Evangelizing Jews

Not surprisingly, Abe Foxman and the ADL has denounced the recent New York Times ad "by the World Evangelical Alliance, a 162-year-old global network that claims to represent 420 million evangelicals." (See the JTA article). I don't understand Abe's problem: these are our friends and, frankly, I'm not insulted in the least that they want me to have the Good News, as they see it. That doesn't mean I have to agree with them. I disagree with my friends all of the time; that doesn't make them less my friends.

I'm not ignoring the danger inherent in evangelization - that some Jews might actually come to accept the message. But this doesn't bother me either, for two reasons. First, I don't think that Judaism is the only path to G-d and, for some who are born Jews, a Christian path might even be the right one for them. I certainly don't discourage Christians from exploring a Jewish path that might speak to them more fully than their current one.

Even more important - shame on us if we don't educate our children sufficiently to see the beauty, joy, hope, and fulfillment of a life lived Jewishly. Our own failure to articulate our own Good News is at the heart of any success that evangelicals may have. Competition is good.

I'm glad that the evangelicals love me enough to want me with them. I'm even happier that they finally realize that they don't have to kill me to show their love.

A Conservative Jew's Bookshelf

I am posing a challenge for those who are have created a library or are interested in creating a library. If you had $500 available and were starting from scratch, what you would purchase to create a Jewish bookshelf appropriate for and relevant to the Conservative Jew.

A caveat - This list is for books that you will want to have at your fingertips, to which you will refer time and again. This is not a list of books you need to have read but books that you need to have. Many of the books on my list are of the reference variety. Some, I have read from cover to cover. Others, I pick up and skim when the mood or need arises.

Here is my current list, which adds up to $491.08. I have created a link for each book so you can look up more information if you are so inclined.

Chumash (Etz Chayim - $72.50)

This is really hard. I happen to really like the Stone Chumash because it has the Rashi and its translation is very literal. A literal translation is valuable for someone who is interested in the etymology of the word. In some senses, it is like having a dictionary available to help me translate words that I don't know. I also like the Stone Chumash because its derash is very traditional. As a Conservative Jew, I would rather start with the traditional interpretation and then find ways to work with it in a modern context than starting with my modern bias and ignoring the traditional because it is too, well, traditional.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Plaut Chumash is also very good. Gunther Plaut wrote this chumash for the Reform movement and in the truest and best spirit of Reform Judaism. Instead of throwing out all of the traditional and problematic interpretations, he brings in a host of traditional and modern interpretations and lets the reader decide which to accept and reject. He makes no attempt to hide Reform Judaism's rejection of the Torah as divine writ, but in including traditional interpretations and comments on the Torah, he implicitly acknowledges that Reform Judaism is neither the first nor the last word on the subject.

However, as a Conservative Jew, I am going to "have my cake and it it too." I have selected the Etz Chayim because presents the Conservative movement's approach to Torah. In no other selection below have I made a selection based on it being the Conservative entry to the area under consideration. But here, where we are talking about the fundamental text on which everything else is based, I have to bow to that consideration. That said, the Etz Chayim is a very strong entry in its own right. The translation is the New JPS and the commentary blends peshat (face-value interpretation) with derash (homiletic). The essays at the back are worth the price of the book itself.

Tanakh (ArtScroll Stone - $53.99; Jewish Study Bible - $29.70)

Tankakh again is a tough one and here I think I am going to spend the money on two. One is the the ArtScroll Stone edition of the Tanakh. This way I get the Hebrew text and the literalist translation that I want. The Stone Tanakh does not contain the extensive commentary found in the Stone Chumash, but it gives me a reasonably compact volume that contains both Hebrew and English text. It is a good choice for a quick reference to the text.

In addition, I am adding the Jewish Study Bible, to which I was introduced by Gary Rendsberg during my Me'ah class. I really like this Bible for its modern, critical approach to the text. There is lots of good material here. The big downside is that it doesn't have the Hebrew, which I think is essential.

Put the two together and you have a good set that covers both a right-wing "traditional" position and a modern, critical position.

