Blog

From the Desk of Rabbi David Lyon
January 28, 2011

                This past week, I attended our regional Reform rabbis’ conference. You might wonder what rabbis do at a conference. Do they have fun or is it a lot of rabbinic stuff? The answer is, yes. We do have fun and we do a lot of rabbinic stuff. We socialize and reminisce. We also study. During our days together, Jonathan Cohen, PhD, from HUC-JIR (Reform seminary in Cincinnati), was our scholar. He was outstanding.

                Part of our lessons on heroes in biblical and rabbinic literature included important observations about Jewish thought. For example, we are surrounded by Christian ideas of religion as soon as we leave the house in the morning, or connect to a variety of media. Religion, we quickly observe, is about faith and belief. Sometimes it even demands perfect faith. But, Judaism is different. I’ve explained before that in Judaism we don’t have to come to faith, first. It’s just as likely that we come to deeds, first, and through doing, we come later to understanding and believing.

                In fact, the fullest volumes of Jewish literature related to Jewish law are about ethics and good behavior. They are not about ritual. They are not about worship, holidays and life-cycles. God loves our prayers and offerings of the heart; but, even more, God loves our deeds (mitzvot) that link us to each other as Jews in community. This is what we learned in example after example about heroes in rabbinic literature.

                In a Hallmark card, you might learn that heroes are ordinary people doing extraordinary things. But, beginning in biblical literature, following centuries of oral stories, heroes are simply extraordinary. They demonstrate how to make decisions that are both ethical and selfless. Inherent in their stories are the ethics we need to build cohesive Jewish communities that are bound in covenant with God. Read the story of Samson and Delilah, or the story of King Saul. You’ll discover their issues, tragedies, insights and sacrifices. You’ll also discover why they are biblical heroes. Their duty to the Israelite people came at great cost, but their lessons endure as their legacy for us. Our deeds often emulate theirs when we act selflessly for the sake of our own community. This doesn’t begin with rituals and holidays. Only later do rituals and holidays give expression to the ethical underpinnings of our community’s religious values. Purim, for example, is a celebration that followed the unfolding of remarkable selfless deeds for the sake of the survival of the Jewish community.

                Ethics and rituals are not only part of biblical hero stories. On a personal note, my book God of Me: Imagining God throughout Your Lifetime (Jewish Lights Publishing) arrived at my house this week. After months of work to compile biblical and rabbinic lessons in a book for adults seeking to reconstruct a personal God image, it was the first time I saw the finished product. Writing is not a mitzvah, but teaching is, and that’s what this is book is meant to do for you. So, standing with my daughter, Abby, who was home when the books arrived, we held it in our hands and flipped through the pages. Then, we said “shehecheyanu,” a blessing to give thanks to God who sustained us and brought us to that moment. A labor of love and a mitzvah are rooted in the Jewish ethic to teach. An expression of that ethic is the blessing we felt moved to recite for the privilege to do so.

                Perhaps this week, you’ll do a deed, a mitzvah, that binds you to the ethics of the Jewish community and be moved to recite a blessing, too. Don’t be hero unless you have to be; be a mensch, a decent human being.

                From my family to yours, Shabbat Shalom.