Judaism in a nutshell and what makes a "good Jew"

In a nutshell, what is Judaism?

The Talmud’s section on defining Judaism can be found in Makkot 23b: Rabbi Simlai began by saying that the 613 mitzvot (commandments) were reduced to 11 by King David (Psalm 15), to six by Isaiah (Isaiah: 33:15), and then to three by Micah (Micah: 6:8). Isaiah further reduced them to two: “Keep judgment and righteousness.” Amos came and reduced them to one: “Seek Me and live” (Amos: 5:4). Habbakuk proposed an alternative: “The Righteous live by faith” (Habbakuk: 2:4).

And there is Hillel’s famous reply to the Gentile who demanded he teach all of Torah while standing on one foot: “Do not do to others what you would not want done to yourself. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study it” (Shabbat 31a).

These "one foot Judaisms" are simple, direct, and profound. Some say too simplistic, yet they leave us free to shape a Jewish life around principles and values rather than tradition. I am not opposed to tradition; I just do not think it is superior to principles and values. Tradition is our record of the way our ancestors lived these principles in the past. They are catalysts to our own creative and informed responses based on a cumulative history of being in the world, and cumulative experience of being spiritual humans. In my mind, tradition should never become fixed forms to be imitated, for it becomes rote, kevah, motions without heart and intellect.

So one way of seeing Judaism is as the Jewish people’s ancient and ongoing effort to do tikkun and teshuvah: to repair and return. The rest is commentary.

Can I reduce Judaism to simply  tikkun and teshuvah? Yes, as a "standing on one foot" response.

The well known kabbalist Isaac Luria (1534–1572) was the first to use the term tikkun (repair) in a spiritual way. He believed that when G!d set out to create the world, being infinite, G!d had to contract in order to make room for what would become the finite world. G!d thus became finite and infinite at the same time. This is called dual transcendence. With the intention of pouring  divine energy into specially constructed vessels that would form the foundation of creation, when the divine light entered them, they shattered, spilling G!d, as it were, all over the cosmos.

These shattered fragments became trapped in klippot (shells) and these became embedded, and hidden, in the world we inhabit. Reb Luria taught that it was the task of the Jew to free these trapped sparks of G!d and return them to G!d by treating all things with utmost reverence and respect. Since the sparks were scattered across the world, the Jews would have to be scattered across the world.

This means that the loss of Israel and the holy Temple in Jerusalem was not a punishment for disobedience, but essential for tikkun, to repair by regathering the Holy sparks. What appeared as a loss of holiness, turns out in Rabbi Luria’s mind, to be the very way to holiness.

And yet, could G!d, in reality, be fragmented and shattered? Lost and hidden?

As only-finite humans, we imagine ourselves to be separate from G!d, and this creates in us the idea of separateness, brokenness. This concept of brokenness starts as a process in the mind, but it doesn’t end there. We go about the world breaking it up into smaller and smaller segments, each often at war with the rest, without ever realizing we are warring with ourselves. Tikkun is the repair process of putting things back together again, of re-connecting–to G!d, to one another, to our own selves/souls.

As I preached at Emerson last year, there are two kinds of tikkun corresponding to the two kinds of brokenness we humans imagine. The first is tikkun hanefesh, repairing the soul, and the second is tikkun ha'olam, repairing the world. Both must occur if we are to set things right, and neither takes precedence over the other. Both are necessary, and both exist, like two ends of the same rope, two sides of the same coin. We cannot effectively do one without the other.

We make tikkun ha'olam when we engage the world with justice and compassion. Tikkun ha'olam is repairing the damage we do to life when we engage it unjustly and cruelly, ending the violence that comes with seeking to control others, repairing the rifts that come between ourselves and other people, and between ourselves and nature. Tikkun ha'olam is treating each other and all life with the utmost respect and care.

Yet, to end the divisions and violence around us, we must also end the divisions and violence within ourselves. Where have you lost connection with yourself, your very soul? Where are your broken places? Where do you get your strength and renewal to keep going? Tikkun hanefesh.

This is what Hillel meant when he said “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” This is tikkun hanefesh. “But if I am only for myself, what am I?” This is tikkun ha'olam. “And if not now, when?” (Pirke Avot).

Tikkun, both tikkun hanefesh and tikkun ha'olam, can be done only in the present. The past and future are beyond our reach. To repair the world and the soul, we must do so by entering fully into the present moment. And we do this through the practice of teshuvah. Some use the word teshuvah to refer to a return to halachah (laws) and traditional ways of Jewish living. Yet true teshuvah simply means to return to G!d.

The delusion of separateness cannot be maintained in the present. Teshuvah is returning the mind to the present, to G!d, for G!d is the eternal present, the eternal Ehy!h Asher Ehy!h, the eternal past, present, and future in this one moment. The Divine and Holy Now, the Sacred Process of all that has been, is in this moment, and all that could be. Tikkun returns us to this sense of godliness, engaging each moment with the utmost respect and care. Since separation is a delusion of the mind, it is imagined in the mind. We cannot imagine the here and now, we can only engage it.

One foot Judaism is this: tikkun v' teshuvah, to repair and to return. To pay attention to the moments. What is the meaning of life? It is to breathe meaning into life, life which is composed of one moment at a time. The creation of humans was of breathing life into them, to breathe them into living souls. We are called to be in shutafim elohim, partners with G!d. This is tikkun, both tikkun hanefesh v'tikkun ha'olam. To be partners with G!d is to fully realize the echad (One) in our Sh’ma prayer: tikkun hanefesh, to become one, in order to make  G!d One again, so that G!d, and ourselves, are not separated, fragmented, but whole, and holy. It is wholly–“all of a piece.” And thus we are led to tikkun ha'olam as well as teshuvah, returning to G!d.

Now, to speak to who is a Jew...

A Jew is simply this: a person who identifies as a Jew, who seeks to find meaning and celebrate life through a Jewish lens, who upholds the values of Torah, and who practices tikkun v'teshuvah.

Doesn't one need to be born of a Jewish mother in order to be a "true" Jew? In answer, I ask: So what if one's mother is a Jew, even a devout and pious Jew? If one completely ignores the Torah, makes no effort to be godly, ignores tikkun v'teshuvah, then in what meaningful way are they a Jew? Just because my mother may have been a good baker does not make me a good baker just because I am her daughter. In fact, she was, and in fact, I am not, a good baker.

It doesn’t matter what or who one's mother is/was or what or who one's father is/was. It matters who I am. If children are born of a Jewish mother yet do not embrace Judaism in some way, what does the bloodline matter, really?

Does BEING Jewish pass through the blood, or does it come of a life based on choices? Are Jews simply "the" Chosen, or are Jews people "of" Choosing? If we are to mean anything at all in this world, we must become the people of Choosing—people who choose to live by the principles and practices of tikkun v' teshuvah, of acting justly and compassionately toward all creatures.

So, what makes a good Jew? Is it the keeping of halachah (laws), that is, keeping all the rules and traditions? Or is it the striving to be godly, to repair and to return–over and over again, to seek, to be compassionate, to create?

It is offensive to ask someone if they were raised Jewish/as a Jew. It doesn't matter how one was raised, but how one lives by choice as an adult. Every Jew, born a Jew or not, must actively choose to be a Jew.  Jews, all Jews, are people of Choosing. Never ask if someone was raised as a Jew.

I am a Jew, and a good Jew, because I identify as a Jew, I seek to find meaning and celebrate life through a Jewish lens, I uphold the values–not all the laws, but the values–I find in Torah, and I practice tikkun v'teshuvah. I have never relented on my quest.