Why Be Jewish?

Judaism’s most important single teaching is that each human being is created in the image of God.

The command to Abraham “Lech L’chah” (Go forth) is literally “Go, you.” The Hebrew can also be read as “Go to you,” that is, journey inside yourself. Moving through this world is always an expedition into the “you”—into one’s own soul. Abraham must be willing to leave the community that will not accept his changed spirit. But even more important, h

Judaism took a different route (although individual Jews have tried all these strategies). One should try neither to wipe out desire nor to redirect it entirely. Pleasure is permitted, even promoted. But Judaism also asks that it be disciplined and sanctified.

Judaism insists we can overcome the past. The Hebrew word teshuva means both “turning” and “answer.” Turning from sins we have committed, we answer the persistent question of each soul: How can I change and unburden myself of my past?

The first demand made of a Jew is goodness. Nothing else is more important, no command more central. Tied to the consciousness of God is the need to be good. A verse from the biblical Book of Leviticus reads: “You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am

Spirituality is also concerned with shaping our actions and, through them, touching the tender part of our souls. As action and passion interact, we are slowly changed, moving closer and closer to the ideal of a true sage enunciated in the Talmud—one whose inside and outside match. Spirituality means transforming oneself; a religious tradition is a

Judaism urges us to sin against God before we would sin against another who is in God’s image. God can bear our sin. We cannot injure God, but we can destroy each other. Our first task therefore is kindness toward those who are created in the Divine image: the poor, the stranger, the neighbor, and the friend.

This philosophy of goodness was unique to Judaism. Before Sinai, people assumed that the gods cared only about sacrifice and prayer. They assumed the gods had the same attitude as selfish human beings, caring only for what could be done to them. In ancient civilizations, from those of the Near East to the Greeks and Romans, human beings were the pl

The Jewish philosopher Will Herberg once spoke of “cut-flower ethics.” He argued that Jewish ethical norms will last for a brief while, even apart from Jewish teachings, just as flowers uprooted from the soil stay in bloom for a short time after cutting. But soon the flowers fade. Behaviors, too, disintegrate if cut from the soil in which they were

God does not tell Abraham his destination, because the goal cannot make sense to someone who has not yet experienced the journey. Arrival is not the essence. The lesson that Abraham will pass on to his descendants is that the key to the journey is the journey.