The Reconstructionist Volume 69, Number 2, Spring 2005 Table of Contents 2 From the Editor Jewish : Theory and Practice 4 A. Teutsch, Reinvigorating the Practice of Contemporary Jewish Ethics: A Justification for Values-Based Decision Making 16 Brant Rosen, Forging Connections: Report from Natandome Village, Uganda 24 Anne Underwood, Sexual Misconduct: An Issue of Ethics and 31 Mordechai Liebling, The Jewish Basis for Shareholder Activism 35 Christina Ager, Every Day Ethics: God is in the Details 41 Moti Rieber, Simplicity as a Jewish : Reclaiming and Reconstructing Sumptuary Legislation 49 Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, What Is Religious about Ethics?

Viewpoint 58 Waxman, The Emergence of an Icon: Yahrtzeit Plaques in 20th-Century American

Book Reviews 76 Natan Fenner, A Guide for the End of Life Review of Behoref. Hayamim/In the Winter of Life: A Values-Based Jewish Guide for Decision Making at the End of Life, edited by David Teutsch and 86 Nina Mandel, Responding to Intermarriage Review of Introducing My Faith and My Community: The Jewish Outreach Guide for the Christian in a Jewish Interfaith Relationship, by Kerry M. Olitzky and Interfaith : Personal Stories of Jewish-Christian Intermarriage, by Jane Kaplan 91 Sheila Peltz Weinberg, Eternal Questions, Prayerful Responses Review of Filling Words with Light: Hasidic and Mystical Reflections on , by Lawrence Kushner and Nehemiah Polen FROM THE EDITOR

The relationship between and ethics is venerable, if complex. It is difficult to find a religious tradition that does not, in some way, embody an ethical perspective as well as specific ethical prescriptions and proscriptions. Jewish tradition is no different. The ancient rabbinic authorities differed as to whether the of the tradition could be parsed into those bayn adam l’makom (“ritual”) and those bayn adam l’havero. (“ethical”), but the fact that they evolved such categories at least tells us that the ethical could be expected to be found within the larger context of the religious. When the Reform movement in Judaism developed in the 19th century, it attempted to remake Judaism into a religious creed in place of the civilization of a national group. “” became the banner under which the new Reform organized. The ritual regulations were reduced in signifi- cance, or even in some cases eliminated, while the ethical imperatives of the (if not always the ethical “laws” of the Torah) were elevated. As noted in The Future of the American (1948), the traditional Jewish perspective on ethics presumed a supernatural God and a divinely-revealed Torah. As Creator, God was the measure of right and wrong; as a reliable record of revelation, the Torah embodied God’s expectations (and a Jew’s obligations) with regard to proper behavior. Under the impact of moder- nity, both of those presumptions were challenged. The difference between our fathers’ attitude to the Torah and that which we today must take is this: They assumed that the Torah was perfect and its value realized through obedience and conformity with its standards; we should see in it the beginning of an eternal quest which we must continue. We can discover value in the Torah by utilizing it as a living tradition, a sort of collective memory of valuable experience. [M]odern can use the Torah for inspiration and guidance, even though they cannot commit themselves blindly to an acceptance of all its teachings (p. 346; italics in original). The liberal religious project of trying to discover and agree upon ethical prin- ciples in the absence of certainty about Scripture and the nature of God is re- lated to that aspect of that strives to establish moral postulates and ethical imperatives on the basis of reason rather than revelation. Contemporary religion shares the concern of classical religion that standards of right behavior be established and maintained. But in the absence of orthodox faith, a degree of the relative and the tentative is introduced into moral discourse. It is this absence of ultimate authority that agitates religious as well as cultural fundamentalists — those for whom there can only be one right way of being, of doing and of living. For those adhering to this type of creed, pluralism necessar-

2 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist ily implies relativism, and relativism is portrayed as an invitation to . Reconstructionist Judaism has tried to ground ethical imperatives in places other than a belief in revelation. In Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Ap- proach, Rebecca Alpert and Jacob Staub write:

But if Reconstructionists don’t view texts and traditions as authorita- tive, how can we be guided by them? Through the workings of com- munity. Reconstructionist communities seek to counter the cultural bias in North America that places a supreme value on individualism, personal autonomy, and privacy. It is not the case that a person’s ethi- cal behavior is nobody else’s business. If Judaism is a civilization, then how you conduct your business, how you treat or mistreat people, and how much or little you contribute your time and money to commu- nity building and social action matter as much as how you pray . . . People do the right thing not because they are commanded to do so, but rather because they are influenced by and feel responsible to other members of the community (2d edition, pp. 98-99; italics in original).

The challenge of formulating a contemporary Jewish ethics continues to be both provocative and stimulating.

In This Issue

In this issue we present a series of perspectives on ethics, dealing with both theory and practice, which pick up various aspects of the modern and post- modern discussion about the relationship between ethics and religion. We also are pleased to offer in the “Viewpoint” section a thoughtful historical analysis of one of the common symbols of architecture, the memorial plaque. The evolution of this symbol is shown to reflect the historical develop- ment of the American Jewish community. In the “Book Reviews” section, we have, appropriately for this issue, included a review of a recent publication on end-of-life decision making published by the Center for Jewish Ethics at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. We also feature reviews of new books on issues of intermarriage and on hasidic and mys- tical insights on prayer.

Our 70th Anniversary

Our next issue (Fall 2005) will celebrate the 70th anniversary of The Re- constructionist, with a series of articles, analyses and reflections on the past, present and future of Reconstructionist Judaism. —Richard Hirsh

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 3 Reinvigorating the Practice of Contemporary Jewish Ethics: A Justification For Values- Based Decision Making

BY DAVID A. TEUTSCH

ften described as a way of life, that Jews did many things, so a theo- Judaism must shape the ev- logical justification was not that impor- O eryday conduct of Jews to tant. Living together reinforced Jewish deserve that description. But in our conduct and values. Self-governance time Jewish approaches to moral and the institutions of the kehilla (or- thought and action do not usually ganized community) strengthened the shape the lives of . This coherence of that culture and its capac- essay discusses how we reached this ity to sustain itself. situation, the nature of moral action, With modernity came secular citi- and what we can do to reinvigorate zenship, and with it the end of the pre- Jewish moral engagement. modern, self-governing Jewish commu- Historians and philosophers agree nity. and had been that it is a mistake to equate law and evolving to meet the changing needs ethics. The Jewish concept of lifnim of the community because of the natu- meshurat hadin implies that one must ral social regulation characteristic of often go beyond the letter of the law communities. Secular citizenship dis- to achieve fully moral conduct. None- rupted that evolution, immersed Jews theless law in a society generally embod- in modern society, and shattered the ies at least minimal moral standards. community that had provided the con- In pre-modern Jewish communities text for absorbing Jewish precepts and halakha, Jewish law, was an integral living by Jewish ethics. part of , and minhag (cus- tom) that supported it shaped much Loss of Organic Community of daily living. For Jews in that pre- modern world, halakha defined the way The loss of that organic community

Dr. David A. Teutsch is the Director of the Center for Jewish Ethics and Myra and Louis Wiener Professor of Contemporary Jewish Civilization at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

4 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist radically altered the course of Jewish anchors our sense of truth and reality life. Suddenly minhag and halakha were is perhaps beyond culture, beyond in- optional, not obligatory. Whether to tellectualization, and beyond language follow them became a question, the to express accurately, even though it response to which gave rise to the mod- profoundly shapes each of these. Such ern Jewish religious movements, each experience in our own lives extends and with a different ideology describing the reinvigorates both the Sinai metaphor relationships between God, the Jewish and our confidence in our own moral people and Torah. Neither modern Or- legitimation. thodoxy nor any of the liberal move- While many of us anchor ourselves ments, however, arrested Jewish assimi- in what we believe to be a transcen- lation. Jewish acculturation to America dent ground of truth, we cannot escape involved education, clothing, language, our own human experience, which is cultural and recreational activities — limited by our physical finitude, lim- all the elements of daily life. As con- ited by the constraints of our senses and nection to Jewish community and cul- minds and by the complicated interac- ture eroded in people’s lives, so did the tion between thoughts, feelings and the presence of Jewish practice and ethics. culture in which we are located. Phi- Reinvigorating Jewish ethics is criti- losophers in previous generations as- cal to the future of Jewish culture, to sumed they were working to describe the relevance of Judaism to contempo- objective reality. rary Jews, and to the positive influence More recently, we have come to face of Judaism in the world. But how can that we cannot legitimately claim to that be accomplished? What is the ground know objective reality. Located as we of moral life, and given the current na- are solely within the human experience, ture of American Jewish life, what is a we necessarily settle for something less. plausible moral decision-making process? We now recognize that people base their claims about objectivity on their Legitimation and Truth Claims capacity to reach agreements about what they believe is true that include One major strand of Jewish tradi- the largest possible number of people tion holds, paradoxically, that the Jew- and cultures. The broadest possible in- ish people heard only the alef of Anokhi1 ter-subjective agreement is as close to at Mt. Sinai. They waited to hear the objectivity as we can come. rest of Torah from their leader The idea of objectivity emerged and his successors. The ineffable expe- from the development of culture in rience Jewish tradition connects to general and from philosophy in par- Sinai is the claimed origin and legiti- ticular. As with many ideas, the limita- mation for Jewish tradition. Such ex- tions of the idea of objectivity emerged perience, regardless of its origin, is al- only after the idea had been in use for ways experienced as powerful and life- centuries. Many people feel secure in changing. The powerful experience that their belief that they can know objec-

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 5 tive truth. For them the loss of that about as if they were separate, but they belief can be profoundly disturbing. are actually always highly interactive.3 People often prefer to believe in the Each is shaped by the others in ways effortless clarity of black-and-white that are extraordinarily complicated truth. The lack of certainty is a source and far from fully understood. We do of insecurity. Efforts to increase cer- not yet even have explanations for tainty consume considerable energy why one of these factors seems to domi- and absorb a great deal of attention. nate the others at different moments However, in order to think clearly we in our lives.4 We do know that this does must recognize the limits of our knowl- not happen in the manner that the af- edge. Recognizing our intellectual lim- fected individuals regard as optimal, its brings us closer to truth. and we often have less control over these shifts than most of us would like. Search for Objective Truth Scientists and social scientists share awareness of the complexities of the Classical moral philosophy sought to brain and limitations of rationality. arrive at statements about the right and That awareness requires us to think the good that are objectively true for afresh about what we are trying to ac- all times, places and people. That con- complish through moral discourse. cern has continued into our own day, Simply put, it is not enough for us to represented by such contemporary achieve a high level of moral reason- work as ’ A Theory of Jus- ing. We engage in moral discourse to tice.2 Rawls is concerned with develop- discover moral action in order to act ing for creating a just soci- morally. From my outcome-driven per- ety. Those principles, he asserts, ought spective, our moral dialogue needs to to work in any society in any time and lead us to actually doing good and do- place. ing right, or it is a failure. Moral philosophers like Rawls talk about how a rational person would act. Moral Reasoning They can perhaps give parameters for governments, but this does not work The work of Lawrence Kohlberg in the same way for the decisions of portrays six levels of moral reasoning.5 individuals and small groups, with their His theory was that if moral reasoning particular tastes, histories and concerns. could be improved, conduct would fol- Rawls’ work is strikingly devoid of par- low. It was quite shocking when his ticular small-scale applications. Fur- critics laid out hard research that thermore, has gradually forced showed there is little correlation be- us to recognize that the “purely ratio- tween the level of reasoning achieved nal person” does not exist. Our bio- and the kind of action taken.6 Simply chemistry, emotions, intellects, spirit, put, knowing what is right doesn’t nec- brains, sensory experience, minds, so- essarily lead to doing it.7 People can be cietal inputs and intuition can be talked selfish in the pursuit of their narrow

6 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist self-interest. They can be self-indul- and tribes. In order to along, they gent, cruel or self-serving, often with- took cues from each other as to lan- out a qualm. Moral reasoning by itself guage, thought and action. From in- clearly does not sufficiently motivate fancy peo-ple learn to act the way they an individual to act on its conclusions. do from others, and they are constantly Fortunately, human beings do not receiving feedback from each other. make most of their decisions in social The human species has been success- isolation. We depend not as much on ful because people are capable of har- moral reasoning as on moral examples, monizing with each other and coordi- social pressure and social convention nating their efforts to accomplish the to shape our conduct. tasks required to create culture and do This recognition is embedded in the work. The ability to adapt and interact Jewish critique of Kierkegaard’s por- is part of the human evolutionary ad- trayal of the Abraham of the Akeda as vantage. It is also why we cannot le- a “lonely knight of faith.” Jews have gitimately deal with human behavior traditionally seen Abraham not as a without looking at its interpersonal lonely knight — an isolated individual setting. in relationship exclusively with God — but rather as a human being with rela- Role of Society and Culture tionships with , clan and tribe. Indeed, other people — for most of us, Society and culture play a major role our parents — taught us to walk and in shaping our wants and desires. talk through example and interaction. People are too complex to be totally Without relationships we would never predictable, and sometimes they inno- have learned to talk; we would never vate or rebel in ways that bring sweep- have become acculturated. And of ing changes. Nevertheless, society and course each culture is composed of the culture generally shape our expecta- accretions of generations that children tions of our own actions and those of unselfconsciously absorb through their others, providing the context for our families and peers. Relationships and moral decisions. It is our culture, re- cultural absorption are profoundly in- fracted through family and other tertwined. groups, that shapes the moral universe Our moral decisions and actions within which we live. Of course in con- never happen outside the context of re- temporary culture, most people are part lationship and culture.8 Quite the con- of several groups and multiple cultures. trary! Everything that we understand This multiplies their identity choices about ourselves we understand because and behavioral options, creating signifi- of our relationships and culture. We are cant internal tensions, a challenge to not objective because we are rooted in which I return later in this essay. these aspects of the human experience. During much of its history, moral As far back as anthropologists can philosophy attempted to ask what an trace, human beings existed in clans individual ought to do without con-

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 7 sidering the individual’s cultural con- opportunity (and as a Jew, I would add text. From the perspective that I have the of b’tselem elohim, that hu- described above, answering that ques- man beings are all equally in the di- tion is not terribly useful, which is for- vine image). Thus, our morals evolve tunate because for the most part it is a because the conditions in which they question that is impossible to answer. function evolve. There are those who The critical question is what a particu- live in parts of the world where eco- lar individual embedded in a particu- nomic conditions have not yet made lar social setting at a particular moment patriarchy antiquated, and there are should do. The complex social setting others who cling to it out of tradition. with its particularities of economics, But moral evolution is occurring in family structure, rituals, customs and their lives as well. relationships provides the setting The conditions causing this evolu- within which we function and shapes tion can be classified as political, eco- the choices we make. nomic, social, and technoscientific. These can be summarized by the acro- Evolution of Morals nym PEST.9 The PEST conditions are the result of complex interactions be- Let me give an example. One cur- yond most individuals’ ability to con- rent theory about cultural evolution is trol. When the PEST situation changes, that patriarchy developed along with we adapt to the new realities they cre- the emergence of elaborate agriculture ate in order to thrive. Our moral life that required the use of implements so must adapt just as surely as other parts heavy that only men could effectively of culture do. Thus we should under- wield them. Patriarchy in this reading stand as contextual. is historically located. It is not an acci- Culture carries forward moral un- dent that in post-industrial societies, derstandings that individuals absorb where virtually all jobs can be done without necessarily being conscious of interchangeably by either men or wom- it. Every culture has its own norms, val- en, patriarchy has begun to give way ues, obligations, , responsibilities, to gender equality. ideals and customs. This moral cluster In our post-modern cultural setting, is what Alasdair MacIntyre calls a liberal Jews agree that sexism and sup- “moral thicket.” He describes it that port for patriarchy are moral errors, but way because of the tangle these moral to accuse the families living in those elements create. Most of the time we early agricultural settlements of moral can navigate our culture’s moral thicket error because they were patriarchal does without thought because of our capac- not make very much sense. On the ity to repeat unselfconsciously behav- other hand, retaining patriarchal struc- iors that are effective and socially ac- tures when they are no longer economi- ceptable. cally or socially justifiable is immoral However, the elements of the moral because it violates the principle of equal thicket do not interact neatly and pre-

8 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist dictably but rather in complex ways. in part on definitions of terms, in part These interactions are shaped by cul- on authority claims and in part on his- ture, shifting circumstances and pre- torical analysis. Too complex to explore senting issues. Our moral life takes here, it hinges in part on what consti- place within that complexity. The task tutes an acceptable level of collateral of ethics is to help us navigate in a damage in a just war — and what con- manner appropriate to each new set of stitutes a just war. A rich literature ex- circumstances we face. plores that issue.10 As discussed above, the adaptation Reaffirming Universal Positions of Jewish ethics to changing circum- stances occurred naturally through Despite the fact that morality is cul- halakha and minhag in the organic Jew- turally conditioned, there are some ish communities of earlier generations. statements about human moral life that While rabbis were often the decisors rise above context. While we might de- during this period, the needs and con- bate what they are, one that is very cerns of the community members and broadly held is, “You shall not murder.” their willingness to accept some lead- Moral relativists would say this is not ers’ decisions and reject others created an absolute rule, but most people a dynamic tension that permitted such would disagree, as would philosophers evolution. In our time, with the organic from Socrates to Rawls. We might dis- community a distant memory, the chal- agree somewhat about how to define lenge is to create communities with the “murder,” but we would agree about power to shape substantially the moral most cases. There is strong intersub- life of the community and its members. jective agreement here, if not objectiv- This can only happen through volun- ity! tary that grows out of moral Loyalty to family is another univer- dialogue. Creating the kind of dialogue sal, perhaps because it confers an evo- that can alter the commitments of com- lutionary advantage. Morality generally munity members and create broadly furthers the interests of our species. Of shared agreement — or at least influ- course the existence of moral precepts ence — is particularly critical in vol- does not guarantee individual compli- untary communities, where there is a ance. The fact that we can find only a minimal ability to enforce compliance. small number of universal precepts, and that even these are understood slightly Problems of Adapting Culture differently in different cultures, under- lines the degree to which many of our One of the marks of a strong cul- moral decisions can only be understood ture is its capacity to acculturate chil- in context. Even how we understand dren and other new members to its way murder differs, as the actions of con- of doing things. Among the tools for temporary terrorists demonstrate. doing that are language, practices that Moral argument against terrorism rests can be duplicated, customs, rituals, and

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 9 other forces of socialization. One of the vision, movies, books, magazines, problems with living in a rapidly games, sports — are not Jewish. Their changing world is that groups have a Jewish acculturation is therefore highly hard time adapting their cultures to the limited. When culture becomes thin, changes. People who need to adjust the it is enormously challenging to pass on elements of morality to these changes ethical frameworks because our prac- often have difficulty in keeping up. tices and customs — our ways of do- Practices that embody ways of doing ing things — embody and reinforce our things effectively and that train others ethics. to do them are embodied in profes- sions, customs, manners and a broad How Pass on Jewish Ethics? variety of other behaviors. All these practices contain a moral component. What can we do to increase our ca- Change disrupts these practices.11 pacity to pass on Jewish ethics? We can When that occurs, the social settings strengthen culture by creating vigorous that carry moral life weaken, and mo- communities. We can attempt to cre- rality becomes thinner. More people act ate shared moral vocabulary in our immorally, both intentionally and in- communities. We can foster strong re- advertently, when the social mecha- lationships among people in our com- nisms that reinforce moral life are munities. We can reinforce ritual be- weaker. haviors whose values our communities Whereas in earlier times, each per- support, and we can advocate for the son lived primarily in a single culture, ethical outlook they embody. We can today people in industrialized nations provide feedback to each other (tokheha. have multiple cultural identities. One — see Lev. 19:17) when we believe that person might be an American, a Jew, a a person or organization is engaged in lawyer and a mother. With each of practices are not in keeping with our these identities come different values shared values. We can also provide feed- and practices. That is particularly chal- back when we believe someone is do- lenging for people interested in pass- ing something that is in moral error. ing on a way of life like Jewish culture, The moral dialogue that results will which is a secondary culture12 for all provide an opportunity for examining but a tiny minority of Jews. This makes definitions and traditions, reinforcing it very difficult to pass on Jewish eth- vocabulary and norms, and expanding ics because Jewish culture has become moral vigor. When leaders fail to speak so thin in most places, including much directly and frequently to these issues, of Israel. the result is an increasing incursion of Most Jews are not employed in the values and norms from the primary Jewish community. Their primary lan- culture. guage is not Hebrew. They do not dress Creating intensive group experiences in a distinctively Jewish way. Their pri- is a powerful tool for imprinting cul- mary forms of entertainment — tele- ture. One of the reasons that Jewish

10 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist summer camps are so important in Jew- become common in Reconstructionist ish identity formation is that they cre- congregations. The need for moral dis- ate a community context for full-im- cussion and a community consensus mersion Jewish living. Strong relation- around ethical practice provides a pow- ships and powerful experiences occur erful rationale for VBDM. It is de- naturally. In that context, values, vo- signed to help raise consciousness about cabulary and shared practice are mas- vocabulary, and to help establish com- tered with little conscious effort, a situ- munal norms and practices that add ation not easily achieved even in day depth and meaning to Jewish culture. schools, because they are not 24-hour By empowering people to engage in environments. Of course, each camp this process as a community, we also inculcates values and practices reflec- help them to discover the means to tive of its own ideology. Jewish moral carry their set Jewish values and norms life is primarily rooted in particular into application in their own lives. Jewish communities, not the diverse global Jewish community. Jewish Decision Making

Values-based Decision Making Of course, if the study stage of VBDM is not done with care, people Congregation-based communities will simply bring with them their can only have substantial influence on American individualist perspectives, the moral lives of their members if they patiently wait until the study step of develop a shared ethos and intensive VBDM is over, and assert their Ameri- relationships. Values-based decision can values. That can derail the educa- making (VBDM) is designed to create tional phase and empty the process of a moral dialogue that reinforces values, its Jewish content. When that occurs, creates consensus, and builds commu- the purpose of VBDM is circum- nity.13 VBDM is a multi-step process vented. VBDM only works as effective that requires fact-finding, exploration Jewish guidance if there is genuine and of Jewish tradition, determination of substantial engagement with Jewish actions excluded by norms, and discov- culture — texts, traditions and values. ery of relevant values and ideals. Con- Otherwise VBDM may still result in sideration of alternative courses of ac- effective decision making — it’s just tion can then take place in light of con- not Jewish. A Jewish community com- sequences, values, and ideals. This pro- mitted to Jewish culture ought to be cess is one of self-education and not true to its identity. just decision making. It can work both This is not to say that Jewish values for individuals and for groups when are unchanging — Reconstructionists they are facing decisions with suffi- in recent decades have expanded Jew- ciently important impact and a sub- ish tradition to include values like de- stantial moral component. mocracy and inclusion.14 Cultures Over the last 15 years, VBDM has evolve. But values held by individual

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 11 Jews are not necessarily Jewish values; are heard. In a synagogue setting the that is an issue with which each Jewish , too, can act as a guarantor of a community must wrestle. When a well-crafted process. claimed value is in tension with inher- At least as important as what the ited beliefs, practices or norms, careful rabbi and chairperson do on the spot Jewish study and exploration of the is- are the norms established in the group sues are warranted. for meticulously following the stages The decision to make a significant of the VBDM process, for assuring that change should be accompanied by soul- every voice is encouraged, and for tak- searching and trepidation, with care- ing Jewish approaches seriously. The ful thought about implications for so- critics of VBDM are correct that it does cial justice and the future of the Jewish not work well if it is not done with care. people. The response to “giving Jewish However, the same is true of all group tradition a vote” ought not to be “it processes. It is important that VBDM doesn’t speak to me.” Tradition votes is defined at every stage as an educa- only when we listen carefully. Only lis- tional process, not just one for deci- tening and agonizing can validate a sion making. veto. Some communities may not start As with all processes, if it goes astray by examining Jewish tradition. This or if the results are shown to be inad- invalidates their decision-making pro- equate, the community has the right, cess. However, if a community avoids and indeed the obligation, to start a engaging Jewish tradition, that flaw new process. If each process includes would carry over to other decision- substantial education, the individuals making processes, unless it turns over involved will be enriched, and the com- decisions to a rabbi who takes Judaism munity will be strengthened. The first seriously, or to another leader with and most important task of the chair- similar knowledge and commitment. person and rabbi is to guarantee a suf- This would involve the betrayal of ficient educational process. This in- other values. volves text and context, the place of practice in the community and explo- Controlling Group Dynamics ration of all the aspects of the moral thicket. The infusion of Jewish values Another objection some have raised vocabulary and a sense of Jewish his- to VBDM is that as a method of group tory strengthen Jewish culture and governance, it is subject to the politics moral life. of groups. Decisions are affected by how effectively people argue, by the Competing Forces dynamics of bullying and by personal pleading. But shared decision making One of the challenges of creating is always subject to group dynamics. A Jewish moral influence in the contem- fair-minded chairperson makes a criti- porary North American setting is the cal difference in assuring that all voices enormous power of marketing. Mar-

