Beautifully written. As a child of Holocaust survivors, raised secularly and unconnected to a Jewish community (a result of parents who really wanted me to assimilate - but not TOO much) I have taken steps as an adult to reconnect with Jewishness, stopping short of full observance… so very much a “Judaism of I” - on my own terms. Since (you must get tired of hearing this) 10/7, I have felt compelled to strengthen my connection to the Jewish people, in no small part because of the evidence that diasporas are not as safe as they once seemed. A “Judaism of we” is a great term for that new sense of obligation I feel gratified to be developing.
Such an interesting discussion, thank you. When I think of the Yom Kippur service, it is invoked in prayer as 'anachnoo' - the 'we' - and it is all the more powerful for that, even though each individual is hoping to be written into the Book for another year of life. The 'I' and the 'we' are intertwined and the stronger for it.
Such a good observation. Thank you. It’s a reminder that Judaism imagines the individual within the collective, and the collective cannot exist without the individual.
Your point is taken. But I think there is a distinction to be made between Kaplan's ideas which clearly saw the Jewish people as part of a greater community of identity and what you are describing in modern times as the I aspect of Judaism where an individual decides what Judaism is to him or her. Kaplan would not have agreed with a Judaism that wasn't focused on a broader connected community religious/cultural and national. In my opinion the problems you describe are more related to Reform Judaism (which had nothing to do with Kaplan. He was affiliated with Conservative Judaism and the Jewish Theological Seminary until very late in his extremely lon life) Reform started out in the 19th century by totally rejecting Jewish nationhood. Then it concentrated on an individual religious experience. In modern times it adopted an overtly left wing political stance which left many Jews alienated and gave others the space and room to attack fellow Jews be they here or in Israel. ANd now many of the grandchildren of the post war Reform are marrying out, turning on Israel and rejecting Jewishness altogether outside of eating bagels.
I agree and I do avoid criticising Kaplan directly. I point to him as a revolutionary rabbi of his time and I do not believe he would have supported the level of personalisation of Judaism we see today. In fact, Kaplan was responding to Reform Judaism’s earlier over-personalisation including the negation of peoplehood, the removal of Zion from prayer, and the rejection of Zionism. Things that had taken root in America before his time - I agree with you there.
Where I think the problem arises is not with Kaplan’s intent, but with his response and what followed. His reframing of Judaism as a civilisation was an attempt to restore peoplehood without theology. While this had clear benefits, because the Jewish people are indeed an ancient civilisation, over time and within a broader American liberal culture, it also continued a trend of prioritising the individual over the collective. Why? Because civilisational loyalty is far harder to maintain in a surrounding culture of individualism and secularism.
By removing binding “religious” elements like rituals and prayers, you get the effect of a weakened obligation to the community.
I understand Kaplan’s need to remove belief in God as a prerequisite for Jewish belonging. This resonated with secularism.
But something I often say is: "I don’t believe in God, but if I did, I would believe in the Jewish God."
By this I mean a God embedded in Jewish history and collective memory.
I have mixed feelings about the current Reform movement which I believe has readopted traditions and attachment to Israel in most congregations. And I see that outside of NY, California, Florida the only synagogue will be Reformed....so this is preferred by Jews who live in overwhelmingly Gentile settings and yes they assimilate....and most American Jews are assimilated and identify strongly with this nation. As I do.