Siddur (ArtScroll - $31.99)

This one is easy. The ArtScroll Siddur is far and away the best siddur that I have used for general purposes. It is complete and the instructional information is easy to follow and invaluable. When you need to find the blessing for a rainbow or the sheva brachot for a bris or Kiddush Levanah - it is all there. If you aren't sure who has precendence on Torah Aliyot or what to do when you are missing a Kohen - it is spelled out. The instructions on when to include or omit certain prayers is generally easy to follow. Other siddurim may have more theologically pleasing translations or textual emendations, but this one has all the critical stuff. People who have theological differences with the traditional text can add other versions to their collection, but for a basic bookshelf, this is the one to have. All the others are secondary.

Lawrence Hoffman's amazing compendium to the Siddur: My People's Prayer Book would be a must have, but at over $200 for the set, it has to wait for the next $500 installment. This is a must-have for anyone who wants to really understand Jewish prayer. Hoffman and his collection of contributors cover everything from the history of the prayer to the challenges in translation to the choices that different editors have made when compiling their own Siddur. If you have an extra $200 and you are interested in gaining a real understanding of Jewish prayer, this collection is wonderful.

Hebrew-English Dictionary (Alcalay Complete English-Hebrew Dictionary, New Enlarged Edition - $111)

Jews are people of the Book, but if you don't know what the words in the book mean, then you are left out on the sidelines. A good Hebrew-English dictionary should be on everyone's bookshelf. The Alcalay is class for a reason. It is probably the largest and most comprehensive dictionary available. It has not only modern Hebrew, but also Biblical and Aramaic references. It doesn't take the place of Jastrow for the serious learner, but it is comprehensive and vital.

Guide to Observance (A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice - $27.50)


This guide by Rabbi Isaac Klein is indispensable to the Conservative household. I don't know what its equivalent is in an Orthodox house. This guide covers all of the key issues relating to Jewish observance. It discusses daily prayer, Shabbat and Holidays. It covers ritual ranging from Bris to Mourning and everything in between. While no book can cover everything and I have occasionally had questions that were not answered, by and large, when I need to know the answer to a practical question of observance, Klein has answered it.

Mourning (The Jewish Way in Death and Mourning - $12.89)


The may be nothing more difficult for a person to confront than death. Whether a death in one's own family or the need to comfort a friend, death is a hard topic to approach and many of us feel at a loss as to what to do or say when put into this position. Lamm's book is a classic, covering much of the ground that a Jew needs to know to navigate through this very difficult time. While there are many other books that may provide more spiritual comfort to the mourner, this book is essential on your bookshelf to consult when you just need to know what to do or what not to do.


I would love to add some other books here. Goldberg's Mourning in Halacha is also very good, but I found that he cites some very right-wing halachic positions that are not suitable for more modern Jews. What is really helpful about this book is that he cites the sources for each of his statements, so if you want to research the issue, you have direction. Also, the book is laid out in a way that makes it easy to find his position on very specific issues. It is a book of law rather than an excursus on Jewish mourning. Lamm's book is more readable.


I also really like Wieseltier's Kaddish. It is a fascinating mixture of the personal and the academic. It is not an easy read, but I marveled at the depth of Wieseltier's research and the breadth of his observation. Ultimately, it doesn't make my list because it is a great book to read, but it isn't one that you will want to have at your fingertips.


Modern Theology (Choices in Modern Jewish Thought: A Partisan Guide - $22.50)


I love to read theology. Some of it is too arcane for me (Levinas comes to mind and forget about reading Rosenzweig) but every thoughtful Jew should be familiar with and be able to refer back to the critical trends in modern Jewish thought. Borowitz may be the greatest teacher of Jewish theology of our time and his book is a classic for reviewing and providing snippets of the critical strains of thought that have influenced modern Judaism. This is a book to refer to time and again when trying to place different thinkers into a broader context.


Jewish Literacy (Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History - $23.10)


Telushkin's book is already a classic for a bookshelf reference overview of Jewish writing. He covers the gamut of Jewish history from Biblical through modern periods providing short descriptions and definitions of key terms, biographies of important people, and a broad overivew of Jewish history. He can't cover everything and what he covers is superficial, but for a one-volume overview, his is the best I have seen.


Legends and Stories (Book of Legends/Sefer Ha-Aggadah: Legends from the Talmud and Midrash - $55.97; Tales of the Hasidim - $15.00)


Judaism has an incredibly rich history and literature. No people is complete without their stories. Bialik's Book of Legends is a wonderful volume to have on the shelf. It collects hundreds of short stories from the classic texts and organizes them according to theme. This is the kind of book that you will pull off the shelf when you are looking for a short, pithy story or anecdote to underline an idea.


