Embracing a Legacy of Apikorsim

“Freethinkers and Radicals will meet at the Yom Kipur [sic] Picnic,” reads an advertisement for an event arranged by the Progressive Library of New York, the circle around the radical Jewish organizer Emma Goldman, in 1907. At the turn of the century in both Europe and America, the Yiddish for “freethinkers” was apikorsim, referring to those who embraced radical political views like secularism, socialism, communism, and Zionism. The origins of the term, however, are politically agnostic. The first time the term apikores appears, in the Talmud, more than 1500 years ago, is to reference a person who does not believe that the Torah is divinely inspired, a heretic. More generally, the term can be used to refer to a Jew who is willing to question authority and engage critically and thoughtfully with the challenges of their times.

It is time to reclaim the term apikores to allow for a new generation to recognize serious, critical thought as a bedrock of Jewish responsibility.

A good apikores is both learned and in dialogue with those whose views differ from them. One cannot question something that one knows nothing about and so an apikores must devote themselves to deep study.

Study alone is not enough, one must also find learning partners. The Talmud talks of partners who sharpen one another, challenging understanding. The ninth century biblical scholar Hiwi al-Khorasan was labeled an apikores for his book Two Hundred Questions. We know of the book’s existence because of the refutations that Jewish scholars like Saadia Gaon and Abraham ibn Ezra wrote. Those who question extend argumentation towards a more robust and complex truth.

The Forward’s “Bintel Brief” is full of stories of apikorsim and religious Jews working and living alongside one another, on the same sweatshop floors and in the same tenement apartments. We would do well to access the visceral sense of proximity and mutual care that past generations understood to be inescapable, even across ideological divides.

In today’s atmosphere of atomization and polarization, it’s easy to assume that we’ve never been so divided or to ask ourselves whether our community can hold together amidst questioning and conflicting voices. Let’s be brave enough to trust that dissent and critique can be a source of strength. Jewish educators today should inspire learners to interrogate everything but to do so with a sense of love and responsibility.

Imagine if every Jew embraced that little apikores inside of himself and also made space for the apikores sitting beside him? Imagine if Jews were to, once again, model what it means to be freethinking, taking seriously the challenges of our time and our mutual responsibility to make things better together.

Work Cited

Levin, Sala. “Calling All Heretics.” Moment Magazine, vol. 36, no. 5, 2011, 7, 24.