Teachers

By Dario Calimani*

Perhaps it’s the rising age, perhaps the unexpected events of life, but as time passes you have the strange feeling of a growing belief that being a Jew doesn’t just mean that you passively accept a given identity, be it for a coincidence or for your choice. You wonder if, in order to be and feel a Jew, you need no more than owning a library full of Jewish books and reading various Jewish writers, or being proud of Freud and Einstein; or if it’s enough to think about the Shoah every day, or to support Israel and Netanyahu with all your heart. Observing the Kashrut is not so hard as well. It is a passive acceptance of a diet which, after all, doesn’t make you feel so different from a strict vegetarian.
Someone will tell me that the Torah is very clear about what it means to be a Jew: na’asé wenishma’, do first, understand later. And with “do” we mean observe the mitzvoth, all of them – or at least those which actually be observed. Nevertheless, you suspect that “do” could mean something else, something of which veshinantam levanecha, “and you shall teach this to your children”, is just the beginning. The difference between do and understand gets considerably perceivable when it comes to transmit something to the next generation. And above all when it comes to realise what you have actually transmitted to the next generation.
Most of what we “do” is symbolic. And very rarely can one combine that symbol with the laudable act focused on the person standing in front of you or next to you. It is always easier to preach fine words and spread them all around rather than getting your hands dirty with the hard reality of everyday life, your acts being unrecognised. We don’t need any orator, we need teachers who teach Judaism as a way of life.

*Dario Calimani is a professor at Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia. Translation by Rachele Ferin, student at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of Trieste University, intern at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities.