Taught by Aaron Brandes on Shavuot
My goal for this Shavuout class was to use Albert Camus’ essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” as inspiration for us when we struggle with the Torah text. Both the myth of Sisyphus and our annual cycle of reading the Torah involve never-ending struggles. Camus’s essay (which can be found in full online) is a midrash in the sense that he takes a problematic story of human degradation and reimagines Sisyphus as an existentialist who brings meaning and even happiness to the task. In the class we read a less condensed version of the full essay
The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. … one sees merely the whole effort of a body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll it and push it up a slope a hundred times over; one sees the face screwed up, the cheek tight against the stone, the shoulder bracing the clay-covered mass, the foot wedging it, the fresh start with arms outstretched, the wholly human security of two earth-clotted hands. At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward that lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain. … It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. That hour like a breathing-space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock. … The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
Each participant in the class selected some Torah that they found worthy of struggle. They follow below.
Genesis
Noah 6:22, 7 God destroys all life on earth, sparing only those on Noah’s ark.
Chayei Sarah 23:1-2 We don’t hear Sarah’s response to Abraham’s attempt to sacrifice Isaac. Parsha is named after her, she dies at the beginning.
Va-Yishlach 34:25-29 Simeon and Levi kill the people of Shechem after Dinah’s rape.
Exodos
Va-era 7:1-3 Aaron will ask Pharoah to let the people go, and God will harden Pharoah’s heart.
Yitro 20:1-14 God singles out 10 commandments/utterances.
Mishpatim 21:7 When a man sells his daughter as a slave …
Leviticus
Sh’mini 10:1:3 Nadav and Avihu offer strange fire and are consumed by a fire from God. “Through those near to Me I show Myself holy, And gain glory before all the people.”
Acharei Mot 18:22 Do not lie with a male as one lies with a woman; It is an abhorrence. This was chosen by several people.
B’har 25:44:46 Aquiring slave from other peoples.
Numbers
B’midbar 1:2-3 Take a census of all those in Israel who are able to bear arms.
Korach 16:27-35 The earth swallows Dathan, Abiram, Korach and their families, and fire from God consumes the two hundred and fifty men offering incense.
Deuteronomy
Ki Tetzei 21:18-21 Stoning a defiant son.
Ki Tetzei 22:13-22 A man charges his wife with not having been a virgin at marriage. If he is found to have lied he is flogged and fined and cannot divorce her. If the charges prove true she is to be stoned.
What Torah do you struggle with? Post a response in the comments here
The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. … one sees merely the whole effort of a body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll it and push it up a slope a hundred times over; one sees the face screwed up, the cheek tight against the stone, the shoulder bracing the clay-covered mass, the foot wedging it, the fresh start with arms outstretched, the wholly human security of two earth-clotted hands. At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward that lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain. … It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. That hour like a breathing-space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock. … The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
Each participant in the class selected some Torah that they found worthy of struggle. They follow below.
Genesis
Noah 6:22, 7 God destroys all life on earth, sparing only those on Noah’s ark.
Chayei Sarah 23:1-2 We don’t hear Sarah’s response to Abraham’s attempt to sacrifice Isaac. Parsha is named after her, she dies at the beginning.
Va-Yishlach 34:25-29 Simeon and Levi kill the people of Shechem after Dinah’s rape.
Exodos
Va-era 7:1-3 Aaron will ask Pharoah to let the people go, and God will harden Pharoah’s heart.
Yitro 20:1-14 God singles out 10 commandments/utterances.
Mishpatim 21:7 When a man sells his daughter as a slave …
Leviticus
Sh’mini 10:1:3 Nadav and Avihu offer strange fire and are consumed by a fire from God. “Through those near to Me I show Myself holy, And gain glory before all the people.”
Acharei Mot 18:22 Do not lie with a male as one lies with a woman; It is an abhorrence. This was chosen by several people.
B’har 25:44:46 Aquiring slave from other peoples.
Numbers
B’midbar 1:2-3 Take a census of all those in Israel who are able to bear arms.
Korach 16:27-35 The earth swallows Dathan, Abiram, Korach and their families, and fire from God consumes the two hundred and fifty men offering incense.
Deuteronomy
Ki Tetzei 21:18-21 Stoning a defiant son.
Ki Tetzei 22:13-22 A man charges his wife with not having been a virgin at marriage. If he is found to have lied he is flogged and fined and cannot divorce her. If the charges prove true she is to be stoned.
What Torah do you struggle with? Post a response in the comments here
Aaron Brandes is a long-time member of Havurat Shlaom.
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