12 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist keting is designed to appeal to our because each group starts with very dif- needs and wants in order to persuade ferent inputs — different norms, defi- us to spend money to purchase nitions, values and beliefs.) and services. Marketing necessarily VBDM can also provide the basis for leads to an emphasis on extrinsic goods a dialogue. On some issues a consen- — products and services that can be sus can emerge. On others, such as the bought and sold. The consequence in differences between Jews and Catho- America has been a reduction of aware- lics about abortion, the nature of the ness of the importance of intrinsic conflict can be clarified. VBDM works goods. Intrinsic goods are such things first to clarify moral thought. Once the as personal moral , the satisfac- issues are clear, we can then struggle to tion that comes from performance of discern what we ought to believe and deeds of and the meaning that do. Becoming conscious about these flows from efforts made to sustain long- moral matters helps to increase our re- term relationships. sistance to manipulation. One of the tensions between Ameri- can and Jewish culture is the growing Therapy and emphasis on extrinsic goods in contem- porary American culture. Jewish cul- A second major part of American ture appreciates extrinsic goods while culture that has challenged the Jewish simultaneously emphasizing the impor- moral outlook in recent years has been tance of intrinsic ones. Part of what the emphasis on psychotherapy. Of VBDM ought to accomplish is to help course, interventions in order to deal people become much more fully aware with mental illness and to help people of the importance of the kinds of in- recover from trauma are important, trinsic goods that Judaism emphasizes. and it is wonderful that we have ad- Examples abound: the attitude of vanced both in our use of pharmaceu- gratitude that is central in Jewish tical interventions and in our capacity prayer, the virtue of humility, the value to provide individual and group of community connection, and the ob- therapy. Achieving greater personal in- ligation to be engaged with Torah are sight is also a worthwhile goal. For but a few. Only when people are con- many reasons, including shifts in in- scious of the way in which they have surance reimbursements and the rap- been manipulated by marketing can idly growing array of psychotropic they consider the alternative. Jewish medicals available, drug therapy is a moral dialogue can help to build that much more common intervention to- awareness. day. (Of course, it is true that VBDM uti- Judaism places a high value on heal- lized by Southern Baptists in Missis- ing, and that includes mental health. sippi or Buddhists in Dharmsala will However, there are several aspects of reach very different conclusions than some forms of therapy that are not so Reconstructionist Jews’ conclusions salutary from a Jewish perspective. One

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 13 of these stems from the fact that the tenance of community. Without com- various forms of therapy all have val- munity there will be no vehicle to pre- ues of their own. Often people are un- serve and convey Jewish culture. Be- aware that they are absorbing values cause of the cultural setting in which from therapeutic culture.15 One value we live, democratic, inclusive commu- is the paramount importance of indi- nity is the model that makes the most vidual happiness, a central idea in some sense. While developing the technolo- approaches to therapy found in the gies to create and reinforce such com- U.S. While not all therapists or all munity is a challenging and ongoing therapies have this in common, enough task, the rewards of community in- do so that they reinforce the emphasis volvement have intrinsic benefits that on individuals seeking happiness that more than justify that challenge. stems also from capitalism and market- ing.16 This by itself is not necessarily a bad thing; , for example, placed a 1. Anokhi, translated as “I,” is the first word high value on happiness. But empha- of the . Its first letter sizing personal happiness reinforces is aleph, which is a silent letter. American individualism in ways that 2. John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Harvard can lead to isolation, loneliness and University Press, 1971). insecurity. Of course, not all therapeu- 3. The huge literature that explores these tic methods take this approach; Mary issues includes, for example, Janet Radcliffe Pipher, for example, eschews it.17 Richards, Human Nature after Darwin: A Philosophical Introduction (The Open Uni- Therapy is a wonderful tool — and versity, 2000) and Robert Wright, The Jews who utilize it should be conscious Moral Animal, as well as works by V.S. of its limits. Ramachandian, Francis Fukuyama, Robert Pollack, David S. Wilson, and many others. Invigorating Jewish Moral Life 4. See, for example, Paul Maclean, “A Mind of Three Minds: Educating the Triune VBDM is not a panacea. It can fully Brain,” Yearbook of the National Society invigorate the moral life of a Jewish for the Study of Education, 1978, 308- community only when it includes a 341; The Triune Brain in Evolution: Role substantial educational process, when in Paleocerebral Functions (Plenum 1990); the leaders of the community create The Evolutionary Neuroethology of Paul currency for Jewish moral terminology, MacLean (Praeger, 2002). 5. Lawrence Kohlberg, The Philosophy of and the study of Jewish texts and main- Moral Development (Harper and Row, tenance of Jewish traditions are ongo- 1981). ing parts of the life of the community. 6. A significant amount of this research is The central importance of commu- summarized in Augusto Blasi, “Bridging nity in a Jewish ethical system suggests Moral Cognition and Moral Action: A that we ought to make major personal Critical Review of the Literature,” Psycho- investments in the creation and main- logical Bulletin, 88.1, July 1980, 1-45.

14 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist 7. This is made yet more complex by prob- Jeffrey Stout responds more optimistically lem of typology, as Kohlberg studied West- in Ethics after Babel (Beacon, 1988). ern males. A gendered critique is offered 12. Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann by Carol Gilligan’s In a Different Voice. were the first in my experience to use the Cultural and class issues exist as well. For term “secondary culture.” See The Social the purpose of this article, however, it is Construction of Reality (Anchor, 1966). enough to recognize that in all individuals Mordecai Kaplan talks about “primary” a large gap exists between moral reasoning and “secondary” civilizations in Judaism as and moral action. a Civilization (Macmillan,1934). 8. Human beings exist as we know them 13. For a fuller methodological discussion only in the context of culture, which al- of values-based decision making, see my lowed their evolution into creatures with article by that name in The Reconstructionist long childhoods, a dependence on lan- 65.2, Spring 2001; reprinted in the sec- guage, and the capability to utilize tools. ond edition of volume one of The Guide to This critical understanding is central to Jewish Practice (RRC Press, 2000). cultural anthropology. See Clifford Geertz, 14. See David Teutsch, “Attitudes, Values The Interpretation of Culture (Basic Books, and Beliefs”, Guide to Jewish Practice (RRC 1973). Press, 2000), pp. 15-25. 9. I first encountered this idea through the 15. See Don Browning, Religious Thought teaching of Hasan Ozbekhan, then a pro- and Modern Psychologies: A Critical Con- fessor at the Wharton School. versation in the of Culture for an 10. See, for example, Michael Walzer’s Just analysis of the diverse embed- and Unjust Wars (Basic Books, 1992) and ded in various therapies. works by Paul Ramsey, James Childress, 16. Robert Bellah explores this theme at Douglas Lackey, S. Hauerwas, and J.B. length in Habits of the Heart. Elshtain. 17. See Mary Pipher’s Reviving Ophelia and 11. Alasdair MacIntyre discusses this issue The Sheltering of Each Other. in After Virtue (Notre Dame, 1984), and

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 15 Forging Connections: Report from Natandome Village, Uganda

BY BRANT ROSEN

n April 2005, I accompanied ten had come to bear witness to the reali- members of my congregation, the ties confronting one African country Jewish Reconstructionist Congre- as it tries to respond to HIV/AIDS. Igation (JRC) and four other partici- What follows are excerpts from my pants on a delegation to Natandome travel journal. Village, Uganda. This effort was spon- sored by American Jewish World Ser- Monday, April 4 vice (AJWS) and was hosted by the Foundation for the Development of We head for Natandome, accompa- Needy Communities (FDNC) a non- nied on our bus ride by a number of governmental organization working to FDNC staff and lay leaders, including promote grassroots sustainable devel- their visionary CEO Samuel Watalatsu. opment in communities throughout Natandome is located in the Mbale Uganda. District, four hours north of the Ugan- As is the case of so many communi- dan capital city Kampala. The road is ties throughout Africa, Uganda has largely unpaved and the traffic condi- been ravaged by the HIV/AIDS pan- tions are occasionally treacherous. To demic over the past decade. Though pass the time, Samuel and the others HIV/AIDS in Africa has been charac- sing an African folk song for us — we terized as the most devastating global reciprocate with a Hebrew peace song crisis of our time, Uganda has arguably Od Yavo . We go back and forth been considered one of the success sto- this way for the better part of an hour, ries, due in no small way to the inspired sharing our respective songs with in- efforts of local non-governmental or- creasing enthusiasm. I can’t help but ganizations (NGO) like the FDNC. think how perfectly natural — and yet Members of the JRC Global AIDS how unprecedented — it all feels. Task Force felt strongly that education After we arrive in Natandome, we and advocacy was not enough; the time sit under a large, open-sided canopy, Brant Rosen is rabbi of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, Illinois, and president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association.

16 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist which will serve as our central meeting of our long journey is magically and place/dining area. As we receive our ini- immediately replaced by excitement in tial debriefing from our group leaders, anticipation of the week to come. We small children from the village gather have finally arrived in Natandome. and stand tentatively at a distance, not quite sure what to make of their new Tuesday, April 5 guests. They talk to each other quietly; we occasionally wave at them, and they After working several hours on a shyly wave back. construction project (bricking and plas- After settling in, we are invited to tering an FDNC classroom) our group one of the FDNC’s vocational school splits into two. One group visits a slum classrooms for a special welcome pre- neighborhood in nearby Mbale Town, sentation. We sit together on wooden and my group takes a walk further into benches along with many others from the village. We are led by Omai (Mama) the village, who gather inside and out- Jessica, Samuel’s mother and a strong side of the classroom. Teenage students matriarchal figure at the FDNC. Like too enter the room and perform for us, many women of Natandome, Omai Jes- singing songs in a combination of En- sica is a widow. Her husband died when glish and their local language of Lugisu. her youngest was one year old. Jessica was Though the melodies are upbeat and a schoolteacher for many years, and now joyous, the subject of their songs is works as a health care volunteer for the HIV/AIDS, how it has affected their FDNC. She also helps to organize local community, and how they intend to church and women’s groups. “chase it away.” We visit Oma (Papa) Henry, a for- Then things get really interesting. mer pupil of Omai Jessica, who now The teenagers reenact a celebration/ works in the village providing support dance typically performed at a circum- to a large number of AIDS patients and cision — a tribal rite of passage into orphans. He speaks to us about his manhood for eighteen year-old boys. work in a manner similar to Jessica and Though unexpected (to say the least) the other Ugandans we have met: with a this dance, just like their singing per- real passion for his work and a gentle in- formance, is impossible to resist. It is ner nature, expressing himself with an heartfelt, joyful, and filled with deep almost constant smile and ready laugh. pride. As they perform, the initial shy- Henry takes us to visit a man from ness melts away. The younger children his community who is dying from of the village have flocked to us, happily AIDS. It is a short walk to his house, a sitting on our laps, holding our hands. mud hut. The man’s mother, sister and Afterwards, I stand and offer words cousin sit on the ground in front of of thanks from our delegation.The their home. The mother and sister are members of our delegation then stand disabled and unable to walk — his and spontaneously sing Oseh Shalom. mother’s legs are as thin as matchsticks. The village cheers us on. The fatigue We are invited to visit inside the hut

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 17 and some of us enter, going one at a time. NGO that offers HIV/AIDS treat- The man lies on a mat on the floor, ment, counseling, education and sup- clearly in the final stages of the disease. port. TASO is the very model of a I take his hand and he thanks me for grassroots organization. Born as the coming to visit him. I tell him it is my informal effort of a few AIDS activists, honor to be with him and I say a mishe- there are now TASO facilities located beirach — a Hebrew prayer for healing. throughout Uganda, extending service Oma Henry then takes us further to roughly two-thirds of the country. into the village for another visit. We Their Mbale facility is state of the art walk past small farms and the path nar- — it is clearly one of the crown jewels in rows. We see subsistence farmers work- the Ugandan campaign against HIV/ ing their small fields. Everywhere there AIDS. We tour the facility and meet with are household animals, goats and pigs the staff. The highlight of our visit is an tethered to trees, chickens, roosters and astonishing presentation by TASO clients ducks foraging on the ground and thin, who have been organized into a chorus/ gaunt cows grazing in the brush. We drama group. Their performances serve arrive at our destination and meet with to educate others throughout their com- another one of Henry’s clients, a four- munity about the importance of AIDS teen-year old girl, recently orphaned, prevention and of “living positively” — who is raising her six younger siblings TASO’s double entendre for how clients on her own. She approaches every live with the HIV virus. member of our group, takes our hands Their performance for us is proud, in her own and kneels to the ground. frank and unabashedly honest. They sing As we speak, from out of the grove joyous songs about condoms, about of trees more and more young children ARVs (anti-retroviral drugs) safe sex and materialize, and they gradually stand living positively. It is a profoundly heal- before us. Most of them are half naked ing message, standing up defiantly to and some are malnourished, with shame and stigma. It is doubly profound clearly distended bellies. They seem knowing that they are spreading this delighted to see us, mischievous smiles message throughout a country that so appearing on their faces. In the days to desperately needs to hear it. come, I will often see young children That night before dinner, Omai Jes- carrying infants on their backs. It will sica reminds us to say motzi before we always take me a moment to I remind eat. She has become very taken by our myself that they are not giving piggy- blessings and by Judaism in general. back rides. They are caregivers. She asks me to translate the Hebrew for her and I teach her the pronuncia- Wednesday, April 6 tion. In the future we will begin every meal with a Ugandan prayer sung by After lunch we drive into Mbale for Jessica, followed by our group motzi. a visit to TASO (The AIDS Support Cultural exchange is quickly becoming Organization), an important Ugandan second nature for all concerned.

18 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist Thursday, April 7 introductory psalms of praise) we are handed song sheets with the psalms in We wake up early and are on the transliterated Lugandan. They are set road by 6:00 for a visit to the to lovely, joyful African melodies — we Abayudaya, the Ugandan Jewish com- are able to join in almost immediately. munity. Numbering over six hundred The rest of the service continues in members throughout Uganda, the familiar fashion. During the Torah ser- Abayudaya have been practicing tradi- vice, they offer me the honor of the sec- tional Judaism here since converting en ond . (Perhaps I have been join- masse in the early 20th century. Be- ing in a bit too enthusiastically!) To my cause so much of Uganda is marked slight shock, after finish the opening by a pronounced and devoutly Chris- aliyah blessing, they invite me to chant tian culture, we are all very curious to from the Torah itself. Though I have experience our first taste of Ugandan not prepared the portion, I sight-read Judaism. and improvise as best I can. I am genu- As we approach, it becomes appar- inely moved by the honor. ent to us that the Abayudaya live in a The service concludes with the sing- village just like the other Ugandan ing of Shomer Yisrael and Hatikvah. communities we have visited: one of Afterwards, the prayer leader welcomes dense farmland, dirt paths, and mud us. His name is Aaron Kiutu Moses and huts. Upon closer examination, how- he serves as one of the rabbis of their ever, we notice Hebrew writing and community. Another member of the Jewish stars on several of the buildings. community steps forward and makes a We arrive at their central congrega- few announcements. He mentions that tion, the Moses Synagogue, in time for amidst the joy of our meeting there is the morning service. The building is also sad news to report. One member African in style, but filled with com- of their community has died just that fortable Jewish sights. The walls are morning and they will need volunteers lined with familiar books — in addi- to come and help collect the body. tion to American Jewish prayer books Afterwards Aaron takes our delega- there is an array of English language tion on a brief tour of their village. We books on a variety of Jewish subjects. visit their private Jewish schools as well A handful of men welcome us as we as the public schools they administer walk into the synagogue and invite us for the subdistrict. Not surprisingly, we to sit in the first few rows. I am handed end up staying longer than we had and wrap the strap around my planned, lingering in particular with arm as the morning blessings begin. the younger children at the Hadassah The style of the service is immedi- Hebrew school. We are all struck by ately familiar to us. The prayer leader the sight of these children studying the gives instructions in English and we aleph-bet in the manner of Jewish chil- davven a traditional service in Hebrew. dren everywhere. When we get to the Pesukei D’zimra (the Before we leave, we give Rabbi Aa-

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 19 ron some in memory of their When it is all over, we stagger back community member who has recently to our rooms looking at each other with died (of AIDS, as it turns out). He incredulous, silly grins on our faces. We thanks us and tells us that our com- get ready for , then gather un- munities are now forever linked, for we der our canopy for dinner and a Shab- have experienced both joy and sorrow bat service. Omani Jessica lights the together. Aaron is sorry, as are we, that candles, together with Emma Bern- we must leave so soon. He would love sohn and Naima Cohen, the two high for us to spend Shabbat with them. It school student members of our delega- is truly a tempting offer. tion. Shabbat has begun.

Friday, April 8 Saturday, April 9

After our final day of work we are Night has fallen and we gather un- invited to a dance performance by the der our canopy for havdalah, joined by teenage students of Natandome’s vo- a large number of FDNC staff and lay cational school. We are seated in a row leadership. It has been a wonderful outside a classroom as literally hun- Shabbat, tinged with the sadness of dreds of adults and children from the knowing it would be our last full day village gather around us. The teenag- in Natandome. ers perform a series of dances to the Before havdalah, I explain the ritual beat from a wooden xylophone. The to our guests and I add that this particu- dancing goes on for an extended pe- lar ritual of separation does not only mark riod of time, the boys and girls pairing the separation between Shabbat and the off and gyrating with abandon. week — for us it also marks the separa- After several dances, they stop and tion between our sojourn in Natandome gesture to our group, inviting us to join and our departure tomorrow. We then them. We look at each other, gulp, and begin to sing the havdalah blessings, and nervously join them. They tie colorful our Ugandan hosts sing the melody with sashes around our waists and the drums us. As our voices build, my mind and start up again. Each of us gets a teen- heart are filled with sacred lessons of a age dance partner, and off we go. Hun- week soon to be past. dreds of villagers cheer and whoop with delight and laughter. We’re pretty stiff Lesson 1 at first, but we quickly loosen up as the “You Can’t Develop People — You Can dancing goes on and on and on. At one Only Help People Develop Themselves.” point the group forms a semi-circle and The true heroes of this trip were the they invite us to dance solo in the NGO workers we met along the way: middle. We each take a turn, the crowd Samuel Watalutsu and the men and going especially wild when one of our women of the FDNC, the doctors, AJWS group leaders Nina Kaufman counselors and clients of TASO. These and I do the bump. individuals are deeply connected to

20 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist their home communities, and their for seeking to change this paradigm. work is rooted in the shared, sacrosanct AJWS believes, as do I, that to be a Jew value of grassroots sustainable develop- in the 21st century means to be a glo- ment. They know that any successful bal citizen — to define our sacred im- answer to the myriad of crises and chal- perative of as repair of the lenges they face cannot be imposed entire world. By living with rural Ugan- upon them from the outside — it must dans, by bearing witness to their sto- be nurtured from within. ries, by supporting their work for sus- In speaking to these activists, we were tainable development while studying consistently taken by their passionate texts from my own spiritual tradition adherence to this principle. At its core for guidance, I have experienced Jew- it is driven by a vision and conviction ish fulfillment as never before. Every that real development is human devel- moment of this trip, no matter what I opment — it is rooted in the inherent happened to be doing, I felt I was exactly integrity of human beings and their re- where I should be as a Jew. Even as a lationship to their communities, their rabbi, I have rarely been so sure of this. cultures and their environment. A passage from our AJWS program When Moses Maimonidies taught handbook puts it perfectly: that the highest level of tzedakah was helping others to become self-sufficient, In the past, we have asked . . . what he was, in his way, promoting the very about service/justice work is Jew- same vision. The greatest gestures we ish? At the beginning of the 21st can offer those in need are not our pity century, this is not the most chal- nor our handouts, but the ability to lenging, provocative or productive develop themselves in such a way that question we could be asking our- honors their worth as human beings. selves. Instead, the question (we should be asking) is: Lesson 2 The divide between the develop- “Jews Are Global Citizens.” ing world and developed world is Jews do not typically participate in staggering. The amount of poverty, these kinds of service projects, which hunger and disease in developing invariably tend to be in the domain of countries is greater now than ever organizations like the Peace Corps, or before. In light of this imbalance and Christian service groups or missionar- the wealth of resources to which ies. In the months and days leading up many of us have access, how should to my trip, I heard my share of com- we Jews respond? ments from people questioning why my congregation was participating in this delegation. Too often, it seems, “Jew- Lesson 3 ish service” is invariably understood as “The Quality of Hope” “service to Jews in need.” The villagers of Natandome and I am profoundly grateful to AJWS Uganda live amidst one of the most dev-

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 21 astating crises of our time: widespread cliché. We may be connected by our pandemic, extreme poverty, familial dis- cell phones, the Internet and global fi- location, political instability. However, nance markets in unprecedented ways, despite it all, I never sensed for a mo- but in the ways that matter most it of- ment that their hopes or spirits had been ten feels as if the citizens of the world beaten down. On the contrary, I wit- are more isolated from one another nessed people invested to the core with a than ever before. This is especially true deep love for one another and their com- of post- 9/11 America, which regards munity — a palpable sense of what del- the rest of the world with increasing egation member Elaine Waxman termed suspicion and fear. “emotional sustainability.” My experience on this delegation has I do not know that I can say pre- convinced me more than ever before cisely where emotional sustainability that we need to redouble our efforts to comes from, but I do believe it is nour- make the concept of a global village a ished by relationship. It is clear that the reality and not simply a tired catch people of Natandome and the workers phrase. The truth is that most of us of FDNC are energized by their love Americans know precious little about for each and their community — and the world beyond our borders — and by their hope for a better future. even less about the developing world. I cannot help but think how nota- We see pictures in magazines of poor bly lacking this quality is in my home children with distended bellies and flies country. On the contrary, those work- on their faces, and we regard them as ing for social equity and justice in the alien — beings from another world United States often testify to a wide- who have little to do with us and our spread sense of disillusionment, burn- comfortable homes. out and futility. The paradigmatic feel- Despite our illusions, however, the ing seems to be, “I’ve worked so long truth remains that a significant percent- and so hard and nothing ever seems to age of the world lives in some form of change.” In Natandome, the paradigm definable poverty. And they are not is the polar opposite. Though the vil- nearly as far away from us as we might lagers face personal and collective chal- think. They do not live at the ends of lenges the like of which we Americans the earth. They are yoshvei tevel — will never know, I sense no disillusion- dwellers of our shared world. They, like ment or despair. Their unique quality us, are created in the image of God. of hope, their emotional sustainability, The only way we will ever fully un- their love, truly has much to teach us. derstand this truth is to make the con- scious effort to leave the confines of our Lesson 4 homes and forge real human connec- “And God Created Humanity in God’s tion. Though the people of Nantan- image . . . ” dome are significantly different from We use the term “global village” so us in many ways, during this past week much that it is fast devolving into a our delegation has grown to under-

22 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist stand just how much we have in com- delegation in a myriad of unexpected mon. Their children laugh and play ways. We returned changed — in ob- and get into mischief just like our own. vious ways and in ways we have yet to Families love their children just as fully understand. We have been in- deeply as we do, and harbor the same spired, and devastated; spiritually deep- kinds of hope and dreams for them to ened, and politically motivated. We grow up happy, healthy and in safety. share a sacred bond with one another This knowledge has been a gift to me. and with the people of Natandome In discovering their humanity, I have Village. Though our journey is now rediscovered my own. over, we are united in the conviction The trip was transformative for our that a new one is only just beginning.

