Conference taveng::bagels

596.0. "To Be A Serious Jew" by CURIE::FEINBERG (Don Feinberg) Thu Dec 01 1988 14:03

Below you will find an article by Dennis Prager, from the Summer 1988 issue
of his magazine "Ultimate Issues". I found that it's so germaine to much of
the discussion in this notesfile over the past few weeks time that I felt
compelled to type the whole thing in. 

Please read it all carefully before responding. (It's seven pages long.)

|
| Let me remind you that this is copyrighted material that I have reproduced 
| without permission.  If Dennis is "speaking to you" here, please write to
| him requesting a subscription.  "Ultimate Issues" is the only journal /
| magazine I get which I tear open and read cover-to-cover instantly.  You
| can get in touch with him at ...
|
|		Dennis Prager
|		Ultimate Issues
|		10573 Pico Blvd.
|		Los Angeles, CA  90064
|

/don feinberg





      Beyond Reform, Conservative and Orthodox: Aspiring To Be A Serious Jew

                                  Dennis Prager





           It is generally believed that Reform, Conservative, and  Orthodox

      define the greatest differences among Jews.



           This is often untrue, and it is increasingly unconstructive.



           Jewish  life  would  be  immesureably  enriched  if  instead   of

      focussing  on  denominational descriptions and goals, Jews would focus

      on a  distinction  that  is  simpler,  more  accurate,  and  far  more

      constructive:  SERIOUS, and NON-SERIOUS Jews.



           These terms are often more accurate  than  denominational  labesl

      because  there  are  serious  and  non-serious  Jews  in  all  of  the

      denominations (though, admittedly,  not  in  equal  proportions),  and

      because  there  are  serious  Jews  who  do not fit any denominational

      label.



           But far more important than achieveing accuracy, by  substituting

      SERIOUS  for  denominational  labels  we  would  achieve two seemingly

      incompatible goals.  SERIOUS makes more demands on Jews,  and  at  the

      same  time  it reduces divisiveness among Jews.  As more and more Jews

      would aspite to become serious Jews -- as the term will be defined  --

      gratuitous  rivalry and sinat khinam (causeless hatred) in Jewish life

      would decrease while Jewish commitment would increase.



           This is not some abstract theory.  I have  devoted  most  of  the

      past 20 years to bringing Jews to Judaism, and this non-denominational

      appeal to Jewish seriousness has been  at  the  core  of  the  effort.

      Whenever I make the case for Jewish commitment, I make it clear that I

      am uninterested in whether a  Jew  becomes  Reform,  Conservative,  or

      Orthodox,  or  even  falls  between  denominational  cracks.   What is

      demanded of a Jew is that he  or  she  become  a  serious  Jew.   This

      approach has been extraordinarily effective.



           On a personal note, the approach has enabled me to become one  of

      the  very  few  Jews  invited  by  Reform,  Conservative, and Orthodox

      congregations to lecture on Judaism.  And it  expalins  why  the  book

      Rabbi  Joseph  Telushkin  and  I wrote, "The Nine Questions People Ask

      About  Judaism",  is  as  widely  used  to  teach  Judaism  by  Chabad

      (Hassidim)as by Reform Temples.



           When asked to become serious Jews rather than, or in addition to,

      deonominational  ones,  Jews  are more likely to begin to take Judaism

      seriously.  Too often,  it  appears  that  the  greatest  interest  of

      Reform,  Conservative,  and Orthodox Jews is Reform, Conservative, and

      Orthodox Judaism, not Judaism.  This is evident when Orthodox Jews  do

      not  rejoice  when a previously secular Jew begins to learn Hebrew and

      pray regularly at Reform services or begins to observe Kashrut  thanks

      to  a  Conservative congregation.  And it is evident when non-Orthodox

      Jews do  not  celebrate  when  an  unaffiliated  Jew  adopts  Orthodox

      Judaism.


                                                                Page 2





                                  THE DEFINITION





      The serious Jew meets four criteria:





      1.  This Jew is commited to each of Judaism's three components:   G-d,

          Torah, and Israel.





      2.  This Jew attempts to implement the higher ideals of each of  these

          components.





      3.  Whatever Jewish laws this Jew does or  does  not  observe  is  the

          product of a struggle.