What Bialik misses is the wonderful treasure of Hasidic stories that has become a key part of the literature of the Jews. While not that old, dating back only to the 17th and 18th centuries CE, these stories have entered the Jewish bloodstream and are told as if they are ancient midrash. Buber's collection is the classic. I have a two-volume edition that I like better than the current one-volume edition available from Amazon, but I think it is out of print.


Holidays (Jewish Holidays - $16.47)


A library needs to have a book on the Jewish Holidays. Unfortunately, I can't say that I am that familiar with the range of options. I have found Strassfield's Jewish Holidays to be very usable and probably fits the bill. The price is certainly right to fit in our budget. I am open to other suggestions on this one.

Jewish History (Open)

I have read many Jewish History books, but none stand out in my mind as definitive and essential. I would love to have suggestions in this area.

Jewish Atlas (Barnavi, A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People: From the Time of the Patriarchs to the Present - $18.47)

Is it possible to understand Jewish History without an atlas to show the changing geography of the Jewish people? Barnavi's Atlas, which I do not own, appears to be an outstanding choice. It combines the expected maps and charts with essays on each period in Jewish History. There are other atlas choices out there, but this one seems to be the one to pick.

Ok - that is my list (for now). Now it is your turn - what would you change? Remember, the rule is that the total list has to be $500 or less.

Pirke Avot 1:3

Antignos of Socho received [the tradition] from Shimon the Righteous. He
used to say: Do not be as servants who serve the Master to receive reward.
Rather, be as servants who serve the Master not to receive reward. And let the
fear of heaven be upon you.

The famous Israel philosopher and theologian Yeshayahu Leibowitz argued in support of Antignus of Socho that the only valid reason for performing the mitzvot is because it is G-d's command. Any other reason, as our mishna suggests, would fall to the status of expecting a reward. No motivation except the fear of heaven, by which we mean acceptance of the commandments, is sufficient reason to compell us to act according to Halacha.

For most of us, it would seem that both Leibowitz and Antignos of Socho are asking of us that we perform the impossible. Even when our motives are pure, our actions are always with an eye of the effect. It is certainly simple enough to eschew the more crass and materialistic rewards that we might think accrue to those who follow G-d's ways. Most of us understand that there is no quid pro quo that attends to those who follow the mitzvot. By the time we have reached adulthood, we no longer think that simply because we are good people that only good things must result.

But putting aside material rewards such as riches or even more spiritual requests such as good health, each of acts with the idea that some good will accrue to us because of our actions. We give tzedakah not because it puts a point on our scoreboard when we stand before G-d, but because doing so gives us the sense of satisfaction that we have done the right thing. We eat according to Jewish law for many reasons: it allows us to participate in the Jewish community; it adds a sense of kedusha (holiness) to the mundane act of eating; it may be healthier. All of these reasons cary with it some sense of reward or compensation for having chosen to follow the laws of Kashrut. In keeping Shabbat we are compensated by the sense of peace and tranquility that setting aside this day brings to us. Indeed, for many with hectic lives, the thought of setting aside a day increases stress, not the opposite and thus they do not observe Shabbat.

Yet, it is possible to understand how we can follow this Mishna if we separate the notion of serving one's master in general from specific deeds that our Master may require of us. The general notion is summed up in the beginning of the Sh'ma when we are told, "You shall love the Lord your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might." The basic thought that should guide us in doing G-d's commands is that we are commanded to love G-d. But the very notion that we can be commanded to love G-d is a paradox. (See Chapter 11 of Louis Jacobs A Jewish Theology for a detailed discussion of this issue). How can we be commanded to love anyone; love is an emotion over which we have no control. Thus, when we truly love, whether it is our parents, our spouse or our children, our family or our friends, we do so without thought of reward. We love and from that love we are motivated to do things that demonstrate our love.

In the same way, if we truly love G-d, then we are motivated to follow G-d's commandments not in the hopes of receiving a reward but because this is how we demonstrate our love for G-d. We run to perform to mitzvot out of our deep feeling of love for G-d. This is how we can be like the servant who serves the Master without thought of reward.

