In a blog widely read on the internet last week,
a “ba’al teshuvah” from Jerusalem wrote:
The big flaw and the unsolvable problem of
Reform Judaism is that it does not acknowledge the divinity of the Torah and
the obligation of a Jew to follow Jewish law (halachah) accordingly. If the
Torah is not from G-d and G-d is not real, then why be Jewish? What’s the
point?
For the aforementioned blogger, the divine Torah
is his primary object of interest and value, and the rest of Jewish life is of
interest and value only derivatively. That derivative value is strong enough
that he has moved to Israel, sired seven children there, presumably fought in the
army, and in general lived what I’m sure is an admirable Jewish life – all
because he believes that G-d told him to. I do not want to denigrate this
person at all. However, I cannot believe that he finds no value in Jewish life
apart from a command of G-d. I cannot believe that if his faith in the
“divinity of the Torah” should waver tomorrow, that the next day he would leave
Israel, disown his wife and children, stop speaking Hebrew, and in every way
abandon the whole array of culture, wisdom, religion, history, experience, and
existential feeling called “Yiddishkeit.”
In contrast, for me, it is the Jewish people,
our history, culture, values, music, food, languages, struggles, triumphs, and
intense belonging with each other that is the primary object of interest and
value, as far as religion is concerned. The Jewish people have an
historic religion, partly based on but in no way limited by the Torah. To me
the Torah (divine or not) has derivative interest and value, the primary
interest and value for me being the Jewish people themselves. Like the blogger,
my derivative values can be quite intense. I am intensely interested
in the religious heritage of the Jewish people, including the part he considers
the divine Torah. I study it a lot, and value it a lot. The fact that it is a
derivative value for me does not mean at all that is of slight value.
To sum up:
- Jerusalem blogger values an idea about the Jewish religious heritage, and therefore values the Jews.
- I value the Jews and therefore our religious heritage.
