When Orthodoxy Was Born | Re'eh 5784

Some jokes become so common and cliché that they serve more as social commentary than a recipe for laughter.

And particularly with Jewish jokes—especially the ones you’ve heard before—it’s less about the laughter the joke provokes (not much) and more about what the joke says about those who tell it and understand it.

So, with that unfunny introduction, here is a not-so-funny joke you’ve most likely heard before:

A Jewish man has been stranded on a island alone for 20 years. Finally, he is rescued.

The Jewish man insists on showing his rescuers the life that he has built for himself on the island.

They come across a small clearing with a bunch of makeshift buildings.

He points to the closest one, “That’s my home.” He continues to point to the other buildings as they walk by.

“There’s the supermarket. And the bank. And the saloon. Over there is my synagogue, where I went to pray that someone would come rescue me.”

A rescuer pointed to a lone building away from the rest. “And what’s that?” The Jewish man disdainfully says “Oh, that. That’s the other shul. We don’t go there.”

As I said, you probably heard it before.

But it is interesting that Jews are so known for break-off shuls and side minyanim, considering there seems to be an explicit prohibition exactly for that type of behavior.

In our parsha, we find the following:

בָּנִים אַתֶּם לַה’ אֱלֹהֵיכֶם לֹא תִתְגֹּדְדוּ וְלֹא־תָשִׂימוּ קׇרְחָה בֵּין עֵינֵיכֶם לָמֵת׃

You are children of your God. You shall not gash yourselves or shave the front of your heads because of the dead.

The Talmud interprets לא תתגדדו, which in plain translation means not to make a gash during a time of mourning, as also including a prohibition against breaking off from the central community.

(As an aside, I never understood the practice of cutting oneself while in mourning until I watched Kevin Costner in the titular role in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves cut his hand after the murder of his father)

Why does the Talmud find an allusion to not separating from the mainstream community from a verse that seems to be about not cutting oneself while in mourning?! These two actions seemingly have nothing to do with each other.

To understand this, let’s explore the history of the schism of Hungarian Jewry and the emergence of the Orthodox community.

Read the rest on Substack, and listen to the full shiur above!