Questions Only

By: Judy Batalion

The penultimate session of Jewish Book Week, the Judith Butler/Udi Aloni discussion sparked with the tired delirium of the near-end. From the start, the energy was zany, and the edge was hardly allayed by the attempt to fit the ‘minor’ thesis – Israel’s paramount need to accept its own guilt – into an hour.

The chair, perhaps prepped for a potentially contentious idea marathon, awaited no applause, and launched straight into an introduction. Swiftly, American theory guru Judith Butler began a presentation based on her latest book, which considered the need for mourning and forgiveness in the post-9/11 world, and following, the need for Israelis to forgive and come to terms with their own guilt in order for new possibilities for peace with the Palestinians. A charismatic speaker, with a presence displaying modesty but also gravitas, Butler ventured into the personal, relaying her own Cleveland childhood experiences of Judaism, and her understanding that at Judaism’s crux is the appreciation of all life – Jewish and other. To her, critiquing Judaism and Israel is an integral component of Jewishness, and she chastised the Israeli call for self-defense, claiming it had gone too far and was a lie. She called, then, for Israeli compassion and forgiveness. Butler drew on the writings of Derrida to explain that forgetting is about getting, but forgiving is about giving - it is not based on logical or rational ‘deals’ with the other party, it is not resolution, but is beyond calculation, it is in the self.

Following Butler was acclaimed Israeli film-maker/writer Udi Aloni. Sporting a more rambunctious brand of charisma, Aloni opened with oozing accolades to Butler, and then a couple of hearty one-liners – he threw away his notes and started off the cuff, claiming that he would talk for 15 minutes – an ‘Israeli 15 minutes’… And that he did. Aloni presented a sort of parsha-analysis, looking at the meanings of the Hebrew word ‘face’ (‘panim’ – which in Hebrew refers not just to the façade, but to interiority), and to the ‘face-off’ between Jacob and Esav, focusing on the moment the brothers encountered each other after the birth-order-scandal – the moment between murdering and being murdered. Aloni highlighted that we have come to interpret the text to mean that the brothers were enemies and bit each other, but that in the original language, they actually kissed. Aloni stated that Israelis keep pursuing aggressions because they don’t deal with their own guilt about having more than the Palestinians. Declaring that he was pro-Israel and Palestine, states which he referred to as brothers, his message was to stay positive, to kiss.

Indeed, despite their different nationalities – Aloni an Israeli and Butler from left-wing Berkley, these speakers were certainly of a similar optimistic and idealistic face. 2 Jews, 1 opinion – is it even possible?! I eagerly awaited to see how the JBW audience, whose stirrings I could feel, would react to this fairly one-sided side. The question period, unfortunately, was not spiky, but turned into a rather strangely-toned mishginneh balagan. People’s comments were mainly personal-based anecdotes, and the chair – perhaps in an attempt to control this – seemed harsh, adamantly cutting people off and repeating: ‘Questions only, questions only!’ A few good points did emerge from this clipped session, including those about the moment that one decides to go out on the limb, to do some forgiving, and those about subtle differences in Butler’s and Aloni’s forgiveness models. There were also a couple of comments from ‘the outside’, tackling the Butler-Aloni position. Notably, the chair himself asked Butler why it was always made out that Israel is bad and the Palestinians are good? The audience, around me at least, groaned at his question, and Butler replied that she did not say that, but was just advocating that as a Jew, all life is important.

Soon after, I was dismissed into a cold Sunday night rain, and like after many high-impact lectures, I felt unsatisfied, confused, and generally wet. Some of the lack of satisfaction may have come from the frantic session, but I also had questions about the presentations themselves. For one, Butler’s take on Judaism intrigued me. I had always understood that Judaism did not advocate ‘open’ forgiveness – in fact, the forgiveness she described struck me as a noble Christian value. I had been under the impression that at Judaism’s crux is the taking of responsibility for one’s actions, and that Judaism stressed the importance of personal and interactive apology and forgiveness. On Yom Kippur, we can pray for absolution for sins against God, but not against other people – that has to be person to person. As for the notion that all life is important – I understood this of course, but had again thought that Judaism offered a slightly different interpretation. For instance, self-preservation is a Jewish obligation. My own childhood education involved the lesson that if you see somebody drowning, but you aren’t sure that you can make the swim, then you are not supposed to jump in. Butler claimed that the Israeli claim of self-defense is 'a lie', and I am eager to read her book and see how she comes to this. Does she hold that self-defense is an excuse or a complete fabrication? The boundary between self-defense and impact on others is surely a highly complex and ambiguous one.

Awoken in me was also a long-standing ambivalence about the use of psychoanalysis or psychology as applied to nations – sometimes these theses can seem so general and arbitrary. For instance, couldn’t Aloni’s idea of brothers be replaced by sisters? Several psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic writers offer sisterhood as being a more competitive and complex relationship. Sisters are deeply ambivalent about each other, because their abilities to express their sentiments are hampered by their co-dependence. Sisters’ aggression is suppressed and then when released can be explosive. Their complicated emotional attachments might be an alternate model in which to consider prolonged national antipathy – that is, if one is to look at theoretical models. Aloni mentioned he shows his films in Palestinian venues, attempting to incite conversation. I’d certainly be interested to hear how Butler might suggest that her philosophical ideas be integrated into the real-life middle-east situation.

Finally, what emerged for me from the evening was the old chestnut of Jewish self-criticism. As a comedy performer, I am constantly thinking about and playing with different forms of self-deprecation, which comes in many tones, has several purposes, and is always about the receiving audience. Certainly, Jews (and everyone) should self-criticize (and criticize). But since as Jews we self-criticize so much, I have become interested in criticizing our self-criticism: are there different forms of Jewish self-criticism? Different tones? Are some more effective or more responsible than others? And does any responsibility for reception hang with the self-critic? In the fields in which I work (UK academia and the culture industry), I consistently see the singling out of Israel as an object for attack. Does the Jewish self-critic of Israel need to take any responsibility for the ways in which their writing might be interpreted? And if not, who does? Finally, I wonder when Jewish self-criticism stops being about the self, and instead becomes criticism of other Jews? Not to say that this shouldn’t occur, but perhaps should be treated with a different tone or nature.

Self-criticism, dealing with one’s guilt, the sanctity of life, forgiveness, giving, kissing – these are all wonderful ideals. But so are self-preservation and even a touch of self-celebration. So what does this mean? I don’t know. But it reminds me of an old Jewish joke…

Two Jews went to their Rabbi for a judgment. The Rabbi heard the plaintiff’s case, thought for a moment, and said, ‘You’re right’. Then he listened to the defendant’s case, thought for a moment, and told him, ‘You’re right’. The witness was perplexed, and asked, ‘Excuse me Rabbi, but how could they both be right?’ The Rabbi took another moment, looked at him, and said: ‘You’re also right’.

---

Canadian Judy Batalion is a London-based writer, lecturer, and stand-up comic. Her edited collection, The Laughing Stalk: Live Comedy and Its Audiences, will be published in the USA in 2008.