Rivlin, judges, rabbis discuss biblical debate
Debate, dispute, division, dialogue and conflict were all under discussion at the Bible study group session with President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday night, together with Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, legalists, rabbis, academics and politicians.
The event, which was coordinated by the 929 Bible Study Group and the Pardes Center for Judaism and Conflict Resolution, comes at the end of Pardes’s week of events for its 9 Adar initiative, designed to find ways to engage more constructively in polarized ideological and political debates.
Speaking at the event, Rivlin said there is “nothing more Jewish than pointed disagreement” and “nothing more democratic than pointed disagreement,” noting that this concept was relevant in the run-up to the elections.
Seemingly in reference to the battle for the center ground in Israeli politics, Rivlin noted the temptation “to avoid real, painful, pointed encounters,” or to create “a false reality where we are all the same, to blur the edges, to melt everyone into a single bloc...”
“If we build roads to bypass encountering the other, if we continue to ignore the power of disagreement, of what it can bring forth, we will miss out on the most important way of understanding ourselves,” the president said.
Hayut noted that the inclination of two parties on opposing sides, who insist that every one of their arguments is critical – therefore making any concession impossible – reduces the chance of reaching a solution.
“When sides come to a compromise agreement in a legal matter, it is generally the result of their willingness to prioritize what comes first... it is this willingness that often paves the way to find creative solutions to a disagreement that benefit both sides,” she noted.
Rabbi Dr. Daniel Roth, director of the center, spoke of how the Bible and its numerous commentaries can be used to understand how two separate parties can understand the same events in totally different ways.
“The model of the Jewish beit midrash (study hall) and the concept of ‘disagreement for the sake of Heaven’ cultivate our minds to be skillful interpreters of the many conflicting realities of the texts,” said Roth.