How Religions Work

It amazes me that no contemporary writer about Judaism seems to go back to the basics of how religions work and ask why we are failing.  Of course, as we all know, the primary and first religious question, asked by all humans as part of our makeup, is "Why do we die?"  The corollary question, "What does my life mean? or "Why am I here?" is answered with 3 separate observations that become structures:

1.  What has my life meant until now?

2.  What is the purpose of my life in the future?

3. What am I attached to that is greater than myself, has ultimate meaning, and will continue beyond my body's death?

The social construction of reality created to answer these existential questions humans explain to ourselves as though they were absolute truths (insofar as religious liberals allow ourselves absolute truths) with myths (the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves), rituals and symbols.  Our days are filled with all 3 as we explain the above 3 questions to ourselves constantly so that we do not fear the first question about our mortality.

It seems to me that modern, liberal Judaism has done a lousy job with most of this. Anyone in the fundamentalist movements can answer all of these immediately and in a convincing manner for themselves, viz: they are sincere believers.  Our people have been trained to doubt, and we have offered poor answers to the questions. We are tepid in our teaching about afterlife, although my experience is that most of our people believe in afterlife.  Most of our people attach themselves to God and pray informally and daily, yet we have never organized this from the ground up: what do they believe and how do we create a community of believers based on their common theology?  And finally: how do we convincingly explain the purpose and meaning of our lives in a community that will reinforce and sustain those structures so that people receive reinforcement for the questions that challenge their very existence?

In addition, the great existential problem of the 20th century, addressed by the existentialist philosophers, poets etc. has been and continues to be our identity destroying and isolating anonymity in western society. The solution is community. But it's a very complicated issue in that people belong to many communities, yet no one religious community that sustains and fulfills them. If we provided, as Chabad and the ultra-Orthodox do, a sustaining community that answers the questions of death, meaning, purpose, and attachment to something greater, we'd have successful and sustainable communities as well. 

Rabbinic Judaism created, introduced and built upon learning as a central feature of spirituality and contact with God. Comprehension of and participation in our liturgy depends upon basic literacy for the novice and extensive literacy for the general practitioner. The problem with our liturgy, for instance, is not its rote quality but how complicated it is. Our people pray, but not according to the very elaborate structure of our liturgy in general. That's not when they turn to God. They turn to God in their private moments, informally, and with great conviction. However, the prayer structure that we content should connect our people to God and sustain that belief is too complicated for moderns and depends too much on the believer's Jewish literacy.  Take a look at other, successful American religions whose liturgy relies upon a very simple structure and pounds home the message of immortality. Such a belief system appeals to modern North Americans. It is simple, straight forward, and reinforced by the believing community. It works in crisis, and answers their existential questions.

This week's Torah portion contains the phrase "...You shall be clear before the Lord and before Israel..." (Numbers 32:22). This becomes a well-known principle: "meriyat ayin," encouraging Jews to be free from even appearing to have committed a sin. In Mishnah Shekalim 3:2 there is the remembrance of monetary offerings that were collected in the Temple, and how they were handled to avoid the appearance of wrong doing. "He that went in to take up Terumah (donations) did not wear a sleeved cloak or shoes or sandals or phylacteries or an amulet, lest if he ... became rich they should say that he became rich from the Terumah (donations) taken up out of the Shekel-chamber; for a man must satisfy mankind even as he must satisfy God, for it says, 'and be guiltless towards the Lord and towards Israel...'" We should avoid the appearance of impropriety. So the person who transports the charity funds should not wear clothing in which money could be hidden, and the operator of the community soup kitchen may not sell left-over soup to himself, lest people become suspicious that he did not pay the proper price for food intended for the poor. (Babylonian Talmud, Pesahim 13a).
In the current war in Gaza many have been suspicious of the motives of the Israeli government. Many articles have been written, including that Israel simply wants to kill Arabs, that this is revenge against Hamas for murdering the Israeli teens, that Israel is attempting to replace the Hamas government, and that Hamas is hurting for money and support so they needed to start a war (see earlier post below).  I will not be a naif and claim that governments must always be straightforward, although that would be wonderful. But when lives and the destiny of nations are on the line, it behooves a democracy to be straightforward with its people. I am not a fan of the current Israeli government. But I am hopeful that, with all of the hate for Hamas harbored by the political right in Israel, the true motive for this war is to remove the threat to the Israeli civilian population. Without such honesty, a nation cannot pull together. The reason for the Rabbis' elaboration on the principle of "meriyat ayin," is so that the authorities will earn a history of candor in order to obtain the backing of the nation when tough calls are required. That did not occur in the American war in Iraq, and we are witnessing the disaffection and abandonment of involvement in government that results, a great danger for a democracy. May Israel's leadership be governed by belief in her people worldwide, so that, earning our trust, Israel may lead us forward toward peace. Ken yehi ratzon.