I've been reading dire accounts since I'm a teen...a long time ago....of the diminishing Jewish population and identity. But we're still here. And the same fears. I can't account for my deep attachment to my Jewishness and to Israel while my brother since he's a kid ditched Jewish identity as much as possible. He's less intransigent now. The anti Zionist asajews I hope are a minority and not growing as much as reported. They were around at college before the development of the racist and violent in your face Palestinianism of today. And belonging to that is supposed to signal a Jewish kid's virtue in hating and rejecting ONE small Jewish state and its remarkable history. The settler colonial cannard that ignores the Arab Muslim invasion of the Levant. I accept your basic premise of the "we." I tend to think that gays as opposed to self identified "queers" are older and more attached to Israel....NYC's Beth Simchat Torah synagogue prides itself on welcoming all stripes of Jewish identity....its service is often not to my liking....it sometimes reverts to very traditional I can identify with.....it's there and despite its brand of J Street wokeness, it is a haven for Jews who have no where else to go that they are comfortable with. When I see a young man at this synagogue prostrate himself ...and the rabbi invites those who feel so moved during Yom Kippur service to do so....I think well...good .....that's a devotion to Judaism that is admirable in the young. And I am hopeful despite all that has occurred in the wake of the Oct. 7th genocide.
Thank you for this thoughtful discussion. Of course, I/We is a very complicated duality and I agree that it needs some integration, blending.
I am an agnostic Jew who is very bothered by the various different movements and how they divide us. Secularism is perhaps the largest grouping of Jews in the US, but I also rail against the battle between Orthodox, Haredi, neo-Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstruction, Renewal and others. I do not feel like I belong in any of the above to the exclusion of all others. I don't like the dogma and superiority that have contributed to today's cafeteria of Jewishnesses, of Jewish identities. I yearn for a place where all parts of our tribe, our religion, our people, our civilization, are treated with respect and compassion.
Perhaps this is the project of Israel, and less so for the diaspora. However, fragmentation (discussed as individual identities here) is becoming a serious problem in the diaspora. Perhaps this is the task state and local of Jewish Federations and Jewish community centers, but we don't have enough of these and their focus may be more on fundraising than broader Jewish community building.
I live in a college town and we have one Jewish congregation, as well as a Hillel and a Chabad. This works for me because the congregation is a Big Tent and has a variety of services. Although it is mostly reform, there are conservative and renewal services, also. And on the High Holidays there are mostly combined services, which helps to provide a feeling of being a broader Jewish community. I don't attend very regularly, but I feel comfortable, and in community, when I do. It is all about being in community with other Jews.
I wish that there ways to stop the Jewish specialization and division, which you expressed as "I" Jews, but it is driven by our institutions and not just individuals. Have we fallen into ethnireligions consumerism? We might be more effective in building and maintaining cohesive and diverse Jewish communities if our congregations were more local, more diverse along the Jewish spectrum, and less specialized, less driven by charismatic leadership in adherence to particular practices and ideologies. Yet, in a community of rituals, which has separated Ashkenazim from Sephardim and Mizrahi, we need to work on being open to all of the above - even with the strong comfort levels that lead many into routine and repitition.
Now, I do agree that Torah should be taught as inquiry into being a better humans, rather than dogma. Although I am a doubter, I acknowledge that there is are very important benefits in faith and belief in G-d, goodness, and/or higher purpose informed by Jewish law and tradition.
I apologize for the long missive, but I wanted to see if my concerns might resonate with some in this discussion. I am probably far too idealistic, but our Jewish future seems to call for new ways to keep us together.
I want to take the time here to reply, possibly incoherently, as I too gather my thoughts and research the divisions across Judaism - it is after all one of the reasons I started my Substack (Decolonization of the Jewish Mind). I can see the tensions and I see the benefits of having diversity. It is when that diversity is actively harmful, dangerous, and negative, and when there needs to be more of a "communal" push to solve our internal problems.
I've written about Shlom Bayit for example - where this concept is not just about marriage and the home, but a broader concept of communal cohesion. This is where I think the dominance of the Judaism of "I" (that I describe) is preventing such cohesion.
I am by no means Orthodox now, even if I lived Orthodoxy for years, and now am traditional (Masorti). And even then, I would not disrespect Orthodoxy as I believe it has value. Perhaps this is the difference - we can point out the dogma - but if the dogma is the fringe, we cannot and should not criticise the whole.