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 23 Clergy Sexual Misconduct: An Issue of Ethics and Justice

BY ANNE UNDERWOOD

egardless of denomination or the congregation, the professional asso- tradition, most congregants ciation and the ordaining/investing body. R assume that their place of wor- ship and religious study is a safe space Power Abuse for children, adults in crisis and all who enter. Most would aver that their faith Any form of power abuse by clergy community promotes justice and is tears the fabric of the community. Prop- administered ethically. Yet religious erty crimes, like embezzlement (abusing institutions are human enterprises led access to synagogue funds to steal), can by clergy and laity subject to missing be criminally prosecuted, but usually are the mark the same as leaders of any not. Congregational leaders are often institution. The pursuit of the Holy loath to shame their clergy publicly or to does not itself make everyone holy. be the object of negative publicity. All religious leaders have power1 Transgressions against persons are within their community. A few misuse often beyond the scope of civil or crimi- it. Acknowledging the misuse of power nal law, unless the physical abuse of mi- by some religious leaders is painful but nors is involved. Accusations of per- necessary. This is as true for Jewish de- sonal harm are often cases of “he says, nominations as for Boston Catholics, she says,” and frequently involve people even though it is the sins of the latter’s marginalized from community power. clergy leaders that have received the The primary example of personal broadest publicity. harm is sexual misconduct, which en- Misuse of power by religious lead- compasses all forms of misuse of power ers — in this article, specifically, rab- sexually: abuse of minors, sexual mal- bis and cantors — may be financial, feasance with adults and sexual harass- emotional, spiritual, physical or sexual. ment. This is the example used None is simply a personal harm done throughout this article to discuss abuse- privately between the rabbi/cantor and of-power issues. another. Each misuse violates the trust Justice and ethics are inseparable. of an individual, the families of both, Pirke Avot 1.10 admonishes, “love la-

Anne Underwood is an attorney and consultant who serves as an advisor to the ethics committee of several clergy associations, including the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

24 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist bor and hate [the abuse of power]. . .” sexual misconduct. Faith communi- (The Hebrew word translated as [abuse ties urged clergy to accept responsibil- of power], rabbanut, is the modern He- ity for faithfulness to partnered com- brew word for the rabbinate.2 How one mitments — their own and those of uses power demonstrates one’s commit- others. Recognition spread that sexual ment to the ethical life. How one holds relations were inappropriate with others accountable for their use of congregants, counselees and employ- power demonstrates one’s commitment ees. to justice. For most religious people, the second mandate concerning oth- Societal Changes ers is more difficult to confront than the first. The change in religious communi- ties corresponded to changes in the Sex, Power and Religious Leaders larger society. Both acknowledged the fresh perspectives on human relation- Historically, sex and power often ships articulated in the 1986 U.S. Su- intertwine. The potential for misusing preme Court case, Meritor v. Vinson.3 power always has been present in rela- There, for the first time, sexual harass- tionships between religious leaders and ment (in the workplace) was acknowl- laity. American religious history, for edged as a legal theory on which a claim example, is replete with stories of Prot- for harm could be made. estant clergy-congregant sexual liaisons. The Court gave three guidelines for Three thousand years ago, the determining if a sexual liaison in the Nathan rebuked King David for ful- work place constituted harassment. filling his lust with the wife of a soldier First, a voluntary liaison (no gun held and then using his royal power to or- to one’s head, no threat of economic der the man killed in battle (Samuel loss or loss of status) does not automati- II: 11-12). cally create a “welcome” liaison. It must Until recently, the term “sexual in- be shown that the relationship was discretion” described and often excused welcomed by both parties. If it was not, such behavior. Sexual indiscretions it might constitute harassment. were tolerated because male religious Second, when determining if the li- and political leaders were viewed as “en- aison was welcome, the fact-finder titled” to sexual prerogatives, or were must look to the impact of the alleged pitied as victims of female temptresses behavior on the alleged victim, not the within their communities. intent of the accused. This turns up- In the 1980s, a new perspective side down the traditional analysis in emerged. Leadership entitlement (the criminal and tort law where the mens “King David Syndrome”) and male rea (mind-set) of the accused is the fo- vulnerability (the “Potiphar’s Wife cus, usually to the exclusion of a victim’s Trap”) were reconceptualized. “Sexual perception or experience. indiscretion” received a different name: Third, the Court said that when

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 25 there is an imbalance of power, con- fers on that person honor and power. sent to a voluntary liaison cannot be Individuals trust the rabbi to be a per- assumed. Consent is a matter of fact to son of integrity as well as a religious be determined at trial. Each guideline leader. When the rabbi breaks the con- confirms the prophetic call to heed the fidentiality of a couple in marital coun- voice of the most vulnerable — to seling, or uses private insights about honor the view of those with lesser someone’s health to keep that person power. off of the board of directors, or returns The Court in the Meritor case held the flirtations of a conversion candi- that employers (and, in a later decision, date, fiduciary duty is breeched. The schools) are responsible for the actions rabbi has not held sacred something in of those whom they employ in posi- her or his care. tions of authority. Further, there must This breech of duty is also a betrayal be written and publicized policies re- of trust. When trust is broken by a re- garding appropriate conduct and pro- ligious leader, the result for the person cedures for addressing complaints. The betrayed is often alienation from the 1990s saw the creation of sexual-mis- Holy and bitter departure from the conduct policies, and modifications to faith tradition. The ramifications of existing codes, spe- each cascade throughout the entire cifically to address sexual behavior. community — either as direct knowl- edge is shared, or as rumors are spread. Leaders’ Fiduciary Duty Imbalance of Power As codes were refined, so too was the understanding of “sexual misconduct.” In pastoral counseling, it is always Applying concepts from the legal and the duty of the rabbi to monitor trans- financial world to human relationships, ference.4 The rabbi is responsible for in the mid 1990s spoke of re- maintaining the integrity of the rela- ligious leaders’ fiduciary duty to those tionship because the rabbi holds greater served. Fiduciary means holding some- power in the context of the religious thing of value in trust. The holding community.5 A congregant may be a creates the responsibility to act in the powerful financial broker, an influen- other’s best interest. The relationship tial attorney, or esteemed surgeon. (In of a cantor and bar student, such congregants’ professional lives, for example, exists for the sole purpose they have their own fiduciary duty to of addressing and protecting the needs clients and patients.) But within the of the student. synagogue, it is the rabbi who holds Because of the rabbi’s position as a the “professional” power within indi- trusted leader of the community, s/he vidual relationships. often has access to the details and Professional power comes from the dreams of congregants’ lives. The special knowledge and expertise of the community’s selection of a rabbi con- position. The professional, whether

26 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist doctor, lawyer or rabbi, knows the pa- is set apart — elevated in both func- tient, client or congregant in ways the tion and person within the congrega- patient, client or congregant does not tion. know the professional. There is mutu- A few voices, mine included, are now ality of consent to the relationship, but proposing rare and limited situations no mutuality of access to information where the power imbalance can be ac- about each other within the relation- knowledged, the difference it creates ship. negotiated, and a friendship of peers If “knowledge is power,” it is clear formed. However, this will never be that one person holds more of both. true if there has been a counseling re- In addition to this real power differen- lationship between the rabbi and the tial, most people ascribe power to the congregant or the congregant’s family. professional, whether or not the pro- And, there can never be an assumption fessional has actual power in a given of meaningful consent to a sexual rela- encounter. This applies particularly to tionship. clergy of all faith traditions. “Numi- nosity” is the special name for the kind Boundaries: What and Why? of “transcendent,” “connected-to-the- Holy” power ascribed by laity to those For the rabbi/cantor, two ethical who are ordained or invested. Theol- questions emerge: How does one rec- ogy and ecclesiology aside, numinosity ognize, own, value and use wisely one’s is as real for the religious Jewish lay power while remaining fully human person as for the Irish Catholic or and non-arrogant in a professional re- Sunni Muslim. lationship? How does one use one’s No matter how much power a per- own needs and abilities to benefit and son has outside the religious setting, complement the needs and abilities of within it, the expectations and realities the others with whom one stands in a of the rabbinical status create an im- “power” relationship? balance of power in favor of the rabbi These questions align with the con- vis-à-vis individual congregants in cept of “boundaries.” Webster’s dictio- counseling, crisis or life-cycle ceremo- nary defines a boundary as something nies. that sets a limit. Marie Fortune says that “boundaries are a means to Are Peer Relationships Possible? attend to our relative power and vul- nerability in any relationship without Can there ever be occasions when a doing harm.”6 Boundaries (limits) can rabbi sheds his or her rabbinic power be viewed as boarders or barriers to for an authentic peer relationship with separate the rabbi from the congregant. a congregant? Until very recently, the Or, they can be seen as safe points of conventional wisdom has been “no.” contact, points where both can meet Once a rabbi ascends to the bimah as but that allow the rabbi to maintain liturgist and teacher of Torah, the rabbi the separation necessary to focus solely

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 27 on the best interests and needs of the from the purview of secular law.9 congregant, rather than on the rabbi’s Therefore, faith communities have an own issues and desires. ethical obligation to create and enforce Observing boundaries does not their own policies in order to provide mean showing no warmth or engage- the same level of safety in their com- ment. with those served. One psycholo- munities as that required at the super- gist says, “Boundaries do not mean ‘de- market or the department store. Rab- tached neutrality.’ Boundaries are binical and cantorial codes and poli- about passionate but trustworthy en- cies generally prohibit any sexualized gagement.”7 Boundaries mark a path contact between rabbis or cantors and along which two people, rabbi and congregants, students, counselees and congregant, can travel safely and with employees. Synagogue policies should ethical integrity in spiritual and intel- include religious school teachers, ven- lectual intimacy. dors and volunteers.

Policies and Professional Codes Holding Clergy Accountable

Understanding power differentials Having a policy is not enough; it and respecting professional boundaries must be publicized. More importantly, are personal steps that rabbis, cantors people must be willing to use it when and congregants can take to contrib- necessary. Acknowledging that religious ute to the ethical environment of a con- leaders sometimes miss the mark and gregation. The congregational body engage in inappropriate sexualized con- needs also to study the issues of use and duct is painful. Communities can be abuse of professional power and to for- split apart by allegations and findings, mulate its own policies and procedures and holding religious leaders account- for responding to allegations of injus- able is emotionally wrenching. Percep- tice, whether financial or personal. Poli- tions of clergy can become conflicted cies should cover not only the or- and contradictory. The rabbi who is dained/invested, but all employees and charged with having molested three lay members as well. Since the focus of congregants is the same rabbi who has this article is sexual misconduct, it is supported thirty others through the fi- policies particular to those charges that nal days of loved ones. The cantor who are discussed. makes some bat mitzvah students un- Most denominational sexual-con- comfortable with his jokes and hugs duct policies follow the Equal Employ- possesses the voice that so many find ment Opportunity Commission’s defi- emotionally moving at High Holy Day nition of sexual harassment which in- services. cludes: unwanted touching, unwel- The most difficult lesson from the come attentions, assault and rape.8 secular world for religious communi- The First Amendment removes ties to comprehend is that numerous ministerial conduct in religious forums great and good deeds for many cannot

28 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist outweigh the damage of inappropriate havior, coupled with a straightforward sexualized behavior to a few. No group and fair process for investigating and of professionals likes to hear of a col- adjudicating allegations of misconduct, league’s misdeeds. No group of profes- are the only antidote.10 Communities sionals is comfortable disciplining are accountable to their members for peers. For clergy, it is especially discon- an ethical environment in which jus- certing, since it is uncomfortable and tice is upheld with compassion. How- difficult to presume to sit in judgment ever painful, tikkun olam requires the of another person. In my experience, ethical community to hold accountable congregants understand more readily a leader who has missed the mark of than do colleagues the importance of justice in community relationships. acting on allegations. of clergy miscon- duct. Sometimes, the congregation must take the lead in seeking justice 1. Power here means the ability to influ- from the offender’s professional asso- ence or control one’s environment and the ciation. people in it. 2. Pirke Avot: A Modern Commentary on When Teshuvah Is Not Possible Jewish Ethics, edited and translated by Leonard Kravitz and Kerry M. Olitzky, Clergy and lay people of all faith tra- UAHC Press, 1993. The observation on ditions believe in the power of remorse rabbanut and its modern counterpart is to produce reconciliation and reform noted by the editors. (teshuvah). The unfortunate reality is 3. Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986). A bank teller terminated a that for many religious leaders who lengthy sexual relationship with her super- offend, true teshuvah does not happen. visor. After being fired, she sued the bank, They are incapable of fundamental claiming that the relationship was not con- change. Psychological evaluations of sex sensual and that she had felt harassed by offenders often show people with a the supervisor’s attentions. The court ruled pervasive character disorder. They can- that harassment constitutes. discrimination not control their impulses, or compre- under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of hend the impact of their actions. The 1964, and that an employer could be found only just response for them and for liable for the conduct of its supervisory congregants (current as well as poten- employees. tial) is removal from opportunities for 4. Transference and counter transference leadership or further rabbinic/cantorial (often involving erotic feelings or emo- tional fantasies) frequently occur in coun- work. Their own denial, coupled with seling. Professionals who counsel should the natural resistance to “congrega- be trained to recognize, use and diffuse tional messes,” makes covering up the these feelings to address the issues of the situation or blaming the complainants person with whom they are working. the easiest response. Neither is just or 5. Two works containing excellent discus- ethical. sions of power differentials in professional Clear guidelines for acceptable be- relationships and giving specific note to the

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 29 kinds of power inherent within clerical re- either explicitly or implicitly a term or con- lationships are: Ethics in Pastoral Minis- dition of an individual’s employment, try (Paulist Press, 1996)by Richard (2)submission to or rejection of such con- Gula,SS, and At Personal Risk: Boundary duct by an individual is used as the basis Violations in Professional-Client Relation- for employment decisions affecting such ships (Norton, 1992) by Marilyn Peterson. an individual, or (3) such conduct has the 6. Marie Fortune, “The Joy of Bound- purpose or effect of unreasonably interfer- aries,” in Boundary Wars, Intimacy and Dis- ing with an individual’s work performance tance in Healing Relationships, Katherine or creating an intimidating, hostile, or of- Hancock Ragsdale (The Pilgrim Press, fensive working environment,” 29CFR 1996),80. 1604.11. Educational institutions add 7. Miriam Greenspan, “Out of Bounds,” “educational” to employment situations. in Boundary Wars, Intimacy. and Distance 9. Courts interpret the First Amendment’s in Healing Relationships Katherine religious freedom and separation clauses to Hancock Ragsdale (The Pilgrim Press, prohibit their interference with the train- 1996), 134. ing, hiring, retention or firing of people 8. EEOC definition: “Unwelcome sexual with “ministerial” functions within a reli- advances, requests for sexual favors, and gious institution. other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual 10. The author has written elsewhere about nature constitutes sexual harassment when the contents of such policies and proce- (1) submission to such conduct is made dures.

30 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist The Jewish Basis for Shareholder Activism

BY MORDECHAI LIEBLING

he Kossover taught that Shareholder involvement has thus we always need to be conscious emerged as one of the most effective ways T of the Divine. He was asked, of holding corporations accountable. “Can we think of God when we are Recently, an inside-the-Beltway lob- engaged in buying and selling?” “Sure- byist for a national environmental or- ly you can,” the rebbe answered, “If we ganization said to me, “Getting a mul- are able to think of business when we are tinational corporation to change its praying, we should be able to think of policies is many times more important praying when we are doing business.” than getting the Senate to pass a bill.” Multinational corporations are con- As large corporations have assumed sig- sidered by many to be the most pow- nificant power in shaping the lives of erful institutions on the globe today. people and in affecting the health of Of the world’s 100 largest economies, our eco-systems, working to change fifty-one belong to corporations with corporate policies is an essential com- revenues larger than many nation ponent of any effort to bring about a states. Governments are frequently healthier and more just world. powerless to change corporate behav- Most shareholders think of them- ior or, worse, are compelled to do their selves as investors. In fact, and in law, bidding. More than sixty years ago, they are owners. They own a portion Franklin Delano Roosevelt said that of the corporation in which they hold modern corporations“had become a shares. Being an owner bestows the kind of private government which is a power of the proxy vote, the power to power unto itself.”1 vote on shareholder resolutions. In Jew- ish tradition, being an owner has sig- Private Property of Shareholders nificant ramifications. There is a strong basis to support shareholder activism, What is often overlooked is that derived both from basic principles these corporations are the private prop- about wealth and economic resources erty of shareholders. Publicly held cor- and from specific halakhot. The follow- porations are technically democracies ing is a brief summary of the relevant — the shareholders are the voters. principles.

Rabbi Mordechai Liebling is Director of the Torah of Money program at the Shefa Fund.

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 31 Basic Principles rights over their property; rights are cir- cumscribed by the needs of the com- • The earth belongs to God, and all munity, such as in the laws of peah (re- wealth derives from God. serving the corners of the field for the • Human beings are the stewards of poor) and of leket (gleaning — leaving creation, and are responsible for tak- the rest for the poor once a field has ing care of each other. been harvested). These laws require the • Judaism is a covenantal religion: owner to share the means of produc- We are partners with God for the well- tion with the poor. Furthermore, prop- being of all creation. erty owners must act to prevent injury • Owning private property is a legiti- to others on their property, as seen, for mate human need; along with ownership example, in the biblical injunction to come rights and responsibilities. put a fence around a roof. 3 A fundamental tenet of Judaism is In Judaism, an owner cannot escape brit (covenant) — the belief that God responsibility for the social and com- and humans are partners in the world’s munal effects of wealth. The modern daily recreation and in striving toward corporation, however, separates the justice. Our partnership with God is shareholder from the corporation. The the basis for recognizing that economic principle of limited liability, that the interdependence and community re- corporation and not the person is li- sponsibility limit and balance the cre- able for , is fundamental to the ation and accumulation of wealth. corporation. In fact, it is its raison d’etre: Being true to the brit requires conscious Liability laws were a restraint on risky ethical behavior in work, consumption, ventures, and the corporation was cre- buying, selling, lending and giving. The ated specifically for the purpose of lim- miracle of Sinai was of human beings iting liability. This allows a transfer of coming together to form a society based moral, as well as legal, responsibility, on ethics and justice, and not on per- with the result that shareholders often sonal gain. This was reaffirmed within feel that they have no responsibility for the reward and punishment paradigm illegal or unethical actions committed of . As the by the corporation in which they are says, “The first question you will be shareholders. Jewish tradition, how- asked in heaven will be, ‘How did you ever, does not accept the separation of conduct your business affairs?’” 2 ownership and liability so easily, affirm- ing that a shareholder remains an Responsibilities of Ownership owner of the corporation.

Judaism understands the ownership Jewish Perspectives of private property as a legitimate hu- man need. Ownership of property im- What does Jewish tradition say are plies both rights and responsibilities. the responsibilities of the owner? There Property owners do not have absolute are direct principles that affect the own-

32 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist ing of shares in a company: cities trying to sue gun manufacturers • One is not allowed to earn a profit for producing Saturday-night-specials. from forbidden activities, such as, for We have the responsibility to make sure example: theft; not paying workers fair that our property (assets) does no harm. salaries, using false weights and mea- sures, creating pollution or endanger- Halakhic Viewpoints ing someone’s health. • One should not allow one’s assets There is a long history of discussions to cause damage, and one is liable if in the halakhic literature about the re- damages occur. The classical example sponsibility of shareholders.4 Given all from the Talmud is about oxen. If ten of the responsibilities of ownership, people hold shares in an ox and that halakhists have had to come to terms ox causes damage, each shareholder is with the duties of shareholders. Rabbi liable, proportionate to his/her hold- D. B. Bressler, in his survey of the rel- ing — no matter how small and regard- evant literature concludes that less of whether s/he was actively in- volved in handling the ox. One cannot . . . while a diversity of views exists transfer responsibility for the action concerning corporate shareholder re- caused by one’s assets. sponsibility, the consensus is that • One may not assist or be a partner only corporate directors and execu- to someone who assists another to do tives bear ownership accountability. an act that is forbidden, even when This would mean that according to there is no judicial fine or punishment. Jewish law, only such shareholders Just the opposite: one must try to pre- would, because of their own owner- vent another from committing a trans- ship status, have the legal obligation gression. This is based on Leviticus to examine ethical questions before 19:14, “One should not put a stum- investing.5 bling block before the blind” ( lo titen mikhshol). As examples: one This consensus is based on the prem- may not sell weapons to a known crimi- ise that individual shareholders do not nal, or to someone who is likely to com- have the power to change company mit a crime; one may not create a mar- policy while directors and executives do ket for goods that are harmful, such as have that power. tobacco. Neither an individual nor a rep- The advent of shareholder activism resentative can do these types of things. challenges this premise. A group of Following these teachings, we see, shareholders, acting together, has the for example, that a corporation that power to change company policy. supplies arms to rogue political leaders There is now a thirty-year track record or despots, or to nations that use weap- of shareholder resolutions successfully ons against their own citizens to stay changing company policy. Some recent in power, would be in violation of these examples: Home Depot agreed not to principles. We currently have several buy old-growth lumber; Staples agreed

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 33 to sell more recycled paper; pharma- Corporate Responsibility, the source of ceutical companies have provided most social-justice shareholder resolu- HIV/AIDS to African coun- tions, has 275 member institutions, tries free of charge or at significantly only three of which are Jewish. reduced rates; and numerous compa- One final teaching: A good deed nies have agreed to end discrimination cannot be performed through assets against gay and lesbian employees. gained by not fulfilling other respon- The possibility of collective action sibilities of property ownership. In having cumulative power leads to the other words, one cannot fulfill one principle that Jewish shareholders have commandment by means of a trans- the responsibility to act. Rabbi Bressler gression of another (mitzvah haba-ah concludes, ba’aveirah).8 Saying “If I earn more . . . if there is a shareholder move- money I will give more tzedakah” does ment attempting to pass resolutions not work, if in the process of making the at the annual company meeting that money one is causing, contributing to or would prevent management from benefiting from injustice. implementing some business im- Jewish values about the responsibili- propriety or harmful practice, it ties of ownership are clear and unambigu- would be incumbent upon share- ous — we need to take every reasonable holders to support such proposals.6 step to make sure that the things we own do no harm. A first step in being a re- Collective Wealth sponsible shareholder would be to vote proxies to fulfill those obligations. Estimates of the collective wealth of Jewish institutions in endowments and 1. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Common- communal funds vary from 25 to 50 wealth Club Address, September 23, 1932. billion dollars.That is a significant 2. Talmud, Shabbat 31A. amount of assets, much of which is 3. Deuteronomy 22:8. invested in stock. Yet very few share- 4. For an excellent review of the material holders vote their proxies. Over the last see D. B. Bressler, “Ethical Investment: The two years, through my work at the Responsibility of Ownership in Jewish Law” Shefa Fund, I have organized the Jew- in Jewish : The Firm and Its ish Shareholder Engagement Network, Stakeholders edited by Aaron Levine and to educate and organize Jewish insti- Moses Pava, Jason Aronson, 1999. tutions about the importance of vot- 5. Ibid. 185. 6. Ibid., 193. ing their proxies. To date, the Network 7. The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Col- has a dozen members, representing lege is a member, along with many of the 7 more than $1.5 billion in equity. institutions of the Reform movement; the It should be noted that in mainline Nathan Cummings Foundation is also a Protestant denominations and Catho- member and has been the principal sup- lic orders, proxy voting is taken very porter of this project. seriously. The Interfaith Center for 8. Talmud, Sukkah 30A.

34 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist Every Day Ethics: God is in the Details

BY CHRISTINA AGER

am an eco-behaviorist, which I am also a mystic of sorts, believing for the purposes of this article that the worlds of action (asiyah) and of I means two things. First, I see words or formation (yetzirah) do, in fact, behavior as the primary vehicle for con- create the world we inhabit (beriah). nection between living beings. Second, These physical manifestations of life not I see behaviors as being created in the only mirror the sphere of emanation space between the environment and the (atzilut) they create this sphere, which in individual. So while each person is re- turn affects the worlds of asiyah and sponsible for his or her actions, the en- yetzirah. vironment also contributes to the con- text in which those actions occur. The Action and Speech context (or ecology) of any situation contributes to the behaviors exhibited Action and speech are our tools of cre- in that context. Some situations help ation. A cosmic circle is begun each time us be our best selves, while other situa- we act, and each time we speak. Conse- tions contribute to our being less than quently, ethical living is grounded in each our best. behavior — verbal or nonverbal — in Responsible leaders, be they supervi- which we engage. In this article, I will lay sors, teachers, principals or parents help out some lessons learned from my work create contexts in which people are most that contribute to embracing the ethical likely to interact positively. Eco-behav- construction of everyday life. iorism is an extension of the philosophy Behavior is the primary vehicle for of , and can be summed up connection. Each action we take is an op- as follows: what happens happens between portunity to heal or harm, to build a one person and the environment. Each bridge or to build a barrier. Those are person’s actions within the interaction among the choices we face each time we contribute to the creation of the space in interact with another person. We have which we live our lives. the opportunity to choose dozens, per-

Dr. Christina Ager is an associate professor of special education and executive direc- tor of the B2EST (Building Behavioral and Educational Support Teams) program at Arcadia University. B2EST provides research-based programming to support stu- dents with emotional and behavioral challenges and to implement positive behav- ioral support in schools and organizations nationally.

