A Jewish Napoleon Complex

Chabad Chassidism's founder, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, The Rebbe, (1745-1812) a significant Jewish opponent to Napoleon, once wrote to Rabbi Moshe Meislish of Vilna about the possibility of a Napoleonic conquest of Europe.

If Bonaparte will be victorious, Jewish wealth will increase and prestige of the Jewish people will be raised; but their hearts will disintegrate and be distanced from their Father in Heaven. But if [Russia Czar] A[lexandar] will be victorious, although Israel's poverty will increase and their prestige will be lowered, their hearts will be joined, bound and unified with their Father in Heaven. (Igrot Kodesh Admur HaZaken, letter # 64)

I wonder if Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi were to visit us today, would he feel like a prophet? How would he feel about the modern State of Israel? What would he say about the the form of Judaism he spawned?
On a very personal level, I think he was prophetic, but I'm not sure I love his choice of words. Has the Jewish heart disintegrated? Have we distanced ourselves from our “Father in Heaven”? I am also uncomfortable with his assertion that poverty and lowered prestige are essential for a divine connection. But sometimes I look around me and I think that he really understood historical trends.
Israel, for example, is collectively wealthier than it has ever been, although the wealth is concentrated in very few hands. Yet, Israel, overall, is very narcissistic, lacking empathy for its Palestinian neighbors, pre-occupied with itself and “Megalomaniacal,” as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said about its position in the world, particularly with regard to Iran. What would Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi say about the modern Jewish state?
America, on the other hand, the home of the most free Jewish community in history, is also the home of the greatest Jewish assimilation ever. Have our Jewish hearts disintegrated and have we distanced ourselves from our Heavenly Father? I would have to disagree with this assertion, although I am under no illusions that something about our freedom has changed us.
In Rabbi Shlomo Schwartz' Grateful Deadesque, chassidic high holiday services on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles (according to my friend DS Racer) they dance, mockingly, right before they blow the shofar at the end of Neilah, on Yom Kippur, as they sing "Napoleon's Victory March." This is their way of cheering on the Czar over the emperor in fantasies of maintaining their poverty and persecution in order to sustain their connection to God. This is hard for me to understand.
According to DS Racer, “the telephone poles all over Pico/Robertson have posters hung on them, advertising chicken-swingers who can come to your home and perform these Kapparos rituals... BTW, Kapparos is on page 1 of the Chabad Yom Kippur machzor, and actually tells people to use chickens, and not some symbolic substitute.”
Kapparot (the modern Hebrew letter Taf at the end should sound like an English letter T) is a form of cruelty to animals. It is an old tradition that needs to be reevaluated in our times. Doing so is not indicative of a disintegrating heart or a distancing of ourselves from God. Jewish traditions have always been changed and reformed. Using a rubber chicken or dropping the ritual altogether is not blasphemy. It is illustrative of why God gave us minds of our own and free will, to make choices, and hopefully righteous ones.
Still, I am not totally dissing Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi. While Chabad has hardened Judaism into a primitive set of rules and regulations, I think other streams of our tradition have gone to far in different directions. Chaim Nachman Bialik wrote a beautiful essay about the tension between Halacha and Aggadah. I would quote it, but I am not a good translator and it is written in Hebrew. Halacha, our path, is a set of codes that are supposed to be followed by virtue of the fact that they are God's legal system. They don't need to make sense to us. We just need to be diligent and disciplined. Aggadah is the rich lore and legend that we were given and which is not as easily understood.
Between Halacha and Aggadah the tension is between strict laws that have been interpreted many ways and a library of stories which are also their to be interpreted. An Orthodox rabbi I sometimes study with recently taught me that the difference between the streams is the rules by which we do our interpretation. Of course, he added that his interpretation (Orthodox) is the correct method.
I repeatedly say that the beauty of the Talmud is the machloket, the debate which is incomplete and waiting for us to engage with. I don't think we need to be poor and oppressed to engage, but Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi is right that certain conditions need to be in place in order for the debate to be Jewish, otherwise our hearts do turn from Judaism, not exactly disintegrate as he puts it.
For the past year plus, I have worked in the Reform movement as a director of education, and I seriously struggle with the idea that the Halacha can be segmented into ethical and other paths. The Reform movement does not see itself bound to Halacha as the Conservative and Orthodox do. They adhere to what they consider ethical halacha and their Judaism becomes very centered on social justice and God.
In Conservative Judaism, they see themselves as a Halachik movement, but they interpret the Halacha in a way that fits the times yet still adheres to the Rabbinic tradition of loyalty to Torah and machloket (debate). In some ways, this works best for me because it respects the idea that Judaism is a discipline that is intended to make us better people. Within “better people” there is the concern for social justice, but there is a solid position regarding the relativism of only following ethical Halacha. Also, the debate about the interpretation of Halacha and the system of disciple which makes us better people is a debate that doesn't have to include God. The Rabbis said that Torah was at the center. I have my own interpretation of the phrase found in the Sayings of our Fathers, “The world rests on three pillars; Torah, Avodah and Gmilut Chassadim.” Torah is clear. Gmilut Chassadim is understood as acts of loving kindness, and Avodah can be interpreted as either worship or work. I side with the latter. I don't need to make a decision about God in order to believe that our system of Halacha is intended to make us better people. I just need to believe that the machloket is still going on. This is what troubles me about Chabad.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi could have done a lot more to save Judaism by creating a movement that was open to debate as a reflection of our times then building a wall around the Torah made of poverty and persecution. If only he could have applied his prophetic vision to the need to adhere to our role as a holy people with a holy mission instead of getting tangled up in the minutiae of following a Halacha in strict detail. Who cares if the chicken you swing over your head is a really chicken or a rubber chicken? The one who should care (excluding the chicken's mother) is the person who is making this world better for us all through a system of rituals that keep us on the right path. If that takes a kaparot ritual, fine. So be it. But it also takes a modern interpretation of a ritual that is currently critical of this abusive practice against animals.
One of the beauties of our Machloket is that we debate over generations. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, I'd like you to know that I have trouble with some of your practices as I see them in my lifetime. Maybe they were right for you in your time, but we need to live in the reality of this world today, and this world is much more tolerant and the lot of many Jews is much more wealthy. Maybe if you can step outside of the wall you built around our Torah, we can start talking about our mission as Jews instead of hiding ourselves inside the world of victimization and poverty. Napoleon certainly was not a wonderful guy, but he spread religious freedom throughout Europe and gave us a chance to participate as full citizens in the way we shape the world we live in. Now, let's put our heads together and see how we can make the best of this new position of the Jew in the world. I think together we can do great things.