We can look to the following joke:
One pious Jew was stranded on a desert island and built two synagogues. When rescued, the crew members asked, “There was only you and your limited resources, so why two places to worship?” The Jew answered, “One was for me to pray in. The other one I wouldn’t be caught dead in.”
The difference is real and it is sacred, but it is harmful if it causes greater divisions.
Other comments have alluded to the complexity of Judaism, and I believe Ahad Ha'am was correct in his thinking for a Jewish Civilizational Centre - a cultural Zionism. But again I don't think we would have the modern political form of Zionism that created the State of Israel, without the ancient religious Zionism of the scriptures - the yearnings, kisufim, the Amidah, the psalms centred around Zion, Jerusalem and so on.
Modern political Zionism did not come from nowhere, but one would need to study the Torah to know this.
And whilst I agree we need new ways of keeping us together, the place we can look, and look back to, is in fact the Talmud. The aversion to Jewish study is because of the wave of atheism and secularism, again, one does not need to believe in god to study Torah. In fact, I would say it is almost better to be a non-believer to really see the human value of the scriptures.
On this, I think we agree, and I am grateful for that.
I found your comments intriguing. My feeling re the intra Jewish cultural divisions is that I feel I can take from all of them.....and forget about that "approriation" nonsense ....we're all Jews. Yes, I love I B Singer's Yiddish stories in English, and I listen to Mizrahi pop and Mizrahi cantors who use the compositions of the great mostly Egyptian musicians and write Hebrew devotional lyrics to replace Arab love songs. Now I don't understand the Hebrew but I do like Mid eastern music.....so in Israel I enjoy the variety of people and food and traditions in the Jewish nation. And I've heard Hebrew devotional lyrics in synagogue set to Sunrise Sunset....so it's a common thing to do.
I absolutely loved this....and who is she. In today's progressive racism, she's poc and I guess I'm "white" but I see her as a fellow Jew....not her skin tone....and since the loss of the great Ofra Haza.....she's beautiful......I'd absolutely stream her, buy her cd...I'm still using those.......thanks, I want to share it with a friend.
Judaism is a complete and complex system of existence not to be ‘taught’ but lived. One need not subscribe to all of it’s tenets but none can say how it is to be practiced certainly not one who neither believes or is grounded in it. It the height of arrogance to pronounce that.
I do agree basically. Yet, I hope that there is a way for progressive Jews who are anti-Zionist because they feel that Israel has done very bad things, could still be grounded in some way to Jewishness.
Bad things? So doing bad things with no evidence is sufficient to justify the destruction of a nation of millions of people? They are evil sonderkommandos. No different than Soros.
Indeed, neither can exist without the other. In essence, Judaism was built on belonging first, because obligation preceded the individual.
Secular Liberalism is the reverse and is why there is such a huge emphasis on the individual. Something that is not conducive to our peoplehood.
I've often heard phrases like, if we fight all forms of racism that would eradicate Antisemitism. I firmly disagree. Erasing the particular has not, in history, ever worked out well.
Excellent observations and thoughtfulness. Very stimulating. The I and the we. The individual and the community. It's classic. The individual Jew and the Klal. I remember a brief summary of the book, The Halachic Man, by one of the rabbis Solovetchik, that remarked that the book was about the interface between the individual and the community.
It's fascinating that people struggle to maintain their sense of specialness and worth when confronted by Torah, as you describe that Kaplan guy who had to pervert Torah in order to have a sense of worth and value. Then you describe how this is rampant in society - yes, it is.
Funny, because a young Chabad rabbi a few days ago completed a short set of classes about the intrinsic worth of everyone and everything. A few days ago he discussed the Pirke Avot of R' Akiva, chapter 3, mishna 14: beloved is man, for he was created in the image of God ...
The point being made a few days ago is, everyone matters, every individual has value. That's a given. The question is, Are you behaving according to this intrinsic God given value?
