In the blessing right before the Sh’ma, we thank G-d for the gift of Torah. We ask G-d to incline our hearts to “understand and discern, learn and teach, keep and do and fulfill all the words of Torah study with love.” And the consequence of experiencing this cognitive staccato is—surprisingly—that we will never be ashamed!
Never be ashamed? What does devotion to Torah have to do with avoiding shame?
The great theologian Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote a poem that addresses this issue directly (please note: most people are not aware that Heschel was a poet. He wrote a book of Yiddish poetry in 1933, with the provocative title G-d’s Ineffable Name—Human. The following poem is taken from that collection, translated by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi): Forgiveness
Forgiveness
I worry
When I wash
And think —
“Water is the
Laborer’s sweat
Of millions.”
Bag-ladies are
My homeless sisters;
I live my own
Past lives
In sinister
Criminals.
Of everyone
Murdered,
I think I
Was their killer’s
Accomplice.
That I myself
Do bear the blame
For causing the shame
Of my neighbor.
Unawares, in me,
My self confesses,
“Thousand-fold—
I caused your hurt.”
I want to cast
My head at doorsteps
Of jails and hospitals
And beg your pardon.
So what does Torah have to do with shame? The true student of Torah cannot bear to see laborers exploited, bag ladies on the street, victims of violence, the degradation of innocents.
As they are shamed, the student of Torah must be shamed as well.
Rabbi Robert L. Wolkoff