Judaism is more multifaceted and varied than even many Jews probably realize. There are traditionally religious Jews—the Orthodox—and various liberal Jewish movements ranging from religiously observant to entirely secular. Secular Humanistic Judaism engages with Jewish religious texts and holidays but reinterprets them through a humanist lens. And then there are Jews who identify as culturally Jewish but have little engagement with the religious texts beyond those relevant to specific holidays.
The religious differences that divide us can sometimes make it seem as though we are members of quite different tribes. But by focusing exclusively on what divides us, we lose sight of an enormous amount of common ground.
Traditionally observant Jews are faithful to original religious texts; Humanistic Jews often alter them to reflect humanistic values. The plagues that God visited on the Egyptians in the Book of Exodus, which includes the killing of all the Egyptian first born, is a text that Humanistic Jews find troubling. When, during the Passover celebration, the plagues are recited, Humanistic Jews substitute such modern plagues as homelessness and racism. But in a traditional midrash (a sometimes whimsical rabbinic interpretation of the Biblical text in the form of stories and parables) as the Egyptian soldiers pursuing the fleeing Hebrews drown in the Red Sea, the angels rejoice, and God rebukes them: “My creatures are about to drown in the sea, and you are singing?” This midrash is evidence that the rabbis were also troubled about the harshness of the plagues and introduced a universalist note into the story, while leaving the text intact.
The Humanistic Jewish practice of reinterpreting traditional religious texts to reflect humanistic sensibilities has support in yet another very strange midrash. In the midrash, Moses has ascended Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah, but God delays giving it to him because he is adding decorations to letters in the Torah scroll. God explains that the reason for the delay is sage named Akiva, who will create religious laws from these embellishments. Moses asks God to send him along a "time tunnel" so that he can meet Akiva. God commands Moses to "walk backward," reversing the time sequence: Moses travels backward in time to meet Akiva who lives in the future. Then Moses, who handed down the Torah to his people, sitting in the back row at Rabbi Akiva's academy, is unable to comprehend the lesson.
This midrash about Moses seems to be a clear statement that our understanding of the Torah evolves over time. Traditional Jews are committed studying Torah to plumb its depths, and commitment to study and learning is a key feature of the Jewish culture that we all share
Humanistic Jews reject the idea of divine intervention, a rejection that would seem to sharply divide us from traditionalists. But there is a famous midrash about a rabbinic dispute over the ritual use of a particular oven. God performs miracles and even state in audible words his support for the views of one rabbi, but the others, saying “It is not in heaven!” refuse to accept this divine intervention and go on to win the argument. Jews are to study and puzzle out the meaning of Torah for themselves and not rely on miracles.
For Rabbi Sherwin Wine, founder of Humanistic Judaism, human dignity was the highest ideal. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the late Chief Rabbi of the UK said, “There is no greater defence of human dignity than the phrase from the first chapter of the Bible that dared to call the human being 'the image of God'”
We stand on common ground in our commitment to human dignity and making the world a better place.
Alan Rutkowski is active in the Victoria Jewish Culture Project and is a founding member of the Victoria Jewish dialogue group, If Not Now, When? He has contributed articles to the online edition of the American journal Jewish Currents.
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