You don't have to change the rules to matter, to have value. You don't have pervert a religion or create a new religion in order to matter and have value to the Creator and True Judge -- UNLESS you are trying to win some nebulous place in some nebulous Heaven or World to Come.
Somewhere along the way people have become so worried about their value that they think they can pull something over on God by changing the Rules. And as far as Torah is concerned, everybody screws up - except supposedly a few special people, like the Prophet Eliyahu and a few others.
I don't know many people who learn Torah correctly. There are a hell of a lot of people like Kaplan - just as you describe. Including Charedi. It's all a terrible mistake. Go ahead. bust your ass to be a good person. Honestly serve God the way you were created, in your individual world. Leave the religious obsession up to God and seek to learn what the right thing is to do and try to do it. But leave the Divine Judgement up to God. It's not about the End. It's not about winning (unless it's sports.) It's about the work you put into life. Stop perverting stuff because you were created intentionally imperfect. Stop obsessing. Stop changing the Rules because you don't measure up, like Kaplan. There are no guarantees. If a Talmudic sage was worried about his place in the world to come, then maybe you should just do your best without trying to be a jerk and let the chips fall where they may.
Sorry for the long rant. You made me think - and then I wrote it. Oops.
The point you make about it's what "you put into life." That right there is a deeply Jewish concept. It's about effort and not the completion. "Winning" is not heaven its mitzvot and life on Earth. This is what we mean when we talk about duty, obligation, and integrity.
💯. This understanding is incredibly lacking - it is part of your point of the imbalance between I and We. In fact, imo, because people think Torah is about obtaining the best chelek in Olam HaBa, Torah and Mitzvot become I I I. Perhaps, this is also what Hillel means about not using Torah like a shovel - if you do use it for your own 'win' you dig yourself a pit.
Hashem reached into human Earth history for a brief flicker of cosmic time. We may never know why. We just know that He did. He gave us a special task to perform for the betterment and - perhaps - perfection of humanity.
OR.... ancient people trying to make sense of a baffling universe recorded stories of real events in a fantastical way which became a "religion." (Plenty of people, including Jews, believe THAT version of events, which is part of why this whole Hashem-driven project is so hard.)
He never said that it was going to be easy. He set in motion dynamics of stress, opposition and sheer hatred against the people He tasked with this project.
Beset on all sides by doubts, anger, repudiation from within, the Jewish mission has pushed forward for millennia to this special place in time where the Nation has to some degree been recreated, where the rebuilding of the Third and perhaps Final Temple can be accomplished and the rites ordained in Leviticus can be resumed.
He also gave brass-necked humans Free Will which has made this infinitely harder to achieve consensus, even among the people given this burden. How many slaves wanted to return to the comfortable shackles of Pharaonic Egypt rather than travel to our Promised Land?
We're not done yet. Neither are our enemies. I am confident we shall prevail, but I have no expectation as to WHEN. I do think we are closer now than in the last 1,955 years, if that is any consolation.
Classical Judaism does make room for the individual alongside the communal. "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am just for myself, what am I?" The difference with the "Judaism of I" is that traditionally, Jews were supposed to find themselves within the tradition, not to choose what they wanted from the tradition like a catalogue. It used to be that people were expected to fulfil the mitzvot according to halakhah and to find one mitzvah that spoke to them and "beautify it" by fulfilling it with extra joy and meaning. Now, the Orthodox world tries to fulfil every mitzvah with every stringency while the non-Orthodox world chooses what it wants to do and what it doesn't. Neither works.
It's a careful balance that we all make. The I vs the We. Really appreciated this comment.
There is no need to ‘balance’, the personal is both I AND we. I am part of we and we are the Jewish people, a family and a community. Am Yisrael Chai.
