Until earlier this week I had never heard of “Suffs” and had no idea what a suff was—but now I have been enlightened. The word “suff”, it appears, is an abbreviation of “suffragette”, the term originally bestowed on those brave women who fought and sometimes even gave their lives for the right of women to vote in national and local elections in the United Kingdom. “Suffs” is an award-winning musical, created by Shaina Taub.
According to the Times of Israel:
Taub won awards for best book of
a musical and best original score written for theater for the Broadway show
about the women who fought to be able to vote in the United States. In her
acceptance speech … she quoted a Jewish text that she said had a prominent
place in her show’s literature.
“The epigraph on my script is a
quote from the Talmud: You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither
are you free to abandon it,” said Taub, who also plays suffragist Alice Paul in
the show. She added, “This is a hard year in our country, and I just hope that
we can remember that when we organize and we come together we are capable of
making real change and progress for this country for equality and justice. And
so I hope we can all do that together.”
The famous quotation, from Rabbi
Tarfon, is found in the canonical text of Jewish ethics, Pirkei Avot [at Avot
2:21]. It is part of the Mishna, the code of oral law that is at the core of
the Talmud. The saying has animated legions of Jewish activists, from acolytes
of the late liberal Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the acting
attorney general at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, who have sought to
battle against steep odds to make change…
Anyone who uses Google Alerts for Pirkei Avot will know, as
Avot Today has reported in the past, that Rabbi Tarfon’s teaching is one of the
most frequently cited in the tractate. In 2022 only Hillel’s “If not now, when”
mishnah (Avot 1:14) was the only one to gain more quotes and, in 2023, it topped
the chart with 17 citations.
Whenever I see the words “You are not obligated to complete
the work, but neither are you free to abandon it” online, I feel tempted to bet
that the speaker is not a rabbi but a politician, businessman, or a campaigner
for a special cause. This is because Rabbi Tarfon’s words are quoted only in
part. He finishes it with the following words:
“If you have learned much Torah,
you will be greatly rewarded, and your employer can be trusted to pay you the
reward of your labour. And you should know that the reward of the righteous is
in the World to Come”.
So what Rabbi Tarfon actually means is that (i) you're not obligated to finish your work of learning Torah because there's more Torah to learn than we can manage in our time on Earth [as Rabbi Tarfon says in the mishnah that immediately precedes this one] and that (ii) you're not free to abandon it because there is no cut-off point in one's life at which the Torah's obligations no longer apply, But this isn't quite what Ms Taub means.
I suppose I shouldn’t complain. There is a certain symmetry
in the idea that campaigners with an abbreviated name should be encouraged to
rally round an abbreviated battle-cry. Even so, I look forward to a time when politicians,
businessmen and campaigners will be comfortable to speak Rabbi Tarfon’s words
in full.
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