      4.  This Jew is constantly growing in each of these areas.









      1  COMMITMENT TO G-D, TORAH, ISRAEL





      Judaism's three components, G-d, Torah,  and  Israel  (G-d,  law,  and

      peoplehood)  are  so  important  that  together  they  may  be said to

      constitute Judaism's trinity.  I use the word  TRINITY  precisely.   A

      Jew's  abandonment of one or more of Judaism's components is a serious

      a renunciation of normative Judaism as a Christian's  renouncement  of

      any part of the Christian trinity.



           To be a serious Jew, one must attempt to be commited  EQUALLY  to

      G-d,  law,  and peoplehood.  Imbalance toward any one of these has had

      terrible consequences.  Any Jewish movement  of  group  that  has  not

      affirmed  all  three  components  eventually  changed its position, or

      disappeared, or ostracized itself from the rest of Jewry.



                               OVEREMPHASIS ON G-D



      Perhaps the most dramatic example  of  this  was  the  emphasis  by  a

      handful  of  Jews  some  2,000 years ago on G-d and faith.  THese Jews

      spoke of faith as sufficient  in  itself,  and  dropped  the  law  and

      peoplehood components of Judaism.  These Jews founded another religion

      -- Christianity.



           A more recent example of  this  imbalanced  emphasis  was  Reform

      Judaism,  which originally affirmed Judaism's G-d component and denied

      that Jews were a people.  Reform Jews who  continued  to  uphold  this

      view  either  eventually  assimilated,  converted to liberal Christian

      denominations, or isolated themselves from the rest of Jewry (e.   g.,

      the  American  Council  for  Judaism).   In  order  to survive, Reform

      Judaism changed.  Today, Reform Judaism affirms  Judaism's  peoplehood

      at  least as much as it does G-d and considerably more than it affirms


                                                                Page 3





      law.



                               OVEREMPHASIS ON LAW



      At the other end of the Jewish spectrum have been Jews who  emphasized

      the  law  to  the detrement of peoplehood and even G-d.  So negatively

      does normative Judaism look upon such Jews that the Talmud,  the  very

      repository  of  Jewish law, states that the Holy Temple and the Jewish

      state were destroyed -- the greates tragedy  in  pre-Holocaust  Jewish

      history  --  "because  Jews adhered to the letter of the law"!  Or, as

      the great Hassidic Rabbe, Menachem Mendl of Kotzk, put  it,  for  some

      Jews Halacha (Jewish law) has become "avodah zorah", (idol worship) --

      i.  e., the law is more revered than G-d.



           Judaism without its laws is not  Judaism.   But  a  Judaism  that

      worships  law is an ugly charicature of itself.  Commitment to G-d and

      to His people must be as evident in a religious Jew's life as  is  his

      commitment to observing the law.  That is why the great Orthodox Chief

      Rabbi of pre-Israel Palestine, Rav Kuk, said that the Holy Temple will

      be  rebuilt  with "ahavat chinam", causless love.  He did not say that

      it would be rebuilt with stricter legal observance of Kashrut.



                            OVEREMPHASIS ON PEOPLEHOOD



      Finally, there are many Jews -- today, probably most Jews --  who  are

      commited  only  to the peoplehood component of Judaism.  Many of these

      Jews -- who call themselves cultural, nationalist, or secular Jews  --

      have  made  great  contributions  to  Jewish  survival.   The State of

      Israel, for example, was founded largely by Jews who dropped  G-d  and

      Torah, and dedicated their lives to Jewish peoplehood.



           But, such Jews -- as commited to the Jewish people as they may be

      --  are as imbalanced in their Jewish commitment as Jews who study the

      Talmud all day and do little or nothing for the Jewish people.



           Even in terms of what these Jews are  most  attached  to  --  the

      Jewish  people  --  their  imbalanced commitment will eventually be no

      more constructive than that of Jews  who  neglect  Jewish  peoplehood.

      For  most  of  their  children  will  not  even  retain their parents'

      commitment to Jewish peoplehood.  Secular Jews commited to the  Jewish

      people  do  not  product  secular  Jews commited to the Jewish people.

      Their children either stay secular and have little or no commitment to

      the  Jewish  people  or they become religious, i.  e., commited to G-d

      and Torah, as well as to Israel.



           Just as society at large can tolerate, indeed may  even  need,  a

      tiny  number  of  people fanatically dedicated to art or to science as

      opposed to all other concerns, Jewish society can tolerate a few  Jews

      who  overemphasize  G-d or Torah or Israel.  But for most of us -- for

      the serious Jew -- a deep and equal commitment to  each  of  Judaism's

      three components is necessary.




