Ritual or Meaning?

Many thanks to Valerie for the inspiration for today's posting.

On April 23, Hella Winston published an opinion piece in the New York Times that is particularly relevant to this blog. To avoid copyright infringement, I provide just the link, but in short, Ms. Winston describes a growing community of Jews who formerly were part of devoutly observant sects of Judaism, but now have turned away from that towards their own redefinition of Judaism. What they celebrate sounds like something we should all strive for - meaning and community over ritual and observance.

As I sit in synagogue or church, I listen to people participate in ritual that they know by memory, but which I worry that they frequently don't understand. I can't help remembering an occassion when the rabbi's schedule got delayed mid-service and he invited questions from the congregation. One congregant asked the meaning of a passage in one of our prayers/songs - he wanted the literal translation from Hebrew, and how that related to our observance. What he got instead was an involved sermon about how important the prayer was - roughly paraphrased, the rabbi said we do this because we're supposed to do it.

Likewise, the church my wife attends has taken to a call and response opening to services that seems to be recited by rote without any thought. The message is wonderful: "God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!" However, with people just reponding to a program, are they even hearing the message anymore? I feel they reply because they're supposed to, not because they mean it. In contrast, the prayer of confession each week is unique, giving people the opportunity to absorb new words and meaning each time they think about their transgressions. Closely associated is the silent prayer time so people can connect with God in their own ways. These opportunities for new manifestations of faith and for reflection are essential for rituals to obtain meaning.

Religion shouldn't be about ritual alone. Rules don't make you holy. Spirituality makes you holy. Spirituality comes from meaning, from understanding, and from connecting. Don't let your holidays become only about what food you can or can't eat - make sure that above all observances are about what is being observed and why, even (especially) for the weekly sabbath and routine home observance. The rules are there to connect us with each other and to help us remember, not to stand on their own. Better that you understand and follow one rule fully than that you obey them all and not know why.

By faith alone?

Well, Jeff asked for it, so here it comes!

What is faith? I think we can all agree that it roughly amounts to believing in something greater than ourselves, and ideally something greater than human understanding can truly grasp, without sufficient evidence.

What is the role of faith? I honestly believe that morality in part stems from faith - believing in something greater than us, and in the interconnectedness we all share through that, seems to promote more righteous behavior. Beyond that, I also believe it leads to inner fulfillment and self actualization.

Faith does not, however, solve problems by itself. Believing in something doesn't make it happen. Likewise, prayer, wishes, and trust in God alone doesn't get anything done. This brings me to the quagmire of today's posting, as scripture does not wholly support my point of view. Allow me to make a few sample arguments on each side, adapted from Judeo-Christian scripture:

Faith alone:

• "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength..." [Jeremiah 17:5 NIV]
• "He who trusts in himself is a fool..." [Proverbs 28:26, NIV]

"God helps those who help themselves" (anon.):

• "...faith without deeds is dead..." [James 2:26, NIV]
• "...walk in his ways..." [Deuteronomy 28:9, NIV]
• "My legs were praying." (Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel)

Please add more examples, especially from other scriptural and learned sources!
To be fair, James was speaking about acts of righteousness and lovingkindness specifically, as outwardly manifestations of faith, and the Deuteronomy passage is referring specifically to following God's commandments. However, allow me some rabbinic license, if you will. First off, the message is clear - have faith in God. However, also clear is the message that we must ACT in a ways consistent with God's law and teachings. God teaches that we must not stand idle, that we must help our neighbor, and that we must go out and be righteous. If we are to imitate God as one of the highest commandments, then in fact we MUST act, as prayer to God for action would then require emulation by ourselves.

As a second argument, allow me to cite that all-powerful entities, in the form of God, collective human consciousness, etc., exist in part through humanity. As such, when we act, we are doing God's work!

Finally, I cite one of the most powerful arguments I feel is at my disposal - reality. If you don't get up and do something for yourself, it is very rare that it gets done for you, and almost never does it happen by miraculous intervention.

What's in a word?

Valerie's comment to one of my previous posts inspires this new posting.

First, allow me to define some terms as they may apply to this discussion (links are to Wiki definitions, and not necessarily the definitions I will use here):

religion - a system of beliefs, often used to refer to organized, institutionalized belief systems

faith - belief in something, often without evidence, and often used to refer to belief in some higher power, force, or entity, be it the collective human soul, God, etc.

spirituality - a sense of connection to the universe, be it through religion or not

First off, I feel that organized religions tend to have an interesting challenge, namely that they must provide spirituality and faith as their product, but in the end they are a business of sorts. They must not only keep members but also grow, or at least pass on to the next generation, to survive. As the power base, and in fact often the very definition, of the leaders of such organizations comes from the religion itself, they will go to great lengths to keep the religion alive. This reveals some uncomfortable truths about religion - the worst being that it is run by humans, plain, ordinary, fallible humans, NOT by the higher powers to which they look.

