[yshavurah] The Essence of Judaism
- From: "Cheryl Levine" <clevineys@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Havurah Listserv" <yshavurah@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Randy Longenecker" <reflectivepractice@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Deb Rothenberg" <drothenb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Muriel Levine" <mlevinetr@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "Joan and Morty Metersky" <Metersky@xxxxxxx>, "Andrea Herman" <ozonern@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2004 19:58:47 -0400
Hi--I was doing a search and found this...what a beautiful summary of our
faith, written by a Unitarian Reverend. Amazing.
-c
THE ESSENCE OF JUDAISM
A Sermon Given
by The Reverend Roger Fritts
on January 31, 1999
at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
Bethesda, Maryland
Last October, with a small group from this church, I walked through the Jewish
District in Budapest. Both magic and tragedy filled the historic neighborhood,
which now has the largest Jewish population of any city on the European
continent, outside of Russia.
The Jewish community in Budapest sprang up in medieval times just beyond the
city wall, because Jews were forbidden to live inside the town. Later, as the
city expanded beyond the medieval walls, the Jewish Quarter became one of the
city's more centrally located neighborhoods. By 1940, 220,000 Jews lived in or
near the small Jewish district.
Last October, after passing through metal detectors, at the gate of a large
fence, we entered the main synagogue. An enormous building built in 1859, it is
Europe's largest synagogue and the second-largest synagogue in the world. Newly
cleaned and restored, the inside of the building suggests that at the end of
the twentieth century, the Jewish religion in Budapest is still alive and
healthy.
Nearby, however, are reminders of the Holocaust. On leaving the synagogue we
walked past a cemetery where the community has buried the unidentified remains
of an estimated seven thousand Jews who died during the Second World War. A
little farther on is a courtyard with a Holocaust Memorial in the form of a
weeping willow tree. Thin metal leaves, purchased by survivors and descendants
to honor martyred relatives, fill many branches.
From the courtyard we walked on to the National Jewish Museum. There we saw
displays of ornaments and art. The museum curators have designated the last
room to an exhibit on the Holocaust. Our English-speaking guide, a woman in her
70s, had a number tattooed on her arm. The Nazis gave her the tattoo when she
was a young woman and a prisoner in Auschwitz. I felt fear for the terrible
things we humans are capable of doing. Simultaneously I felt inspiration
because of how that community had survived and rebuilt their place of worship.
The Jewish people, the Hebrews, trace their beginnings to a shepherd named
Abraham. Abraham lived about three thousand six hundred years ago along the
Euphrates river, in the area which is now southeastern Iraq. According to the
Bible, God told Abraham to move to the area along the Mediterranean which is
now called Lebanon and Israel. There Abraham, his son Isaac, and his grandson
Jacob became the fathers of the Jewish people. The mothers of the Jewish people
were Abraham's and Isaac's wives Sarah and Rebecca, and Jacob's wives, the
sisters Leah and Rachel.
Jacob had a daughter, Dinah, and twelve sons. During the early centuries of
their history the Hebrews organized themselves into the Twelve Tribes of
Israel, which traced their descent to Jacob's sons. The Bible describes how
Jacob's sons sold one of their brothers, Joseph, into slavery in Egypt.
Joseph's wisdom and honesty enabled him to become the Prime Minister to the
Egyptian pharaoh. Joseph invited his brothers and their families to Egypt after
a famine struck in the lands along the Mediterranean. The Israelites lived
peacefully in Egypt for many years until a new pharaoh enslaved them. About
three thousand two hundred years ago, Moses led the Jews out of Egypt and
eventually they settled again in the lands we today call Israel. The next
thousand years were a history of struggle and oppression with occasional
periods of relative peace. The Jews were annexed by the Assyrians, besieged by
the Babylonians, and dispersed to Syria, North Africa and central Asia. They
were controlled by the Persians, conquered by Alexander the Great, and ruled by
the Romans. In spite of frequent attacks, over the centuries Jews settled in
every part of the world. Sometimes welcomed, sometimes merely tolerated,
sometimes savagely persecuted, they created vigorous trading communities, and
contributed substantially to the commercial, economic and cultural life of the
towns in which they lived.
