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.