                                                                Page 4





      2  THE COMPONENTS ARE NOT ENDS IN THEMSELVES





      Faith in G-d,  observance  of  law,  and  identification  with  Jewish

      peoplhood  are  not ends in themselves, however.  The serious Jew must

      attempt to implement the Jewish tasks associated with each component.



                             G-d: Ethical Monotheism



      It is not enough for a Jew to believe in G-d, or even to love and pray

      to  G-d.   The Jewish people has the mission to bring the world to G-d

      ant to his ethics, specifically the Seven Noahide Laws.(*)



      We are here to teach to world the terrible consequences of G-d without

      ethics  (e.   g.,  Crusaders and Khomeinis), and of ethics without G-d

      (e.  g., Nazism and Communism).  Unfortunately, however, few  Jews  of

      any persuasion take this task seriously.  Secular Jews, by definition,

      do not.  Reform Judaism is now so  identified  with  preaching  social

      justice  that  it  is  becoming  almost indistinguishable from secular

      humanism.  Conservative Judaism is primarily concerned  with  academic

      scholarship  and  commitment  to  Israel.   And  Orthodoxy has, by and

      large, become withdrawn from the world, having become too  preoccupied

      with  the Halacha to bother with the world.  Bringing the world to G-d

      and  His  laws  strikes  most  Orthodox  Jews  as  either  naarishkeit

      (wasteful  neglect  of  the  Torah),  or pointless untill all Jews are

      brought back to Judaism.



           It is a great loss to the Jews and to the world  that  after  the

      Nazi   Holocaust   and   Communist  genocides,  Reform,  Conservative,

      Orthodox, and secular Jews continue with these  preoccupations  as  if

      nothing  has  changed.   It  is  a  world  tragedy  because  Jews  are

      neglecting to teach the  Jewish  solution  to  human  evil  --  unlike

      humanism,  Judaism teaches the necessity of G-d for and ethical world;

      and unlike Christianity, Judaism teaches  the  primace  of  acts  over

      faith.   And this neglect is a Jewish tragedy, for every day that Jews

      do not bring the world closer to G-d and His laws, the  Jews  are  one

      day closer to another Holocaust.



                            Law:  Ethics and Holiness



      As regards the law component, the serious Jew acknowledges  that  just

      as  faith  in God is not an end in itself, so to, observance of Jewish

      law is not an end in itself.



           Observace of the law as an end in itself, rather than as a  means

      to the higher goals of ethics and holiness, can actually lead to evil.

      As the great Torah sage Nachmanides observed, "It is  possible  to  be

      disgusting  with  the  Torah's  permission".  We are obligated to take



     (*) THese are seven laws that all Judaism holds the children  of  Noah,

i.   e.,  all  mankind,  responsible  to  observe.   They prohibit idolatry,

blasphemy, murder, adultery, stealing, and  eating  the  limb  of  a  living

animal,  and  they  demand  setting  up  courts of justice.  The Lubavitcher

Rebbe, the leader of the Chabad movement, has recently  called  upon  Chabad

Hassidim too begin advocating observance of these laws among non-Jews.


                                                                Page 5





      Jewish law seriously, but the law has a higher purpose -- to show love

      to other humans and to love G-d.



           Therefore, the Jew who is so preoccupied with legal details  that

      he  has  lost  sight of the forest because of all the legal trees does

      not meet our criteria of a  serious  Jew.   But  the  Jew  who  is  so

      preoccupied  with  forest that he or she has forgotten that it must be

      composed of Judaism's unique trees  (laws)  also  does  not  meet  our

      criteria of a serious Jew.



                            Israel: "Ahavath Yisrael"



      The peoplehood component, too, has higher tasks  associated  with  it.

      It  is not enough to identify with the Jewish people or to "feel" very

      Jewish.  The peoplehood component obligates Jews to concern themselves

      with the welfare of felloe Jews, both in their neighborhood and on the

      other side of the world.  It obligates Jews to realize  the  difficult

      task  of  "ahavath  yisrael",  loving  fellow  Jews -- even those with

      different religious attitudes and observances.



           It is easy for a Jew to cry at films of the  Holocaust,  to  feel

      pride  when  Jews win Nobel Prizes, and to cheer at Israeli victories.

      The serious Jew attends yet another Soviet Jewry rally, visits  Israel

      yet  another time, works for Arab and Ethiopian Jews, and tries to hug

      Jews of other denominations.









      3  COMMITMENT AS THE PRODUCT OF STRUGGLE AND KNOWLEDGE





      The serious Jew's commitment to  G-d  and  to  Jewish  law  must  come

      through struggle.



