Judaism Beyond God (eBook)

CHAPTER I

The Jew

What is a Jew?

The question is an obsessive one for Jews. While their enemies seem to have no trouble dealing with the question, Jews never seem to get enough of it. Over and over, they invent discussions and classes to explore the issue. Over and over, they listen to the answers. Over and over, they find them wanting. Dissatisfied, they begin their futile effort once again.

Why is it so hard for Jews to answer the question? Do Muslims run around all the time asking "What is a Muslim?" Do Greeks devote their adult education projects to exploring "What is a Greek?" What makes Jews so compulsive about defining them­selves?

Part of the reason is that Jews do not like the answers their ene­mies invent. Part of the reason is that the conventional categories of race, nation, and religion do not fit the Jews easily. But the chief cause is that most Jews do not really want an answer to the ques­tion. Confusion allows them to choose the definition that is conve­nient for the moment. It also allows them to postpone dealing with the discomfort they feel about being Jewish.

Jewish identity is a controversial status. It rarely arouses indif­ference. Even those who plead that they never have experienced anti-Semitism often plead too hard. And those who complain about Jewish oversensitivity are correct about the unattractiveness of victims but wrong about the provocations.

In the century of the Holocaust, valuing Jewish identity requires special effort and determination. People who are always talking about how "proud" they are to be what they are have more doubts than they are willing to admit. Comfortable identity rarely needs affirmation or definition.

Being Jewish is an involuntary condition for most Jews. Some people choose Jewish identity. But most discover that they have it. It is an inheritance, which they can either enjoy or not enjoy, indulge or not indulge. Jewishness does not start with a theological decision. It begins in the womb. Membership precedes conviction.

The question for most Jews is not "Should I or should I not be Jewish?" Destiny has already decided that issue. The question is "How do I respond to my Jewish identity?" or "What should I do about it?"

Some Jews respond to the question with active resentment. If they had their choice, they would have chosen another identity. They are annoyed by what the fates have dished out. They work very hard at removing all public signs of their Jewish condition. They avoid the company of Jews. They separate their family from their friends. They suffer anti-Semitic jokes because they agree with them.

But active resentment may take another course. Guilt, embar­rassment, and the futility of denial may prevent withdrawal. Forced to identify themselves as Jews, the resenters now make dis­tinctions between socially acceptable Jews and the socially unac­ceptable. They boast of being Jewish and simultaneously avoid stereotyped Jewish behavior. They support and join conventional Jewish organizations because they do not want any more contro­versy. Above all, they fight anti-Semitism because it is the mirror image of their own guilty objection.

Many Jews respond to their Jewish identity with passive resent­ment. They accept their Jewish condition but do not wish to do anything about it. They are interested in neither active denial nor affirmation. If you ask them what their feelings are, they will describe them as indifference—although Jewish identity in the Western world is too controversial to sponsor a yawn. If they are very passive, they will be recruited for Jewish organizational life. But they will secretly prefer that Jewish activity be boring enough to justify avoidance.

Some resenters are sufficiently intellectual to need an ideology of resentment. They argue that universalism is incompatible with Jewishness. The preservation of Jewish identity becomes a moral offense because it maintains unnecessary barriers between people. In order not to appear self-hating, they deplore all forms of group identity. They officially dream of people without labels.

In former years, thousands of Jewish intellectuals became the champions of a cosmopolitan union. Socialists like Marx and Trotsky predicted the eventual disappearance of national enthusi­asm and its replacement by human solidarity. Cultivating Jewish identity was a reactionary enterprise, a futile resistance to the laws of history. Whether their perception was a genuine plunge into ide­alism or a cover-up for self-hate, we shall never know. Most likely, it was a combination of both. Certainly, it was a clever retaliation to maintain that if Jewish identity was dispensable, so were all others.

Yet resentment, active or passive, is not where most Jews are. Despite all the negative involuntary aspects of Jewish identity, they value it in a positive way and would be reluctant to give it up, even if they could. Their ambivalence is a union of discomfort and attachment. They feel guilty about the discomfort and vaguely noble about the attachment. They would like to do something con­structive with their Jewish identity. They would like to make it a comfortable part of their life. They would like to attach their deep­est convictions and strongest values to it. They would even like the approval of their ancestors for what they choose to do with their existence. But they do not know quite what to do.

For traditional Jews, making Jewish identity a significant part of their lives is fairly easy. Since they are comfortable with the reli­gious behavior of the past, they have no difficulty integrating their Jewishness with their philosophy of life. The union of Jewish iden­tity with the theology of Torah and the Talmud gives them no problem. They are believers. They can do conventional Jewish things with conviction. The official group tradition and their own perception of reality coincide.

But many Jews who value their Jewishness, however ambiv­alently, are less comfortable. The historic procedures for expressing their membership in the Jewish people rub against their personal integrity. They feel Jewish but not religious. Or they feel religious but not the way the rabbis prescribe.

God bothers them. After the Holocaust, they are not sure that he really exists. And if he does, they are not sure they want to talk to him.

Tradition bothers them. It is very authoritarian, always talking about divine commands and leaving little room for more than timid feedback. Its emphasis on pious reverence seems to go against the grain of what it means to be Jewish. Laughter and cre­ative hutspa [gall] are not welcome in its presence. The religious image is annoying. Most of the heroes are prophets, priests, and rabbis. The secular side of modern Jewish life seems to find no echo in the Jew­ish past. Either they turn these ancient teachers into early day con­temporary philosophers or they have to disown their founding fathers.

The telling of Jewish history presents its problems. The official version is so filled with stories of miracles, supernatural events, and divine guidance that it is too unbelievable to explain anything. It simply becomes a half-hearted exercise for Sunday school chil­dren or a ceremonial drama around the Passover table.

The portrayal of the Jewish personality leaves much to be desired. If Jews are the "People of the Book," it is hard to prove it from Jewish behavior. Most modern Jews read a lot of books. But the Bible is not one of them. Deploring the discrepancy does not change the reality. The reading Jewish public is more intellectual than it is pious. But it finds no real approval for its choices.

The passionate exclusiveness of Jewish authorities is embarrass­ing. On the one hand, the Jews are featured as the inventors of love, brotherhood, and morality. On the other hand, they are warned against too much social intercourse with Gentiles and the sin of intermarriage. The conflict between group survival and decent openness turns the Jewish establishment into an example of the very moral hypocrisy it claims to abhor.

In the face of all these problems, valuing Jewish identity is not enough. Jewish identity needs to find some way to express itself that does not violate other values that are equally important or more important. It needs to promote personal integrity. It needs to deal honestly with the issue of God. It needs to challenge the exclu­sive claims of the religious tradition. It needs to present a realistic version of Jewish history to the Jewish masses and to incorporate it into Jewish celebration. It needs to revise the vision of the ideal Jew and to let it conform to the real moral and intellectual aspira­tions of contemporary Jews. It needs to challenge the parochialism of the past and to provide a more compassionate answer.

For those Jews who regard their Jewish identity as an unwel­come intrusion, a negative condition, a disability worthy of resent­ment, none of these tasks is relevant. The less comfortable Jewishness is, the more easily it will be rejected or avoided.

For those Jews who are sincerely traditional, none of these tasks is relevant either. They have what they need.

For those Jews who see their Jewishness as something positive but who do not see any real connection between Jewish...