CHOOSE TO SHINE

Taushiro is a critically endangered  language spoken in the Peruvian Amazon, in the village of Intuto, near Ecuador. The last living speaker of Taushiro is Amadeo García García, who is in his 70s. At one time there were thousands of people in his tribe who all spoke Taushiro, also known as Pinchi. The tribe remained untouched and uncontacted by the outside world, deep within the jungle. When industrial development threatened their way of life, they dug a ring of deep pits and covered them with leaves to keep out intruders in an attempt to preserve their ancient traditions. They trained dogs to attack any outsiders to prevent contamination from civilization. The tribe slowly died off, leaving only Amadeo and his brother, Juan, who later died of malaria. This left Amadeo alone, without anyone else to converse with in his native tongue. His knowledge of Spanish was very limited, making it difficult to communicate even with the few who ventured there. The situation leaves him sad, lonely, and exasperated to the point of no longer caring. It feels like a shame that an entire culture, history, and language will soon go lost forever.

I could not help but contrast that story with the tale of our own people. Throughout our long and storied history of several millennia, we have survived the siren song to assimilate or perish at the hands of nearly every host country in which we found ourselves. From Babylonian captivity to Seleucid/Greek hellenism, from Roman edicts against practicing our religion to the Medieval crusades, from the Inquisition in Spain to the Holocaust, from Arab wars against the State of Israel to pogroms and demonstrations leading into the present time, we are under constant attack. Yet here we are, not only surviving, but thriving in all of the glorious diversity that comprises klal yisroel. The flavors and cultures of the nations through which we have brought our unique light and emerged to the next destination reveal our strengths as we leave our indelible mark upon the societies in which we live. As a nation we strive for justice and morality over transient distractions and meaningless pleasures. We contribute to every community in which we appear, without losing our Jewish identity.

What differentiates the poor tribe in Peru which tried to isolate itself from the rest of the world’s civilizations versus the Jewish people, who for most of history tried to segregate itself from the influences of the outside world? Why is the Hebrew language as it is written today likely to be well understood by our ancestors from thousands of years ago? Full credit can not be attributed to Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who established modern Hebrew and popularized it in the late 1800s. Hebrew survived quite nicely for thousands of years before Ben-Yehuda was born, in the study and prayers of the Jewish nation.

Shavuos is the celebration of the Jewish nation receiving the Torah at Har Sinai in the Jewish year of 2448 (1312 BCE). It is the same Torah which we study now in 5785 (2025 CE). The Torah is the Divine blueprint for the entire universe, for our world, and for us from before it was given, for now, and will be forever. It does not change with the times. In fact, it includes the Oral Law which has been passed down from one generation to the next for the express purpose of establishing the rules for applying the Torah’s guidance in all situations. That includes using electricity on Shabbos, the ethics of euthanasia and abortion, and how to navigate the ever complex world of scientific progress as it relates to how we live our lives. One thing we know and believe absolutely is that the Torah as we have it today is letter for letter, word for word, the exact same text that HaShem gave to Moshe Rabbeinu on Har Sinai. It is the most precious gift a human being can receive, and it comes with the tremendous opportunity and responsibility to learn it, to absorb its lessons, and to pass those on to our children. That is the difference between a lost tribe from Peru and the Jewish People. Have a beautiful and invigorating Shavuos!