Reaching the Decision to Accept God Leaves from a Religious Notebook

Reaching the decision to accept god ... Simplicity Brings Us Closer to God I see a common thread running through the joy Karen Kasdan of hasidism, the honesty and self-confrontation There comes a time in every man's life when he of the Musar movement, the simplicity and vision must ask himself whether or not he still believes of the early religious Zionists, the this-worldly in God. religiosity of the old-styled Hirschian yekkes (German Jews), and the intellectual clarity and I remember when I was younger that I was always existential awareness of Rav Soloveitchik. Per- taught to believe that God was just and that the haps this common thread is the human element things that He did were good. At that time, I just — the awareness that the starting point of any accepted these beliefs without really questioning approach to Judaism is man. them. When I was fourteen my mother was killed. This ... Simplicity not Subtlety Engenders Piety tragedy changed my feelings towards God. I The essential element of kavanah (direction/ began to doubt Him and everything that He intent in prayer and mitzvot) is simplicity. Too meant to me. I even began to hate Him, or so I often, people think that real kavanah must involve thought Then through the help of my family and friends I began to accept the tragedy and to accept God. I Sh'ma am not saying that what God did was just or right, but then again I am not saying that it was not, a journal of Jewish responsibility either. All that I am trying to say is that at one Editor Eugene B. Borowitz time or another in our lives we all have to decide, Asst. to the Editor Jeffrey K. Salkin at least to ourselves, whether we accept God or Administrator Alicia Seeger reject him. Fellows Steve Bauman, David Dalin, Mory Korenblit, Michelle Mentzer, Anne Mintz Production Photo Graphics Leaves from a religious notebook Contributing Editors Saul Berman.J. David Bleich, Jonathan Chipman Balfour Brickner, Paula Hyman, Nora Levin, Richard Levy, Hans J. Morgenthau, David Novak, I envision a new path for religious Jewry, whose starting point is in what is conventionally known Harold Schulweis, Henry Schwarzschild, as Orthodoxy, but which moves towards some- Steven Schwarzschild, Seymour Siegel, Sharon Strassfeld thing new and unknown. Something halachically Elie Wiesel, Arnold Jacob Wolf, Michael Wyschogrod. rooted, but taking cognizance of the modern Sh'ma welcomes articles from diverse points of view. world in all senses: in taking the findings of Hence articles present only the views of the author, not modern Biblical and rabbinic scholarship serious- those of the editors. We do not correct obvious typos. ly: in a deep involvement in modern theology, Donations to Sh'ma, Inc., though particularly welcome psychology, literature, etc.; in a social-political during our annual deficit-reduction campaign, are needed attitude which is post-Zionist, in the sense of and hence appreciated all year long. They are tax-deductible. honestly respecting the legitimacy and potential Address all correspondence to: Box 567, Port Washington, for creativity of both the Diaspora and the State, N.Y. 11050. For a change of address, send present mailing without apologetics or moralism. Most of all, label and new address and allow four weeks. something which starts over and over again from the simplest truths: the oneness of God; the love Sh'ma is published bi-weekly except June, luly and August by Sh'ma, Inc. Office of publication: 735 Port Washington and fear of God in the personal realm; honesty, Blvd.. Port Washington. N.Y. 11050. Subscription $14.00 for simplicity, kindness in life as the hallmarks of the 2 years in U.S.A. and Canada; $19.00 for 3 years. $10.00 a religious life. It has all been said before, perhaps year overseas. Institutional bulk (10 or more copies to one. most eloquently in our time by Hillel Zeitlin z"l, address) $3.50 each per year. Copyright 1978 by Sh'ma, Inc. (may his memory be for blessing). But it needs to POSTMASTER: Please forward Form 3579 to Box 567, be said again and again. Port Washington, N.Y. 11050. Perhaps the most important starting point is Second class postage paid at Port Washington. N.Y. simply this: that the oneness of God takes in the Publication # 894500 whole world, in all of its varied human dimensions. 