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The Meaning in Modern Jewish Religion THE MEANING OF GOD IN MODERN JEWISH RELIGION Mordecai M. Kaplan Introduction by Mel Scult THE MEANING OF GOD IN MODERN JEWISH RELIGION Mordecai M. Kaplan With an Introduction by Mel Scult ~ WAYNE ST ATE UNIVERSITY PRESS Detroit Flnt published 1937 by Behrman House. Reprinted 1962 by Reconstructionist Press. Reprinted 1994 by Wayne State University Press. C.Opyright O 1962 by the Recontructionist Press. Introduction copyright o 1994 by Wayne State University Press. Detroit, Michigan 48201. All rights are re5erVed. No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission. Manufactured in the United States of America. 98 s 4 3 2 Library of Congress Cataloging·in-Publication Data Kaplan, Mordecai Manahem, 1881 - The meaning of God in modem Jewish religion/Mordecai M. Kaplan : with an introduction by Mel Scult. p. cm. Previously published: New York : Reconstructionist Press, 1962. With new introd. Includes index. lSBN 0-1843-2552-1 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. God Oudaism) 2. Judaism-20th century. 3. Reconstructionist Judaism. I. Title. BM610.l<3 1994 296.3'11-dc20 94-39719 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION BY MELScULT ...................................... ix FOREWORD TO 1962 EDITION ....................................... xxii PREFACE .................................................................. xxiv CBAPTZll I. INTRODUCTION: How TO REINTERPRET THE Goo IDEA IN THE }EWISH RELIGION • I 1. How to maintain the continuity of the Jew­ ish religion in a changing world (p. 1). 2. Re­ fusal to recognize the chasm between the tra­ ditional and the modem world-view responsible for ambiguous theology of Conservative Juda­ ism ( p. 9). 3. Reformist theology irrelevant because of its failure to realize that religion must express itself in the context of a civiliza­ tion (p. 14). 4 The synthesis of incompatible notions about God a heritage from the past (p. 20). 5. What belief in God means, from the modem point of view (p. 25). 6. God not known unless sought after (p. 29). 7. The Jewish Sabbath and Festivals as focal points in the context of Jewish life, which can yield a conception of God that is Jewish, modern and relevant (p. 34). II. Goo AS THE POWER THAT MAKES FOR SALVA­ TION 1. The traditional conception of salvation (p. 43). 2 . What salvation must mean in our day (p. 51). 3. Why the Sabbath should serve as the symbol of this-worldly salvation ( p. 57) . 4. God as the creative life of the universe the antithesis of irrevocable fate and absolute evil (p. 61). 5. God as manifest in life's holiness which presupposes personality (p. 81). 6. Com­ mitment to Judaism a source of salvation to the Jew (p. go). v vi CONTENTS CBAPl'D •Mm Ill Go1> AS THE PowER THAT MAKES POR SoclAL REGENERATION 104 1. The change in the conception of God's sover­ eignty necessitated by the modern emphasis upon GOd's immanence (p. to6). 2 . The revaluation of the concept of GOd's sovereisnty in terms of individual responsibility (p. I 12). 3. The reval­ uation of the concept of God's sovereignty in terms of social reconstruction (p. I 19). 4. The ethical versus the communist conception of social reconstruction as the alternative ·to the tradi­ tional one (p. 126). 5. What constitutes the re­ ligious attitude toward social evil? (p. 130). 6. How to cultivate faith in the possibilities for good in human life ~P· 135). 7. Social crises an evidence of Gods sovereignty (p. 140). 8. God fully manifest only in the maximum attainment of individuality and cooperation (p. 145). IV. GoD AS THE POWER THAT MAKES FOR THE REGENERATION OP HUMAN NATURE . 149 1. The evolution of the sense of sin (p. 150). 2. The gradual moralization of the sense of sin (p. 154). 3. The traditional conception of the Torah not conducive to the complete moraliza­ tion of the sense of sin (p. 158). 4. The ethical revaluation of the traditional conception of sin (p. 16o). 5. The ethical revaluation of the tradi­ tional conception of atonement as symbolized by the ritual of fasting and the 'Abodah (p. 166). 6. Repentance as the remaking of human nature (p. 178). V. GoD IN NATURE AND IN HISTORY • 188 1. The consciousness of history as an ethical in­ fluence (P· 188). 2 . The continuity of the Jew­ ish reli~on due to its emphasis upon the ethical conception of God (p. 192). 3. The ethical ver­ sus the utilitarian function of religion (p. 194). 4. The reason for retaining the nature aspect of the Pilgrimage Festivals (p. 199). CONTEN'l'S vii CllAPDll IPMJS VI. GoD AS THE POWER THAT MAKES FOR COOP- ERATION 202 I. The original connotation of the SMkkah the basis of its significance for our day (p. 204). 2 . The sacredness of human rights (p. 2k2). 3. The meaning of equality (p. 215). + How civilizations have destroyed equality (p. 218). 