This uncomfortable truth makes the idea of contradictions in the religion, the idea of conversion, and many other seeming problems much easier to explain - the real reasons often aren't given, as they tend to sound less spiritual, but in the end, the religion needs people and will adapt to make that happen. For those focused on lineage, why not start a new lineage? If they welcome those that disagree, they usually argue it helps strengthen the arguments to finding their path.

Given all this, I often wonder what the best way to attract members really is. I look at Manhattan museums - I think few would question that the largest, most successful is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a pay-what-you-wish museum, and that some of the least successful include those with steep required donations. Sticking with money, I can only speak to Christianity and Judaism, but I think it's clear that the Christian "pass-the-plate" model in general is more successful, and in fact some synagogues have adopted this. It would seem when people are invited to give, they give more freely - choice is more empowering than obligation, perhaps.

My only warning to Jews on this note is to be 100% clear that donations to a synagogue in lieu of dues are just that, donations to a synagogue, NOT tzedakah, alternately translated as righteousness or charity. Those two pots are different and should remain so at all times!

What about membership? In the past, Judaism has accepted converts, but required them to ask three times. Christianity, depending on the denomination, accepts converts openly, even inviting them, or goes so far as seeking them out actively. What works best? Reform Judaism has recently decided to start "inviting" converts within its walls, i.e. non-Jewish spouses, under the logic that if they don't ask, they'll never get a "yes" answer. I find something appealing about this, so long as it remains clear that being non-Jewish is not grounds for being ostracized, but simply a choice, with whatever consequences are appropriate to that community (e.g. not saying prayers on the pulpit, not being considered a "member," simply being of a different faith community, etc.).

So, in the end, how does this impact us? Well, I'll say this - religion is a very useful framework to start from. It provides books and rules and a set of beliefs and practices that are easily followed (if they weren't, who would join the religion?). However, can't we strive for more? Once we've found faith, can't we strive for pure spirituality? We are all intelligent, independent persons, and within that context we should be able to decide what we believe by ourselves and decide where we find meaning on our own. I am NOT advocating a rejection of organized religion - the culture which it provides, and particularly the community it generates, are wonderful components of a healthy life. Additionally, when raising children, we may find it easier to hand them a book rather than try to explain our own esoteric beliefs - let them learn their own exceptions and rules. Within that framework, however, a Jew should be able to find spirituality in Church, a Christian while conducting Buddhist meditation, and an atheist while sitting on the bus. There's something more out there, but we have to find it for ourselves, no matter where we search. Religion is a beginning, the public school of spirituality if you will - you need not swallow everything your teacher told you without question. Discussions like this would be the higher education, where we can each grow and formulate our own ideas. Then, somewhere down the line, perhaps, we can reach spiritual adulthood.

Sing me a song...

I was in the elevator just yesterday when suddenly the individual standing next to me whips out a business card and hands it to me, saying that if I like Jewish music I should check it out.

http://www.rossmlevy.com/

Now, to make things weirder, not only had I heard of this person, but tomorrow night he's performing at the congregation where I had my Bar Mitzvah and Confirmation!

I think this small incident potentially raises an interesting set of questions. First, would he have handed me the card if I'd looked less Jewish? Can someone really look Jewish? I say yes, they can, and support that with recognition that Jews are a well defined ethnic group, relatively inbred, with a limited genetic repertoire, and thus there are most certainly physical characteristics that will be more common in Jews than in Gentiles. With that said, obviously the right of someone to choose to enter or leave the religion, genetic variation, and intermarriage all have made this "Jewish look" progressively less definitive, but I suspect a guy that looks like me in New York talking about med school is probably still a safe bet.

Secondly, what constitutes "Jewish music?" If simply having a Jewish singer/songwriter is required, then there's been some very popular Jewish music (e.g. Billy Joel). However, I suspect Mr. Levy was referring to music that, for one, was partially in Hebrew, and two, was tightly linked with Jewish culture and religious observance. Certainly the examples on the website support that.

This raises the final question - what role does Jewish music play in the larger contexts of Jewish worship, Jewish culture, and Jewish community? I am by no means an expert on sociology, but I can say that I truly believe that music is an intergral part of every culture, and as I've continued to argue that Judaism is a culture and community above all, I must obviously recognize the role of music in that.

So many thanks to Ross M. Levy for giving me something to yap about today.