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Rabbi David Locketz
What Does Reform Judasim Stand For?
Erev Rosh Hashanah 5768
Bet Shalom Congregation
In 1855 after several
attempts to formally bring together a group of
leading Jewish Rabbis to declare the binding and
common principals of an American form of Judaism,
Isaac Mayer Wise finally succeeded in doing so. The
conference of these rabbis…some Reform and others
Traditionalist…was held in Cleveland and even though
there was very little on which they agreed…they
appeared to heed Wise’s call that “our aged and
venerable mother” – Judaism needed be defended at
any cost were it to continue to guide us as a People
on this side of the ocean. The details of what they
discussed are not all that relevant for us tonight.
Of course they argued and debated…but ultimately
they did something that would be difficult to do
today in our current religious environment. They
created a list of common principals in an
attempt to unify the Jewish world into one
denominational structure. If they accomplished
nothing else…they accomplished a compromise. It is
clear to me that Rabbi Wise compromised on some
particulars in that document – items that history
would show he did not believe - in order to keep the
effort going. Ultimately it fizzled. It would be
another twenty years before Wise was able to get
broad support within the American Jewish community
to create an American seminary for rabbis…and it
would only be 8 years after its inception that the
traditionalists would abandon it and the Hebrew
Union College would become an institution solely
committed to ordaining Reform Rabbis.
As we look back at the
deliberations of these rabbis…what is so striking…is
that each of their attempts to define Judaism in
American terms was deeply principled. No one was
seeking to make Judaism easier or its practice less
devout. Whether their focus was
halachic
– based in Jewish law – or philosophical – rooted in
the reason and rationality of the day – they were
each trying to cast Judaism in a way that made sense
for Jews in America.
We are all here tonight,
and part of this community, because on some level we
believe that our “aged and venerable mother” still
has the ability to guide us. But how many of us
make principled decisions about how to access her
traditions? Or to put it more bluntly…how many of
us have used Reform Judaism as an excuse for not
engaging fully in our traditions? How many of us
have said, “I don’t have to keep Kosher because I am
Reform? I don’t have to go to services because I am
Reform? I don’t have stay in Religious School
because I am Reform.” I want to be the first to
admit that I have done exactly that at different
points in my life. Ironically, the very spirit of
Reform Judaism which frees us of the so called
“letter of the law”…that spirit which teaches us
that the underlying lesson of the specific laws and
customs from ages past can be applied in modern
ways…that we don’t have to automatically follow
ancient rituals and laws…is the very spirit that
sometimes causes us to be lax…or lassie faire…with
regard to our Jewish identities. Reform Judaism
does not exist to free us of all Jewish obligations.
Rather Reform Judaism demands that each of us works
to truly own our Jewish identities…to make decisions
for ourselves based on learning and knowledge…to be
better Jews.
A few years ago, a
reporter from the New York Times spent a week
following the head of a rabbinical seminary
observing him. At the end of the week, the rabbi
asked the reporter what it was that he learned
during their time together. The reporter responded,
“all day each day people come to you to ask
questions, to have discussions, to learn and in each
instance, you get up and you open this book or that
book and you put it down in front of you as you
converse. This week I have realized that Judaism is
really just a conversation between people across the
ages…some living now and some who have lived long
ago.”
Tonight, for just a few
moments, I want to engage you with what I believe
Reform Judaism means. Judaism truly is a
conversation across the ages and Reform has added a
new voice.
