Our ninth-graders at the school where I teach hear from five guest speakers each year, who address the same pre-arranged five points of theology and answer questions. I haven't actually given such a speech (I am the teacher, not the guest), but I have thought about what I'd say if asked, as you might imagine. And I've written it up here. In my day-to-day speaking about these subjects, I am somewhat equivocal and less blunt. I have to allow people wiggle room to disagree. But, sometime before I retire or die, I hope I will have the opportunity to express these views plainly and unapologetically. My opinions were hard-won, difficult to discover, and are valuable to me. I guess most people feel the same way about theirs.
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GOD TALK: FIVE POINTS OF THEOLOGY
Introduction - King Josiah and the Torah Scroll he Discovered
King Josiah (יֹאשִׁיָּהוּ) was the sixteenth king of Judah, fourteenth in line from King David. He ruled approximately 640–610 BCE, and his son Zedekiah (צִדְקִיָּהוּ) went into exile in Babylonia as the last king of Judah.
According to the Bible's book of Kings, during Josiah's reign, "the book of the Torah" was discovered in the Temple. The book gave words of Moses from hundreds of years earlier, that no one had known of before, and it is now part of the Torah as we study it today. This story shows that the past is not always what you think. Sometimes the past can be re-imagined and altered.
I. What Happened at Mt. Sinai?
According to the story told in the book of Exodus, the Ten Commandments were given at Mt. Sinai. According to the story told in the book of Deuteronomy, the Ten Commandments were given at Mt. Horeb. These may be different names for the same place, or different places, or no known place. The versions of the Ten Commandments in Exodus and Deuteronomy are moderately but significantly different from each other. Even the slightest difference should be surprising if the Ten Commandments were really written on stone by the finger of God.
The early Hebrew tradition was largely oral although the priestly class had some literate members. Eventually the tradition came to include stories and cultural memories about its own origins. Some stories centered around a lawgiver named Moshe. Eventually (like in the Josiah story), priests produced teachings and texts which presented themselves as coming from Moshe.
What do I think happened at Sinai? Sinai-Horeb is the mythical origin story for the religious tradition of the Jewish people. The story is a dream. The Jewish people and our culture are real. Am Yisrael chai (עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי).
II. What Happens After We Die?
The Jewish Bible takes shockingly little interest in the notion of an afterlife. The Tanakh accepts death at face value.
I do not think that the individual survives the death of the body and the cessation of brain function. Consciousness is an effect of the brain. If your hand were amputated, you might survive, and you might even write the next great novel or symphony. If your head were amputated, given current technology, you would not survive, and you would not be writing any novels.
We are members of a species - the human race - which was here before we were born and will continue long after we die. The species is immortal, or relatively so. The adaptation of the species, generation to generation, is the key to evolutionary success. The immortality of the individual would not be advantageous and is not to be desired. The individual's knowledge and values may possibly be passed on to the next generation through communication, culture, language, and memory.
III. How Does God Act in the World?
Semantically, I understand the word "God" to mean, "The Power or Intelligence Behind All That Is." Anything that happens is God's doing. "How does God act in the world?" Always, in everything.
A. Is God Personal?
In the Bible, God is certainly portrayed as personal. But in life as we experience it, the power behind what happens does not seem to be personal. It does not respond to our attempts to interact with it in personal ways.
We human beings are personal, we are conscious, and we have purpose and intention. Primitive people projected those qualities onto the physical universe and thus onto God. Even modern people do that.
B. Does God Control Our Lives?
Most of the fabric of my life came into being without my choice. I do have some ability to change my circumstances. I can learn a new language, settle in a new country, adopt a new culture, educate myself, choose a profession, adopt good or bad health habits, and cultivate good or bad relationships. I can work to make a positive difference in society, or be destructive, or be ineffectual. As Rabbi Yisroel Ciner put it: We do not control the cards we are dealt, but we control how we play them.
C. Do we have Free Will or is our Fate Predetermined?
Jewish tradition, as represented by Moses Maimonides, places great emphasis on the idea of moral responsibility. All the rest of life may be beyond a person's ability to choose, but the moral shaping of oneself is always up to the person.
Our circumstances are a complex interaction of our own actions, the actions of others in our communities and in society at large, and the phenomena of nature. Since we do not fully understand or control these patterns of cause and effect, we might see them as destined or predestined. We should neither minimize nor overestimate the amount of influence we have over our own circumstances.