8/158, September 29, 1978 170 hours of esoteric kabbalistic meditations, or else beings, into ends in themselves. In Zionism, forcing one's body and mind into a frenzy of there is the danger that the focus on the very real intensity. It seems to me that kavanah is a simple needs of the Jewish people and its survival may redirecting of one's mind and heart towards the make the ideas and ideals of Judaism totally sub- awareness of God, and to the love and fear of servient to the needs of the group. Most of all, we Him. One needs to reach within to the quiet must learn how to return to lives of simplicity, to places in one's soul, to the most simple, natural, the love of justice and of good deeds, to being even childlike emotions, to be in touch with "modest, compassionate and doers of kindness." one's self, in order to perform genuine service ... Judaism Must Remain Life-Affirming and attachment to the Almighty. No book and no It is a truism to say that Judaism basically accepts set formula can do this for one. Simplicity — and man in his humanity, and has no equivalent to the honesty. If a person is honest with himself, he Christian doctrine of original sin — yet appar- knows when he is experiencing love and close- ently this truism bears repeating. There is an ness to God, and when he is playing games. All approach much in vogue in the Orthodox world the rest is scondary. The basic mitzvot — prayer, today which seems to be rooted, knowingly or the Shema, Shabbat, tefillin, Yom Kippur, etc. — in not, in a dualistic mode of thinking alien to Juda- their simple, most straightforward meanings, are ism. In this view, the natural impulses of man are sufficient for a lifetime. regarded as evil, and his life is only justified inso- ... Halachah Must be Culturally Determined far as he subjugates himself to the Torah, and denies his natjiral being. The preoccupation with Many of us have sought models for Jewish auth- minhagim (customs), rebbe-worship and stereo- enticity in the past. Young Jews, graduates of the typed forms of ecstasy within broad sectors of '60s youth culture, have grown beard andpayis, Hasidic Jewry: the mood of guilt pervading cer- put on black hats and long coats, and adopted the tain schools oiMusar (ethics): the authoritarian most stringent possible interpretation of the cult of the gedolim (great sages) and the halachic halacha in a quest for authentically Jewish lives. behaviorism rampant in the yeshiva world: all But authenticity is an elusive thing. What was reflect a negation of the humanistic, life-affirm- authentic for our grandfathers may be artificial ing motif which rims through Judaism. Perhaps for us. Understanding of the halacha involves a these ideas made their way into Judaism during certain "sixth sense" which comes with years of the Christian Middle Ages; perhaps they are an study and, particularly, close and careful reading understandable over-reaction to the hedonism of the sources without preconceived ideas. and lack of values in much of modern society. Through such study, a person may come to know Whatever the reason, it is clear that this was not what is essential and what is culturally deter- the Judaism taught by hazal ("The Rabbis"). mined in the halacha. The life-style of Rabban What we do believe in is a certain discipline and Yohanan ben Zakkai in 1st century Palestine was self-limitation in our approach to life; there is a markedly different from that of Maimonides in certain dialectical tension between simply 12th century Egypt, and both in turn differed accepting life as it is and sanctifying it through from that of the Gaon of Vilna in 18 th century the mitzvot But it is a far cry from that to the Lithuania. We must not be afraid to create a neurosis of humrot (stringencies). halachic life-style which grows out of the experi- ence of 20th century secular society, whether in ... We Must Seize Both Sides of the Dialectic the United States or Israel, and the breath of Our approach in all things must be a dialectical world-view, the open social framework, and the one. It's not a question of saying that x is wrong acceptance of women as equals and partners in and therefore I must go to its opposite, y, but of the work place and the school which that entails. encompassing both poles in life, and through living, come to a synthesis which embraces the ... Making Means the End is a Sin apparent contradiction. It is thus with the con- Both Orthodoxy, as commonly understood, and flict between the traditional understanding of Zionism run the risk of idolatry, albeit in very Torah from within and the critical, historical refined form: the substitution of the part for the approach which sees it from without The whole. In Orthodoxy, there is the danger of options are not "either/or," "true/false," but making the forms of religious service, which are some third way, as yet unknown, which we must meant to be expressions of love and fear of the discover and which will transcend both ways.

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