Ordinarily, you would not find Rabbi Avi Shafran, director of public affairs for the haredi (fervently Orthodox) organization Agudath Israel of America, and myself agreeing on much. Indeed, I had to grit my teeth and swallow my tongue several times as I was taking notes during his lecture for the Torah Academy of Milwaukee last week on “Empowering Judaism in a Media-Conscious World.”
Yet when I spoke to him briefly afterward, we found something in common. In one of his past opinion articles, he wrote to the effect that “ideas matter” and should be taken seriously.
I referred to this article and mentioned to him that in my observation, most U.S. Jews do not take ideas seriously. I said that if one were to ask most of them why they are Jews, few would say, “Because I believe what Judaism [of whatever denomination] says is true about nature, history, spirituality, morality and the meaning of life; and all other religions and philosophies are false except where they agree with Judaism.” Most would say “Because of my parents” or “That’s how I was raised” or “Because of the Holocaust” or “I feel comfortable with it” or some other reason that has more to do with emotion than thought.
Shafran agreed. “I wish ideas would matter across the board” in Jewish life, including in the Orthodox world. “We should not just do; we should examine why we’re doing what we’re doing,” he said. “We should not pray three times a day just because we did it the day before.”
Having said this, I’m not sure I want to suggest that emotional reasons for being Jewish are bad or inferior to more intellectual ones. Not everybody is interested in philosophy, theology or comparative religion, or necessarily should be. Even though I am interested in these fields myself, my own reasons for staying Jewish are ultimately more emotional than intellectual.
Still, I also believe ideas matter, and at least one school of psychology believes that our ideas about the world and events are what really determine our emotions about them. And I, too, wish that more Jews would think as well as feel about their Judaism and Jewishness — or at least ground their emotions in knowledge.
Shauvot, the festival Jewish tradition says marks the revelation of the Torah at Mt. Sinai, might be a good time to begin this process, especially this year since it coincides with the three-day Memorial Day weekend. For those who will not observe it — and Shavuot is possibly the least observed Jewish festival for most American Jews — there should be time between the picnics, sales and golf games to read and think a little.
I especially recommend taking a look at a list of all the 613 Torah commandments of Judaism, which can be found in the Encyclopedia Judaica, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin’s “Biblical Literacy” or Maimonides’ “The Commandments.” Every time I have done this, I have learned and found something to ponder.
Even that much will advance one’s knowledge of Judaism considerably; and it doesn’t take very long to read through them once. Whichever Jewish religious movement you affiliate with, or even if you are unaffiliated, you will be a better informed Jew after doing just that much; and it may lead you to want to know more.
