Commentary, Kol Nidre service, 9/20/07, at

Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, Sarasota, FL, by Irv Lesser, Co-President

Humanistic Judaism: Today and Tomorrow

Some of you may remember that at our High Holiday service last year I spoke on why I am a Humanistic Jew. I told you that at age 8 I had realized that my concept of what is meant by the term God, a wise old man with a long white beard who sat on a golden throne up in the sky, could not really exist, since gravity would pull the whole business crashing down to Earth. I also spoke on how my more mature thinking process had later developed a rational approach to my Judaism and that when Sim and I discovered the existence of Humanistic Judaism, and in particular the Sarasota Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, it was as though we had discovered the Holy Grail or the golden treasure at the end of the rainbow. After six years of membership, we continue to feel that way.

 Today, I’d like to talk to you about just what it is in Humanistic Judaism that is so satisfying to us. I spoke last year about how it fit in so well with rational thinking, but today I’d like to speak about specific instances. Many of you will be familiar with what I’ll be discussing. I won’t mind if you close your eyes and take a brief nap. But some of this may be new to many and perhaps refreshing and renewing to those who are unable to sleep.

 A major source of information for me about Humanistic Judaism is found in the small soft covered book entitled “Guide to Humanistic Judaism,” published in 1993 by our society, The Society for Humanistic Judaism, or SHJ. After a brief introduction and a brief article on “What is Humanistic Judaism?” the material is presented in dictionary form. That is, the first two articles are Adam and Adoption and the last two articles are Yom Kippur and Youth Education. It also has an extensive Appendix. 

 I’ll be going through a few of the entries in that book, but first I want to discuss an Appendix, Who is a Jew?  Written by the members of the International Federation of Secular Humanistic Jews, it points out that a broad view of Jewish identification is needed for the survival of the Jewish people. The Preamble states, “The children and spouses of intermarriage who desire to be part of the Jewish people must not be cast aside because they do not have Jewish mothers and do not wish to undergo religious conversion.” The resolution then states “a Jew is a person of Jewish descent or any person who declares himself or herself to be a Jew and who identifies with the history, ethical values, culture, civilization, community and fate of the Jewish people.”

OK, now to a few of the interesting entries in that book.

BLESSINGS: A blessing begins with the word baruch which means “blessed”, as by a supernatural being. Since Humanistic Jews do not worship God, it is inappropriate to use that word in that sense. But baruch can also be freely translated to mean radiant, precious, beautiful, and wonderful, so the blessing that begins Baruch haor baolam can be translated as Radiant is the light of the world…and so on.

DEATH: Humanistic Judaism sees that it is in the nature of all living things to have a finite existence and that there is no evidence of a life hereafter. The life of the deceased is honored, rather than alleged mystical forces that have taken it away. Thus, memorial services are provided for the purpose of helping the living accept their loss by strengthening them with the presence, encouragement and love of friends and family. There is no humanistic objection to autopsies, and donation of organs and other body parts for transplantation surgery is encouraged.

ETHICS/MORALITY/VALUES: While they may have a wide range of ethical perspectives and moral philosophies, Humanistic Jews are united in their reliance upon reason rather than faith or intuition in arriving at standards of behavior. While one Humanistic Jew may arrive at conclusions different from those of another Humanistic Jew, both are committed to rational free inquiry as the most effective means for the discovery of ethical truth.

FASTING: It’s very appropriate to talk about this today. In the rabbinic tradition, this is part of the abstinence from pleasure, and here we can include food, drink, sex, washing, and so on. Humanistic Judaism finds no value in pre-emptive fasting or fasting to avoid danger. Fasting on Yom Kippur is not required, though one may do this for various reasons, such as self-discipline, affirming a connection with ancestors, or avoiding distraction on a day of solemn introspection.

TORAH: For Orthodox Jews, the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) is the infallible revelation of a supernatural deity. Every word in it is eternally true, and all truth is contained therein. For Humanistic Jews, all texts are the creations of human beings and are therefore subject to error. The Torah, however, by virtue of its prominence within the Jewish community, can serve as a symbol of truth and of the Jewish saga. As such, and provided the Torah is clearly designated as a symbol and not as sacred writ, it can be an enriching asset to a Humanistic community.