                                Struggle With G-d



      The very name of the Jewish people,  "Israel",  means  "struggle  with

      G-d".  How could Judaism have made it clearer that it deems struggle a

      necessary element of a Jew's life?



           For many Jews, however, there is little struggle with G-d.   Many

      Jews  who believe in G-d believe in a G-d who is more like a celestial

      butler upon whom they make demands than the Divine law giver who makes

      demands upon them.



           Even observant Jews can fall into an attitude towards G-d that is

      more  a  function  of  habit  and  communal practice than of struggle.

      Perhaps that is why the eminent Orthodox Rabbi, Emanuel Rackman, wrote

      that "G-d created doubt".  After all, G-d certainly could have created

      us with certainty as to His existence.   Yet,  G-d  chose  not  to  --

      perhaps  because  the  struggle  to come to G-d is as important as the

      faith itself.


                                                                Page 6





           Then there are the secular Jews who  refrain  from  the  struggle

      altogether.   "I  just  cannot  believe in G-d" is a cop out.  Judaism

      demands of the atheist Jew that he struggle to come to know  G-d.   As

      Elie  Weisel  has  said,  "A Jew may love G-d, or a Jew may fight with

      G-d; but a Jew may not ignore G-d".



           To be a serious Jew, one may not ignore G-d (or pay attention  to

      Him only during crises).  The essence of Judaism is to incorporate G-d

      into one's daily life, (for which we have all the  laws  "between  man

      and G-d", erroneously laballed "ritual" laws).



           It also means grappling with G-d  intellectually.   Secular  Jews

      often  dismiss  the beliefs of many religious people as intellectually

      shallow.  And they are right.  But the  non-belief  of  these  secular

      Jews is often equally as shallow.  I have rarely encountered a secular

      Jew who has grappled intellectually with books or with individuals who

      argue  for  G-d,  or  for  a  G-d oriented life.  Whereas it is almost

      impossible for a religious person to avoid secular challenges  to  his

      thinking  --  television,  print  media,  schooling, advertising:  the

      whole society is one enormous immersion in secularism --  the  secular

      individual  must seek out religious challenges to his or her thinking.

      Therefore, the question that secularists so often ask believers -- "Do

      you  ever  doubt  G-d?"  can  be  just  as  fairly inverted to ask the

      secularist, "Do you ever doubt your secularism?"



                                Struggle With Law



      Perhaps the most  important  characteristic  of  the  serious  Jew  is

      struggle with Jewish observance.  Put succinctly, this means that Jews

      who observe Jewish laws must be able to answer the question,  "WHY  do

      you  observer  the laws that you observe?" And less- or non- observant

      Jews must answer the question, "Why DON'T you observe what  you  don't

      observe?"



           Neither the Orthodox Jew who observs out of habit, nor the Reform

      whose  non-observance  is  out of habit meets our qualifications for a

      serious Jew.



           For example, the serious Jew who  keeps  Kosher  needs  to  offer

      reasons for why he keeps kosher.  It is not enough to say, "because it

      says so in the Torah".  Did he ever struggle with the question of  why

      it  says  so  in  the  Torah?  If all he can say is "It says so in the

      Torah",  in  what  way  is  this  Jew's   commitment   rationally   or

      intellectually  superior  to  that of a Khomeini-type Muslim who keeps

      the laws because they  are  in  the  Koran,  or  of  a  fundamentalist

      Christian  who  believes that all non-Christians go to hell because he

      believes it says so in the New Testament?



           I grew up in a world that  generally  practices  Kashrut  without

      meaning  or reason.  So did millions of other Jews in the last hundred

      years.  And it was this absence of  any  reasons  that  led  the  vast

      majority of them to abandon Kashrut and other Jewish practices.


                                                                Page 7





           Conversely, the Jew who does NOT observe Judaism's  dietary  laws

      needs to explain his non-observance.  "I'm Reform, I don't have to" is

      not a serious response.  Nor is, "It's an outdated health  code".   No

      serious  study  of  the Jewish dietary laws -- even that of non-Jewish

      scholars -- explains Kashrut in terms  of  health.   The  reasons  for

      Kashrut  overwhelmingly concern ethics, holiness, and Jewish identity,

      as well as obedience to G-d's inscrutable will.



           Both observance and non-observance, when done out  of  habit  and

      devoid  of  reason,  betray the lack of struggle on the part of a Jew.

      That is why the Talmud says, "If someone says 'I  have  struggled  and

      found,'  believe him; if he says 'I have found without a struggle,' do

      not believe him." He is not a serious Jew.









