Judaism for Non-Jews or God for Everyone?

This entry is a response to Shmuley Boteach's opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post, “No Holds Barred: Non-Jews as the saviors of Judaism”, which was previously posted on this blog here. To read Shmuley's full article click here.

One of my many concerns with rabbinic Judaism is its exclusive focus on the Jewish people. Perhaps that makes sense as a religion of the Jewish people, but unfortunately God's calling was not to create our exclusive religion. His desire for us as a people was much greater (and fulfilling)- bless the whole world! (see Genesis 12:3) God said through the prophet Isaiah, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6, emphasis mine). God is clearly speaking to an individual, “My Servant”, who I believe is the Messiah, but I also think Israel has a part in being this light. God chose Israel, and from Israel the Messiah, for a very specific purpose- bring salvation to the whole world!

That said, I'd like to turn to Shmuley's article. While he seems to present an open and welcoming stance toward the nations, ultimately it's quite self-focused. He writes, “Having non-Jews become excited about Judaism is the most effective way to address assimilation, because Jews would now be blending into a culture that embraces and honors their tradition.” Shmuley expresses more concern here with preserving this exclusive religion than fulfilling God's purpose for us.

Shmuley presents a “seven-step program” to implement his plan. Here it is:

" 1. Observe Friday night as family night (see www.fridayisfamily.com) by tuning out all electronic interference and focusing on children, friends and community.

2. Eat kosher food (20 percent of Americans already look for kosher symbols for cleanliness and purity) and separate milk from meat as a symbol of the affirmation of life and its negation from all forms of corrosion and death.

3. Celebrate the themes of the Jewish festivals. Passover Seders, emphasizing the human capacity to rise above material enslavement (President Barack Obama already hosts his own annual Seder), transcending a reliance on material comforts by returning to the essentials of nature on Succot, lighting lamps on Hanukka as a symbol of the human capacity to illuminate a dark earth and heal a painful life, and reorienting ourselves to the essential laws of ethics and morality on Shavuot.

4. Studying Judaism’s great texts, from the Torah portion of the week to selections of the Talmud, to the epistles of Maimonides, to kabbalistic and hassidic works.

5. Observing the marriage laws, including the monthly act of sexual separation thereby creating an erotic barrier that enhances lust and pleasure (see my book Kosher Sex).

6. Appreciation of, and respect for, the feminine, including codes of alluring modesty for women, and domesticity and marital commitment for men, all necessary in an age where teens like Miley Cyrus are already pole-dancing and stars like George Clooney can’t commit.

7. A commitment to acts of communal kindness, such as regular visits to hospitals and homes for the elderly and giving 10 percent of one’s income to charity. "

These points could be viewed as Shmuley's version of the 7 Noahide Laws, but they are much more dubious. Shmuley explicitly states that he is not interested in converting non-Jews, yet if you read his list it looks awfully close to conversion!

Separating milk and meat!?! This is supposed to be some great Jewish principle? I don't quite understand how this is a “symbol of the affirmation of life and its negation from all forms of corrosion and death”.

I agree with the idea of spreading Biblical (Jewish) values. Number 7 is a point I can support. If you read the rest of the points, however, you quickly notice that “Biblical” is not an issue all. For example, he cites Madonna, in another part of the article, as an example because she dabbles in a popular form of kabbalah. This is supposed to be a positive example for us? My opinion on kabbalah is material for a separate entry, but I will say that study of kabbalah seems to have near to nothing to done with God or the Tanakh. 

Speaking of God, by the way, where does He appear in this seven-step program? He does not even make a cameo appearance!! This “incidental” omission of God is an unfortunate tendency in some (or many) forms of rabbinic Judaism. They may promote Jewish values and keeping kosher, but what about loving God? Why is this not number one on the list?

Shmuley bluntly states, “Judaism has failed”. He mentions high rates of assimilation and the poor image Israel has in the world. I agree with him, there is a problem. Rabbinic Judaism has failed to provide the solution. I'm sorry, Shmuley, but your solution is no better, if not worse. The only solution is to return to GOD, not Jewish values based on traditions of men, and embrace our calling as a light to the nations. We, as Israel, must obey God and His commandments. God has given us a choice: life or death (see Deuteronomy 30). Let us chose the path of life! God has even promised us His Spirit to enable us to follow His decrees (Ezekiel 36:27). Only then can we go to the corners of the earth and teach the nations the greatness of our God!

