You're So Funny!

Pause For Thought with Rabbi Shoshanna Boyd Gelfand

Growing up in America, my family used to take summer holidays that included long cross-country car rides. My sisters and I would sit in the back of the car, and as the hours wore on, we would inevitably start bickering about something or other. My father would yell into the back seat, "Can't you all just get along back there - you're arguing is driving me crazy!"

If only my father had known about the Jewish tradition of makhloket, he might have been less annoyed by our back seat squabbles. Makhloket is the Jewish concept of arguing "for the sake of heaven." It's a method that was developed by the rabbis two thousand years ago, as a way to seek out different viewpoints in order to get closer to God. Instead of attacking and destroying your opponent's position, makhloket requires you to recognize it as a sincere attempt to encounter the divine. In fact, the rabbis said that anytime two people engage in this kind of debate, God's Presence comes and rests between them.

The rabbis were so intent that people use makhloket to respect their opponent's position, that they insisted that minority opinions be recorded and quoted, even when they were ultimately rejected. They recognized that opposition is an essential element of truth-seeking. By recording minority voices, the rabbis were saying that winning the argument is not the ultimate goal. Rather, considering different perspectives and having a multiplicity of voices is a value in and of itself. So the Jewish notion of makhloket goes far beyond the usual definition of co-existence as simply trying to get along; it requires us to actively seek out those whose opinions differ from our own.

I wish I could claim that the arguments in the back seat of our car were for the sake of heaven. I'm not convinced that my sisters and I had such noble purposes in mind. But I love fantasizing about how parents - or even nation-states - might use the Jewish concept of makhloket to ask us not just to get along, but to use our disagreements to bring God's presence into our midst.