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 35 haps hundreds, of times a day between at each other, teachers embarrassing or being kind or being hurtful, between berating children, or organizations using smiling and frowning, between truly see- silence to promote fear — into situations ing someone else or being consumed in of healing. The concept of everyday eth- our own life. Being conscious of those ics developed through my grappling with choices helps us to act wisely. the intersection of my Judaism and this Behaviors are the details of life, and work of helping myself and others shape life is all about details. How we behave the world in which we live, one behavior conveys our ethics, our principles and our at a time. beliefs about the world. Living an ethical life means behaving ethically. When Five to One asked, many people will report they “be- lieve” in kindness or they “value” caring. One of the central foci of this work is Our behaviors are the translation of our the “five to one,” a research-based ratio beliefs into action. Without this, ethics of the number of positive/supportive or values are meaningless. statements to the number of corrective or critical statements. Research has dem- Believing and Behaving onstrated that use of this ratio transforms relationships and, consequently, situa- In addition to being an eco-behav- tions. iorist and a mystic, I am also a profes- This is the way it works: for every one sor, consultant and trainer in the field corrective or critical statement we make, of positive behavior support. This field we need to make five positive or support- used to be called “behavior disorders,” ive statements. In this way we create situ- but has since evolved. No longer do we ations or contexts that honor the good view life through the lenses of deficits. or successful in others, and acknowledge Rather, our goal is to help organiza- their strengths and contributions. This tions, schools, families and individuals also insures that we cultivate and express find ways to support themselves and gratitude for the abundance present in each other in behaviors that are consis- our lives, rather than focusing on discon- tent with the ethics of the person(s) or tent for what is lacking. the organization. We seek to promote When this concept is introduced to behavior that is caring, compassionate, people they are often skeptical. It takes kind, true and meaningful. practice to make the positive statements We find that if there is a disconnect as genuine as our criticisms often are. It between what we say we believe and how takes commitment and practice to learn we behave then a sense of unease gets cre- to live this way. Principals, supervisors and ated inside us and at some level, we suf- parents often assert that it is impossible fer. We are not as satisfied with our work to fulfill, or try to negotiate for some- or as happy in our homes. Positive be- thing less — three to two, or three to one, havior support tries to transform situa- for instance. But five to one works. This tions of harm — such as people yelling ratio has been shown to improve student

36 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist performance in schools,1 employee satis- wonder through the desert of life and end faction at work,2 and can predict with up outside my tent, as the three angels over ninety percent accuracy the likeli- appeared outside Abraham’s tent. It was hood of couples staying together.3 This a lovely image and a convenient one. ratio can be used both as a metric (to Since I do not live in a tent in the desert measure the health of a relationship or I did not have to face this possibility as a organization) and as an intervention. real task in my life. Yes, I felt guilty some- Using the five to one changes a person’s times that I did not go into the streets orientation toward others and subse- and invite people who are homeless to quently toward life; it is a powerful tool. my Seder, but then the feeling would pass as conveniently as the holiday. Applying Jewish Values Welcoming the stranger is a more real and more difficult task when the stranger Five to one is also a spiritual practice. is someone with a different political opin- Practicing the five to one makes it easier ion; or a smoker ahead of me in line at to see that each of us is made b’tselem the movies; or any of the thousands of elohim, in the image of God. I have been other people who rub up against me in blessed with many great teachers, many the daily lived interactions of everyday of them appearing in a form I would not existence. have chosen if given a choice. These teachers are people who “push my but- Levels of Power tons.” Over time I have come to accept “button pushing” as God’s way of re- Louise Hay4 talks about three levels of minding me to grow and change. In other power: individual, tribal and spiritual. words, people who push my buttons are People who operate out of either an in- equally in the image of God. dividual or tribal orientation believe that Obviously, this is not always easy to different rules apply to them and their remember. Nor am I always able to see group than apply to others. Many of the God in the faces of someone who is rant- ills in the world come from privileging ing at me about why I am wrong or to- individual and tribal power. But if we tally misinformed. Still, when I can re- recognize the unity and connectedness of member that each face I encounter is a all creation then ultimately there are no face of God, it is easier to take the step “strangers.” Adonai Elohenu, Adonai forward toward growth, rather than back- Ehad:. God is One. ward toward fear or anger. Making choices that welcome the An extension of b’tselem elohim is the stranger, and that reinforce the idea that Jewish value of welcoming the stranger. I we all matter, is not always easy. Engag- have found this most helpful when I rec- ing in behaviors and interactions that say ognize the stranger as someone who clearly, for example, “your children or thinks, believes or lives very differently your feelings or your thoughts matter no from myself. For a long time, I thought less than mine,” can be a challenge. Wel- of the stranger as some person who would coming everyone — those strange to us,

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 37 as well as those familiar to us — means able to get what they want without an- our hearts and minds are as open as noying others. When we view others as Abraham’s tent. We can exercise a hospi- “having a behavior problem.” it is not that tality of the heart that is willing to pro- they want something different than the vide others with the sustenance they need, rest of us. Rather it is that they go about even if that nurturance is very different getting it in ways that we find disruptive from what we think they need, or what or hard to take. The student who garners we ourselves need. Welcoming the attention by acting out in class, and the stranger means I extend the same kind- congregant who wants twenty minutes ness, patience and understanding to of the rabbi’s time at every oneg, are both people whose values, beliefs or lives seem trying to gain attention or status. The foreign to me as I do to those whose val- colleague who runs every idea by you ues, beliefs, and lives are similar to mine. before acting, or a supervisee who puts Understanding that all behaviors have off a major task, may both be trying to a function can help us welcome the avoid failure. stranger. Actions communicate; they can Seeing beneath the behavior, and hear- result in our getting something we want, ing what people are saying to us by means or avoiding something we do not want. of their behaviors, enables us to approach Knowing the function of a person’s be- people in a different, more supportive and havior can help us act in a more compas- productive way. If a rabbi can see that a sionate, understanding and supportive congregant needs the status of talking way toward him or her. with her, then she can find other ways to provide that status; not by allowing her- Functions of Behavior self to be cornered at the oneg, but in a way that feels better to her and does not The functions of behavior are univer- monopolize her time after services. In sal. We want to get the attention of people time, that person may also learn how to we like or respect, we want access to tasks get status in ways that are more socially or activities we enjoy, we want status, acceptable, and more organizationally control over our own lives and a sense of compatible. belongingness and safety. Conversely, we want to avoid the attention of people we Rewarding the Good do not like and tasks or activities we find distasteful or difficult. We also want to In most schools and organizations the avoid frustration along with failure and easiest way to get attention is to act out, fear, fear of embarrassment or failure or while behaving appropriately and being of another person’s anger or disapproval. a good citizen often leads to being ig- These functions are neither right nor nored. Teachers, for example, can make wrong. Wanting status or attention, or sure the majority of their attention is go- wanting to avoid failure are neither good ing to students who are behaving appro- nor bad. Some people are more socially priately, rather than to students who are skilled and interpersonally wise; they are not following the rules. Teachers often

38 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist use what I call the sniper method of be- behavior are universal, and by seeing what havior control, ignoring, for example, the a person is saying with his or her behav- twenty students who are walking to lunch ior, we can respond in ways that preserve quietly, and shooting a disapproving com- other people’s dignity and support them ment at the one or two students who are in getting what they need. Then we can talking in the hall. develop ways to help people learn more Reversing this accomplishes three positive or appropriate ways to behave, things. First, students learn that to get strategies that result in a positive climate the teacher’s attention they must be do- that makes manifest the values of our ing what is right; second, a more positive families or organizations. We can create atmosphere is created in the school (es- places where compassion, consideration pecially if the teacher is using the five to and collaboration are espoused, not just one); and third, students who are not in mission statements but in everyday following the rules begin to do so in or- interactions. We can develop organiza- der to to gain the praise and recognition tions that proactively meet the needs of available to their fellow students who are their constituents and self-consciously doing is asked. reinforce desired behaviors. The goal of positive behavior support is to find per- Fear of Failure sonal and organizational ways to support behaviors that contribute to actualizing Understanding that a congregant or the goals that we set for ourselves. supervisee wants to avoid failure allows us to meet them with compassion, since Giving and Getting Support we too want to avoid failure. Then we can assure them, ask what they need to All people deserve support, and all of get started, and let them know they us need support from time to time. When should check in with us a third of the we are being intra- or interpersonally in- way through their task. Setting up this telligent we can often figure out how to system often allows people to move for- support ourselves, or how to get support ward, and provides an opportunity to in- from our partners or closest colleagues. tervene before a project is completed, so We talk over a situation that we know that it can be kept on track instead of will challenge us behaviorally before it being criticized after the fact. We do not occurs, and strategize how to remain kind feel so put upon, and can be more gener- and calm while knowing our buttons may ous with our reassurance. Taken together, get pushed. Or, we decide not to make these strategies constitute a system of the phone call to discuss a difficult topic positive behavioral support that estab- with a colleague because we are tired and lishes a different framework in which to feeling vulnerable. So we wait and make live, one that stands in contrast to the the call tomorrow, when we are more systems currently operating in most capable of being our better selves. And schools, and work places. there are times when we are not so By recognizing that the functions of intrapersonally intelligent, when we too

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 39 need the support of environments or co- portive spaces between us and other workers that help us do what is right, kind people. In these ways ethics become the or judicious. words and actions of every day living. Providing support for each other is not over and above the responsibilities of life, it is a primary responsibility of life. Do- 1. Best Practices, Prioritizing as a Group, Of- ing so with kindness, compassion and fice of Quality Improvement and Office of generosity conveys our acceptance of this Human Resource Development (online), responsibility, and creates in the spaces University of Wisconsin Madison, http:// between us an atmosphere conducive to www.ohrd.wisc.edu/meetings/prioritize. acceptance and growth. htm#criteria We create the world through action 2. Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D., and speech. Practicing the five to one, Now, Discover Your Strengths (Princeton, NJ: remembering b’tselem elohim, and wel- Gallup, 2004) 3. Gottman and Swanson, “Math and Mar- coming the stranger can help us create a riage: Five-to-One Ratio Predicts Who Will kinder more expansive world. Pausing to Stay Married,” University Week University see what people are saying to us through of Washington, Vol. 21, 2004 (16). their behaviors, and looking at our own 4 Louise L. Hay is a lecturer on and teacher annoyances as opportunities for growth of metaphysics and the bestselling author of and transformation, can enable us to re- 27 books, including You Can Heal Your Life spond in ways that create positive sup- and Empowering Women.

40 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist Simplicity as a Jewish Value: Reclaiming and Reconstructing Sumptuary Legislation

BY MOTI RIEBER

have a parlor game I sometimes “greed is good” 1980s, we have seen like to play with friends. We list the triumph of globalization and the everyday seemingly indispens- free-market system, coupled with the I collapse of meaningful alternative phi- able items that did not even exist ten or fifteen years ago. It’s a long list: cell losophies to our contemporary obses- phones (now with text messaging and sion with getting and spending. The picture-taking capacity); personal digi- shopping mall has become the most tal assistants (PDAs, now including important “public” space in society; mobile e-mail); e-mail and the Internet shopping has become the most impor- itself; high-speed computers (now with tant activity; and the one-day sale has broad-band connection); iPods (which become the most recognizable way we have more storage space than the high- celebrate our civic holidays. The inces- est-tech home computer did ten years sant and insistent message to “buy, buy, ago); digital cable television; and on buy” is forced upon us 24/7, from tele- and on. And this does not even take visions, radios, billboards, newspapers into account the things that did exist and Internet pop-up ads. years ago but are now bigger and bet- American Jews are far from imper- ter than they ever were: television sets vious to this sort of societal pressure. the size of walls, huge new houses and, An old joke captures the materialism of course, the SUV (or as progressive that many associate with organized columnist Jim Hightower calls it, the Jewish life: “What did the mink say to “Chevy Subdivision.”) the fox? ‘See you at !’” That this tendency toward materialism Consumer Religion still exists and, in fact, has expanded along with the size of houses and cars, Consumerism is more than ever the can be seen in elaborate and expensive civil religion of American life. Since the semahot. ; it is not unusual for a bar

Moti Rieber is the rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom in Naperville, Illinois.

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 41 mitzvah to cost as much as a wedding ment with one’s standard of living, as did a generation ago, and for a wed- evidenced for example in ding to cost twice as much as a new 4:1: “Who is rich? Those who are sat- car. isfied with what they have.” The Reconstructionist movement The best-developed expression in and, before it, the Havurah movement, Jewish tradition of this ethical insight reacted against this tendency by down- is found in the sumptuary laws, which playing the prominence of financial were established beginning in the 15th supporters in synagogue life — a reac- century, and are found in both Se- tion that has its own complicating pharad and Ashkenaz, from Spain and legacy. Yet even if this is taken as a posi- Italy to Poland and Lithuania to tive, we can wonder whether a value France. Few areas of ethical instruction that we profess in the synagogue (in this get as much attention by so many var- case, modesty in financial matters) has ied communities over such distances been transferred to our home life. A and long periods of time as do the in- look at our bank statements and at the structions regarding limiting ostenta- SUVs lining our parking lots would tion in matters of personal consump- seem to answer that question. tion. I will examine a few brief ex- The focus in our lives on the pur- amples of this material, and then sug- chase of “stuff” has a deep and lasting gest ways in which this perspective can impact. It limits our available time, be effectively brought into our contem- since we need to work longer hours to porary Jewish communities. be able to afford to buy the “stuff,” in- sure it, find a place to store it and dis- Law and Lessons pose of it when it wears out. It may mean cutting back on hours devoted Sumptuary literature tends to fall to civic engagement (including the into two categories: legislation promul- synagogue), friendship or even time gated by community leaders (not nec- with one’s family. As a result, we may essarily, or even primarily, its rabbis) find ourselves socially isolated, with no in an attempt to regulate the costs of resources of communal or spiritual con- dress and/or celebration; and homileti- nection to fall back on. We may find cal material, in which the community’s ourselves lonely and isolated, despite rabbis remind people of the spiritual our large homes and deluxe standards dangers of the pursuit of too much of living. There is the environmental wealth. The homiletical material sets impact as well. out the values, and the legislation at- tempts to put those values into every- Cultivating Contentment day practice. The earliest sumptuary materials In contrast, Judaism has a long his- come from 15th-century Italy and tory of encouraging modesty in con- Spain, and show the influence of sumption and of cultivating content- Sepharad’s greatest thinkers: Rambam

42 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist (), and the ethicist Bahya work is probably the clearest answer to Ibn-Pekuda. In the Guide for the Per- those who would suggest that sump- plexed, Rambam points out that in na- tuary literature is an attempt to impose ture, what is necessary for life (for in- an ascetic standard on the Jews. stance, air and water) comes cheaply, while what is less necessary (such as ru- Benefits of Modesty bies and emeralds) comes quite dearly. “When one endeavors to seek what is From these examples, we learn that unnecessary, it becomes difficult to find a key motivation behind admonitions even what is necessary ... forces and to pursue modesty in consumption is revenues are spent for what is unnec- the conviction that pursuing luxury essary and that which is necessary is not distracts one from the service to God, found.”1 which for these writers is at the core of Bahya devotes the ninth treatise of Jewish life. Yet just as clearly, the es- Hovot. ha-Levavot (Duties of the Heart) sential value underlying sumptuary leg- to abstinence (prishut), by which he islation is moderation, not severity. means the ability to temper the bodily Sumptuary legislation itself suggests appetites for the sake of disciplining the additional motivations: primary among soul. Bahya puts the consumption of these was to enable the community to food, dress, “habitation and other re- collect enough money to support itself quirements” into three categories: that and its causes. In 1418 in Forli, Italy, which is necessary to live; that which is for instance, sumptuary legislation was consumed for enjoyment, “but not to promulgated with the expressed pur- excess or reckless overindulgence,” such pose of raising funds necessary to bribe as good bread or well-prepared food; the pope to look kindly upon the Jew- and that which consists of “much in- ish community. dulgence,” and he proscribes this last. The Forli declaration limited both Why? Because “one who [indulges] so extravagant dressing and lavish ban- to excess is induced to indulge also in queting: enjoyments that are unlawful. More- over, his absorption [in these pleasures] In order that we may carry our- prevents him from fulfilling the duties selves modestly and humbly be- to God incumbent upon him.”2 As we fore the Lord, our God, and to will see, this scale remains useful to us avoid arousing the envy of the today. , we decree that until the Both leaders promote an ethos of end of the above-mentioned term moderation throughout their writing, [ten years, 1416-1426] no Jew or whether homiletic or legislative. In par- Jewess shall be permitted to wear ticular, Rambam’s idea of the “Golden a [fur-lined jacket], unless it be Mean” had a significant influence on black, and that the sleeves shall the way Jewish life developed, especially be open and that the sleeves shall in its aversion to asceticism. Rambam’s have no silk lining whatever on

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 43 them. Those who already possess leadership of the Sephardic community such cloaks of any color other than accepted or was happy with the level black may continue to wear them, of ostentation among its affluent (or provided the sleeves are not open, not-so-affluent) members. In a sermon and the cloaks are closed both in dated c. 1622, Rabbi Saul ha-Levi Mor- the front and back [so that no one teira (1596-1660), a leading Sephardic can see the fur lining]. Neither rabbi who wrote more than 1400 ser- shall any man or woman wear any mons between 1616 and 1645, deals cloak of sable or ermine or mixed with ostentation among the Sephardic fur . . . The fine for the transgres- population. The body of the sermon sion of any of these provisions re- centers on three words in Exodus 1:7: garding the use of clothes and or- “The were fertile va-yishretzu naments shall be ten Bolognini of va-yirbu va-ya’atzmu very greatly, so silver . . . for each offense. Men that the land was full of them.” The shall be held responsible for the three untranslated words, rendered in infractions of these rules by their the Jewish Publication Society transla- wives. If anyone will refuse to obey tion as “and [were] prolific; they mul- these ordinances, the community tiplied and increased,” are explicated shall refuse to admit him to min- throughout the sermon — negatively, yan or to read the Torah or to per- as it turns out, as an accounting of the form the gelilah. Jews in Egypt forgetting who they were . . .[N]o Jew shall be permitted and whence they came, becoming ac- to invite to a banquet more than customed to living in exile, and grow- twenty men and ten women and ing wasteful and extravagant. In this, five girls. This number shall in- they are compared to the extravagant clude both the people of the city Jews of Amsterdam. and those without, but shall not Morteira cites legislation, perhaps include relatives as close as second from an earlier synod in Castile, draw- cousins . . . 3 ing a distinction between religious and “optional” banquets and pointing out In the Forli material we find another that the latter are prohibited, and that reason for such legislation: to avoid an- even the former should not be exces- tagonizing the gentiles. This became a sive, lest one waste one’s well-being on more central rationale in Amsterdam, frivolities: where the Calvinist Christians (or Jews influenced by Calvinism) were scandal- There is no foolishness greater ized by the more flamboyant recent im- than that of a person who has migrants from Spain. fields and vineyards for the sup- port of his household but sells Restraining Excess them to buy expensive clothing for himself and ornaments for his This is not to say that the religious house, so that when the time of

44 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist harvest comes, he is hungry, with One is permitted to wear only two no field to reap. So it is with those rings on weekdays, four on the of us who spend money on jewels Sabbath, and six on the holidays. and expensive clothing. We have Both men and women are abso- no fields except our money, and lutely forbidden to wear precious we must use it to serve God and stones. An exception is made in provide food for our household. the case of a pregnant woman, Is it not utter foolishness to dimin- who is permitted to wear a ring ish it for no good purpose, so that with a diamond because of its when the time of harvest comes, curative powers. Otherwise, no there will be no source of food?4 exception will be made, under penalty of three ducats.5 Similar legislation was promulgated in Palermo, Venice, Salonica, Mantua Limiting the ostentation of richer and Rome throughout the 15th, 16th members was clearly of great impor- and 17th centuries. tance in Poland and Lithuania, as we see most clearly in the homiletics of R. Wealth and Divine Favor Ephraim Luntshitz. Luntshitz (1550- 1619) was a student of Solomon Luria Unlike the ethical literature of and an itinerant preacher until becom- Sepharad, early Ashkenazic ethical lit- ing head of the at Lemberg and erature, such as that of Hasidei Ash- then president of the rabbinical court kenaz and the legal commentaries of in Prague in his fifties. Isserles, tended to look approvingly at The main theme of Luntshitz’s ser- wealth as being evidence of God’s fa- mons was, as he put it, “to retort to vor. This may be due to the relatively those misguided ones among our impoverished state of early Ashekanazic people who enjoy all the good and pass- Jewry: there is little or no sumptuary ing successes”6; that is, criticism of the legislation or literature where there are wealthy members of his community, few or no affluent Jews. Yet communi- whom Isserles and the Sefer Hasidim ties in Eastern and Central Europe had considered blessed. To the contrary, throughout the period continued to Luntshitz claimed that the passion for draw up sumptuary guidelines, and money and luxury of this group caused their rabbis continued to exhort from them to focus on the ephemeral rather the pulpit, showing just how universal than the eternal: and widespread the community’s con- cerns were on these matters, despite the . . . [T]here is hopeless confusion lack of indigenous intellectual or ideo- as to the value of life itself. Most logical underpinnings. men live as though they believed The first ordinances of this sort were that life existed for things. Thus, developed by the community in life is lived on a low plane. Those Cracow in 1595: of our members who constitute

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 45 the backbone of our congrega- Luntshitz does not propose asceticism tions are mostly merchants who for Jews, realizing that money is neces- are deeply engrossed in the busi- sary and useful. But one must learn to ness of gathering profits, and hold it at a safe distance. It is compa- whose standard of value, even in rable, in this respect, to fire: one can matters pertaining to holy things, barely do without it, yet one does well is none other than the coin of the not to get too close to it. And surely realm.7 there is no rational justification for this mad pursuit after the material things Luntshitz criticized the association of the world, a pursuit that absorbs the of commercial success with spiritual at- interest and energy of multitudes of our tainment, saying that wealth corrupts people.10 and destroys the character of men when The values underlying Luntshitz’s they do not appreciate its purpose. “For seemingly harsh words are thus the the proud in spirit normally wish for same as those that stand behind all such riches, whereby they can display . . . the material: too much wealth arouses envy splendor of their greatness. But all from the community and from wealth leads to arrogance.”8 one’s fellow Jews; it leads one to live beyond one’s means, as well as to di- Consequences of Excess minish one’s obligation to tzedakah and the maintenance of the poor; it encour- Worse, the pursuit of profit causes ages other Jews to live beyond their the wealthy to ignore their obligation means; and, of course, there are the to their needy brethren. Luntshitz com- spiritual costs: the pursuit of wealth dis- pared the rich to the gentiles and the tracts from those activities that are of poor to Israel, exiled and oppressed. real — eternal — importance. Worse still was the power of the bad example that the rich provided: Lessons for Today Those in moderate circumstances, hankering after the luxuries of life, are If it is true that sumptuary regula- perpetually scrambling for ever-in- tions tend to arise when Jews are in a creasing riches, an enterprise deservedly period of relative prosperity, then reputed to be the most fertile single clearly there is as great a need for such source of in the world.9 guidelines today as there has ever been. This gives us an important addi- After all, the wealth and position of tional motivation for such legislation: many of the Jews of contemporary Over-consumption encourages less- America and Europe (and even Israel) well-off Jews to attempt to match it; make the Jews even of the Golden Age this “keeping up with the Goldbergs” of Spain seem like the denizens of a hurts most those who can least afford mud-covered shtetl. it. All the rationales behind the pro- As in other sumptuary materials, mulgation of sumptuary literature ob-

46 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist tain today. Remember Rambam’s claim work now? But efficacy is not the only that the search for what is unnecessary or even the main means by which we (and therefore rare in nature) causes us decide which Jewish values to teach. If to lose what is vital (and common). To- it were, then we might well have day, as well, we can see that the pursuit stopped teaching the ethics of speech of extravagance interferes with the abil- long ago. ity to provide everyday necessities. Ex- amples include industrial farming that A Place to Start pollutes drinking water through run- off; a highway system that encourages Perhaps a place to start would be sprawl and global warming; and dia- with Bahya’s three-step needs assess- mond mining, which inhibits the very ment: that which is necessary to live; ability of societies to govern themselves that which is consumed for enjoyment, peaceably, among all too many others. “but not to excess or reckless overin- A focus on consumption still causes dulgence”; and that which consists of us to live beyond our means, as evi- “much indulgence.” It would be valu- denced by today’s record levels of con- able to have a community-wide process sumer credit, bankruptcy and low rates of the study of this material (or even of savings. It still takes money from our such a process within a small group of tzedakah and civic responsibilities. like-thinkers), plus values clarification Some people prefer to purchase plasma around what is “necessary” and what is televisions rather than synagogue mem- “reckless.” This might then lead to the bership with their so-called “discretion- establishment of guidelines that could ary” money. The focus on consump- be binding in the communal context tion still encourages those who are less and suggested for one’s home life. It wealthy to live beyond their means. might, for instance, lead to such initia- And although avoiding the envy of tives as gemahs. (an acronym of the ini- non-Jews has faded as a consideration, tial letters of gemilut hasadim. , acts of our forebears understood much better loving-kindess), an organization for the than we that rampant consumerism sharing of goods such as tools, books disconnects us from matters of the or fancy clothes. spirit, from our connection with God. Further such specific recommenda- So we can certainly justify a contem- tions are beyond the scope of this pa- porary reconstruction of sumptuary per. But it is worth keeping in mind regulations. We are faced, of course, that for nearly 500 years Jewish thought with the antinomian tendencies of con- has responded to affluent circumstances temporary Jewry and the individualis- and material ostentation with repeated tic ethos of Americans, not to mention, reminders that the values that make life as scholars point out, that sumptuary truly worthwhile are found not in one’s legislation was probably most often wallet — or in one’s house, or in one’s honored in the breach. In other words, driveway, or on one’s wall, or on one’s if it did not work then, why would it back — but in family, community and

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 47 connection to the Divine Source. A 1800: An Anthology (New Haven and Lon- study of the sumptuary laws, and a re- don: Yale University Press, 1989), 285. construction of them in our day, can 5. Jacob R. Marcus, The Jew in the Medi- help bring that reminder to today’s Jew- eval World (New York: Atheneum, 1969), ish community. 195. 6. H.H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jew- ish People (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uni- 1. Guide for the Perplexed III:12. versity Press, 1976),711. 2. R. Bahya Ibn Pekuda, Duties of the Heart 7. Israel Bettan, Studies in Jewish Preach- (Hovot Ha-Levavot), tr. Moses Hyamson ing (Cincinnati: HUC Press, 1939),290. (New York: Feldheim, 1970), 315. The material quoted here is paraphrased 3. Louis Finkelstein, Jewish Self-Govern- by Bettan. ment in the Middle Ages (New York: JTS, 8. Ben-Sasson,op.cit., 711. 1924), 292-294. 9. Bettan, op.cit., 290. 4. Marc Saperstein, Jewish Preaching, 1200- 10. Ibid., 292.

48 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist What Is Religious about Ethics?

BY JONATHAN BRUMBERG-KRAUS

inian Smart, the great scholar life, its moral and aesthetic style and of comparative religion, clas- mood; and their worldview — the N sified ethics as one of the six picture they have of the way things basic dimensions of any religious sys- in sheer actuality are, their most tem or worldview, along with the comprehensive ideas of order.This mythic, ritual, doctrinal, social, and ex- means that, in the context of reli- 1 periential dimensions. Yet the connec- gious systems, beliefs about ulti- tion assumed in our popular culture be- mate reality are intimately con- tween ethics and religion is not entirely nected with the values about how without problems. Does religion in fact one ought to live. Each religious offer compelling incentives for a mod- symbol, practice, or ritual fuses ern person to be moral? I believe that re- some aspect(s) of the believer’s ligion, as it is understood in the academic worldview with some aspect of the study of comparative religion, has the believer’s way of life.2 potential to provide non-fundamental- ists with compelling incentives to behave In other words, religious worldviews ethically — indeed, to make ethical be- in general, and Judaism in particular, havior a spiritual experience. fuse ethical practices with specific expe- Louis Newman, in his recent book riences, stories, rituals and social institu- An Introduction to Jewish Ethics, cites tions, so that each reinforces the other; the noted anthropologist Clifford each evokes a rich set of associations; and Geertz, who writes: each, in a sense, implies the others.

[R]eligions must be understood as Worldviews and Ethics “cultural systems,” which create meaning through the synthesis of I can think of at least four strategies “worldview” and “ethos.” . . . by which the Jewish religious world- [S]acred symbols (and by impli- view intimately connects or fuses our cation, all ) function to beliefs about ultimate reality with some synthesize a people’s ethos — the aspect of our way of life — that is, with tone, character and quality of their our ethos. Jewish religious strategies for

Dr. Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion at Wheaton College in Massachussetts.