How were they able to survive? How have they accomplished so much? What is the
key to their greatness? What is the essence of the Jewish faith?
Answering this question is not easy. Jews have no Pope or hierarchy that
establishes dogma. The Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews all have
different ideas about what Judaism is. Among Orthodox the ideas of the Hasidic
Jews differ so much from those of other Orthodox Jews that, for a while, the
rabbis on one side excommunicated the rabbis on the other side. Nevertheless, a
consensus exists among most Jews about the basic principles of their religion.
First, Judaism is a strict monotheistic religion. "I am the LORD your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you
shall have no other gods before me." The basic principle of Judaism is that
only one God exists. Everything else derives from that. God has no family, no
son. No intermediates have special access to God. This is the one thing in
which virtually all Jews believe. By seeing the order and harmony of the world
around them Jews make an intuitive leap and posit that this grand design is by
design, which means a designer, which suggests that God exists. As the creator
of the universe, God is unique. Therefore, there is only one God.
Today it is difficult for us to know how bold and radical the doctrine of
monotheism was when Jews first introduced it about twenty-five hundred years
ago. It invited anger and hatred. The Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans are
the most famous examples of polytheistic peoples who had created religions with
beliefs in many gods. As Egyptians visited Greeks or Greeks visited Romans they
tended to respect the power of the local gods. However, Jews did not go along
with this custom. They denied that any other gods existed. There was the one
God and no others. And to make matters worse, Jews believed that this one God
was ultimately unknowable, and therefore, in keeping with the second
commandment, no statue or painting could be made of God. From the point of view
of polytheists, the Jews were godless people.
Second, virtually all Jews believe that people have free will and that God is
the source of ethics and morality. By attributing the design of the universe to
God, Jews gain meaning and purpose for the universe, a knowledge, a felt
certainty that some actions are wrong, because they violate the design and
purpose of the Universe. In the words of the prophet Micah: "What does the God
require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with
your God?"
The ethical teachings of Judaism are written out in the Commandments found in
the Bible. According to tradition there are six hundred and thirteen: three
hundred and sixty-five negative commandments, and two hundred and forty-eight
positive ones. The Talmud is a collection of sixty-three books based on the
Bible, which form the basis of Jewish religious law.
There is an Eastern European story which illustrates the point. A rabbi is
walking to the synagogue for the morning service. As he does, he walks past the
home of one of the members of his congregation. The door is open and he hears
crying inside. The rabbi knocks on the open door and a young mother comes to
answer. When she sees the rabbi she breaks again into tears and the rabbi asks
what is wrong.
"I cannot keep going," the woman sobs. "My husband is sick in bed with the flu.
The children are begging for breakfast and there is no milk. The baby was up
all night crying and now he needs his diaper changed. All the dishes in the
house are dirty. It is overwhelming. I am worn out."
The rabbi went into the house, changed the baby's diaper and rocked it until
the baby fell asleep. Next he walked to the store and bought a gallon of milk.
Then he went to the kitchen and washed every dish in the sink.
When he arrived at the synagogue, very late for the service, some in the
congregation muttered under their breath. After the service, two members of the
board of the congregation confronted the rabbi and asked for an explanation.
When he told him where he had been, they indicated that they felt he should
have been at the service on time. In response the rabbi reminded board members
that in Judaism neither giving the sermons nor directing the service is a
traditional part of the rabbinical function. The order of service is set and
any adult can conduct it. The function of the rabbi is to guide the
congregation in the Jewish tradition, which includes the commandment "There
will always be some who are poor and in need, so I command you to be generous
to them."
This story is meant to show that far more important than participation in a
ritual is the obligation to do good deeds to help others. Judaism teaches that
God requires Jews to help bring about justice and righteousness. People are
expected to help others, not for reward or for spiritual development, but
because God requires it. No one is exempt from the obligation. In the Jewish
tradition, kindness to animals is a pure form of goodness because it is done
without any hope of reward.