Beautifully written. As a child of Holocaust survivors, raised secularly and unconnected to a Jewish community (a result of parents who really wanted me to assimilate - but not TOO much) I have taken steps as an adult to reconnect with Jewishness, stopping short of full observance… so very much a “Judaism of I” - on my own terms. Since (you must get tired of hearing this) 10/7, I have felt compelled to strengthen my connection to the Jewish people, in no small part because of the evidence that diasporas are not as safe as they once seemed. A “Judaism of we” is a great term for that new sense of obligation I feel gratified to be developing.
Such an interesting discussion, thank you. When I think of the Yom Kippur service, it is invoked in prayer as 'anachnoo' - the 'we' - and it is all the more powerful for that, even though each individual is hoping to be written into the Book for another year of life. The 'I' and the 'we' are intertwined and the stronger for it.
Such a good observation. Thank you. It’s a reminder that Judaism imagines the individual within the collective, and the collective cannot exist without the individual.
Your point is taken. But I think there is a distinction to be made between Kaplan's ideas which clearly saw the Jewish people as part of a greater community of identity and what you are describing in modern times as the I aspect of Judaism where an individual decides what Judaism is to him or her. Kaplan would not have agreed with a Judaism that wasn't focused on a broader connected community religious/cultural and national. In my opinion the problems you describe are more related to Reform Judaism (which had nothing to do with Kaplan. He was affiliated with Conservative Judaism and the Jewish Theological Seminary until very late in his extremely lon life) Reform started out in the 19th century by totally rejecting Jewish nationhood. Then it concentrated on an individual religious experience. In modern times it adopted an overtly left wing political stance which left many Jews alienated and gave others the space and room to attack fellow Jews be they here or in Israel. ANd now many of the grandchildren of the post war Reform are marrying out, turning on Israel and rejecting Jewishness altogether outside of eating bagels.
I agree and I do avoid criticising Kaplan directly. I point to him as a revolutionary rabbi of his time and I do not believe he would have supported the level of personalisation of Judaism we see today. In fact, Kaplan was responding to Reform Judaism’s earlier over-personalisation including the negation of peoplehood, the removal of Zion from prayer, and the rejection of Zionism. Things that had taken root in America before his time - I agree with you there.
Where I think the problem arises is not with Kaplan’s intent, but with his response and what followed. His reframing of Judaism as a civilisation was an attempt to restore peoplehood without theology. While this had clear benefits, because the Jewish people are indeed an ancient civilisation, over time and within a broader American liberal culture, it also continued a trend of prioritising the individual over the collective. Why? Because civilisational loyalty is far harder to maintain in a surrounding culture of individualism and secularism.
By removing binding “religious” elements like rituals and prayers, you get the effect of a weakened obligation to the community.
I understand Kaplan’s need to remove belief in God as a prerequisite for Jewish belonging. This resonated with secularism.
But something I often say is: "I don’t believe in God, but if I did, I would believe in the Jewish God."
By this I mean a God embedded in Jewish history and collective memory.
It is vital for Jewish continuity.
I have mixed feelings about the current Reform movement which I believe has readopted traditions and attachment to Israel in most congregations. And I see that outside of NY, California, Florida the only synagogue will be Reformed....so this is preferred by Jews who live in overwhelmingly Gentile settings and yes they assimilate....and most American Jews are assimilated and identify strongly with this nation. As I do.
Exactly.
I've been reading dire accounts since I'm a teen...a long time ago....of the diminishing Jewish population and identity. But we're still here. And the same fears. I can't account for my deep attachment to my Jewishness and to Israel while my brother since he's a kid ditched Jewish identity as much as possible. He's less intransigent now. The anti Zionist asajews I hope are a minority and not growing as much as reported. They were around at college before the development of the racist and violent in your face Palestinianism of today. And belonging to that is supposed to signal a Jewish kid's virtue in hating and rejecting ONE small Jewish state and its remarkable history. The settler colonial cannard that ignores the Arab Muslim invasion of the Levant. I accept your basic premise of the "we." I tend to think that gays as opposed to self identified "queers" are older and more attached to Israel....NYC's Beth Simchat Torah synagogue prides itself on welcoming all stripes of Jewish identity....its service is often not to my liking....it sometimes reverts to very traditional I can identify with.....it's there and despite its brand of J Street wokeness, it is a haven for Jews who have no where else to go that they are comfortable with. When I see a young man at this synagogue prostrate himself ...and the rabbi invites those who feel so moved during Yom Kippur service to do so....I think well...good .....that's a devotion to Judaism that is admirable in the young. And I am hopeful despite all that has occurred in the wake of the Oct. 7th genocide.