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 49 getting people to behave ethically include: pecially for liberals who value au- It feels good: One gets a heightened tonomy so highly, it feels better to use experiential reward for acting ethically. our brains to explore options and make It is all part of the story: One reen- a thoughtful, intentional choice to fol- acts primordial or foundation myths low an ethical course of action than to when acting ethically. For example: do mindlessly what we have to do be- “[Y]our male and female slave may rest cause some authority said so. Many of as you do . . . Remember that you were us have been acutely aware of being a slave in Egypt and the Lord freed you” tempted to do something we knew to (Deuteronomy 5:14-15). be wrong, and then, in fact, choosing Shared style, shared identity: One to do the right thing, despite our ini- wants to belong. There is a social in- tial inclination. centive for ethical actions. From a Jewish perspective, the mo- Indirect attitude adjustment: The rep- ment of moral decision is a valued spiri- etition of ritual reinforces ethical dis- tual (“religious”) experience. Thus, the positions. Torah’s story of Adam and Eve in the Jewish religious tradition synthesizes Garden of Eden does not just teach the [our] ethos, especially our moral and abstract doctrine that human beings aesthetic style and mood, with our have (otherwise how could worldview by evoking in us experiences they go against God’s will and eat the of these four strategies. All are inter- forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowl- connected and interdependent. That is edge of ?). It also sacra- the characteristically comprehensive, uni- lizes every subsequent experience of fying power of a worldview; therein lies moral decision making by enshrining the religious dimension of ethics. For the the first such opportunity as a crucial purposes of exposition, I will discuss each element of our myth of origins. one of these strategies individually. Study as Moral Deliberation The Reward for Ethical Behavior An important way we encourage Liberal Judaism values the experi- these “feel-good” experiences of spiri- ence of ethical decision making as tual/ethical insight is through study, es- much as (if not more than) the experi- pecially the ritual liturgically-directed ence of actually performing the good engagement in the morally problem- deed upon which one has decided. In atic stories of the . For other words, it is as much the subjec- example, consider the Torah readings tive experience of performing a mitzvah for the first and second days of Rosh with (intention) as it is the ob- Hashanah. Our listening to and study jective, intrinsic rightness or goodness of Sarah’s instruction to Abraham to of the action (if indeed there is such a banish Hagar and their son Ishmael, thing) that specifically gives it mean- or God’s command to Abraham to sac- ing as a mitzvah. To put it bluntly, es- rifice his beloved son Isaac, cultivate the

50 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist experience of moral deliberation as a vate us to behave ethically: the mythic dynamic process, to be imitated and re- enhancement of our ethical experience enacted when we are confronted with and obligations through understanding analogous moments of moral choice in our roles as part of an ancient and on- our lives. going story. Indeed, a rabbinic answer This is more or less what Alan Der- prompted by the morally problematic showitz argues in his thought-provok- stories of Genesis exemplifies this ra- ing book The Genesis of Justice: Ten Sto- tionale for behaving morally. Our en- ries of Biblical Injustice That Led to the gagement in the stories of Abraham and Ten Commandments and Modern Law.3 Sarah should prompt us to ask: Should Dershowitz suggests not only that Sa- we be bound by moral commandments rah and Abraham’s behavior is patently that the heroes of the Torah do not opposed to the categorical prohibitions themselves follow? We could easily ob- of the tenth and sixth of the Ten Com- ject that Abraham and Sarah were not mandments (“Do not covet” [Exodus obligated to follow the Ten Command- 20:15]; “Do not murder” [Exodus ments because they had not yet been 20:13]), but also that those contradic- revealed. If they were so important, tions are intended to provoke us to then why had they not yet been re- think and struggle with the tension vealed? between laws and the actual messy situ- This is exactly the question the rab- ations to which we must apply them. bis ask in a on the Ten Com- Jewish morality is not blind obedi- mandments found in Mekhilta de- ence to moral absolutes. It rather com- Rabbi Ishmael; rabbinic tradition is quite bines deliberative thought and action sensitive here to our needs as human be- in a unifying experience, so that behav- ings for an incentive to be good: ing ethically — performing a mitzvah — has a crucial subjective, experien- [The Torah states:] “I am the Lord tial component. It makes us experience your God.” [Exodus 20:2] Why our human dignity as choosing, think- were the Ten Commandments not ing, efficacious beings — in the very said at the beginning of the Torah? image of the God who thought and They told a parable: To what is this said, “Let there be light,” and there was matter like? Like a king who en- light. Here is a built-in experiential in- tered a province and said to the centive to perform good actions: They people, “May I be your king?” But make us feel good, smart and noble. the people said to him, “Have you done anything good for us that you Mythic Enhancement should rule over us?” What did he do then? He built the city wall for The very fact that we have these sto- them, he brought in the water sup- ries as parables of moral deliberation ply for them, and he fought their leads directly to the second religious battles. Then when he said to strategy Jewish tradition uses to moti- them, “May I be your king” they

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 51 said to him, “Yes, yes.” that gives Jews a sense of a common So it is with God. He brought group identity is a shared moral and aes- the Israelites out of Egypt, divided thetic style. There can be compelling so- the sea for them, sent down the cial incentives to behave morally. This be- manna for them, brought up the came clear to me as a result of a discus- well for them, brought the quails sion on the story of the spies and their for them. He fought for them the sin in the book of Numbers (chapters battle against Amalek. Then He 13-14) that Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, an said to them, “I am to be your king.” ethnomusicologist as well as a Hillel And they said to Him, "Yes, Yes." rabbi in the Boston area, led at a re- treat for local New England Hillel fac- What ultimately is the motivation ulty advisors and staff that I attended for the ancient Israelites to follow the last year. Rabbi Summit focused our rules of their king? It is not blind obe- Torah study on the interpretations of dience, but gratitude, and the experi- the verse, “We were like grasshoppers ence of being in a relationship with the in our eyes and so we were in their eyes” One who has acted on their behalf. The (Numbers 13:33). He contrasted a motivation to be ethical derives not from negative interpretation of the idea of conformity to some abstract principle of measuring ourselves by how others see the good, but rather from the context of us with a more positive one informed an ongoing story, a drama in which we by contemporary ethnomusicological are cast in the main roles. and anthropological theory on style To be sure, biblical scholarship and group identity. teaches us that historical prologues On the one hand, Rabbi Menahem were a staple of ancient Near Eastern Mendel of Kotzk, a Hasidic rabbi in treaties between suzerains and their the early 19th century known for his vassals. However, that fact only under- sharp, edgy and often ironic perspec- scores the insight both of the redactors tive, says that the main sin of the spies of the Torah and of the author(s) of was that they meant, “We feel like this midrash, namely, that human be- grasshoppers, so the giants [for so the ings need some sort of compelling, sub- mighty inhabitants of the promised jective motivation to act ethically. land appeared to the spies] must see us Thus, this story evokes a particular sub- as little grasshoppers too!” How did the jective feeling, the experience of grati- spies know what the giants thought? tude, as a built-in impetus to do the For the Kotzker rebbe, there is noth- right thing. This background story pro- ing really wrong with the spies seeing vides a sort of mythic enhancement of themselves as “grasshoppers.” It is only the ethical experience. natural to have occasional doubts about oneself. But why should they worry Shared Style, Shared Identity about what other people were saying about them? They could not possibly One of the most important things know how the “giants” felt about them.

52 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist Their fear of what other people thought ethnic identity does not exist. The of them poisoned their attitude, and hypothetical group on an island thus they, in turn, poisoned the atti- with no knowledge of others is not tude of their fellow Israelites with their an ethnic group; it does not have negative report. an ethnic identity; it does not have strategies based on ethnicity. We Self and Other define ourselves in large measure in terms of what we are not, and On the other hand, Rabbi Summit that derives from our experience suggested, if one takes the two parts of of what others are and how we the phrase as complementing rather differ.5 than opposing one another, “We were like grasshoppers in our eyes and so we The Function of “Style” were in their eyes,” it is quite consis- tent with certain definitions of ethnic For Royce, one of the most impor- identity in modern anthropological tant of these “strategies based on theory. As one anthropologist, George ethnicity” can be found in her under- de Vos, puts it: standing of the term “style.” Clothing, language, food preferences, customs, Ethnic identity, like any form of ceremonies, myths, ethics and values identity, is not only a question of are all strategies used by groups in in- knowing who one is subjectively teracting with one another and in dif- (“in our eyes”), but also of how ferentiating one’s own group from oth- one is seen from the outside (“in ers. Thus, to have a Jewish ethnic iden- their eyes”). Ethnic identity re- tity would mean, in Royce’s view, to quires the maintenance of suffi- adopt a distinctively Jewish ethnic style. ciently consistent behavior to en- Studying Jewish texts and history, pray- able others to place an individual ing in Hebrew, eating Jewish food, cel- or a group in some given social cat- ebrating , observing egory, thus permitting appropri- Jewish folkways, are all elements of a ate interactive behavior.4 Jewish style. Moreover, there is even a distinctive Jewish moral style. Jewish Moreover, Anya Peterson Royce, an ethics tend to be more self-consciously ethnomusicologist whose theory is deliberative than authoritarian. Jewish based on her study of dance and style ethics encourage us to study our moral in the Zapotec Indians of Mexico (as options before we act. well as in other groups), says that in There are other characteristic fea- ethnic identity: tures of a Jewish moral style. We ex- press our remorse for what we have probably [the] most important done wrong collectively, as in the Yom

contrast is between “us” and Kippur prayers Al Het. and Ashamnu. “them.” Without this contrast, We do not do so individually, in a pri-

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 53 vate booth, as in the Catholic sacra- Especially, though not exclusively, ment of confession. And we do so char- for those who are Jews by choice, or acteristically with an attitude of “holy who are non-Jewish members of Jew- hutzpah. ,” quoting divine promises back ish households who may have adopted to God, or in the upbeat melody in elements of a “Jewish ethnic style” which we sing Ashamnu, sounding without having undergone a formal more proud than contrite. , this is a helpful and more realistic way of looking at Style or Tradition? . For all of us it provides a fresh way of looking at our original The most important aspect of question — why act ethically? — as Royce’s theory of ethnic identity as the well as at some interesting possible an- performance of a certain “style,” and swers. If we find that identifying with the one most relevant to us, is her em- the Jewish ethnic community is a phasis on ethnic identity, or better, the source of emotional satisfaction and a adoption of ethnic identity as some- fulfilling and meaningful strategy for thing variable and as a choice. She de- interacting with those closest to us, as liberately describes ethnic identity as a well as with the broader, different cul- “style” rather than as an inherited “tra- tures around us, then we are likely to dition, because in her words, experience those feelings when we per- form actions characteristic of a Jewish “Tradition,” the descriptive term moral style. most frequently applied to ethnic So if we visit the sick, give charity to groups and identity, has too often a person in need, host people in our implied something conservative homes, avoid being cruel to an animal and unchanging, something that or condemn injustice because we de- is passed on from generation to fine these as mitzvot, then the result- generation in its original form. But ing sense of belonging and identity is that does not account for the facts an added incentive to maintain those of most situations. “Style,” though ethical practices. Moreover, as an ex- a venerable term, does not have the pression of our Jewish ethnic style, it conservative implications. On the preserves our sense of autonomy and contrary, it often implies the op- choice, and encourages a sense that we posite, as in the phrase ‘”chang- are equal contributors to a dynamic, ing styles.” … “Style” also implies evolving process — rather than the pas- that individuals have a choice in sive inheritors of a static tradition in selecting appropriate styles…” which we have no say. [T]here must be alternative choices, thought they may never Indirect Attitude Adjustment actually be elected. Where com- pulsion or physiological necessity The final strategy to motivate ethi- reign, there is no room for style.”6 cal behavior, indirect attitude adjust-

54 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist ment, uses a complex system of inter- and contention, and you strike connecting ritual behaviors to cultivate with a wicked fist. Your fasting ethical dispositions. In this strategy, today is not such as to make your Judaism connects natural activities os- voice heard on high,” and he says, tensibly not related to morals, like what “Is such the fast I desire? A day and when to eat, and what and when for men to starve their bodies? Is not to, so as to encourage certain incli- it bowing the head like a bulrush, nations or habits conducive to moral or lying in sackcloth and ashes? behavior. Do you call that a fast, a day when As an example, consider the medi- the Holy One is favorable?”8 eval Spanish biblical commentator, ( 58:5) ethicist and kabbalist, Rabbenu Bahya ben Asher’s interpretation of the re- He explains by this that affliction of quirement to fast on . He the body without affliction of the soul presents this in his chapter on fasting is by no means the point of “the day in his ethical treatise Kad Ha-Kemah. pleasing to the Holy One.” The point (“The Jar of Flour”). 7 is the affliction of the soul. And of who- In a midrash, Bahya interprets the ever afflicts his soul to keep it from bad passage from Isaiah read on Yom Kip- thoughts and acts of evil, this is why pur (about fasts that are not pleasing he says, “Is this not the fast I desire?” to God) to explain the ethical import and it is written, “Is it not the sharing of a verse from Proverbs (12:1): “The of your bread with those who starve?” righteous one knows the soul of his (Isaiah 58:6) He means that it is not beast, but the mercies of the wicked are [God’s] intention that you starve your cruel.” Bahya interprets the phrase body, but rather that you feed the starv- “soul of his beast” to refer to the medi- ing. It is not that you should afflict your eval concept of the animal soul, the one body by fasting on a fast day — that is of three (beside the lower vegetative and why he says, “Do not ignore your own higher intellectual souls) that makes us flesh” [literally, “not hiding from your desire to eat, sleep, fight or have sex. Fast- kin”](Isaiah 58:7), for it is forbidden ing is a way to “subdue” this “beast.” to you to “ignore your own flesh” and to constantly afflict it, because that’s It is well known that affliction not what God intended; it is to afflict of the soul (nefesh) is the main your soul! point, not affliction of the body; for if a person afflicts his body by And know in yourself that this fasting on a fast day, and doesn’t is so, for accordingly we find that afflict his soul (nefesh) from think- the Torah is lenient regarding the ing evil thoughts — this is a sin, commandment to afflict the body and one gains no merit by this fast. for a sick person who is in danger. This is what Isaiah refers to when Thus our rabbis said, “One may he says, “Because you fast in strife feed him something forbidden, or

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 55 one may feed him on Yom Kippur,” turning the simple ritual act of fasting for “It is better to profane one into a moral lesson and discipline. (One Shabbat in order to be able to ob- can make a similar case, as I have done serve many Shabbatot.” But it is not elsewhere, for the taboo against eating lenient about afflicting the soul meat with the blood still in it.11) (nefesh). Through these and many other Jewish For example, if one’s soul is so rituals, we create a web of associations, fixated on the desire to engage in so that nearly every activity — from forbidden sexual relations so that buying in stores, to plowing fields, to his very health is endangered, it is having sex, to observing the Sabbath, not permitted to engage in them at to traveling and so forth — becomes all, even if he would die because of an occasion to make a moral decision this. There was a case when a man or provoke a moral reflection. In this in danger of dying sent for the doc- way “each religious symbol, practice, tors, and they told [the woman he or ritual fuses some aspect(s) of [our] loved], “There is no chance of re- worldview with some aspect of [our] covery unless you have sex with way of life,” reinforcing the day-to-day him.” The Sages said, “Let him die “sheer actuality” of our moral way of and do not do it with him; you will life.12 get dragged with him across the boundary [of what is permitted]. Ethics as a ReligiousPhenomenon Let him die and do not get dragged down with him.”9 I have tried to make a case for look- . . . And thus the whole point of ing at ethics in general, and Jewish eth- the Torah, and of prayers, and fast ics in particular, as a religious phenom- days, and of acts of tzedakah — ev- enon for three reasons. First, I want to erything — is to subdue the ani- challenge the attempt of religious fun- mal soul (nefesh behemit) and to damentalists to monopolize the lan- draw the intellectual soul (nefesh guage of morality for their particular sekhlit) to the service of the Holy religious perspective and social agenda. One, Blessed Be He. About this, I fear religious liberals have ceded the the verse from Proverbs 12:1 is terms “religion” and “morality” to those written — “the righteous one with a populist, anti-intellectual per- knows the soul of his beast” (i.e., spective of religious authoritarianism his animal soul) — for it is charac- and a self-righteous moral certitude. teristic of the righteous man to sub- Perhaps “” has become pref- due his animal soul in order to raise erable to “religion” because of the nega- his intellectual soul.10 tive institutional and authoritarian con- notations of the latter term, but “spiri- Acts and Lessons tuality” seems shakier ground in which to root our moral convictions. I want All this is a very complicated way of to reclaim religious language for a pro-

56 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist gressive religious and moral agenda. Jersey: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005), 18. Secondly, in a post-Holocaust world, 3. Alan Dershowitz, The Genesis of Justice: any ethics that assumes people are con- Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice That Led to sistently capable of basing their moral the Ten Commandments and Modern Law decisions only on rational, abstract (New York, New York: Warner Books, 2000). principles is doomed to disappoint. But 4. George De Vos, “Ethnic Pluralism: Con- when we understand that ethical sys- flict and Accommodation,” Ethnic Identity: tems are integral parts of worldviews, Cultural Continuities and Change, eds. we are better able to understand what George De Vos and L. Romanucci-Ross motivates us to do not only what we (Palo Alto, California: Mayfield, 1975), think is “right,” but also what we feel, 374, cited by Anya Peterson Royce, Ethnic and what our socially constructed ex- Identity: Strategies of Diversity (Blooming- periences of the world confirm to us is ton, Indiana: Indiana University, 1982), “right.” Finally, when we think of the 33. four ways Judaism motivates us to be- 5. Royce, Ethnic Identity,12. have morally as four strategies, we pre- 6. Ibid., 28, citing Alfred L. Kroeber, Style serve, encourage and value the experi- and Civilization (Berkeley, California: University of California, 1963), 150. ence of moral autonomy that is so im- 7. The title Kad Ha-Kemah alludes to the . portant in understanding our “moral miraculous jar of flour with which the style,” and that distinguishes us as lib- widow fed Elijah in I Kings 17:14: “The eral Jews. jar of flour shall not give out . . . until the day the Lord sends rain upon the ground.” 8. New Jewish Publication Society trans- 1. Ninian Smart, Worldviews: Crosscultural lation slightly modified. Explorations of Human Beliefs; third edi- 9. Bahya ben Asher ben Hlava, Kad Ha- tion; (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Kemah in Kitve Rabenu Bahya, ed. Charles . Hall, 2000). This article began as a series B. Chavel (: Mossad Harav of four sermons I gave for the High Holi- Kook, 1969), 442 (my translation). days when I was serving as the interim rab- 10. Ibid., 443 (my translation). bi of Reconstructionist Congregation 11. Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, “Does God Shirat Hayam in Marshfield, Massachu- Care What We Eat? Jewish of setts, in 2004-2005, and I wish to express Food and Reverence for Life,” in Food and my gratitude to the congregation for giv- Judaism: Studies in Jewish Civilization 15, ing me the opportunity to reflect on mo- ed. by Leonard Greenspoon et al.; (Omaha, rality, religious experience, and Jewish Nebraska: Creighton University Press, identity with them. 2005). 2. Louis E. Newman, An Introduction to 12. Newman, op. cit., 18. Jewish Ethics (Upper Saddle River, New

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 57 The Emergence of an Icon: Yahrtzeit Plaques in 20th- Century American Judaism

BY DEBORAH WAXMAN

ike many rituals, the observance in America as a place that would let of yahrtzeit (literally “year’s them set down roots; and their respon- L time” in German and ) siveness to marketing efforts. changed when it was transplanted was transplanted (along with massive num- A Representative Example bers of Eastern European Jews) to America beginning in from the 1880s An example of the type of yahrtzeit onward. This transformation was no- plaque and memorial board under dis- tably shaped both by an aesthetic of cussion can be found in Reconstruc- general memorials that came to the fore tionist Congregation Beth Israel in following World War I and by wide- Media, Pennsylvania. At the rear of the spread electrification of private build- sanctuary, on each side of the entrance- ings that coincided with the 1920s way, are four friezes of memorial synagogue building boom. By the next plaques. The individual plaques are of intensive synagogue-building phase — a style widely found in North Ameri- following the Second World War — the can synagogues. They are bronze rect- electrified model was widely available angles, three inches high by eight inches and widely adopted, if occasionally wide. The lettering is raised, and most criticized. plaques feature the names of the de- Beyond revealing insights about ceased in Hebrew and English, along synagogue architecture and rituals re- with the date of death according to lated to the commemoration of those both the Jewish and secular calendars. who died, the emergence of this aes- In many instances, plaques bearing thetic model points towards the growth names of family members are placed and transformation of the American together, although in other cases they Jewish community in the 20th century. are scattered. Key factors include American Jews’ To the left of each plaque is a socket need to remember their past; their de- into which a small white light bulb is sire for permanence; their confidence fitted. The lights are illuminated on the

Rabbi Deborah Waxman is Vice-President for Governance at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

58 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist anniversary of the death of the person though various commentators on this memorialized. The plaques are fitted work do use the name and address the into the four friezes. The top of each practices.4 These commentaries suggest frieze is scrolled and includes a Jewish there were several practices associated star and the names of donors. Jewish with maximal observance of yahrtzeit: stars decorate the corners and the bot- reciting the (mourner’s medi- tom of the frame features the name of tation) at services in the synagogue on the congregation. the anniversary date; taking honors and At Beth Israel, the rabbi oversees the responsibilities at the synagogue dur- plaque orders and proofreads the He- ing the week of yahrtzeit, such as lead- brew. Lay people are responsible for ing services, taking an aliyah (Torah maintaining the yahrtzeit lists, notify- honor) or providing a light repast fol- ing members of upcoming anniversa- lowing services; voluntary fasting; vis- ries and turning on the appropriate lights iting the grave of the individual being each week.1 The memorial plaques record remembered; burning a candle for the the yahrtzeit date, and the electric bulbs twenty-four hours of the anniversary;5 call attention to individual yahrtzeit ob- studying passages from the ; servances as they occur. and contributing tzedakah (charity) in memory of the deceased.6 History of Yahrtzeit The centrality of Kaddish as part of mourning practice emerged following The roots of the rituals surround- the Crusades.7 The recitation of this ing yahrtzeit seem to be in medieval doxology, which is primarily composed Europe. Some traditional Jewish of verses of praise and declarations of sources try to search out precedents in acceptance of God’s will, was seen from the (e.g., Judges 11:40, citing the a mystical perspective as a way to fa- annual mourning for Jephthah’s daugh- cilitate the movement of the departed’s ter, and the marking of the date of soul from Gehenna (purgatory) to Moses’ death in Deuteronomy 34) as paradise in the year following death.8 well as in the Talmud (see on BT Yevamot 122a).2 The practice of mark- Candles and Light ing the death anniversary of a parent or teacher seems to have become popu- The lighting of a twenty-four hour larized following the destruction of the candle was most likely adopted later German Jewish communities during than Kaddish, possibly as late as the the Crusades. 17th century, in part because of objec- However the term “yahrtzeit,” which tions that it mirrored an explicitly was used by the Christian church to Catholic practice of lighting candles to commemorate death anniversaries, did saints and in memory of the dead.9 The not emerge in the Jewish community most common Judaizing explanation until around the 15th century.3 It is not for the use of a light draws on Proverbs treated directly in the Shulhan Arukh, 20:27: “The human spirit is the candle

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 59 of Adonai.”10 Some authorities report that would be placed to the left of the 12 that on yahrtzeit, candles were lit both ark. at home and in synagogues. Thus the traditional prescription for Lighting a candle in the synagogue yahrtzeit combined recollection of per- satisfied both spiritual and pragmatic sonal loss exemplified through personal concerns. Regarding spiritual consid- actions (candle lighting, fasting), ac- erations, tions that both affected the commu- nity and reflected well upon the soul those of a mystical bent believe of the departed (giving tzedakah, lead- that each year on the anniversary ing services, providing an oneg at syna- of death the soul is given permis- gogue), and communal commemora- sion to soar above the world, and tion (reciting Kaddish with a ). when it approaches the synagogue The emphasis on penitential acts — where it had spent much time of evocative of the rites of Yom Kippur its earthly existence, it is pleased — is designed to achieve spiritual im- to see a candle burning in its provement for the soul of the departed memory and thus to know that it and also for the survivor. All of these has not been forgotten.11 practices represent an intersection of horizontal community — the real-life Pragmatically, if one forgot to light community surrounding the survivor the candle at home on the occasion of — and vertical community, compris- yizkor (the memorial service held on ing the generations preceding the sur-

Pesah,. , Yom Kippur and vivor and those that will presumably Shemini Atzeret) or on a yahrtzeit that follow her as she is memorialized in a coincided with a festival, it could be lit similar fashion.13 at the synagogue from a flame that was already burning. This public ritual may The Imperative to Remember also have satisfied the needs of women, since according to traditional practice Even as significant portions of the most of the other public practices as- yahrtzeit ritual have long been syna- sociated with yahrtzeit were restricted gogue-based, academic and pastoral to men. sources on yahrtzeit make no mention In his book, Contemporary Synagogue of commissioning plaques or other Art, Avram Kampf reports that some markers to be hung in the synagogue. medieval synagogues made provisions While signage to honor founders and for these memorial candles, creating donors is an ancient practice,14 what- room for simple wax candles to be ever memorial markers that existed in placed on parapets surrounding the the late medieval or early modern eras wall of the synagogue, fastened at in- seem to have been portable. Memor- tervals on the side near the door, in the bukhen — communal prayer-books middle of a long wall or in a wrought listing the names, death anniversaries iron stand made to hold many candles and accounts of martyrdom of mem-