But of course there are
those who would say our voice is illegitimate and
inadequate. Jack Wertheimer is a professor of
American Jewish History at the Jewish Theological
Seminary – the Conservative Movement’s rabbinical
school. He recently published a pessimistic article
entitled, “What does Reform Judaism Stand For?” in
which he compared the history of Reform Judaism to
the history of the mainstream Protestant Church in
America. The church has seen significant decline in
recent decades and Wertheimer predicts the same for
Reform because as his article indicates…he is not
sure that Reform stands for anything at all. His
claim is that everything we say we stand for is
negatively reflected by our membership. We claim to
be a movement of choice…one where our members
educate themselves on a given Jewish topic and then
makes choices as to how to practice that part of
Judaism – or not. Wertheimer cites some very
provocative statistics which he claims indicate we
are not who we say we are. He wrote:
“For the overwhelming
majority of children in the movement, formal Jewish
schooling ends at bar- or bat-mitzvah age. More than
half drop out of supplementary classes after the
seventh grade; of those who continue their studies,
two-thirds are gone by grades nine or ten. Despite
the declared aspirations of the movement to engage
Jews in “lifelong Jewish learning,” its teens and
adults have so far declined to heed the message.”
(footnote)
I am not sure from where
he draws his statistical assumptions and these
numbers do not accurately describe Bet Shalom…we
happen to have a very high rate of retention through
Confirmation Class compared to other schools. But
if what he writes mirrors Reform Judaism and
our sister synagogues elsewhere…he makes an
interesting point about the irony within our
community…that our ideology is based on choice
through education…but that the majority of us do not
fully embrace that education.
Wertheimer also takes
jabs at our level of religious observance…and not
just in the way we expect. As Reform Jews we have
grown accustomed to hearing our nonReform
co-religionists take aim at our ritual observance.
But Wertheimer claims in his article that, “fewer
than ten percent of Reform synagogue members attend
once a week…the number of regulars rarely climbs
above 10-15 percent of membership.” I may not like
his tone…but he again has pointed out a great irony
in our movement…we claim to be a community enriched
by the choices people make as to how they observe
Judaism…yet his statistics show that Reform Jews are
often choosing to observe Judaism in absentia.
As I have thought
through this quandary for modern progressive
Jews…the contrast between what IM Wise helped to
create for us and the current state of Reform Jewish
observance and participation…I am reminded of
something that one of my first conversion students I
worked with here at Bet Shalom said to me. We had
been studying together for nearly a year and she
came in to me and asked, “Rabbi…we have been
learning about all the history and customs and
possibilities in Judaism …I am going to the Mikveh
soon and then I’ll be a Jewish member of this
community…when are you going to tell me what exactly
I am supposed to do?” I was taken aback…I
responded, “What do you mean tell you what to
do…this is Reform Judaism…I am not going to
tell
you what to do…you have been studying all year so
that you would have the skills and the beginning of
a body of knowledge so that you could learn and make
Jewish ritual decisions for yourself.” She stared
at me for a long time and then said, “Maybe Reform
Judaism isn’t for me…I have a hard time with gray
area…I need black and white…I need to know what is
expected of me.” The beauty of Reform Judaism
became so clear to me I thought about what she was
saying…You see…Life happens in the gray
area. Very few moments in our lives exist in black
and white. There is always more than one
perspective that is acceptable…there is always more
than one solution to a problem….there are always two
good answers to a question…Judaism is no different.
That is what Isaac Mayer Wise wanted for Jews in
America…for us to embrace the freedoms in this
country both in the street and in the synagogue. He
wasn’t trying to create freedom FROM Judaism…he was
trying to adapt Judaism so that the best values in
our modern world could help Judaism continue to
develop too. As Rabbi David Ellenson has point
out, “Judaism has always had to change in order to
stay the same.” In many ways, Reform is a much more
difficult form of Judaism to practice because,
philosophically, it forces us to study and educate
ourselves so we can make our own decisions. We
don’t just do what has always been done “K’mo She
Tzareech – As it is supposed to be done.” That is
what other kinds of Jews do. “Judaism has always
had to change in order to stay the same.
As one of your
rabbis…there are so many times I wish I could tell
you what I think you should do. Just like that
student of mine was asking for…I wish I could carve
out a perfect path to Jewish observance for you…one
that is easy…but there is no one path…and none of
them are easy. There are many right paths…some of
us have veered off course…but that is what these
High Holy days are about…trying to get back onto the
path. There is a dissonance between what Reform
Judaism has tried to be and what Reform Jews do…Dr.
