{"id":1876,"date":"2020-10-05T19:54:30","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T23:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/?p=1876"},"modified":"2020-10-14T21:13:32","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T01:13:32","slug":"1876","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/2020\/10\/05\/1876\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a Tzadik"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, 11-year-old Micah Blay made a pilgrimage to the U.S. Supreme Court and blew the shofar for the hundreds of people gathered there. In keeping with Jewish custom, they laid small stones on the steps of the building as if the building itself were RBG\u2019s headstone. Throughout the Jewish world, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was brought to mind as the shofar sounded at Rosh Hashanah services across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

$\"\"$ Perhaps no one deserves the title \u201cJustice\u201d more than Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The word for Justice in Hebrew is <\/span>Tzedek<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>Tzedek<\/span><\/i> is the word not only for the concept of\u00a0 justice, but also for righteousness, and for helping those who are less fortunate. One word is for all three because <\/span>Tzedek<\/span><\/i> must contain all of these elements to be whole.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One who graces us with extraordinary deeds and teachings is called a <\/span>Tzadik<\/span><\/i>. A righteous one.\u00a0 There is a Jewish folk tradition that if one dies right before Rosh Hashanah, it is because they were a <\/span>Tzadik<\/span><\/i> and therefore not in need of the 10 days of repentance that are the High Holy Days.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this article about Justice Ginsburg, I am tempted to write nothing of my own but let her teach us in her own words. (These quotes come from Ynet and The Jewish Standard.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand for justice, peace, and enlightenment runs through Jewish history and tradition,\u201d she said…describing how she is reminded of this fact every day when she enters her judicial chambers and is confronted with a poster proclaiming the biblical verse \u201cJustice, justice thou shalt pursue.\u201d [tzedek, tzedek tirdof<\/i>]<\/p>\n

\u201cMy room has the only mezuzah in the U.S. Supreme Court,\u201d she said, noting that \u201cgrowing up Jewish, the concept of Tikkun Olam<\/i>, repairing tears in the community and making things better for people less fortunate, was part of my heritage. The Jews are the people of the book and learning is prized above all else. I am lucky to have that heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a judge, born, raised, and proud of being a Jew. The demand for justice, for peace, and for enlightenment runs through the entirety of Jewish history and Jewish tradition. I hope, in all the years I have the good fortune to continue serving on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, I will have the strength and courage to remain steadfast in the service of that demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Jewish religion is an ethical religion. That is, we are taught to do right, to love mercy, do justice, not because there’s going to be any reward in heaven or punishment in hell.\u00a0 We live righteously because that’s how people should live and not anticipating any award in the hereafter.”<\/p>\n

The concept of <\/span>Tikkun Olam<\/span><\/i>, the repair of the world, is one of the fundamental practices in Jewish culture. It is based on a presumption–the world is in need of repair because the world is broken.\u00a0 Nowhere is that more obvious than today.\u00a0 The world is broken and each of us is present in this world because there is a repair that only we can make.\u00a0 This teaching is from the Slonimer Rebbe. The difficulty, he says, is that we do not know exactly what the repair is that we must do. We are given the circumstances, easy, or difficult, that will enable us to make this repair. RBG suffered through cancer treatments, hospitalizations, recuperations, never stopping, never ceasing to be a Justice, a Tzadik.<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe RBG made the repair that her particular soul was \u201cdeployed\u201d to make.\u00a0 We all feel the power and the spiritual reverberations of her righteous deeds and her will to do good.\u00a0 I am saddened by her death, her having to stop short of the goal so clear in her mind, to pass the mantle to another one who would be and do Justice. For such a time, I hope RBG felt comfort in the Talmud saying: \u201cYours is not to finish the task, neither are you free to desist from beginning it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the\u00a0 High Holy Day liturgy we declare \u201c<\/span>Ha Yom harat olam,<\/span><\/i>\u201d\u00a0 which usually gets translated \u201ctoday is the birthday of the world.\u201d\u00a0 But Rabbi Angela Wornick Buchdahl translates the phrase differently. <\/span>Harat<\/span><\/i> also means pregnant. Today the world is pregnant. RBG did her best to be a righteous midwife. But the world is still pregnant, the new year begins; the midwife is needed.\u00a0 Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg leaves behind a Call, a demand that only a Tzadik can make. The world needs righteous midwives–us. Like her, ours is not to finish the task, but neither are we free to desist from beginning it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rhonda Shapiro-Rieser is the CRSL Jewish Student Adviser.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"