Thank you for this thoughtful discussion. Of course, I/We is a very complicated duality and I agree that it needs some integration, blending.
I am an agnostic Jew who is very bothered by the various different movements and how they divide us. Secularism is perhaps the largest grouping of Jews in the US, but I also rail against the battle between Orthodox, Haredi, neo-Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstruction, Renewal and others. I do not feel like I belong in any of the above to the exclusion of all others. I don't like the dogma and superiority that have contributed to today's cafeteria of Jewishnesses, of Jewish identities. I yearn for a place where all parts of our tribe, our religion, our people, our civilization, are treated with respect and compassion.
Perhaps this is the project of Israel, and less so for the diaspora. However, fragmentation (discussed as individual identities here) is becoming a serious problem in the diaspora. Perhaps this is the task state and local of Jewish Federations and Jewish community centers, but we don't have enough of these and their focus may be more on fundraising than broader Jewish community building.
I live in a college town and we have one Jewish congregation, as well as a Hillel and a Chabad. This works for me because the congregation is a Big Tent and has a variety of services. Although it is mostly reform, there are conservative and renewal services, also. And on the High Holidays there are mostly combined services, which helps to provide a feeling of being a broader Jewish community. I don't attend very regularly, but I feel comfortable, and in community, when I do. It is all about being in community with other Jews.
I wish that there ways to stop the Jewish specialization and division, which you expressed as "I" Jews, but it is driven by our institutions and not just individuals. Have we fallen into ethnireligions consumerism? We might be more effective in building and maintaining cohesive and diverse Jewish communities if our congregations were more local, more diverse along the Jewish spectrum, and less specialized, less driven by charismatic leadership in adherence to particular practices and ideologies. Yet, in a community of rituals, which has separated Ashkenazim from Sephardim and Mizrahi, we need to work on being open to all of the above - even with the strong comfort levels that lead many into routine and repitition.
Now, I do agree that Torah should be taught as inquiry into being a better humans, rather than dogma. Although I am a doubter, I acknowledge that there is are very important benefits in faith and belief in G-d, goodness, and/or higher purpose informed by Jewish law and tradition.
I apologize for the long missive, but I wanted to see if my concerns might resonate with some in this discussion. I am probably far too idealistic, but our Jewish future seems to call for new ways to keep us together.
I want to take the time here to reply, possibly incoherently, as I too gather my thoughts and research the divisions across Judaism - it is after all one of the reasons I started my Substack (Decolonization of the Jewish Mind). I can see the tensions and I see the benefits of having diversity. It is when that diversity is actively harmful, dangerous, and negative, and when there needs to be more of a "communal" push to solve our internal problems.
I've written about Shlom Bayit for example - where this concept is not just about marriage and the home, but a broader concept of communal cohesion. This is where I think the dominance of the Judaism of "I" (that I describe) is preventing such cohesion.
I am by no means Orthodox now, even if I lived Orthodoxy for years, and now am traditional (Masorti). And even then, I would not disrespect Orthodoxy as I believe it has value. Perhaps this is the difference - we can point out the dogma - but if the dogma is the fringe, we cannot and should not criticise the whole.
We can look to the following joke:
One pious Jew was stranded on a desert island and built two synagogues. When rescued, the crew members asked, “There was only you and your limited resources, so why two places to worship?” The Jew answered, “One was for me to pray in. The other one I wouldn’t be caught dead in.”