Third, virtually all Jews believe that a pious person, a man or a woman who
is a dedicated, devout, faithful Jew, does not focus on prayer, or fasting, or
meditation or celibacy. None of these are indications of Jewish piety. There is
no virtue in excessive praying or meditating. Fasting and celibacy are viewed
as scorning the good things God has provided. Study and learning, education and
research, are in the Jewish religion indications of piety. While other
religions may encourage fasting or meditation as the way to become more
spiritual and to feel closer to God, the pious Jew pursues the same goal
through a devotion to learning. As long ago as the first century, Jews had a
system of compulsory education. The education of the poor and of the orphan was
the responsibility of the Jewish community. In ancient times, on the first day
of school, rabbis would give youngsters honey cakes shaped in the letters of
the alphabet so that they would associate learning with sweetness.
A rabbi, by the way, is not the Jewish equal to a minister or a priest. The
word rabbi literally means teacher. In Orthodox Judaism, the rabbi, or teacher,
rarely leads the worship service. It the cantor, whose special skill is music
and singing, who conducts worship. Originally, rabbis were not paid for their
rabbinical work. They supported themselves following various trades. This
changed in the middle ages. The custom developed of paying them not for their
rabbinic work, but for the time they presumably were taking off from their
secular work. Thus a congregation pays a rabbi not to be a bricklayer, or a
carpenter, or a candle maker.
Although Jews traditionally studied the Bible and the Talmud, most Jews today
agree that God's truth can also be found in a laboratory or the observatory.
Therefore, studies in physics or genetics have the same religious significance
as studies of sacred books.
Today the importance of study and learning is generally recognized. However,
that is a relatively recent development. With Jews it has been important for
centuries because it is a religious obligation. Jews believe in learning for
the sake of learning.
This is the essence of the Jewish religion:
First, there is one God. A single will created the universe. There is no
equal, no rival, no go-between. Hidden from total human perception, God is that
connection with the cosmos that we feel in our bones, the unity that underlies
all existence and gives meaning and purpose to our lives.
Second, all people are in a covenantal relationship with God, a relationship
that Jews advance by example and witness. Each has the freedom to obey or
disobey God's laws and each exercises ethical freedom in making choices. Sin is
deliberate disobedience of the commandments. Obedience to the commandments is a
deliberate choice to obey God's laws. Ethical responsibility extends to, and is
interwoven with, the establishment of a just society.
Third, Judaism is a religion of the book and of written tradition, so
scholarship plays a central role. Over time the learning and study has grown to
include the study of the physical and the human sciences. A devout, dedicated
faithful Jew is a life long student who is filled with a love of learning.
Half of Budapest's Jews, over 100,000 people, survived the war. Many moved to
Israel, but thousands remain, still living in a complex of many residential
buildings connected by narrow streets and courtyards. Today the courtyards are
in poor condition, dirty and run-down with graffiti-covered walls and abandoned
apartments. A dusty park and playground fill the interior of the district's
historic center. One Kosher sweet shop is left in the district, selling
pastries, rolls, and ice cream. Nearby is a store making Kosher salami. In the
streets are vendors selling fruits and vegetables. It was in Jewish communities
like this, in Budapest and Vienna and Prague, and in other cities in Europe
from which came Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein and Anne Frank. Although
comprising less than two percent of the population, the Jewish people have
contributed to every field of human knowledge, with a depth and a quality of
insight that is second to none.
Last October, we walked along the narrow streets of Budapest. I felt the cool
October air. I smelled the spices of the salami, the sweetness of fresh bread
and pastries, and the aroma of fresh coffee. In the background I heard the
sounds of cars and trucks, the music of radios coming through open windows, and
the voices of people conversing in Hungarian. I felt excitement and joy as I
walked, immersed in that rich culture. And I remembered the words from the
opening chapter of the Torah:
"God created the earth and God saw that it was Good."
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