5. The dispensing of happiness as the norm of a civilization (p. 225). 6. Coo~ration the chief source of happiness ; competition its principal menace (p. 228). VII. Go1> FELT AS A PJUrSENCE • • 243 r. Public worshie as a means to awareness of God's presence (p. 244). 2. Why individual religion is not enough (p. 250). 3. The argu­ ments~ public worship (p. 257). +The prereqwsites to public worship as a means of cxpenencing the divine presence (p. 261). VIII. GoD AS THE POWER THAT MAKES POil FUEDOK • 265 1. The meaning of freedom (p. 268). 2. The significance o~ individuality ( p. 272) . 3. The liberation of personality (p. 281). + The rela­ tion of freedom to life (p. 28g). 5. The divine dialectic of freedom (p. 293). IX. "Goo AS THE POWER THAT MAKES POR RIGHT· EOUSNESS-NOT 0URSELVD" 297 1. The association of religion with the moral law (p. 299). 2. The Jewish contribution to the moralization of the God idea (p. 303). 3. How to recapture the consciousness of the divine sanc­ tion for the moral law (p. 3o6). 4- The moral law, as applied to the life of nations, in need of divine sanction (p. 311). 5. Righteousness to be translated into law (p. 315). 6. Why humanism is not enough (p. 320 ). viii CONTENTS CllAl'TD •Mm X. JEWISH RELIGION AS A MEANS TO JEWISH NATIONAL SURVIVAL • 330 I. The survival power of a religion that invests its sancta with universal significance (p. 332). 2. How Judaism met the challenge of one civil­ ization after another (p. 334). 3. How Judaism should meet the challenge of modem occidental civilization (p. 347). 4- The reconstruction which the Jewish religion must undergo to func­ tion as a means of Jewish survival (p. 355). 5. The status of the Jews as a minority group a source of spiritual values (p. 36o). INDEX .......................................................................369 INTRODUCTION Mel Scult MORDECAI Kaplan (1881-1988), the father of Reconstruc­ tionism, has been called the prophet of Jewish renewal. Throughout his life he searched for ways to help the mod­ ern Jew relate meaningfully to the Jewish tradition. In his present work, published three years after his magnum opus Judaism as a Civilization, Kaplan translates the major cate­ gories of traditional Jewish life into the compelling lan­ guage of the present using the structure of the Jewish holy days. Kaplan was the preeminent teacher of American Jewry during the first half of the twentieth century. A product of Jewish civilization in Lithuania, he arrived here as a child, was reared on the Lower East Side of New York, attended City College, and graduated the Jewish Theological Semi­ nary in 1902, a month after the arrival of Solomon Schech­ ter. Kaplan's career was to be intimately tied to the Jewish Theological Seminary. In 1909 he became the principal of the Teachers' Institute, began teaching in the rabbinical school, and remained on the staff for the next fifty-four years. It was during his graduate work at Columbia (1900- 1906) that the young orthodox Kaplan began to doubt the primary doctrines of traditional Judaism. His professors, in­ cluding the celebrated founder of Ethical Culture, Felix Adler, and the pioneer in sociology, Franklin Giddings, en­ couraged his interest in the sociological underpinnings of ix THE MEANING OF GOD And Ephraim said: 'Surely I am become rich, I have found me wealth, In all my labors they shall find in me, No iniquity that were sin.' But I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt. I will yet make thee to dwell in tents, As in the day of the appointed season.'' .. The rabbinic passage is based on the verse, "He builded His vault upon the earth." • • The original for "vault," [ agudato, which the Rabbis take to mean "his band," enables them to regard that verse as emphasizing the significance of r human cooperation and as implying that such cooperation manifests the reality and presence of God.•• Hence, they teach that the "four species of plants," when held together in the act of worship, symbolize the truth that when men I, achieve unity, they bring God's Shekinah down to earth. 0 u Hosea 12:7-10. ••Amos 9:6. 0 Sifre on Deut. 33 :5. .. M enohot 27a. VI! GOD FELT AS A PRESENCE SHEHINI AzERET commemorates no particular event, and is observed by no distinctive rites. Although coming im­ mediately after the festival of Sukkot, it is declared to be a holiday in its own right. 1 These facts constituted an enigma sufficient to elicit from the ancient Rabbis explanations in keeping with their general outlook. According to one of these explanations, God is represented as a bountiful master moved by the lavishly generous hom­ age of His faithful servants. As they are about to depart after many days of festivity, He asks them to stay one more day, thereby indicating how He regrets their leaving.
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