The difference is real and it is sacred, but it is harmful if it causes greater divisions.
Other comments have alluded to the complexity of Judaism, and I believe Ahad Ha'am was correct in his thinking for a Jewish Civilizational Centre - a cultural Zionism. But again I don't think we would have the modern political form of Zionism that created the State of Israel, without the ancient religious Zionism of the scriptures - the yearnings, kisufim, the Amidah, the psalms centred around Zion, Jerusalem and so on.
Modern political Zionism did not come from nowhere, but one would need to study the Torah to know this.
And whilst I agree we need new ways of keeping us together, the place we can look, and look back to, is in fact the Talmud. The aversion to Jewish study is because of the wave of atheism and secularism, again, one does not need to believe in god to study Torah. In fact, I would say it is almost better to be a non-believer to really see the human value of the scriptures.
On this, I think we agree, and I am grateful for that.
I found your comments intriguing. My feeling re the intra Jewish cultural divisions is that I feel I can take from all of them.....and forget about that "approriation" nonsense ....we're all Jews. Yes, I love I B Singer's Yiddish stories in English, and I listen to Mizrahi pop and Mizrahi cantors who use the compositions of the great mostly Egyptian musicians and write Hebrew devotional lyrics to replace Arab love songs. Now I don't understand the Hebrew but I do like Mid eastern music.....so in Israel I enjoy the variety of people and food and traditions in the Jewish nation. And I've heard Hebrew devotional lyrics in synagogue set to Sunrise Sunset....so it's a common thing to do.
I'll respond with one of my favourites:
https://youtu.be/DkUBvbNsK5I?si=Kt0is4xANQ5THcba
Narkis? is that her name?
It's a segment from Psalm 147 (Tehillim). Which makes it even more powerful
Yes!
I absolutely loved this....and who is she. In today's progressive racism, she's poc and I guess I'm "white" but I see her as a fellow Jew....not her skin tone....and since the loss of the great Ofra Haza.....she's beautiful......I'd absolutely stream her, buy her cd...I'm still using those.......thanks, I want to share it with a friend.
Judaism is a complete and complex system of existence not to be ‘taught’ but lived. One need not subscribe to all of it’s tenets but none can say how it is to be practiced certainly not one who neither believes or is grounded in it. It the height of arrogance to pronounce that.
I do agree basically. Yet, I hope that there is a way for progressive Jews who are anti-Zionist because they feel that Israel has done very bad things, could still be grounded in some way to Jewishness.
Bad things? So doing bad things with no evidence is sufficient to justify the destruction of a nation of millions of people? They are evil sonderkommandos. No different than Soros.
They hope to outrun other Jews and thus survive. They will not.
Perhaps the “We” could be stronger than the “I”?
Indeed, neither can exist without the other. In essence, Judaism was built on belonging first, because obligation preceded the individual.
Secular Liberalism is the reverse and is why there is such a huge emphasis on the individual. Something that is not conducive to our peoplehood.
I've often heard phrases like, if we fight all forms of racism that would eradicate Antisemitism. I firmly disagree. Erasing the particular has not, in history, ever worked out well.
Sort of like trying to invent a darkness pump—
Rather than opening a window to let the light enter: at which moment darkness dissipates.
Excellent observations and thoughtfulness. Very stimulating. The I and the we. The individual and the community. It's classic. The individual Jew and the Klal. I remember a brief summary of the book, The Halachic Man, by one of the rabbis Solovetchik, that remarked that the book was about the interface between the individual and the community.
It's fascinating that people struggle to maintain their sense of specialness and worth when confronted by Torah, as you describe that Kaplan guy who had to pervert Torah in order to have a sense of worth and value. Then you describe how this is rampant in society - yes, it is.