60 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist bers of the local community—emerged new modes of reminding survivors of (similarly to yahrtzeit) as a memorial the obligation of saying Kaddish and phenomenon following the Crusades.15 announcing their losses to the larger Many European Jewish communities community. Hanging on the walls of of both the Ashkenazi and Sephardi Congregation Ansche ’s Harlem rites maintained memorbukhen, and New York building, which the congre- these books were exported to the Amer- gation occupied from 1911 to 1928, icas. (The Touro Synagogue in Rhode were three large family “memorial tab- Island prominently displays a memor- lets” composed of bronze letters applied bukh near the bimah.) to large marble slabs. When the con- Paper and paper-like plaques were gregation moved to its then-new 100th also adopted. The United States Library Street building in 1928, members of Congress has in its possession seven moved these family tablets with them vellum memorial plaques from the but switched to a more egalitarian northern Italian city of Mantua. These model.19 (They currently hang in the 19th-century plaques, some of them synagogue’s West End Avenue entrance shaped like candle stubs, commemo- foyer.) rated the dead of the wealthiest and Hanging in the rear of the 100th most prominent families of the com- Street sanctuary are two large friezes munity and were placed on a memo- onto which are mounted bronze rial wall near a permanent ner neshamah plaques, similar in design and motif to (light of the soul).16 Rabbi Michael the ones on display at Beth Israel in Strassfeld, a collector of antique Media, although slightly longer. While signage, reports that he has in his col- Ansche Chesed’s plaques are not elec- lection two handwritten yahrtzeit trified, at nearby Congregation Rodeph plaques on paper from congregation Sholom, which was built just before Hevra Mishnayot in Chelsea, Massa- Ansche Chesed’s 100th Street building, chusetts; they were framed and hung the sanctuary boasts similar bronze under glass.17 This type of portability plaques that are complemented by bev- is consistent with Stephen Kayser’s ob- eled amber-colored lights. servation in Jewish Ceremonial Art that few Jewish ceremonial objects exist From Home to Synagogue from before the year 1500 because of widespread European persecution, and As discussed above, yahrtzeit because of the exclusion of Jews from emerged in the Middle Ages as a ritual artisan guilds.18 to mark personal loss. It was distinct from such communal bereavements as New World Opportunities Tisha B’Av (the Ninth of Av, com- memorating the destruction of the First The New World, however, offered and Second Temples in Jerusalem) or new opportunities for creating more more localized dates of mourning. The permanent memorials, and mandated onus for observance of this ritual rested

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 61 with the individual, who had to keep tion to the synagogue. First, they guar- track of the death anniversary on the anteed that the individual Jew in Jewish calendar and attend synagogue America, perhaps largely disconnected to fulfill the obligation of reciting from the rhythms of the Jewish calen- Kaddish. For Jews who lived in organic dar, would observe this personally im- Jewish communities (kehillot) such as portant anniversary. The synagogue those in medieval European that lived thus became the keeper of Jewish time. by the Jewish calendar and mandated Second, a primarily individual ritual synagogue attendance, regular yahrtzeit was transformed into one that was observance was likely to be relatively communally based. Illuminating an easy. individual plaque and announcing the Massive Jewish immigration to yahrtzeit, often including information America led to a transformation in tra- regarding the relationship of the de- ditional Jewish practice. Historian ceased to the member of the congrega- Jonathan Sarna traces the shift of cer- tion, informed the entire community emonial practice in the 19th century the nature of a member’s loss and pre- from the home to the synagogue, in- sumably mobilized whatever support cluding such traditional home ceremo- was necessary. The community could nies as candle lighting, recitation of replace or augment the member’s fam- Kiddush (the blessing over wine before ily of origin, which would likely have Sabbath and festival meals) and build- needed no notification of an event of ing a sukkah (a temporary booth built such personal and familial magnitude. at home to celebrate the fall harvest In this way, the yahrtzeit plaque in the festival of Sukkot).20 While the East synagogue located the surviving fam- European Jews who immigrated in ily member in a different context. This massive waves from 1881 to 1924 ini- would have been an extremely impor- tially created landsmanshaft synagogues tant function for immigrants to that reproduced their Old World kehil- America, far removed from their fami- lot, these synagogues ultimately became lies, home communities and the cem- Americanized, and consequently also eteries where loved ones were buried.22 saw the transfer of home ritual to the It would have been equally important synagogue.21 The emergence of bronze with the migration of Jews a genera- yahrtzeit plaques such as those hanging tion or two later away from the eastern in the rear of the Ansche Chesed and seaboard points of entry of their an- Rodeph Sholom synagogues represent an cestors.23 example of this transfer. Yahrtzeit and Donations Marking Jewish Time By the 1950s,24 the transition of Immigrants and first-generation yahrtzeit commemoration to the syna- American Jews fulfilled several goals by gogue had developed in several ways. transferring the yahrtzeit commemora- The notification to remind congregants

62 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist of the approach of a yahrtzeit date fre- suggests that the electrified bronze quently included a return envelope for plaque emerged as a model for com- an additional tzedakah contribution to memorating yahrtzeit in the years im- commemorate the occasion. An indi- mediately following World War I. An vidual — on his/her own initiation, in examination of the catalog of a promi- response to promotions in synagogue nent bronze manufacturing company bulletins, High Holiday mailings or points toward its emergence. Gorham funeral brochures or at the solicitation Manufacturing Company, based in of the synagogue — could make a con- New York, regularly published substan- tribution to the congregation for the tial catalogs of memorial tablets that purchase of a memorial plaque that included an extensive articulation of would be hung in the building. In re- the history of bronze as an artistic me- turn for this donation, several services dium and its suitability as a medium would be provided, as summarized in for memorializing individuals. Here is a promotional brochure from Congre- a description from a 1905 catalog: gation Rodeph Sholom, reproduced in a 1960 pamphlet published by the Union Bronze as a material for the tab- of American Hebrew Congregations: let form of memorials26 is beyond all others permanent. No more Congregation Rodeph Sholom fitting form of memorial has yet maintains in its Synagogue at 7 been devised than the decorative West 83rd Street, New York City, tablet of bronze. It is artistic, un- Memorial Tablets on which the ostentatious and equally appro- names of departed may be in- priate, whether placed in church, scribed as a permanent remem- hospital, library or public build- brance. Alongside each name is a ing. While unlike the mortuary Yahrtzeit light that is lit on the monuments, its erection is fitting anniversary of the passing of the at any time, no matter how many deceased and Kaddish is recited years have elapsed since the death and the name mentioned at the of the person or the performance Sabbath Services and is recorded of the deed it is designed to com- in the Temple Chronicle.(sic) memorate. The lettered memorial Such Tablets afford a permanent in tablet form has always held an means of memorializing the de- important place in the world’s parted. Inquiry as to these Me- history. The hieroglyph-incised morial Tablets may be made at “stile” of the Egyptian, the half- the Temple Office.25 worn brass in the quaint English country church, and the more en- Bronze: Legacy of the Great War? during bronze tablet that adorns the modern buildings are all How did this predominant aesthetic linked together in one common form of memorial emerge? Evidence lineage. Inspired by the same

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 63 spirit of reverence for those who serted into a frieze. Whatever the in- have departed, and by the same tention at the time of production, this desire to permanently record their plaque (and others illustrated on the praiseworthy deeds or their moral same page) contains the same compos- ex-cellences, these tablets have had ite bronze parts of the friezes that later for the living the double value of appeared at congregations Ansche a memorial and an incentive, so Chesed and Rodeph Shalom. their erection assumes the respect of a duty towards the community Influence of War Memorials at large, as well as an act of loving regard to those commemorated.27 A 1946 catalog from the General Bronze Corporation indirectly hints at As the copy suggests, these catalogs why the frieze might have emerged and those of other manufacturers fea- around 1918. The copy editors at Gen- tured, among other items, prominent eral Bronze had a similar perspective individual memorial plaques, often as their colleagues at Gorham Manu- bearing a poem or description of the facturing Company on the glory of deceased. No item particularly re- bronze and its suitability for memor- sembles a frieze of individual tablets ialization: that can be augmented; all are one-time commissions that are static reflections Bronze — the metal of the ages . . . of an individual or a community at a Since the dawn of civilization, certain moment in time. bronze has been the metal of en- during beauty. In the ruins of an- The Jewish Frieze cient Rome, Greece, Egypt and among the strange structures of the Gorham’s 1918 catalog, however, vanished Mayans, many bronze does feature two items that anticipate implements, tablets and statues the emergence of the Jewish memorial have been found in a practically frieze. The top of Plate 13 shows a small perfect state of preservation. The frieze with five available slots; the gold at Montezuma and the vast sample includes two filled slots, one treasure of the kingdoms of antiq- simply showing a name, the second uity are lost in the shadowy past showing a name and the dates of birth but the age-old bronzes live on for and death. The names are not recog- all to admire. Centuries hence there nizably Jewish, but the motif antici- will undoubtedly be many fine pates the model widely adopted by works of bronze that will bear elo- Jews. Indeed, the same page contains quent testimony to the craftsman- an individual plaque with Jewish stars ship of our own day. What would in each corner and text in both Hebrew be better than enduring bronze to and English.28 It is unclear if this plaque keep alive the memories of those was intended to stand alone or be in- who fought and sacrificed for our

64 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist country? Such memorials will last emerging aesthetic of yahrtzeit memo- through the centuries — keeping rials. Bronze was already used in syna- great deeds aglow in the hearts of gogue art and architecture (see the Americans; preserving the names heavy bronze appointments at New of heroes in the far reaches of the York’s Temple Emanu-El)31 and was future.29 widely used to memorialize soldiers after World War I. Adopting this mo- The first part of this catalog features tif in American synagogues would per- new war memorial designs by a celebrated haps have lent to them some of the sculptor. The second part of the catalog patriotism and unimpeachable respect- features “The General Bronze Classic ability of the soldiers. Group.” Included among them are War memorial plaques, however, are one-time commissions, with a static list a distinguished group of memo- of names. A display for yahrtzeits must rials that were used to commemo- necessarily be more dynamic, allowing rate the heroes of World War I. for augmentation and rearrangement. These are the finest of the many The frieze model provided decorous honor roll tablets that General emulation, but also met pragmatic con- Bronze executed after the last war. siderations. Electrification addressed They are conventional in design the need for dynamism. and are always dignified and in good taste. We are, therefore, in- Arrival of Electricity cluding them in this brochure so that you will have the widest pos- David Nye’s masterful social history sible range of designs from which Electrifying America: Social Meanings of to make your selection.30 a New Technology provides evidence that enables speculation as to how the Within this group is one that is individualized bronze plaque came to evocative of yahrtzeit friezes that, per- be electrified. Nye traces the penetra- haps coincidentally, commemorate the tion of electricity into the daily life of service of “the men of the Hebrew Shel- Americans, beginning with Edison’s tering Guardian Society who served in invention of a stable light source in the World War.” A listing of more than 1885. The electrical light bulb repre- 100 names, including three in memo- sented a paradox, marking the first time riam, follows. in human history that light and fire were separated.32 Electricity was imme- Adopting an American Motif diately embraced as superior to candle- light, gas, kerosene or other sources of I speculate that the preponderance illumination because of its relative of war memorial plaques commis- safety and predictability, and because sioned after World War I, many of of its quality of generating neither heat them in bronze, contributed to the nor grime.33

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 65 In its earliest years, from 1885-1910, massive advertising campaign to create electricity was used primarily to sup- a “positive electrical consciousness” that port the emerging marketplace econo- would foster a “want” for electricity in my. Manufacturers converted their fac- consumers.43 The campaign was clearly tories to electricity to increase produc- effective: by 1930 the number of pri- tivity and safety,34 and department vate homes wired for electricity had stores adopted electrical lighting to increased to seventy percent.44 (The enhance the experience of shopping percentage was significantly higher in during store hours and to feature their urban and suburban venues, given that goods in brightly lit window displays most rural communities were not wired during evening hours.35 Public street until after a post-World War II inter- lighting36 and the introduction of thou- vention by the federal government.)45 sands of miles of electrical trolley It is reasonable to speculate that as tracks37 consumed another significant the many synagogues built in the 1920s percentage of available energy in building-boom were wired for electric- electricity’s first decades. For private ity, the electrification of memorial individual use, electricity was a preroga- plaques became highly feasible. Even tive of the upper class.38 In 1910, only as the yahrtzeit frieze may have followed 10 percent of private homes in America war memorials with their sober and were outfitted with electricity.39 orderly listing of names, the electrical bulbs, whatever their forms, guaranteed Impact of Electrification that the plaques were more dynamic. The bulb emulated (rather than re- By 1910, an electrical grid had been placed) the personalized candle, which established in most urban and subur- presumably continued to be lit at home ban areas. Electrical suppliers, peddling by the mourner. The electric bulb also newly affordable power40 and interested highlighted the individual plaque on in balancing their load and increasing the anniversary of a death, presumably evening consumption (hours when satisfying the desire of family members many factories stood idle) turned their to commemorate their deceased in the attention to providing electricity to the context of the synagogue community.46 homes of individual consumers. Nye concentrates primarily on the drive to Emergence of an Icon? provide electricity to private homes,41 noting that this effort accelerated after The plaques at congregations An- World War I, when industrial energies sche Chesed and Rodeph Sholom seem were redirected from the war effort to to suggest that, by the 1920s, the model domestic concerns.42 In 1920, General adopted by Beth Israel in Media was Electric, one of the largest suppliers of emerging, if not yet institutionalized: electricity as well as a producer of ap- the decorous appropriateness of bronze pliances that would consume ever and the appeal of electrification com- greater amounts of electricity, began a bined to establish a convincing aes-

66 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist thetic. The booming economy of the The Movements Respond 1920s spurred a significant synagogue building and refurbishment boom, In response to the massive relocation largely on the model of the synagogue- of Jews in the years following World center.47 While I have not been able to War II, both the Conservative and the discover documentation, it seems likely Reform movements fostered building that the electrified bronze model was efforts, providing support and guidance adopted during this boom: the 1948 to their affiliates. Historian Jack General Bronze catalog shows a memo- Wertheimer documents the efforts of the rial board in the form we know today, Conservative movement, noting that the replete with electrical sockets. Indeed, United Synagogue employed an exten- by the post-World War II synagogue sive bureaucracy in an effort to create building boom, spurred on by the move uniform practice among affiliates: of many Jews to the emerging suburbs, this form had become ubiquitous; me- Although it is not possible to mea- morial boards were barely mentioned sure the extent of influence these as anything other than a fundraising national bodies exerted over local strategy, or were occasionally and qui- congregations, it is evident that etly (and ineffectively) criticized. they managed, through regional Percival Goodman, one of the fore- and national conventions, publi- most synagogue architects of the post- cations, and direct advisory pro- World War II period, speculated in a grams, to bring a degree of unifor- 1949 Commentary article that no fewer mity to affiliated congregations.50 than 1,800 new congregations were being planned in the years following Nonetheless, there is very little treat- the conclusion of the Second World ment of memorial plaques in any move- War. 48 Many of these congregations ment publications, which gives some evi- were located far away from the urban dence through silence as to how ubiqui- centers in which the immigrants first tous the model had already become. settled. Deborah Dash Moore summa- The Conservative Rabbinical As- rizes this migration: sembly did, however, address the issue of electrified memorial plaques at a After the war American Jews began 1953 meeting of its Committee on Jew- a journey that would rival the mass ish Law and Standards:51 migration of their immigrant par- ents. Their decision to abandon the Is it proper to use an electric bulb big cities for a new frontier charted for a Yahrtzeit lamp? . . .The a course for the rest of the century. Committee ruled that an electric While many Jews chose to settle in bulb is permissible, since Jewish suburbia, a significant minority Law does not require any kind opted for the open society of the of lamp for Yahrtzeit and there emerging Sun-belt.49 are no serious objections to us-

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 67 ing an electric light for this purpose. Notices” that features several examples It was suggested that the manufac- of forms that describe the conventional turer of such a bulb might commu- model as well as the services provided nicate with Dr. Kayser of the Jewish with purchase. This sample card is from Museum for an appropriate design.52 Temple Israel Center in White Plains:

The 1946 General Bronze catalog Dear Member: mentioned earlier indicates that the rab- May we call your attention at bis may have been issuing a ruling based this time of your Yahrtzeit obser- on a fairly widespread folk practice. vance to our TEMPLE MEMO- RIAL PLAQUES. This is a tra- Aesthetic Concerns ditional and dignified way of honoring your dear departed. Two United Synagogue documents Each bronze Memorial Tablet (from among the many to which Wert- bears the name and Yahrtzeit date heimer alludes) reveal how lightly of a loved one. The Memorial treated, if at all, was the subject of elec- Lamp adjoining the tablet is illu- trified bronze yahrtzeit plaques. The minated on every Yahrtzeit and 1956 United Synagogue pamphlet, So for every Yizkor Service of the You Want to Build: A Guide for Your year. The plaque in our Temple Synagogue Architecture Committee, does is truly a perpetual Memorial…If have a section titled “Memorial Plaques.” you are interested in a Memorial It is unclear if it is speaking about yahrtzeit Tablet, please mail the attached plaques or about plaques to acknowledge card to us. . . . 55 large-scale building-campaign donations in memory of loved ones.53 The concerns Taken for Granted? are largely about aesthetics: In roughly contemporaneous docu- Although memorial gifts should ments, the Reform movement treats not be solicited until the general yahrtzeit plaques in similar fashion. An fundraising campaign is over, this American Synagogue for Today and To- committee should decide policies morrow: A Guidebook to Synagogue De- early. To avoid conflicts in taste sign and Construction, published by the and design, establish the principle Union for American Hebrew Congre- that nothing will be placed in the gations in 1954, is a comprehensive building unless accepted by a re- collection that treats everything from sponsible body.54 how to create a social hall that can ac- commodate a removable basketball Another pamphlet from the follow- court and movie screenings to the care- ing year, Reference Forms and Procedures ful organization of the administrative for Synagogue Administration includes unit. Yahrtzeit plaques are not ad- a section on “Memorial and Yahrtzeit dressed in the chapters on the sanctu-

68 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist ary or the social center, or in an article off on what seems to be an already es- on art in the synagogue, nor in the tablished lay practice, there was some lighting or maintenance sections. The ambivalence among intellectuals. Elec- one mention of the yahrtzeit plaque ap- trification presented part of the chal- pears on page 292, number 32 in a lenge. Architect Percival Goodman is checklist on the synagogue proper: on record critiquing the use of electric- “Memorial tablets, if placed in the ity for the ner tamid: “What can be the Sanctuary, should be harmonized with meaning of such a light if it requires no interior.” care other than the payment to the local The only direct treatment of yahr- utility company for the electric current tzeit plaques that I was able to locate and an occasional rebulbing?”58 A photo in Conservative and Reform movement of the lobby of Congregation Beth El in publications is in their potential as a Springfield, Massachusetts, which fundraising strategy. In the 1963 Goodman designed in the 1950s, in- UAHC publication Successful Syna- cludes a low shelf with the first line of gogue Administration: A Practical Guide the Kaddish mounted on the wall above for Synagogue Leaders, yahrtzeit plaques it. The caption explains that the shelf is are addressed in the “Financial Man- a “trough for Kaddish lights.”59 While I agement” chapter, under “Supplemen- have not uncovered any writing by tary Sources of Income:” Goodman explicitly on the topic of how to memorialize the deceased, it is likely Many congregations derive con- that he was trying to develop a different siderable income from the privi- aesthetic, quite possibly derived from the lege56 granted to their members to medieval parapet mentioned earlier. inscribe the name of a departed In his 1966 book, Kampf takes on the one on a Yahrtzeit Memorial Tab- topic more directly, if no less critically: let, displayed prominently in the synagogue. Names of the deceased Attempts to find new, aestheti- are read from the pulpit on the cally satisfying ways to honor the anniversary date and at the Me- deceased have been few. Placing morial services on Yom Kippur the memorial tablets outside the and festivals. The contribution prayer hall has been a practice for the establishment of this time that deprives the interior of an of memorial varies from $150 to adequate sense of the communal $500. Individuals frequently pur- unity of the living and the dead. chase name plates not only for Very often one finds unattractive their departed relatives but make commercially produced bronze a reservation for themselves.57 tablets, with sockets for electric bulbs besides each name.60 Ambivalence Emerges Bronze yahrtzeit plaques are one re- Even as rabbis and lay leaders signed sponse to the question of how to make

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 69 memory concrete. Transplanted from would eventually end up. European shtetls, American Jews When Beth Tikvah-B’nai Jeshurun sought to find a way to commemorate renovated its social hall, the congre- permanently their dead. Their relative gants struggled with the problem of affluence, and their confidence that how to confront this challenge of “un- they and their children would not be claimed” plaques from congregations subject to persecution and displace- that had long since closed. They ulti- ment in America, combined to spur mately decided to take down the large American Jews to create a tangible form friezes, remove the individual plaques, of memorial, one that was mounted on sell the friezes for scrap metal, and in- the walls of the synagogue, a central in- stalling on their permanent friezes any stitution of American Jewish religious plaques that commemorated individu- life. als who were connected to current Ironically, the plaques’ implicit as- members of the synagogue. The other sertion of permanence is revealed to be plaques are now hung on a small, spe- illusory in light of the extensive mobil- cially designed frieze during the month ity of Americans and demographic of the yahrtzeit noted on the plaque.61 changes in the American Jewish com- munity. Just as Congregation Ansche Conversations about Memory Chesed moved from Harlem to the Upper West Side in the 1920s, many Many synagogues are engaged in a synagogues, especially ones founded in conversation about memory. Beth Is- urban settings, moved, merged or rael, an older Reconstructionist syna- closed. gogue that has owned its own building for much of its history, maintained the When Plaques aesthetic model that emerged in the Outlast Congregations middle of the twentieth century and that it adopted long ago. Newer con- An example of this phenomenon can gregations are seeking to create aes- be found in suburban Philadelphia. thetic models that evoke the earlier Prior to renovations in the late 1990s, model but are also more contemporary. the social hall of congregation Beth The memorial wall at West End Syna- Tikvah-B’nai Jeshurun (whose name gogue, a Reconstructionist congrega- reveals it to be the result of a merger), tion in New York City, is an example: featured plaques from older congrega- the wall is free-standing, slightly tions that themselves were previously curved, and placed in one corner of the merged into the originally independent sanctuary; the slightly raised bimah congregations Beth Tikvah and B’nai stands in the opposite corner. The wall Jeshurun. It is unlikely that the descen- features bronze plaques, but these are dants of the individuals memorialized much smaller (2" x 4") than the model thereon had any idea where the plaques that emerged in the middle of the twen- bearing the names of their ancestors tieth century. Rather than an electrical

70 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist socket or light bulb at the side of each product with which to respond to that plaque, there is a little ledge on which need. Lay people had the financial may be placed a stone, echoing the tra- means and the aesthetic confidence to ditional Jewish practice of laying a embrace this model. The opposition of stone on a grave marker to commemo- such intellectuals as Percival Goodman rate a visit to a cemetery. The stones was not forceful enough to engender a are stored at the left side of the wall on successful alternative. a curved shelf, which is mounted be- The lack of opposition on ideologi- neath a poem for Kaddish composed cal or religious grounds (as opposed to by a late member of the congregation aesthetic ones) suggests that the bronze that is etched in glass. plaques and the services connected with Others are changing languages en- them emerged out of fertile and au- tirely, creating virtual memorials on the thentic Jewish soil. They were suffi- internet. The website “Jewishgen” fea- ciently continuous with existing yahrt- tures virtual “memorial plaques” that zeit practices so that the innovation visually approximate the real bronze generated little or no controversy. In- plaques; they are displayed on the deed, the plaques produced significant website for various periods of time, benefits. They generated income for depending on the amount contrib- congregations while providing an im- uted.62 Other websites, such as www. portant connection to the Jewish cal- legacy.com, with the motto “where life endar and to the Jewish community for stories live on,” create virtual memori- rapidly assimilating American Jews. als that can be accessed from anywhere Thus, industry marketing and syna- and by anyone. gogue fundraising imperatives con- verged and were mutually beneficial. Patterns of Development The centrality of the synagogue as the place where the memorial plaques were The bronze electrically-illuminated installed reflects the transition of ritu- yahrtzeit plaque seems to have emerged als that were previously home-based to in the 1920s synagogue building boom observances now carried out in the and to have then been widely repro- synagogue — a trend evident in other duced in the synagogue building-boom American-Jewish rituals in the 20th that followed World War II. This oc- century. curred with little attention from the liberal denominations that fostered the Equality in Memory design and building of synagogues, and it eventually received retroactive con- The plaques also point to the de- sent from rabbis. It seems likely that mocratization of the American Jewish the bronze manufacturers, zealous be- community. Whereas the vellum lievers in the merits of their products, plaques from Mantua or the marble nurtured a need felt by Jewish immi- family tablets from Ansche Chesed’s grants from Europe and developed a Harlem building commemorated the

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 71 deceased members of wealthy families, 1. Interview with Rabbi Linda Potemken, the bronze plaques were readily afford- March 20, 2001. able, both in production costs and in 2. s.v. “Yahrtzeit,” the required contribution to the syna- (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, gogue, even for members of modest 1996), 16:702. means.63 3. I found alternate attributions of the ori- This is not to say that indications of gin of the name from as early as the 14th class structure disappeared from the century (The Jewish Mourner’s Book of Why, synagogue. Major gifts in memory of which is fairly scholarly despite its popularist title and question-and-answer loved ones could still be made to build- format), the 15th century (A Guide to Life, ing campaigns. In the sanctuary at one of the primary informers of the Ansche Chesed, for example, all of the Encyclopaedia Judaica article on yahrtzeit), windows, from the small ones on the and 16th century (Jewish Encyclopedia). lower level to the tall ones in the bal- The omission of the term “yahrtzeit” from cony, bear inscriptions commemorat- the 16th-century Shulhan. Arukh, which ing various individuals; these ornate did not incorporate contemporary Ash- stained glass installations certainly cost kenazi practice, is not helpful in dating its much more than the bronze plaques. emergence. But the plaques — the primary and 4. s.v. “Jahrzeit,” Jewish Encyclopedia (New dominant means of commemoration York: Funk and Wagnall’s, 1907), 7:64. within the congregation — are uniform 5. Ibid. 6. H. Rabinowicz, A Guide to Life: Jewish in size and, when looking at the typi- Laws and Customs of Mourning (London: cal memorial frieze as a whole, it is Jewish Chronicle Publications, 1964), impossible to distinguish between 108. those who were wealthy and those of 7. Encyclopaedia Judaica, op. cit., 16:704. 64 more modest means. 8. When Kaddish became part of the year’s Finally, the plaques also indicate an mourning practice, rabbinic scholars dis- embrace of the prospect of perma- puted whether a full year of spiritual sup- nence. Unlike the portable models port for the soul would be necessary to made necessary by the conditions of raise even the most righteous soul to para- Jewish living in earlier eras, bronze dise; the practice of reciting Kaddish for plaques installed on the walls of the eleven months arose so as not to impugn synagogue represented a sense of sta- the piety on the soul of the departed. bility — to the congregation inhabit- There was resistance to Kaddish as part of the yahrtzeit practice for the same reason, ing the building and to the family but some authorities, including Isaac members comprising the congregation Luria, counseled that even the souls of the and donating the plaques. However in- righteous could be elevated to a higher nocently, they represent the optimism level of paradise. See Alfred J. Kolatch, of American Jews in the first half of the Jewish Mourner’s Book of Why (Middle Vil- twentieth century about the possibil- lage, NY: Jonathan David Publishers, ity of their being permanently at home 1993), 250. in the New World. 9. Ibid, 256.

