanity. We must swim and engage the
world not because of insecurity, but because
the whole world craves and yearns for the
inspiration and guidance of Torah, because
every person deserves to discover the
G-dliness within his or her heart. Deep down,
all of humanity yearns to declare “yisgadal
veyiskadash shemei rabah!”