OK, you get the idea. There are many more entries and I won’t further bore you by going over them, though I do encourage you to get and read the book. 

All of this leads me to my next puzzlement, to which I so far have not received a good solution, even after having asked it of Rabbi Wine. My question is, if Humanistic Judaism is so terrific, and if the thinking of perhaps even a majority of Jews the world over is in accord with its teachings, why are there still only about 35,000 members? As I said, I asked this of Rabbi Wine and as I recall he said he believed it was because we didn’t have enough money to truly spread the word. I’m rather dissatisfied with that and I’m still looking for an answer. 

I came across an article by Rabbi Dan Friedman, who, incidentally, will be our speaker here on Saturday, March 1. Rabbi Friedman believes that most Jews simply do not care about consistency between belief and behavior and therefore are not interested in what Humanistic Judaism has to offer. He believes that most Jews are not looking for a service that is intellectually challenging and rewarding, but instead want a service that is more emotional and makes them feel Jewish. They ignore the inconsistency between their own beliefs and the various rituals in which they participate. They are looking only for the traditions, the rituals, customs and ceremonies with which they grew up, since these make them feel Jewish. As Rabbi Friedman writes, “attending funerals, weddings, bar and bat mitzvah celebrations, possibly a service or two annually and perhaps occasional holiday services constitute their Judaism, which entails virtually no belief component whatsoever.” They recite the prayers and blessings with no concern that their meaning is not in accord with their beliefs. He writes ironically, “Never mind what you do not believe; just come to services, light candles, keep kosher, put on tefillin, fast on Yom Kippur. That’s what Judaism is all about.” 

The funny thing is that this trend is most apparent in the more liberal branches of Judaism. Reform Judaism used to oppose rituals and ceremonies that were done merely for the sake of tradition. Now it is not unusual to see tallit garbed Reform Jews mimicking Orthodox behavior. This, in fact, as you may recall from my talk last year, was the reason Sim and I left Reform Judaism.

Rabbi Friedman appears to be a bit pessimistic about any large growth of Humanistic Judaism.  He believes, and I think I agree with him, that Humanistic Judaism violates the commonly accepted assumption that beliefs have no connection to ritual. Here at CHJ we introduce some rituals only after carefully examining their agreement with our philosophy. We insist that our rituals be consistent with our beliefs. I think it was Rabbi Greg Epstein, who was here this past February, who said that humanistic Jews don’t reject the traditions of others; they select those traditions that are in keeping with our practices and beliefs. 

While most modern Jews base their lives on a philosophy of life consistent with reason, reality, freedom, individualism, equality and human dignity, they are indifferent when Humanistic Judaism offers practices that are consistent with that. They are satisfied to follow the empty rituals of a Judaism without substance. And that is their loss.  

As for us, we can continue to enjoy the merits and joys of Humanistic Judaism, a way of being Jewish, as Rabbi Friedman put it so well, “that challenges, articulates, and celebrates our deepest convictions and prizes intellectual integrity above empty ritual.” He adds, “our members value honesty more than familiar phrases and believe being Jewish is more significant than nostalgic remembrance.” It may well be that an influx of money for publicity and marketing might be the key to faster growth for our movement, but I tend to think that Rabbi Friedman was right and that Humanistic Judaism will remain a community of Jews who think, rather than blindly follow ritual, and who value intellectual honesty over nostalgia. 

And now the word you’ve all been waiting for: finally. Finally, we must all be thankful to Rabbi Sherwin Wine, for whom we will have a Memorial Service on December 8, for his creation of Humanistic Judaism about 45 years ago. His thinking and his work have permitted us to meet and gather together here and elsewhere, and have enabled us to celebrate our intellectual and emotional ties to our Jewish past. He has permitted Sim and me, and I suspect most of you, to develop the extended family that is the membership of the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism. It has been a real pleasure for Sim and me to be a part of you. We wish you a very happy and healthy new year and, in the ancient words, L’shanah tovah!