72 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist 10. Jewish Encyclopedia, op. cit., 64. ritual observances in the synagogue 11. Kolatch, op. cit., 258. tend to become secondary, but there 12. Avram Kampf, Contemporary Syna- is a greater dependence on the syna- gogue Art: Developments in the United States, gogue for those observances which for- 1945-1965 (New York: Union of Ameri- merly belonged to the home. Social can Hebrew Congregations, 1966), 146. and philanthropic activity becomes 13. I am grateful to David Teutsch for this important. , now al- insight about vertical and horizontal com- most completely divorced from the munity. home, becomes a paramount function 14. See, for example, Carl H. Kraeling, The of the synagogue. Stylistically, the re- Synagogue: Excavations at Dura-Europos sult is that the building takes on a secu- Final Report (Hoboken, NJ: Ktav Publish- lar appearance. It is a community cen- ing House), 335. ter, a club, a school, set out in ample 15. s.v. “Memorbuchen,” Encyclopedia grounds. Yet in its essence it must be a Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing house of prayer, for all realize that with- House, 1996), 11:1300-01. out the Holy Sabbath Judaism will die 16. It is unclear from the description (emphasis original). whether these plaques were permanently See “The Character of the Modern Syna- displayed or were hung only as yahrtzeit gogue” in Peter Blake, ed., An American dates approached. Abraham J. Karp, From Synagogue for Today and Tomorrow: A the Ends of the Earth:Judaic Treasures of the Guidebook to Synagogue Design and Con- Library of Congress (New York: Rizzoli In- struction (New York: Union for American ternational Publications and Library of Hebrew Congregation, 1954), 91. Congress, 1991), 147-49. 22. March 18, 2001 email correspondence 17. March 11, 2001 interview. The plaques with Jonathan Sarna. Sarna suggests that bear no dates or other indications of their immigrant Jews were deeply preoccupied origins and Rabbi Strassfeld is unfamiliar with death. with the provenance of the synagogue (Au- 23. Deborah Dash Moore, To the Golden gust 26, 2001 email). Cities: Pursuing the American Jewish Dream 18. Stephen Kayser, ed., Jewish Ceremonial in Miami and L.A. (New York: The Free Art (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication So- Press, 1994), 2. ciety, 1955), 9, 13. 24. See below for a discussion of why I am 19. Interview with Rabbi Michael Strass- certain the form was fixed by this date. feld, March 11, 2001. 25. Max Feder, Cemetery Operations and 20. Jonathan D. Sarna, “The Evolution of Procedures (New York: Commission on the American Synagogue” in Robert M. Synagogue Activities, National Association Seltzer and Norman J. Cohen, ed., The of Temple Administrators of the Union of Americanization of the Jews (New York: American Hebrew Congregations, 1960), New York University Press, 1995), 222. unnumbered page. 21. Ibid, 223. Synagogue architects in the 26. The marble family tablets from Ansche 1940s were well aware of this trend. Per- Chesed’s Harlem building give some idea cival Goodman, one of the foremost ar- of Gorham’s competition. chitects in the post-World War II period, 27. Gorham Manufacturing Corporation, wrote in 1954: Gorham Memorial Tablets Made in Bronze, Among second-generation Jews Brass, Marble, Mosaic and Other Materials

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 73 (New York: The Department of Stationery, American Synagogue: A Sanctuary Trans- Gorham Co., 1905), unnumbered page. This formed (Hanover, NH: University Press particular catalog, in spite of its mention of of New England, 1987), 121-22. other media in the title, featured bronze by 48. Reprinted in Kimberly J. Elman and attaching a small bronze plaque to its cover. Angela Giral, eds., Percival Goodman: Archi- 28. Gorham Manufacturing Company, tect, Planner, Teacher, Painter (Princeton, NJ: Catalogue T: Bronze Tablets, Directory Princeton Architectural Press, 2001), 67. Boards and Letters (New York, Gorham 49. Moore, op. cit., 2. Co., 1918), unnumbered page. 50. Wertheimer, op. cit., 127. 29. General Bronze Corporation, Bronze 51. , Minutes of the Memorials and Honor Roll Tablets (New Meeting of the Committee on Jewish Law and York: General Bronze Corp, 1946), un- Standards, February 25, 1953. I am grate- numbered page. ful to Dr. Jenna W. Joselit for locating this 30. Ibid, 4C. source. 31. Oscar Israelowitz, Synagogues of the 52. There was a minority opinion preserved United States: A Photographic and Architec- that stated only wax candles or oil lamps tural Survey (Brooklyn, NY: Israelowitz should be used as memorial lights. Kolatch Publications, 1992), 38. suggests an explanation for this view: 32.David E. Nye, Electrifying America: So- Many authorities are of the opinion cial Meanings of a New Technology (Cam- that memorial lights used for bridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990), 2. Yahrtzeit must conform to the defi- 33. Ibid, 13-14. nition of the Hebrew word ner. Ner, 34. Ibid, 186. which is translated as “candle” or 35. Ibid, 114. “lamp,” implies the presence of a 36. Ibid, 30. flame produced by a wick and fuel 37. Ibid, 89. (wax or oil). The flickering flame is 38. Ibid, 32. a reminder of the lights that burned 39. Ibid, 18. on the menorah in the ancient 40. Ibid, 260. Temples of Jerusalem. The light from 41. He does include a fascinating discus- an electric bulb would not fit the defi- sion of how urban churches, left dark as nition of ner. Some authorities, how- “the great white way” began to emerge on ever, do permit the use of electric me- the streets of America’s cities, adopted elec- morial lamps. (op. cit., 257) trical crosses to emulate and harmonize 53. I am frustrated by the lack of Yiddish with the electric advertising aesthetic or Hebrew words to indicate precisely adopted by surrounding commercial estab- about what was under discussion. In my lishments (Ibid., 51-52). review of materials, the Conservative 42. Ibid, 262. movement did not usually hesitate to use 43. Ibid, 265. Hebrew or Yiddish. 44. Ibid, 18. 54. So You Want to Build: A Guide for Your 45. Ibid, 321. Synagogue Architecture Committee (New 46. The public announcements described York: The United Synagogue of America, above serve the same purpose. 1956), 4. 47. , “The Conservative 55. Reference Forms and Procedures for Syna- Synagogue” in Jack Wertheimer, ed., The gogue Administration (New York: The

74 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist United Synagogue of America, 1957), 45. 61. Interview with synagogue administra- 56. As the scope of this research indicates, tor Valerie Hurwitz, August 31, 2001. the hanging of yahrtzeit plaques in the 62. www.jewishgen.org/jewishgenerosity synagogue is extremely powerful and 63. All of the rabbis I interviewed noted widely practiced: it serves to link individual that, while the tablets comprise an impor- to community both vertically and horizon- tant source of income, they would never tally and was adapted to meet the needs of deny a plaque to a congregant with lim- the American environment. Nonetheless, ited means. as this passage indicates, the synagogue also 64. This egalitarianism in death is deeply gains benefits, including income and at- authentic to Jewish practice. See the trans- tendance. The relationship appears more lation of Moed Katan 27a-b: mutually beneficial that the use of the word People used to bring food to a house “privilege” implies. It is unclear if this word of mourning: the wealthy brought it choice implies an indication of discomfort in baskets of silver and gold, the poor with death, an overdeveloped understand- in baskets of willow twigs. And the ing of the synagogue as an elite bastion, poor felt ashamed. Therefore our sages an inappropriate emphasis on the finan- taught that everyone should use bas- cial opportunities that obscured the signifi- kets of willow twigs. cance of the ritual to the writer and edi- People used to serve drinks in a house tors, or is a marketing word that means an of mourning: the wealthy served them additional benefit for which one can pay. in white glasses, the poor served them 57. Irving Isaac Katz and Myron E. Scho- in less expensive colored glasses. And en, Successful Synagogue Administration: A the poor felt ashamed. Therefore our Practical Guide for Synagogue Leaders (New sages taught that everyone should serve York: Union of American Hebrew Con- drinks in colored glasses. gregations, 1963), 63. 58. Percival Goodman, “Congregation People used to bring out the deceased B’nai Israel” in Peter Blake, ed., An Ameri- for burial: the rich on a tall state bed, can Synagogue for Today and Tomorrow: A ornamented and covered with rich Guidebook for Synagogue Design and Con- coverlets, the poor on a plain bier. And struction (New York: Union for American the poor felt ashamed. Therefore a law Hebrew Congregations, 1954), 103-104. was established that all should be 59. Rachel Wischnitzer, Synagogue Archi- brought out on a plain bier. tecture in the United States: History and In- Quoted in Anita Diamant, Saying Kaddish: terpretation (Philadelphia: Jewish Publi- How to Comfort the Dying, Bury the Dead cation Society, 1955), 159. and Mourn as a Jew (New York: Schocken 60. Kampf, op. cit., 170. Books, 1998), 63.

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 75 A Guide for the End of Life A Review of Behoref. Hayamim/In the Winter of Life: A Values-Based Jewish Guide for Decision Making at the End of Life. edited by David Teutsch and Deborah Waxman (Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Center for Jewish Ethics, 2002)

BY NATAN FENNER

he Center for Jewish Ethics reminiscent of Reform or at the RRC has produced a Conservative interpretations/conclu- useful, thoughtful, accessible sions of halakha; however, the book is andT topical guide for decision-making much more a guide and conversation- at the end of life. It provides concep- starter than a compendium of defini- tual frameworks, reasoning and guid- tive pronouncements and formulae. ance for making Jewishly informed, ethical decisions around end-of-life is- Values-Based Decision Making sues. The point of departure is a medi- cally up-to-date, academically grounded The opening chapter, “Jewish Val- and liberal Jewish perspective. ues and Decision Making,” by David Behoref. Hayamim contains a series Teutsch, provides an orientation to and of chapters drawing on each author’s an explanation of values-based deci- experience in the fields of , sion-making, and of the key Jewish , congregational and values and terms that inform much of Reconstructionist movement leader- the discussion of end-of-life care in the ship, chaplaincy and Jewish healing. succeeding chapters. One finds a clear The chapters address decisions and resonance with the Reconstructionist concerns commonly faced in end-of- approach to communal decision mak- life care, including: advance directives, ing in Teutsch's summary of the pro- life support and resuscitation, informa- cess of values-based decision making: tion-sharing and communication be- determine facts, alternative actions and tween patient and caregivers, pain man- their outcomes, and relevant beliefs and agement, bedside advice for those of- values; examine relevant scientific and fering emotional and spiritual support, social-scientific approaches to under- assisted suicide and Jewish burial and standing these; consider the historical mourning practices. Some authors and contemporary context, including reach conclusions or make arguments the history and rationales of Jewish

Rabbi Natan Fenner serves at the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center in San Fran- cisco, and on the board of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains.

76 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist practice; look for norms that might for individuals who are or should be exclude some actions; weigh the rel- considering or drawing up or revisit- evant attitudes, beliefs, and values; for- ing their own advance directive, a cat- mulate decision alternatives; seek con- egory that arguably includes anyone sensus . . . ; [and] make the decision over forty. Pages 22 to24 include a con- (5-6). cise explanation of the content, ap- Among the Jewish values and con- proaches, common complications and cepts identified in this chapter as rel- strategies of advance directives. The evant to the end-of-life conversation: chapter also brings a helpful discussion pikuah. nefesh (saving a life); eyt lamut of some of the inducements and im- (there is a time to die—accepting pediments — both from common ex- death’s inevitability); kevod habriyot perience and from those particular to (human dignity); b’tselem elohim (each the Jewish milieu — to completing ad- human being’s infinite worth derived vance directives. from being created in the image of In “End-of-Life Technologies,” Kav- God); and rahmanut. (compassion/ esh explains some of the medical pro- mercy). It also addresses terms more cedures most commonly addressed in specific to and commonly used in Jew- advanced directives relating to life-sup- ish discourse on end-of-life port, together with rationales for us- issues: terefa (a person certain not to ing or declining them. Particular atten- recover from a terminal illness) and tion is given to cardio-pulmonary re- goses (in talmudic literature, one whose suscitation (CPR), ventilators (artificial medical condition has so irreversibly respirators) and feeding tubes. deteriorated as to be expected to sur- In addition to outlining a medical vive no more than three days). This perspective on these technologies, Kav- introduction addresses both lay and esh makes frequent reference to professional readers, laying out a halakhic and ethical sources (mostly method for study and a foundation for from Conservative and Orthodox lit- a Jewish moral perspective on the ques- erature — the one citation of a Reform tions raised by the other authors. responsum in Behoref. Hayamim occurs in a footnote to Chapter 9), and to gen- Advice for Caregivers erally held Jewish values.

“Taking Control of Difficult Deci- Feeding Tubes sions,” by William Kavesh, contains information and advice about advance The section on the “effectiveness of directives that are helpful, particularly feeding tubes” is more accurately a de- for individuals who are or may be des- piction not of their utility and condi- ignated as caregivers, proxies, surrogate tions for likely success, but rather of decision-makers or as having healthcare their ineffectivess and risks, and ration- power of attorney. In fact, this chapter ales for forgoing them. For readers not provides useful questions and direction current with the medical literature and

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 77 “best practices,” it reads like a critical The dying person and his or her famil- re-examination or reframing of an over- ial and professional caregivers have dif- used technology. In Kavesh’s view, tube ferent roles, obligations and challenges feeding shifts from a medical interven- in this regard. Wolpe cites a number of tion that is widely used and seen as an midrashic sources containing vignettes aid to life to an “impediment to the on healing in the context of peer and departure of the soul from the body.” caregiving relationships. (59-60) This chapter includes a sensitively Without including a rationale for written section on appropriate roles for when in a patient’s life this reclassifica- caregivers in helping someone in their tion of tube feeding becomes appro- meaning-making efforts as they con- priate, the logic behind this view could front illness or death. As many profes- be seen by some as unduly biased or sional caregivers who work with people overly broad in its application. The in hospice or with terminal illness know, chapter could benefit from Kavesh’s healing is possible — and the hope for perspective on why or when, and for healing can be a powerful motivator — what kinds of underlying conditions, even in the last days and hours of life. a feeding tube — still commonly of- Wolpe enumerates some areas where fered or prescribed by physicians in dying persons and those supporting many settings — might be an appro- them might seek healing (refuat ha- priate treatment option. This perspec- nefesh v’refuat haguf), including study, tive would lend the reader a greater prayer and communal and familial sense of balance or context for discern- ritual. ing how to respond, or what questions Among his more takhlis (practical) to ask or consider, when making such suggestions, Wolpe highlights the im- a decision. On the side of refuat ha- portance of having or arranging com- nefesh (healing of the spirit), Kavesh panionship and emotional support notes that it can be very reassuring for when “bad news” (i.e., a grave or po- family members to try feeding their tentially shocking diagnosis) is to be loved one orally after the removal of a delivered to someone, particularly if the feeding tube (61). physician or other bearer of such news is not prepared or in a position to re- The Role of Relationships main with the receiver of the news and offer that support. Wolpe also explains “Forming New Relationships,” by that in the often chaotic and emotion- Paul Root Wolpe, examines the role ally stressful setting of such conversa- and impact of relationships in refuat tions, designating a member of the per- hanefesh. The quality and intensity of sonal or professional care team to our primary familial, communal and record or remember important infor- professional caregiving relationships mation can be invaluable, as details are may significantly distress us, comfort easily forgotten, conflated or recalled us or otherwise shape our experience. out of context or out of proportion.

78 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist Acknowledging that some families others, only when the patient is not able prefer to keep significant medical (or to convey his/her wishes directly. In- ancillary) information hidden from a cluded in this section is a helpful clarifi- loved one whom they feel to be in a cation of the distinction between and ap- precarious condition, Wolpe advocates propriate places for substitute judgment for truth-telling as a general rule. In a and best-interest decision making. discussion that is essentially directed to Much of the discussion in this and physicians and family members of the other chapters focuses on the domain affected person,Wolpe notes the ten- within which terminally ill or dying sion placed on the entire caregiving persons are no longer able to make or system when it is asked to maintain a consent to medical decisions on their conspiracy of silence or outright decep- behalf. Wolpe notes some of the com- tion. In his view, truth-telling may in fact mon ways that families run into con- support greater trust and hope (read also: flicts over end-of-life treatment and care healing) on the part of the patient. decisions. Sometimes these conflicts are inescapable, but Wolpe gives suggestions Surrogate Decision-Makers that may lend helpful perspective in some and Pastoral Support cases, both to smooth the decision-mak- ing process and to support shelom bayit, In the chapter “Families and Treat- peace in the family. ment Decisions,” Wolpe articulates Wolpe notes that “rabbis well- some of the challenges and stresses of trained in hospital chaplaincy may be caregiving and caregiver decision-mak- better able to serve the role of inter- ing, including an all-too-common lack preter of complex medical ideas, but of clear guidance and support for those any rabbi can also serve in a pastoral engaged in this sacred and potentially role. . . . How the health-care team all-consuming endeavor. Wolpe delin- deals with the rabbi’s role may depend eates the roles that several of the pri- on the physician’s religion . . . as well mary constituents (family/loved ones, as the type of hospital or facility” (74). physician, rabbi) can play in support In fact, professional chaplains, of good decision making about end- whose ranks include many rabbis and of-life care. It bears emphasizing (more cantors, have special training not only than was done throughout the book) to serve in an interpretive role among that when her/his decision-making ca- patient, family members and the pacity is acknowledged, the patient’s health-care team, but also in helping voice is, in the normative medical and people address other issues that may legal view, the first and last to deter- impinge significantly on both decision mine preferences and treatment choices making and spiritual care/well-being, from among the given options. A sur- i.e. , theological questions and rogate decision-maker takes over, and religious and cultural perspectives on a different level of responsibility de- illness and death. Professional chaplains volves upon the family or significant often enjoy a degree of standing and

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 79 collegial rapport within a health-care prolongs the dying process… [or] institution that allows them to support causes or prolongs pain may be rejected or advocate effectively for religious, val- or discontinued; there are situations in ues-based decisions. Hence, when a which acceptance of death is in the best hospital or other facility has a profes- interest of the individual; . . . pain must sional chaplain on staff or available be treated as aggressively as necessary” through a community chaplain pro- (88). gram, that individual should be con- The scenarios articulating and hon- sidered as a potential resource to the oring the pain experienced by care-giv- dying person and the caregivers, which ers, and acknowledging the impact of may or, as is often the case, may not intense or sustained pain and suffering include a congregational rabbi. on decision making, may make for helpful, affirming reading for individu- Coping with Suffering als in that position. Given the room for decision-mak- Issues of pain and suffering, their ing autonomy and permissiveness personal and theological impact, and granted in this and other chapters of modes of coping and decision making Behoref. Hayamim, Segal also includes related to these issues are addressed in an important caveat that each indi- the chapter “Pain and Suffering” by vidual experiences pain, and may find Sheila Segal. This chapter includes an- comfort, in unique ways. Therefore, we ecdotes that lay out in concrete terms must always hearken and be sensitive different modes of companionship, not only to the broader field of options bikur holim. (visiting the sick), gemilut and to our own stance with regard to hasadim. (acts of kindness), and prayer end-of-life care, but to the particular on behalf of the person facing termi- per-son before us, with his/her incli- nal illness or imminent death, with the nations and experience, in his/her par- particular focus on addressing, reliev- ticular condition and moment. ing or forbearing physical and emo- tional pain. Spiritual Accompaniment Noting the blurred boundary in con- temporary experience between the tra- “End-of-Life Care,” by Myriam ditional categories or stages of goses and Klotz, concentrates on the opportuni- terefa, Segal considers a “person to be ties and demands inherent in spiritu- at the ‘end of life’ if he or she is suffer- ally accompanying the dying person. ing from a disease or condition for This chapter provides guidance for the which there is no cure and no reason- simple yet sometimes quite challeng- able hope of improvement” (87). Segal ing act of being with someone who is then delineates, for the person at the dying. Encouraging approaches to end of life who is also in pain, ethical prayer and to shared silence are offered guidelines surrounding the “duty to in support of meaningful and spiritu- relieve pain:” “any intervention that ally. supportive visits. Klotz also pro-

80 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist vides a succinct guide for conducting offer to pray on their behalf, or the a personalized healing service, which knowledge that they are remembered can be a resource for the professional during moments of communal prayer, officiant or for those inclined to con- such as a congregational mi shebeirakh vene such a service without the guid- prayer for healing, may be comforting. ance of a clergy member. The ill or dying person need not be The intended audience for this chap- present to derive a sense of spiritual ter seems to be professional caregivers support from others’ attentions; and a (medical or spiritual) with interest— community or a group of caregivers but perhaps without extensive train- may also find strength and comfort in ing—in what Klotz refers to as hitlavut linking together in this way. Further- ruhanit/spiritual accompaniment, or in more, the team-like bonds of connec- working with patients who are not so tion and support that are established versed in prayer or in articulating their or deepened among friends, family and own spiritual needs. a caring community may come to serve In describing some of the profound as an important, affirming bridge when personal, spiritual and relational that same group of people is mourn- transformations that can take place when ing together after the death. someone is dying, Klotz notes that care- Klotz also mentions the Vidui/death- givers can encourage healing and spiri- bed confessional prayer and who might tual development during this process. recite it as the end of life draws near While honoring the transformative po- [118]. For those who are encouraged tential of being present for and with to make use of this prayer or explore someone at the end of life, there is per- this liturgy further (there are a num- haps an unintended sense not only of ber of versions revolving around the opportunity, but also of expectation or central themes Klotz outlined), texts of responsibility for fostering some kind of and explanations for the prayer can be healing or growth that the caregiving found in various rabbi’s manuals, and reader might assume. Such a sense of re- in some daily prayerbooks (including sponsibility would for many seem unduly various Orthodox versions and the Re- heavy and — given that not all deaths form movement’s Gates of the House); appear graceful — unreasonable. and online in English (translation by at www.myjewishlearning. Healing Rituals com/lifecycle/Death/Dying/Text_ of_Viddui) and in Hebrew (a scanned Klotz’s presentation of healing ser- version can be found at www.ira vices or healing rituals pictures the kaufman.com/atneed/), among other identified recipient at the center of a sites. The Web site of the National Cen- circle of caring. For some people near- ter for Jewish Healing (www.ncjh.org) ing the end of their lives who may not is another source for readings, study have the interest or energy to partici- texts and prayers for those facing grave pate in this kind of choreography, the illness and death.