I Kings 19: 11, this week's haftarah, we read first of God not appearing in the loud, awesome, natural events: wind, earthquake and fire. These 3, as Hirsch pointed out, are destructive, as we see the events of this week are loud and destructive. Where does God appear? God is in the inaudible sound emerging from silence with great focus and concentration. Often this "still, small voice" is thought to emerge from within, as many have experienced the God who emerges from the inner recesses. But I am enamored of the sound that emerges and yet is not quite heard, for which we lean forward and strain to hear, the auditory expressed in "Hear, O Israel." One never quite knows if it's there, and yet we seem to hear in the midst of silence. Sound flows. It's never absorbed all at once. A musical score, unlike a static picture, unfolds and develops. It's serial, as God's existence comes into our lives over time, if we listen and respond, the meaning of "shema." Elijah, the eternal prophet, flees to Sinai, and there encounters the True Presence. After great travail, and in the midst of stillness, Elijah feels the the auditory Presence, an emerging God that cannot be seen, but he feels the commands within, the voice that urges us to our mission. May your shabbat enable you to share Elijah's Sinai.

Suddenly this week I gained a new understanding of Genesis 2, the Garden of Eden  with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. For me it has long been an etiological allegory, giving contextual meaning to the origins of good and evil while explaining our failure to achieve eternal life. Now I see the story differently.
We ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which, like the infusion of a new gene into the human genome, altered every human decision by endowing it with moral valence. The Bible would urge us toward the positive moral choice in every instance, but freedom is nonetheless given and humans become independent moral agents.
We are expelled from the Garden due to our choice to achieve moral knowledge and our resultant devisings and their actions, not because humanity disobeyed God. Now the Tree of Life becomes reserved for the sum total of our life actions, not some instantaneous condition thrust upon us by our Creator. Had we eaten of Eternal Life without morality we would never have known the nature of death or tragedy. Immortality would be meaningless without moral choice and the knowledge of alternatives. But having eaten of The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil the way to The Tree of Life is barred until the sum of our individual actions are totaled and God knows whether we chose life or death.
Those who murdered the Israeli and Arab boys choose death for all of us, Jew and Arab, humanity in general; and most particularly the inevitable future victims. God created an ambivalent world: of death of life. It's ultimate disposition will be determined by the sum of individual choices that actually, in virtually every instance, have universal implications and impacts. This week, the centennial of the events leading to World War I, it was reported that the assassins of Archduke Ferdinand stated that had they known the outcome of their actions they would not have done what they did. But that statement exemplifies every deed performed every single day, because the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil pervades each thought and manifests itself in every deed. Final results can never be known for certain at the moment of action.
These deaths, so tragic that nations weep for the losses, are mere manifestations of actions taken over years on both sides, ignoring their final outcome as though it would never be; or hoping that either side could triumph and ignore the other's reality. But the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will take its toll on us all, and whether we create the path to the Tree of Life with each decision will determine future events in specific ways we cannot know at this moment except that they will most assuredly occur.