Wertheimer, as I described before has seized upon
that dissonance in his analysis. But that
dissonance does not make Reform Judaism wrong or
illegitimate as THE dominant form of Judaism in the
world today…it just means we each still have some
work to do.
It is this season of
Yamim Noraim…these Days of Awe that prove to us each
year that the most important questions in our lives
are yet to be answered. Isn’t that the purpose of
this annual introspection? To look inward as we
come to terms with those parts of our lives that are
as yet still incomplete. For certain this Torah
behind me has many of those answers. It is even
more certain that it contains the questions many of
us have not yet asked. If we were a literal
people…fundamentalists or traditionalists…all we
would have to do it unroll it and do our best to
apply its contents to our lives. It would tell us
how to eat, dress, study, observe Shabbat, relate to
our families and so on. But we are not so literal.
We are Progressive and Reform minded. Indeed we
follow some of its contents literally…but the thrust
of Reform is not to follow the letter of the law.
Our search is for the spirit of the law. That Torah
contains the blueprint for our understanding of the
world…and reminds us how all those before us
attempted to understand our world…Torah is the table
at which we sit to have the conversation across the
ages…and our goal is to uncover its spirit and apply
it to our lives.
But Reform does have
guidelines. We do have boundaries. Reform Judaism
is not a free for all as some might suggest. We
have stated principles and platforms that the rabbis
of our movement have put down on paper throughout
our 150 years in America. We even have a Responsa
committee that addresses legal and ethical questions
when they arise. In fact we just launched a
responsa class here at Bet Shalom that will meet
once a month all year taught by Rabbi Cohen and me.
I believe that Reform demands of us to understand
the spirit of the Torah, which provides us with the
opportunity to sanctify our lives through our
religious practice. That reporter had it right when
he said our books allow us to be part of an eternal
conversation. But with the books closed…you can’t
be part of it. The books have to come off the
shelf.
Having summarized Reform
ideology as I just did…my hands are tied…I cannot
tell you what you need to do in the year ahead. But
I can tell you this. You must do something. Each
Shabbat, on this bima, we celebrate as our 13 year
students cross the threshold into young Jewish
adulthood. As they become B’nai Mitzvah they sign a
document which states that, “in becoming a Bar or
Bat mitzvah they have accepted the privileges and
responsibilities of being a Jew: lifelong Torah
study and the keeping of mitzvoth; Shabbat holy day
and life-cycle observances; participation in the
life of the synagogue, the Jewish community and
Israel; dedication to Tikkun Olam and the perfection
of our world.” As a community we tell them that
those elements are important to us…that those
characteristics describe Jewish adults. As
adults…we must strive to be good examples of what we
ask these young people to commit themselves to.
My hope for you is that
you will study something, engage yourself in
something, and that whatever particular topic you
choose…whatever you spend time thinking about or
discussing with your family…that it brings you
enrichment and religious benefit. It could be
anything…you could decide to come to Shabbat
services more often…I can get you on the invitation
list! Judaism has an incredible way of sanctifying
time adds so much meaning to our lives …imagine what
it is like to engage in those same moments of joy
and release each week. Read a Jewish book, join us
for adult education every now and then, spread some
mitzvah magic around and volunteer a little time on
a project near to your heart.
So many of us have found
that when we study and understand and experience
Judaism in new ways - we find new light and are
carried to a special place. Finding ways to
sanctify time, and to celebrate life, especially in
these days…can carry us forward and help us to add
meaning to our lives. We should never say, “I don’t
have to go to services because I am Reform…or I
don’t have to go to Religious School because I am
Reform.” Reform Judaism does stand for
something…something wonderful. It does not mean you
are exempt from Judaism…it means that you can make
choices…but in order to choose, you must be
informed. As I said before, I cannot tell you what
exactly to do, but I am happy to be part of the
conversation.
May the books of
learning be opened for you in the year ahead and may
you be a part of that eternal conversation across
the ages.
Ken Yihi Razon. |
