“An argument for the sake of heaven — a machloket leshem shamayim — is a disagreement over a point of Torah law or ethics, debated with pure intentions. In Jewish thought, while disagreements can be destructive, disagreements over matters of Torah help sharpen our understanding of God’s will (italics mine) and how to understand and live according to the Torah.” (sefaria.com)
A friend and I were discussing our present seasons of spirituality. She summarized hers this way: “It’s a collaboration.” If we follow God, we also collaborate with him. In true collaboration there is room for diversity of personal opinions, discussion, divergence, disagreement and, as a result, new and creative ways of believing and practicing belief. This sharpens us, while we are dulled by remaining in a spiritual echo chamber.
Jesus and his disciples practiced this. In the Jewish tradition, the devout wrestle with the text (Torah) and God (YHWH) through discussion and debate—”an argument for the sake of heaven.” There is the law—Torah—but diversity of interpretation is, technically, celebrated rather than suppressed. When Jesus challenged the narrow, exclusive, and elitist interpretations of the religious authorities of his day, he was acting in accordance with his tradition. Isn’t it interesting that it was mostly the ones oppressed by these interpretations who flocked to him while, simultaneously, it was mostly the ones protecting them who hated him—some even wanting him dead?
Like the prophets of his Jewish tradition, Jesus stepped out of line and was unafraid to be different though it painted a target on his back. He lifted his hand and raised the obvious questions no one else was asking and pointed out the indisputable injustices no one else was rebuking. He challenged and confronted the status quo. He threw buckets of water on a burning world through his expressions of love for the oppressed: the outsiders, outcasts, marginalized, unclean, overburdened, and the physically and spiritually sick and dying.
Only in creative collaboration and not control do we with God throw our own buckets of water on a burning world. Take care; you—and your reputation and religious standing—may be singed.
—
I wonder how many of us believe that God expects us to fall in line and never raise a hand and call out “question!” from our pew; to sit passively and watch the world burn because “God will sort it out” in the end. What if God asks for just the opposite: “an argument for the sake of heaven”? Waiting for us to step out of line and be different; to lift our hand and raise the obvious question no one else is asking; to start throwing buckets of water on a burning world without waiting for someone else or God himself to do it for us.
