Three Questions

Last month, Rabbi Clifford Librach, a Reform rabbi, wrote an article for Tablet Magazine called, "Paying the Price for Abandoning Jewish Peoplehood," here is a link to it:  https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/264582/paying-the-price-for-abandoning-jewish-peoplehood.

The article deals with a controversial speech given by the writer Michael Chabon at the commencement ceremonies for the Hebrew Union College, the seminary of Reform Judaism.  Chabon made comments considered by many as anti-Zionist and anti-Israel and criticized the desire within the Jewish community to see Jews marry each other.  

From that starting point, Librach's article makes an insider's assessment and critique of the current position of Reform and Conservative Judaism that is worth considering.  One passage that stood out as instructive to me was the following:

"What is the difference between “Reform Jews” and “Conservative Jews”? I certainly would not repair to religious ideology in order to answer this. Most Jews do not have a religious ideology. And I would not answer this by looking only at venues of affiliation. These can be governed by many random factors such as perceived pre-school quality, b’nai mitzvah date availability, location, etc. No, I would look to a much simpler and direct formula. There are only three questions.

1. Is the public observance of reasonably predictable standards of kashrut important to you?

2. Is it your taste and preference that the central religious motif (“services”) of the synagogue be one of presentation or experience? To put this another way: is the essential synagogue experience for you the performed singing of Sh’ma Yisrael or the private recitation of the Amidah?

3. Do you engage in any home-based Jewish observance other than a 'Passover Seder'?"

These three questions are useful in understanding where we are currently as a community.  Kashrut observance in some manner by the community speaks to both a sense that community "counts" and that the ritual, cultural, spiritual meaning of kashrut has some kind of value for us.  "Experiencing" services in some way as a participant sets prayer apart for us from the theater or a concert by making it an activity we "do" - again for all the various, contradictory and beautiful reasons one might pray.  And finally, a home marked by regular, year-round Jewish observances is one where in the most private, intimate, personal part of our lives, Judaism plays a role.  

The other valuable thing about these three questions is that they are very easy to achieve and attain for anyone looking to make Judaism's guidance and goodness part of their lives.  That is what primarily motivates me in sharing this with you.  Read the article, talk to me about all of it, but see what you can do to answer these three questions in your life - and NSJC will see what it can do to help you!

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Benson