      4  ONE MUST BE MOVING





      Another  reason  for  the  importance  of  struggle  in  one's  Jewish

      commitment  is  that it helps insure growth.  The moment one ceases to

      struggle, it becomes very tempting to stay where one is.



           This may be one reason why the Talmud says that  "Where  a  'Baal

      teshuvah'  [a returning or repentant] Jews stands, no Tzadik [saintly]

      Jew can stand." Even though the Tzadik may actually be more  observant

      that  the  'baal  teshuvah',  the  returning  Jew has struggled -- AND

      THEREFORE GROWN -- Jewishly.  The question that a Jew must ask himself

      therefore  is  not  "How much am I doing as a Jew?" but "How much am I

      doing as a Jew compared to last month, last year, 10 years ago?"



           For  all  there  reasons,  study  is  considered  the   religious

      commandment  that  is  equivalent  to all the others combined.  Jewish

      movement is impossible without constant Jewish learning.   One  cannot

      intuit Judaism; one must study in order to know what is right, what is

      Jewish.  The liberal Jew who equates Judaism with liberal  ethics  and

      therefore  never consults Jewish sources, which as often as not differ

      with contemporary liberalism, is not a serious Jew.   Neither  is  the

      Orthodox  Jew  who  only  knows enough Judaism in order to say, "It is

      forbidden."





      These, then, are some of the characteristics of the serious Jew.  This

      Jew  is  more likely to be found among Orthodox Jews, but he or she is

      not necessarily Orthodox.  Two Jews equally commited  to  G-d,  Torah,

      and  Israel  can  indeed  differ -- obviously within certain normative

      Jewish bounds -- on precisely how to translate  that  commitment  into

      daily  life.   Indeed,  I  pray  for the day when this is exactly what

      transpires in Jewish life.  The vision of millions of  Jews  grappling

      with  G-d, Torah, and Israel and debating with one another how best to

      live all of them, based not on comfort, but on struggle and  learning,

      is truly messianic.

    First, let me say that I fully agree with Prager's introductory
    remarks.  Not to take anything away from Prager, who writes very well,
    but this idea can be found a number of times elsewhere in this
    notesfile.  It has also been expressed eloquently by Irving Greenberg
    (Orthodox) and Morris Kertzer (Reform), and others for several decades.
    Nevertheless, it is one of those things that can't be said too
    often--commitment is more significant than sectarian affiliation.

    I would quibble with some of his specifics:  e.g. I agree with his
    tripartite delineation of the core of Judaism, but not with his
    argument that every serious Jew has to have a commitment to all
    three elements--there is a collective element to Judaism that
    transcends individual commitments.  Still, this is the kind of essay
    that makes a positive contribution; we need to encourage more of
    this.
    
    					Aaron

    Thank you, Don, for taking the time to type this.  It helps to bring
    another perspective to the present disagreements.
    
    Av

    Dennis hosts radio shows in Los Angeles.  One is called "Religion
    on the Line."  Every week he has on a rabbi, a Catholic priest,
    a Protestant minister, and, sometimes, representatives from other
    religions, humanists, atheists, etc.  Listeners call in and ask
    questions.  It is a very interesting show.  Dennis's most
    recurring motif is his advocacy of ethical monotheism.  He
    endorses religion because it serves to make people behave better
    toward one another; all morality is subjective unless there are
    commandments from on high.
    
    He is quite intelligent and intellectual and eloquent.

    Thank you for taking the time to type this long article.
    
    THe author gives pause by referring to a Jewish 'Trinity' and yet
    he  is correct in using this attentiont getting word.  However,
    after reading some of the responses, and the article , I feel that
    the operative words were missing.  The words used were 'beleive',
    belief, etc.  The operative words are 'live the law, live the kashruth,
    and live with G_D' with all people, at all times-not just in shul
    or for Yom Tov.  And to do these we must all be 'professional students'
    though we don't always have 'seats by the Eastern Wall.'
    

    
    .0
    
    I enjoyed reading this.  I am a Christian.  As a Christian I can
    relate to a "serious" Jew much better than a secular Jew.  G-d chose
    to set aside the Jewish people as His own and to reveal Himself
    to the world through the Jewish people.  Serious Jews realize this
    I think.
    
    jeff

    Shalom all [you too, Jeff in .5]
    
    Thanks, Don, for your effort in entering this article. You already
    know my thoughts on this subject. I wish *every* Jew was a serious
    Jew.                             
    
    Irena