IV. Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
What is a bad thing? It seems like a stupid question. A bad thing is something which is destructive to human life; something which causes pain from which there is no benefit. How do bad things come into our lives? In three ways.
First, through bad actors. That is, human beings acting destructively, whether through bad intention or neglect. Why doesn't a god intervene and stop destructive actions from being destructive -- stop bad actions from being bad? Because that would be a fantasy world and good and bad would be meaningless terms. Good actions produce good, wholesome, enjoyable, constructive, healthy results. Bad actions are destructive. If actions had no consequences then no actions would be bad or good.
Second, we can be bad actors toward ourselves. Often self-destructive behavior is the source of most of our unhappiness.
Third, unfortunate things happen because nature operates oblivious to our happiness. We ascribe personality to Nature, although it has none. It does not favor us and it is not hostile to us. Natural selection in a competition for survival is the engine for the process of evolution. Obstacles, dangers, scarcity, injury, illness and mortality are all extremely unpleasant to us, but without them human beings would not exist.
V. What is the meaning of prayer and mitzvot (specifically the mitzvot of Shabbat and Kashrut)?
Prayer. Prayer as meditation is very meaningful to me, as a way of seeing myself in relationship to a greater reality. Every morning I say "Modeh Ani'' to enter into a mindset of gratitude. Then I say the Shema which connects me to my people of all places and times who reached toward the Ultimate. Through the Shema I am reminded that the world does not revolve around me as an individual. I say the V'ahavta and I am also reminded of the other V'ahavta, וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ - "and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." I learn to cherish myself as I learn to value others.
Prayer in an assembly of worshippers is also meaningful to me: It binds me to the community, and the poetic music of the synagogue service is comforting and uplifting.
I do not believe in prayer as a means for changing the operations of the world outside. My observation of the world tells me that things sometimes happen as we hope, and sometimes happen as we fear, but prayer makes no difference in the outcome. Sometimes a favorable outcome emerges against the odds, and people speak of a miracle. I understand God as the Power behind what happens, all the time, not just miracles and favorable events. In my own hours of desperation, out of concern for myself or a loved one, I may plead my case to God. It's a natural human reaction, but my intellect does not support it.
Mitzvot. I believe that morality is anchored in the nature of social reality, and is not arbitrary. Doing to others as you would have them do to you is good for you, good for your relationships, and good for society. The opposite is true as well. I do not believe that the moral ideas advocated in the Torah are completely correct and wholesome. We must use our best ethical insights to critique the Torah, sometimes learn from it, but sometimes discard or even repudiate certain teachings.
Kashrut and Shabbat. I consider myself a Participating Jew rather than an Observant Jew. I derive great pleasure from activities that connect me to Jewish culture, whether religious or not. I enjoy Jewish music, trips to centers of Jewish culture including Israel, Jewish cuisine whether Kosher or not, synagogue services (if not too long), Shabbat meals with all their rituals, and Jewish learning.
I do not attempt to follow the Shabbat restrictions on activities. I recognize that many people find Shabbat rest to be liberating and uplifting. I enjoy positive aspects of Shabbat - the Shabbat meals, the Shabbat evening service and about half of the Shabbat morning service, Hebrew singing, and joining with family and friends.
My family of origin never kept Kosher, although my mother was a master of Ashkenazi Jewish cooking. The disciplines of Kashrut have the effect of keeping Jews living in close communities, so that Kosher food will be available. I consider that a good thing. Kashrut also has the effect of keeping Jews and non-Jews from getting too close, because it forbids Jews from eating the cooked food of Gentiles. I don't consider that a good thing. I think that life is enriched by experiencing cultures in all their varieties, and a significant part of culture is cuisine. Kashrut limits life in a way that I don't think it should be limited.
Intellectually, I think that a Vegan diet is the healthiest and most ethical way to eat, and if I had the self-discipline, I think I would be Vegan. But my few attempts at vegetarianism have never lasted.
Conclusion
I believe that there is comfort and perspective to be gained in seeing ourselves in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes I call the grand scheme of things, God. I don't think that God has a human-like personality, communicates verbally, or responds to human words. We have to use our critical thinking and capacities of imagination to search for the best way to live and increase happiness in the world.
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