Why Be Jewish?

The mystery is to find a way to live in a frantic and fast-paced world that does not do violence to our conscience, that does not stunt our souls.

Why do Jews place such value on study? Because in the Jewish tradition, God was revealed through words. We can glimpse God in other human beings, in the marvels of the world, and in the depths of one’s own soul, but what shaped the history of Judaism was a book. Judaism is an astonishing testimony to the magical power of words, transmitted through

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

On the Sabbath, every Jew is commanded to eat three good meals. Dining well is part of celebrating the Sabbath. Food, too, is a gift from God.

Large spirits grow larger through love, and love is real only through deed. A love that is only feeling, that stays inside, becomes a solitary entanglement of soul. True love involves an expression of emotion, an outpouring of soul. For in focusing on others, we are returned to our deeper selves. Like all deep acts, love teaches us about ourselves

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

Many Eastern religions speak of “mindfulness”—being in the present moment, aware and devoted to “the now.” In the Jewish tradition, what God asks is moral mindfulness—to be always aware of the moral dimensions of our actions. Nothing exists in a vacuum; one is always in relation to others, always in the moral moment.

Original sin, the view of classical Christianity since Paul and Augustine, seems to condemn us to lose the game before we begin. In this view, all human beings are born sinners, and only unearned grace can save them. In the Jewish tradition, each of us writes his or her own personal moral slate. We do not begin life with an unpayable debt. At each

The Bible is admonishing us that self-indulgence only looks like self-love. It is in halakhah, disciplined and deep journeying, that self-love is really found.