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 81 Hospice Care Acceptable Actions at the End Of Life “A Time to Die: Reflections on Care for the Dying” by Amy Eilberg de- Wolpe’s chapter on “Ending Life” scribes what hospice is, and how a hos- explores the issues of hastening death, pice approach is consonant with both including suicide and assisted suicide, Jewish tradition and a holistic world and the nuances of active and passive view. The chapter enumerates com- euthanasia — which are among the monly expressed needs of dying people, more wrenching questions that are in- including the need to feel heard and to creasingly confronting ethicists and lay grieve. Eilberg advocates for a recogni- people alike when considering the con- tion of the preciousness of our finite dition and the desires of people suffer- lives informed by a clear awareness of ing with debilitating, terminal illness our mortality, the cultivation of which and intractable pain. can have profound and positive effects Wolpe refers to talmudic passages on our consciousness. describing the deaths of Rabbi Yehuda This chapter includes material that HaNasi and Rabbi Hanina ben Tera- would be helpful both to lay people and dion, and commentaries on the suicide health-care professionals who have of King Saul. In Wolpe’s understand- mixed feelings about hospice or who ing, these passages show not encour- labor under the conception that hos- agement but certainly some latitude for pice, with its inherent acknowledge- understanding and acceptance — ment of and concession to death’s in- bediavad/after the fact — of actions evitability, goes against values Judaism that hastened death in circumstances holds dear. Eilberg addresses directly that were dire, torturous to the point Jewish concerns about and perceived where there was a risk of desecration obstacles to hospice care. She balances of the Divine, and offering no possi- a historical orientation for “life at all bility of physical recovery or escape. cost” and “death as enemy” with an Regardless of the path chosen by indi- equally grounded Jewish concern for viduals confronting such dire and in- choosing treatment that addresses the tractable suffering when death is al- ill person’s most important concerns, ready imminent, Wolpe argues that and offers the greatest hope for reliev- “decisions made within the spirit of ing one’s most deeply felt pain and human caring and Jewish ethics that fears. Eilberg highlights the traditional have the medical and spiritual welfare Jewish teachings around the meaning of the dying patient firmly as the top of refuah sheleymah (complete healing priority are all touched ultimately by of body and spirit), death as a part of the presence of God” (147). life, eyt lamut (there is [a time to be born and] a time to die), and death as Goses or Terefa? a motivator for focusing our efforts for good while we are alive.1 Wolpe notes that “the model of goses

82 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist suggests that we can remove impedi- Reconstructionist Guide. It provides sen- ments (including, in the view of the sitive and comprehensive guidance for majority of scholars quoted in this vol- undertaking the decisions and the ume, respirators and feeding tubes that mitzvot associated with avelut/mourn- keep the goses from dying naturally), ing, k’vod hamet/honoring the deceased but not actively cause the death of an- and nihum. avelim/comforting mourn- other” (139). He then notes that “some ers. scholars suggest that modern dying fits This chapter is a thoughtful, useful, more into the category of the terefa, one liberal Jewish substitute for, or comple- who is clearly and severely terminally ment to, such classic, encyclopedic and ill” (and is expected to die within a more (Conservative/Orthodox) legally year)(139). framed works as Rabbi Maurice Lamm’s While both considerations empha- The Jewish Way in Death and Mourning size the “underlying intention . . . to and Rabbi Alfred J. Kolatch’s The Jew- maintain the dignity of the dying, and ish Mourner’s Book of Why. Among the not to unduly hasten their deaths” topics addressed are a Reconstructionist (139), the ramifications of this change approach (using a historically in- in classification are significant, as formed, humanistic/naturalistic lens) Wolpe deduces in the latter case the to questions about life after death. It is permissability not only of removing life well suited for lay readers (mourners, supports but also of administering pain individuals or communities preparing medications even in a way that may or wishing to offer comfort and sup- shorten life. port) seeking step-by-step guidance This section would have benefited and explanation regarding the impor- from greater detail and more reference tant elements and arrangements for to sources in the ethical literature that funerals, shiva and related topics. It spell out the criteria for determining may also serve as a resource of helpful when to use the terefa framework rather perspectives for clergy working with than that of the goses; the logical steps liberal Jews and addressing questions that proceed from the terefa designa- that arise in the contemporary context, tion; and the import Wolpe derives such as non-Jews mourning for Jews from the statement that “one who kills and vice-versa. the terefa is exempt from (earthly) pun- The chapter also provides practical ishment” (139). guidance and thoughtful suggestions from a Reconstructionist perspective Mourning Practices regarding infant death, the confluence of shiva and Jewish holidays, increas- “Death and Mourning” by Richard ingly common liberal practices and Hirsh appears, with only minor chang- concerns around cremation, and the es, as it was published previously by the recitation of Kaddish by other than Reconstructionist Rabbinical Associa- first-degree mourners or in the absence tion as The Journey of Mourning: A of a minyan.2

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 83 A Need to Speak rabbah, brikh hu) that are part of the recitation. In the section addressing the com- forting of mourners during the first Traditional and Progressive year following their loss, the point is Perspectives made that “widows and widowers of- ten report that…they experienced the One element I found lacking in the loss of friendship with couples who book was guidance for liberal Jews who may not have known how to adjust” are caring and making decisions for (170). Indeed, in my experience work- loved ones who are more traditionally ing with bereaved individuals and with or halakhically observant. As a chap- grief support groups, many mourners lain who encounters a wide range of express a need to speak occasionally or Jewish practice and knowledge, I feel repeatedly of their loved ones or of their that this helpful collection would have feelings in the months after their loss, been strengthened by the inclusion of as part of their healing process. While advice or additional bibliographic re- counseling can be helpful, particularly, sources for this constituency. as Hirsh notes, when there is a long- Behoref. Hayamim is a very readable, term lack of adjustment to the loss, useful, and current volume that pro- friends or relations with the patience vides good resource material for a realm to do so should indicate their interest, of decision making and care that is in- willingness and availability to listen. creasingly common and increasingly I had a minor quibble with the state- important in many of our lives. The ment that Reconstructionist Judaism book contains helpful anecdotes, a fa- “no longer affirm[s] many of the tradi- miliar Reconstructionist lens and cita- tional ideas about life beyond death” tions for many of the rabbinic sources (172). While I agree that the movement that inform discussions of Jewish end- does not endorse many of these views, of-life-care ethics, without trying to I am among many Reconstructionist arrive at or present a particular halakhic rabbis who, in practice, frequently ex- stance for its liberal readers. The chap- plore, work with and at least indirectly ters would make excellent stand-alone affirm individual mourners’ sometimes study texts in adult or continuing pro- traditional, other-worldly, and even fessional education settings, as well as admittedly irrational views about life for individuals or families wanting to after death.3 clarify their values or formulate advance To Hirsh’s advocacy for the traditional directives in a Jewishly informed way. practice of having only mourners (rather The book is recommended reading for than the entire congregation) recite congregational clergy, and other lay and Kaddish Yetom (the Mourner’s Kaddish) professional caregivers who seek a lib- (175), I would add that communal sup- eral Jewish perspective on end-of-life port is expressed, in part, through the issues. collective responses (amen, yehei sh’mei

84 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist 1. Another polemic addressing Jewish con- comfort you along with all the mourners cerns about “giving up” and shifting into a of Zion and Jerusalem,” while many have palliative mode is found in the concise understood this phrase as embodying mes- volume by Rabbi Daniel S. Brenner, et al., sianic hopes, as Hirsh notes (160), another Embracing Life and Facing Death: A Jewish widely recognized meaning given to these Guide to Palliative Care (CLAL, 2002). words has to do with the recognition and This guide also outlines some of the pri- comfort of being part of and somehow con- mary tasks — as understood by longtime nected to a larger community of mourn- proponents of the hospice movement and ers across the continents and the genera- Jewish spiritual care providers—associated tions. with, for example, responding to a diag- 3. Hirsh does note that irrespective of what nosis, formulating advance directives and a movement’s ideology or theology may an ethical will, living with illness, address- suggest, “individual Jews will choose what ing suffering, seeking forgiveness and mak- they believe about life beyond death — ing peace in one's relationships and recit- regardless of their denominational affilia- ing the vidui/deathbed prayer. tion. In such a highly personal area of spiri- 2. Regarding the customary graveside reci- tual conviction, that is entirely appropri- tation, HaMakom yinahem. /“May God ate” (160).

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 85 Responding to Intermarriage A Review of Introducing My Faith and My Community: The Jewish Outreach Institute Guide for the Christian in a Jewish Interfaith Relationship, by Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2004) and Interfaith Families: Personal Stories of Jewish-Christian Intermarriage, by Jane Kaplan (Praeger, 2004)

BY NINA MANDEL

y grandmother, zihrona. intermarriage would lead to the aban-

livraha. , was not stingy with donment not just of Judaism, but an M her opinions. She was vehe- abandonment of the Jewish people. In mently and articulately opposed to the theory, she supported conversion to Ju- concept of intermarriage and she let us daism by the non-Jewish spouse to be know it. She was, in fact, typical of gen- the lesser of two . However, the erations of grandmothers, grandfathers, shonde, the shame, came from even parents, siblings, rabbis and commu- dating “out” in the first place. Inevita- nity leaders who felt (and in some cases bly, her diligence and that of Jewish still do feel) a sense of peril for the con- grandmothers everywhere failed to tinuity of the Jewish people posed by keep intermarriages from happening. intermarriage. In fairness, my grandmother spoke A Growing Challege just as eloquently and memorably about the importance of klal Yisrael — The most recent National Jewish the entirety of the Jewish people. She Population Survey, 2000-01, reports would invoke the message of unity in- that since 1996, the intermarriage rate herent in the Shema prayer to explain for newly-married Jews is 47 percent. the ineffable connection between Jew- This is a slight increase since 1985, but ish people that had allowed for their a much lower rate than that of the survival. And she applied that message 1970s and early 1980s. These are not to her family, presiding fiercely, if some- shockingly new statistics, nor are the what ineffectively, over us as the un- ones that indicate that intermarried questionable matriarch, protecting her families are less likely to engage in Jew- kin from the temptations of the out- ish life or raise Jewish children than “in- side world. She firmly believed that marrieds.” For the last several decades,

Nina Mandel is rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Sunbury, Pennsylvania.

86 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist Jewish communal life across the de- ferent ways, is to give a voice to many nominational spectrum has been ad- of the different players in these rela- dressing the implications of intermar- tionships. One book effectively ex- riage programmatically, institutionally plains why “marrying Jewish” might and theoretically. matter so much to the Jewish partner’s What has shifted in recent years is family, even in cases where they are the approach to the “intermarriage seemingly without any other connec- question.” Up until recently, the two tion to Jewish life. The other exposes predominant Jewish “antidotes” to in- the impact on families when aversions termarriage were to invest time, effort to, and stereotypes about, intermar- and resources in keeping Jewish adults riage are aired insensitively and explores from marrying non-Jews; and to en- how couples work to develop strategies courage non-Jewish partners to convert for their interfaith relationships. to Judaism. Increasingly, we now find Introducing My Faith and Commu- Jewish institutions turning their atten- nity is directed to a specific audience. tion to making intermarried families Though the title suggests a guidebook feel more welcome as a means of keep- for the Jewish partner, “. . . this book ing Jews, and the people who love is primarily designed for people whose them, involved in Jewish life (see, for quest to learn more about Judaism example, the 1998 Reconstructionist emerges mainly from a special relation- report Boundaries and Opportunities: ship with someone who is Jewish” (xi). The Role of Non-Jews in Reconstruc- It is written primarily for the Christian tionist Congregations). Instead of believ- reader, with the history and rituals of ing, like my grandmother, that the most Judaism often being explained in con- effective course was to keep Jews from trast to a Christian experience. marrying “out,” we now find the in- Using four broad chapters titled clusivity approach entering the main- “Faith,” “Foundational Values,” “Cul- stream. In October 2003, Paul Golin ture,” and “Community,” Kerry Olitzky wrote in Moment magazine that: “For the gives a comprehensive and accessible run- first time in U.S. history, the number of down on , practice, ritual Jews is declining. Welcoming intermar- and communal life. He frames his dis- ried couples can reverse the trend.” cussions in both traditional Jewish teach- ings, like Maimonidies’ Thirteen Prin- Giving Voice to Intermarried People ciples of Jewish Faith, and more contem- porary vocabulary and values, using sub- This viewpoint is explored in com- headings such as “welcoming environ- plementary ways by the two books ments” and “spiritual practice.” Each under review. Neither is a how-to for chapter ends with a section entitled “Next conversion, nor do they even try to Steps,” encouraging the reader to engage make the case for it, or for the aban- further in an aspect of Jewish thought or donment of an interreligious relation- practice as a way of deepening his or her ship. What the authors do, in very dif- understanding.

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 87 If the book were to be judged solely of stereotypes about Jews and money. by its cover, it would be described ac- “If Jews appear to be overrepresented curately as welcoming, with a picture in the sphere of philanthropic giving, of an open door with a mezuzah on the this may be viewed as a desire to subli- doorpost and a “Shalom” mat on the mate the urge toward conspicuous con- landing. One would not expect to find sumption. But it’s important to recog- a disapproving grandmother in this nize that giving money and donating house, and this is the success of the time have an ancient basis in Jewish book. The underlying message in the values” (44). teaching about Judaism is to explain why it means so much to Grandma. Plus and Minus

Contradiction and Confusion Where the author is less successful is in taking on the task of describing Olitzky admits to the non-Jewish the distinctions among the different reader that the Jewish family that may be movements within Judaism. While it giving him or her such a hard time often is helpful to have a chapter entitled, seems contradictory, or even hypocriti- “The Four Major Movements in Amer- cal. “How could being Jewish be so im- ican Judaism,” it is less helpful to try portant to you if you never celebrate the to offer, as Olitzky does, a guideline of holidays?” “Why should I convert if you what individual rabbis may require for don’t even keep a kosher home?” “Why things like conversion or synagogue is Judaism so important to my partner, participation. For instance, his asser- who has not set foot in a synagogue since tion that “Not all Reconstructionist age thirteen?” and Reform rabbis require circumci- Rather than invoking tragic history, sion for adult males” does not ad- fear of extinction or religious prescrip- equately prepare the reader to expect a tions, Olitzky focuses on the values that range of opinions in these matters. make so important. Introducing My Faith and My Com- He explains that, unlike examples from munity is successful because of its can- Christianity, Jewish faith does not re- dor. The book does not hesitate to quire ritual practice, and that syna- present the ways in which coming into gogue membership is not a require- a Jewish family can be unsettling to a ment for Jewish identity. He also ex- non-Jewish partner. Olitzky tries to plains how Jewish identity is main- shift the discomfort to understanding, tained through everything from food by explaining how and why many Jews to art to ritual practice. have come to be invested in the con- He also tackles head-on, if not some- cept of “Jewishness” beyond the realm times apologetically, stereotypes about of religious practice. This approach al- Jews that might arise. Using the values lows the non-Jewish reader to feel un- frame of tzedakah, mixed with some derstood and the Jewish reader to feel medieval history, he addresses the roots well represented.

88 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist Personal Narratives the cases where the couple considered the impact of religious differences care- Interfaith Families: Personal Stories of fully before marriage, it is instructive Jewish-Christian Intermarriage is a col- to read how unexpected challenges lection of personal stories that are as arose over time. revelatory as Olitzky’s book is informa- It is provocative, and also sometimes tive. The author offers an intimate look difficult, to read how many of the non- into the “back-stories” of interfaith Jewish partners report being treated marriages in an effort to share the many critically by Jewish families. In most of ways couples successfully, and unsuc- the cases Kaplan offers, the Christian cessfully, deal with the kinds of chal- family and partner have a much easier lenges Olitzky presents. The stories time accepting the relationship, mar- were gathered by author Jane Kaplan riage, conversion or decision about rais- through a systematic interview process. ing the children, than the Jewish side. They are meant to offer a cross-section The issue arises repeatedly that the non- of experiences, using couples from across Jewish partner does not understand the the country, of all different ages and at visceral attachment to Judaism, and I different points in their marriages, in- found myself at times wishing that these cluding several divorced couples. couples had read Olitzky’s book. The stories are grouped into five chapters, each representing an ap- Identity of Children proach to intermarriage taken by the family: “Choosing a Jewish Family The question of what to do about Life”; “Choosing a Christian Family raising children seems to be the most Life”; “Finding a Way to Have Both”; challenging, and the stories present “Looking for Alternatives”; and “De- some interesting and thought-provok- ciding to Convert.” Although Kaplan ing ideas for addressing this issue. has chosen not to present any analysis Kaplan offers examples of how fami- of the interviews, she does start each lies have managed by choosing either chapter with a brief comment on her Judaism or Christianity as the religion findings and each interview, told in the in which the children will be raised, first person, begins with a summary regardless of whether the parents share about the circumstances of the subject. a faith tradition. What Kaplan’s choice of narratives Kaplan also offers stories of ways in reveals is an overall frustration among which families have blended traditions. the partners, Jewish and non-Jewish, In some cases, they found or created about how issues of religion are dealt similar communities in which to teach with in the relationship between the and celebrate both faith traditions; in partners. In many of the cases, one others, no firm decision was made, and partner reports feeling unsupported in the children were encouraged to find following her or his own religious path, their own way. These stories often read or pressured into conversion. Even in more joyfully than do the ones in which

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 89 a decision was made and the partners communities for interfaith families. struggled to support one another. (An interesting addendum to the book Changing Attitudes would be stories from the children in all these families, to see how these Taken together, these books show a choices played out for them.) changing attitude about intermarriage Ultimately, it is the candor of the in liberal Jewish communities. The fo- stories that make this an important re- cus is no longer so much on preven- source for discussing intermarriage and tion as on respect and understanding. conversion issues. This is not a book My grandmother may not have been put together to show us how well things happy when some of her grandchildren worked out once a decision was made married outside of their faith, but in to convert to Judaism or to create a Jew- the end she did her best to accept ev- ish household. It is obvious that con- eryone. Had she had insight into the flicts often arise in interfaith marriages, impact her stance had on those couples even when one or both partners define before they married, or had those non- themselves as “non-religious.” It is also Jewish partners of her grandchildren obvious that the pressure put on couples had more insight into why the invest- in these situations by their own families ment for her was so high, perhaps feel- and clergy can be hurtful. Though in ings could have been spared all around. most cases the extended families came to Olitzky and Kaplan have helped us accept the choices made by the couples in- to see alternative, and, it is hoped, more volved, harm was done. This book makes effective and more welcoming, ways of us consider exactly what it is we mean responding to the challenges of inter- when we talk about creating welcoming marriage.

90 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist Eternal Questions, Prayerful Responses A Review of Filling Words with Light: Hasidic and Mystical Reflections on Jewish Prayer by Lawrence Kushner and Nehemiah Polen (Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, VT, 2005), xiii + 154 pages

BY SHEILA PELTZ WEINBERG

am one of many who has had the title of this volume, how one might privilege and pleasure of studying begin filling words with light (xiii). I with rabbis Larry Kushner and Nehemiah Polen. They are master The commentaries are conveniently teachers, contemporary hasidim/ arranged according to the daily and and lovers of God who express their Shabbat liturgy, making it an excellent love through teaching Torah in the companion for a class on deepest sense. (prayerbook) for beginners or beyond. Their collaboration produced the Many of the sections, usually a page or mystic and hasidic commentary for the two in length, can be read as is, or My People’s Prayer Book series from Jew- adapted as inspirational introductions ish Lights Publishing, and now these to different parts of a service. Some of contributions have been collected in the texts might be transformed into the delightful, slim volume, Filling kavannot, or into instructions for medi- Words with Light: Hasidic and Mystical tation, or used as the basis for personal Reflections on Jewish Prayer. reflection or journaling. (For rabbis and In the authors’ words, the book is a Jewish text teachers, this volume would be made more valuable with a compan- [B]ouquet of interpretations, com- ion of all the sources in Hebrew.) ments, stories, and reflections on how to put more of oneself into The Inner Life the words of one’s prayer; how to give them new life; how to en- When we are in the territory of spirit them; how to fit them with hasidic tradition (what scholar Miles their own individual skylights, or, Krassen calls the “Science of Love”) the if you will, in the imagery of the invitation is extended to plumb the

Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg is Outreach Director and Senior Faculty Member at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 91 inner life. This can only be done one moment. It is breaking though habits of person at a time. The safer and more boredom, fixed views and assumptions secure we feel, the more we are able to that cloud the organs of perception. allow the inner voice to be heard. One of the longest commentaries These texts provide a pathway. They deals with preparation for reciting the link us to a community of our ances- Shema, and deals with another pivotal tors. Studying these texts together, we hasidic concept: devekut, or cleaving to bond with communities in the present God. Kushner and Polen quote a beau- to support each other in the work of tiful text by Zev Wolf of Zhitomir, as inner exploration. amplified by Martin Buber, in which Some of the texts point toward spe- devekut is revealed as an inner unifica- cific practices that can be embraced to tion of one’s own scattered conscious- help us make this inner journey. For ness, or dispersal of one’s soul’s energy. instance, in his morning prayers the This, our teachers tell us, is a perfect Skulener Rebbe would focus on each introduction to the declaration of individual phrase, one at a time. “He God’s unity in the Shema. would not permit himself to move on Devekut is discussed further in the to the next phrase in the prayer until section on the Torah service in relation he felt he had found some personal to the verse from Deuteronomy 4:4, message of hope and redemption” (30). “and you cleave to Adonai your God.” This might have taken longer than we Kushner and Polen draw on Rabbi could imagine, but time was not an is- Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk who sue for the Skulener, since he was im- offers an approach to this term in his prisoned in solitary confinement by the work Pri Ha’aretz. He suggests that Romanian authorities for the “crime” devekut entails the preparation of the of teaching Jewish children. soul in such a way that there is no bar- rier of personality or self-seeking that Hasidic Insights might be in the way. In the language of parable, no trace of rust must be Despite the brevity of the commen- found when we glue together two taries, some of the key chords in the pieces of silver. hasidic symphony are tucked into this This text integrates the process of volume. We find references to such one’s inner work with identifying and ideas as the constant renewal of creation releasing the barriers of connection to — ourselves included. The cultivation God. It is a typical hasidic transforma- of this awareness is a key to spiritual tion of the psychological realm into the revival. It is also a theme embedded in transpersonal. We might just pass by our liturgy and in many hasidic texts. the word “cleave.” This reflection helps called it won- open that word into a practice and con- der, or “radical amazement.” It is the cept of immeasurable subtlety. Per- process of waking up in this moment haps this will then entice us to further to the absolute uniqueness of this very exploration.

92 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist The Language of Prayer prayer, which represents another spiri- tual paradigm. They write: Some of the sections are direct com- mentaries on the language of prayer. Prayer may ultimately be an exer- Why, for instance, in the hashkivenu cise for helping us let go of our prayer does it say “Remove the adver- egos, hopelessly anchored to this sary from before and after us”? The world where one person is discrete Biala Rebbe suggests that before we from another and from God and fulfill a mitzvah we tend to be plagued soar to the heavens where we re- with doubt. But after we fulfill a alize there is a holy One to all be- mitzvah we are tempted by arrogance. ing and that we have been an ex- Hence we need to ask for protection pression of it all along (68). from the inner voices that keep us sepa- rate and trick us with their power and Daily Mindfulness logic before and after we perform a mitzvah. One of the shortest and most beau- This is a classic hasidic approach to tiful commentaries is on the special text and to prayer: to become alert to blessing for holiness on the Sabbath moments of insight into the machina- when we recite: “They will be satisfied tions of our minds and hearts. The reli- and take pleasure from your goodness.” gious life is seen as a constant practice Our authors cite Aaron of Karlin who of refining the heart or training the notes the apparent redundancy of “sat- mind to see more clearly. And what will isfied” and “take pleasure” and teaches: we see? We will see the truth, which is [This] reminds us that all desire and the absence of separation between our- appetites, once sated, no longer provide selves and each other, between the fi- much pleasure. But the pleasure of be- nite and the infinite, between the hu- ing close to God, he adds, is inexhaust- man and the divine. ible. Even though we will be satisfied, This hasidic approach is also ex- we will still draw pleasure form prox- pressed in a commentary on the verse imity to you” (80). we recite before the Amida, “Adonai, This sounds to me like an instruc- Open my lips that my mouth may de- tion for mindfulness in our daily lives. clare your praise.” Whose lips are they? It calls us to reflect closely on our ex- Whose praise? Whose mouth? A perience of wanting and of being satis- hasidic or mystical interpretation of fied. What is satisfying and what is not? this verse emphasizes the non-dual na- How are we controlled by desire for the ture of reality, and the Amida as the fleeting, which creates further desire in moment when this is most fully real- its wake? Do we even know, acknowl- ized. edge and celebrate when we have The verse deals with the interdepen- enough? How do we connect to the dence of human and divine. Polen and satisfaction of knowing Divine good- Kushner see this as an approach to ness? The hasidic teachings come from

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 93 a time and place in Jewish history of on transforming the heart in order to material scarcity. In our culture of over- be a channel of the goodness that is load, speed and excess, this is an even waiting to flow more freely in this more powerful call from our tradition. realm. There is much more. In fact, this The Hasidim are a resource to us be- book keeps revealing its secrets. It is not cause they cared about many of the meant to be read through and placed same things we care about. They also on the shelf to gather dust. But it is wanted the tradition to speak to them, hard for me to judge how one might to come alive. They wanted their words respond to these teachings if one was filled with light as much as we do. new to these ideas. My hunch is that Prayer was the central mitzvah for this book will be an excellent resource, Hasidim. In many ways, prayer is the but better utilized with a teacher and most challenging part of a religious life in community. This will increase the for us. The life of the mind and the likelihood that the words will have reso- construction of community are more nance and provide illumination that within our grasp. How do we reinvent can lead to spiritual openness. and renew prayer that will truly be a force for connection, love and trans- Reconstructionism and Hasidism formation? How do the words of the past take wing? How do they expand I recall the days when I was a stu- our energy and give us strength to face dent at the Reconstructionist Rabbini- the challenges of our lives and our cal College and had a course on Re- times? How do they lead us to see the constructionism back to back with a world in new ways? How do our course in hasidic text. I felt an amaz- prayers help us work with our hearts, ing synergy between the two ap- peeling of the layers of rust that are al- proaches. The Reconstructionism ways accumulating to cover the hurts course taught me about actualizing the and fears of being human? potential for a life of righteousness and This little volume is a wonderful lovingkindness by connecting to the contribution to the search for answers power called Godliness. The class on to these questions. It ends in a beauti- hasidic text taught me the importance ful way with, not surprisingly, an ob- of getting beyond the barriers of self- servation about Elijah. It is based on ishness, destructive emotions and pride reading Elijah the Tishbi as Elijah the in order to recognize the Divine in all toshav, the “resident.” Because Elijah things and in all moments. The Divine did not die, he is, according to Abra- was the healing, loving, sustaining and ham Isaac Sperling of Lemberg, the renewing power within us and within only true resident. The rest of us are all things in the universe. The vitality just “passing through.” The question of the creation is found within the cre- then becomes for all of us: how can my ation. I connected with the humanism brief passing be as pure and life-giving of both approaches, with the emphasis as possible? How can I live in a way

94 • Spring 2005 The Reconstructionist that my passing through creates more are a Hasid or a Reconstructionist. I goodness than harm? These are the think I am both. eternal religious questions, whether you

The Reconstructionist Spring 2005 • 95 TRANSNATURE’S GOD Studies in Mordecai M. Kaplan’s Theology by Professor Meir Ben-Horin Edited by Ethan M. Merlin

Transnature’s God, a monumental study by Professor Meir Ben-Horin (1918- 1988), is largely an intellectual history of the central ideas of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, widely known as the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism. In the words of editor Ethan Merlin, “Kaplan stood at the crossroads of ancient and modern traditions. His novel ideas about God and Judaism reflect his particu- lar historical and cultural moment. In this book, Ben-Horin explains those ideas while documenting their relation to larger intellectual currents.”

Dr. Ben-Horin devoted the 1970s through 1987 to researching, analyzing, writing and enhancing this work. Just as he was editing his final manuscript, he died, in January, 1988. The culmination of decades of Jewish scholarship, Dr. Ben-Horin’s manuscript has been rediscovered, re-edited and is now published.

This is a significant scholarly work that has been researched and painstakingly footnoted by the author. It is “must reading” for students and scholars of Judaism.

407 pages. Heavy paperback. 8 x 11.5 inches. ISBN 0-9761208-0-1. Order online at www.bookstream.biz Then click on “Religion” and then “More info” and “Add to Cart”

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