Funny, because a young Chabad rabbi a few days ago completed a short set of classes about the intrinsic worth of everyone and everything. A few days ago he discussed the Pirke Avot of R' Akiva, chapter 3, mishna 14: beloved is man, for he was created in the image of God ...
The point being made a few days ago is, everyone matters, every individual has value. That's a given. The question is, Are you behaving according to this intrinsic God given value?
You don't have to change the rules to matter, to have value. You don't have pervert a religion or create a new religion in order to matter and have value to the Creator and True Judge -- UNLESS you are trying to win some nebulous place in some nebulous Heaven or World to Come.
Somewhere along the way people have become so worried about their value that they think they can pull something over on God by changing the Rules. And as far as Torah is concerned, everybody screws up - except supposedly a few special people, like the Prophet Eliyahu and a few others.
I don't know many people who learn Torah correctly. There are a hell of a lot of people like Kaplan - just as you describe. Including Charedi. It's all a terrible mistake. Go ahead. bust your ass to be a good person. Honestly serve God the way you were created, in your individual world. Leave the religious obsession up to God and seek to learn what the right thing is to do and try to do it. But leave the Divine Judgement up to God. It's not about the End. It's not about winning (unless it's sports.) It's about the work you put into life. Stop perverting stuff because you were created intentionally imperfect. Stop obsessing. Stop changing the Rules because you don't measure up, like Kaplan. There are no guarantees. If a Talmudic sage was worried about his place in the world to come, then maybe you should just do your best without trying to be a jerk and let the chips fall where they may.
Sorry for the long rant. You made me think - and then I wrote it. Oops.
The point you make about it's what "you put into life." That right there is a deeply Jewish concept. It's about effort and not the completion. "Winning" is not heaven its mitzvot and life on Earth. This is what we mean when we talk about duty, obligation, and integrity.
💯. This understanding is incredibly lacking - it is part of your point of the imbalance between I and We. In fact, imo, because people think Torah is about obtaining the best chelek in Olam HaBa, Torah and Mitzvot become I I I. Perhaps, this is also what Hillel means about not using Torah like a shovel - if you do use it for your own 'win' you dig yourself a pit.
Thank you for your writing. שבת שלום.
Hashem reached into human Earth history for a brief flicker of cosmic time. We may never know why. We just know that He did. He gave us a special task to perform for the betterment and - perhaps - perfection of humanity.
OR.... ancient people trying to make sense of a baffling universe recorded stories of real events in a fantastical way which became a "religion." (Plenty of people, including Jews, believe THAT version of events, which is part of why this whole Hashem-driven project is so hard.)
He never said that it was going to be easy. He set in motion dynamics of stress, opposition and sheer hatred against the people He tasked with this project.
Beset on all sides by doubts, anger, repudiation from within, the Jewish mission has pushed forward for millennia to this special place in time where the Nation has to some degree been recreated, where the rebuilding of the Third and perhaps Final Temple can be accomplished and the rites ordained in Leviticus can be resumed.
He also gave brass-necked humans Free Will which has made this infinitely harder to achieve consensus, even among the people given this burden. How many slaves wanted to return to the comfortable shackles of Pharaonic Egypt rather than travel to our Promised Land?
We're not done yet. Neither are our enemies. I am confident we shall prevail, but I have no expectation as to WHEN. I do think we are closer now than in the last 1,955 years, if that is any consolation.
B"H.
Am Israel Chai.
Classical Judaism does make room for the individual alongside the communal. "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am just for myself, what am I?" The difference with the "Judaism of I" is that traditionally, Jews were supposed to find themselves within the tradition, not to choose what they wanted from the tradition like a catalogue. It used to be that people were expected to fulfil the mitzvot according to halakhah and to find one mitzvah that spoke to them and "beautify it" by fulfilling it with extra joy and meaning. Now, the Orthodox world tries to fulfil every mitzvah with every stringency while the non-Orthodox world chooses what it wants to do and what it doesn't. Neither works.