Chancellor Eisen holds a Town Meeting in Livingston

The new JTS Chancellor held a Town Meeting, what is apparently one of many that he has been holding around the country. After he presented his views, he entertained questions from the audience and then asked a question of his own, what can JTS be doing to improve Conservative Judaism for the congregation? (I have paraphrased it as I remember the question). Here is my written answer to Dr. Eisen:

---

Dr. Eisen -

Thank you very much for holding the Town Hall meeting last night at Beth Shalom. It was good to be able to hear what you had to say.

You asked for suggestions of what problems JTS could help to solve in our communities. To answer that question, I think that one needs to start by looking at where JTS has failed the Conservative communities over the past several decades. If JTS, under your leadership, can start to address those failures, then there will be real success. I see those failures in two areas.

First, JTS has failed to provide the Conservative Jewish community with an answer to why we should believe. Religion is inherently a system of belief in tenets that are not subject to academic or scientific proof. As a scholarly institution that prides itself on academic rigor, JTS has excelled at tearing down the pre-modern edifice on which belief rested. Fields like archaeology, anthropology, sociology and literary and textual criticism have given us wonderful and important insights into our history. As Conservative Jews, we have marvelled in and taken pride in these discoveries and insights. But, as spiritual beings, we have been stripped of the underpinning of belief.

Like you, Heschel is my intellectual, and even more, my spiritual hero. Heschel painted a picture for us of belief that rests first and foremost on a love of G-d. As you said last night, the ideal is that we enter into mitzvot out of a love for G-d and community. When we commit ourselves to observance because it is an expression of our gratitude for G-d's gifts to us and our way of touching the divine, we are achieving our highest spiritual level as Jews. I believe in the Torah as G-d's revelation for Jews not because there is scientific proof that it is G-d's word, but because that is how I, as a Jew, know how to serve G-d. How the Torah came into being is interesting as an academic exercise; why it came into being and what it means to me is the spiritual journey that I travel.

We need Jewish leaders who believe, deeply and passionately, in G-d, Torah and Israel and who can articulate why they believe in ways that are compelling to other Jews. They need to be more than role models; they need to be leaders. We are far too smug about what we know to be false and far too timid to talk about what might be true.

The second area in which I think that JTS has failed the Conservative movement is in creating faith communities. We have many synagogues and congregations, but woefully few true communities. A community is one that comes together to pray, to learn, to socialize, to support, to act, and to live together. How many congregations view their synagogue or center as their second home? How many congregations have a large percentage of their members in the synagogue building on a weekly basis? A congregation is a board, a building, a staff, and dues-paying members. A community is much, much more than that. Are we training our leaders to understand the difference and to work for the latter rather than the former?

One test of a community is how it treats the stranger, the visitor. I used to travel extensively for work and on those occasions when I need to stay over Shabbat, I invariably ended up at Chabad instead of the Conservative shul, because the Conservative shul had no concept of, much less ability to provide, Shabbat accommodations. A community that observes Shabbat together naturally comes to have the ability to provide such facilities for those who happen to find themselves in the community.

The failure of our congregations can be seen by examining the success stories. Every successful Conservative congregation of which I am aware, with my congregation of Agudath Israel as the notable exception, is based in a community with an Orthodox population. If I take congregations such as Beth Ahm in LA or the Conservative Center and Temple in Highland Park, the East Brunswick Jewish Center, the Conservative congregation in Rockville, or a number of other successful Conservative congregations, they all have thriving Orthodox communities as well. It is the Orthodox communities that make it possible for committed Conservative Jews to live in those communities. It is the Orthodox that create and supporet the Kosher marketplaces, build the Eruv, build the Mikvah, and create a public Jewish face that is not ashamed to be seen as religious. The committed Conservative Jew is largely a free-rider on these benefits.

When that Orthodox community does not exist, the Conservative congregation is much weaker. It has a hard time attracting the committed Conservative Jew because for that Jew the needed services that stretch beyond the doors of the synagogue don't exist. This, more than anything, I think is why young people raised in Schechter schools, Ramah camp, and USY find themselves drawn to Orthodox communities. I don't think that it is simply that they have come to believe something different from what they were taught, but because they have been taught that living the life of a committed Jew is important, they have no choice but to find an Orthodox community that can provide the essential services.

In your talk last night, you touched on these themes and for that I am hopeful that your leadership will address these issues. Having read your books, I know that you understand the forces that are at work and that you have spent much time thinking on how to harness them for positive results. I am cautiously optimistic for the future of our movement because you are at the helm.

I wish you the best of luck.