Rabbinic Judaism vs. Torah: Who Will Win?

Recently I have been struck more and more by the extent to which rabbinic Judaism, while loudly claiming to uphold and promote Torah, actually denies and violates Torah.

A good example is the practice of kosher hotels in Jerusalem providing holiday meals to thousands of observant Jews every Pesakh, Shavuot, Rosh haShana, etc. To do so they must press into service an army of employees, both Jewish and Gentile. This is absolutely and unequivocally forbidden by Torah, which makes it clear that both the Israeli and the foreigner in the land are to rest and not work on shabbat (Exodus 23:12; Deuteronomy 5:14). Yet the practice is not only condoned by rabbinic Judaism, but actually nurtured and encouraged.

In talking with orthodox rabbinic Jews, it often becomes clear that the reason they do not follow Torah (despite claiming to) is because they do not believe Torah (despite claiming to). Over the centuries, rabbinic Judaism has invented all sorts of ways to make the text seem to mean just about anything except what it actually says! This applies to the shmita, the seventh-year rest of the land from agriculture; it applies to the claim that Re'uven did not really sleep with Bilhah, his father's concubine, though Genesis 35:22 says explicitly that he did; and it applies of course to numerous other scriptures.

Rabbinic Judaism does follow an observance that is in some way derived from or based on Torah. But there is always a twist, which usually distorts the actual mitzvot. One non-Jew who came to live in Jerusalem for a while noted that rabbinic Judaism seems to consist mainly of making up lots and lots of new rules that God never commanded, and then finding ways to get around the ones He did command! That's not a bad summary, sadly.

This system creates not only an entirely different view of Torah (than what results from simply reading the text), but also, therefore, a very different view of God, of life, of one's self, of one's community, of one's obligations and goals, and so forth. Despite all claims to the contrary, the lifestyle and mindset of rabbinic Judaism are often very far removed from those of Torah. It makes a difference whether one believes that the fathers sinned -- seriously and frequently -- or whether one instead insists, in blatant denial of what is recorded, that they were completely righteous and flawless. It makes a difference whether one believes that the foreigner in Israel should rest on shabbat or that we should set aside this clear commandment for the sake of our own convenience and pleasure.

The list of examples could go on and on. One topic that is often mentioned is the ridiculous and discriminatory insistence on matrilineal descent in defining Jewishness, despite universal acknowledgment that Torah operates primarily (if not exclusively) according to patrilineal descent. Or the intentional avoidance of work and army service by many ultra-orthodox Jews. There is ample evidence to prove that rabbinic Judaism -- while chanting Torah! Torah! Torah! -- has actually been fighting against the plain sense of the Torah for about 2,000 years. And this destruction of Torah is usually supported by the most nonsensical reasoning, which a child could see through but adults refuse to question. (I know that "nonsensical reasoning" is an oxymoron; but how else is one to describe the convoluted rationalizations?)

I am here to say that there are some of us Jews who actually want to follow Torah! Because the Torah, the teaching, of God gives life. It is what will give true life to our nation, and to the foreigners in our midst, and to the world. (See Leviticus 18:5; Ezekiel 20:11, 20:13; Nehemiah 9:29; etc.) It is what can give the dati (religious) and the khiloni (secular) fruitful and peaceful life. But the latter needs to set aside his aversion to God's ways. And the former needs to set aside his aversion to God's ways.

Currently rabbinic Judaism is far ahead of Torah in the minds and hearts of Israel. Can we change that? Please?

L'chaim!

To translate or not to translate? When is a language no longer itself?

"בתחילת הבריאה, כשברא אלוהים את העולם, והארץ היתה שוממה וריקה..."

"At the beginning of creation, when God created the world/universe, the earth was desolate and empty..."

— Bereshit/Genesis 1:1-2a in the modern Hebrew translation of Avraham Ahuvia, a 90-year-old Israeli kibbutznik

According to BAR:

• “I didn’t say ‘heaven and earth’ but ‘the world,’” Ahuvia said, “because on the second day he created the firmament and called it heaven. In the Bible, the phrase ha-shamayim ve-ha’aretz means ‘the world.’”

• Drora Halevy, national supervisor of Bible studies at the Ministry of Education, claims: “This translation cuts out the heart of the Bible. It reduces the Bible to just another book. In the Bible, form and content are bound together. The translation kills it."

 See also an older article in הארץ.