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What We Jews Believe - A Two Part SeriesNovember 2002From the Desk of Rabbi CohonPart One: What We Don't Believe... Do you still think about God as a guy in white beard sitting on a cloud--and you don't really believe in Him that way? You are not alone. Recently on our Too Jewish Radio Show (that's 990 AM KTKT on Sunday mornings, by the way...) I played a comedy clip from Woody Allen in which he explains that, while in college, he dated a woman with whom he had "religious differences": he was an agnostic, and she an atheist, and "we couldn't agree what religion not to raise the children." The troubled Allen has company in his condition of disbelief. Recent surveys show that among Americans we Jews have the lowest percentage of people who say that they believe in God--about 50%--and that they pray regularly. There are many factors in this general disbelief among Jews, ranging from the residual effects of the Holocaust to the sociological fact that the more educated you are the less faith you tend to have. (As Ecclesiastes puts it, "he who increases knowledge increases sorrow", or at least anomie.) But perhaps the most significant element in this epidemic of religious doubt is the way in which we think about God--or, rather, the way in which we don't think about God. Most contemporary Jews' views about God are locked into a mentality that has been preserved since childhood. Typically, the last time liberal Jews think about their relationship to God is at age 13 during the Bar or Bat Mitzvah process, assuming that their rabbi encourages them to reexamine their youthful understanding of theology. In our congregation the confirmation process is, in large measure, focused on developing a more mature understanding of God, at age 16. But after that? For most of us, not much. Ask a Jew for her or his views about God and you will usually get an uncomfortable silence, followed by a new subject or an abrubt end to the conversation. Interestingly, if you ask a Christian the same question you will usually get a much clearer statement of belief. We Jews don't tend to think about God in concrete terms much, because if we believe in God at all--and most of us still at least entertain the idea that God could exist--we believe that belief in God is non-rational, mystical, vaguely illogical, and mostly unrelated to our daily lives. In short, belief in God is kid's stuff that we still retain at some level, and isn't something we are going to incorporate into our daily cycles of work, workouts, errands, meetings, and appointments. At best, prayer is something we engage in when social convention demands it--say, the High Holy Days--or when we are suddenly confronted with death or illness. I believe the primary reason why Jews--unlike most other Americans--find faith to be such an uncomfortable subject is because we have never moved much beyond the guy on the white cloud. But we don't have the same understanding of politics, or business, or education we did when we were children. Isn't it time we moved beyond that level in our understanding of this most important, and enduring, part of life and death? In fact, the Jewish understanding of God is rich, complex, and multi-faceted, both extraordinarily sophisticated and spiritually powerful. And it does not require, in any sense, an abandonment of logic or reason or modernity or science. A personal belief in God is fundamental, in most senses, to religious practice, to living a meaningfully Jewish life. Developing a grown-up idea of God can make an enormous difference in how we live, and how comfortable we feel about who we are and what we are trying to accomplish while we are here. An easy first step in developing an adult conception of God is coming to Shabbat services on Friday or Saturday morning--for variety, try our Kabbalistic Service on November 8th-- or participating in our outstanding Torah Study and Tish programs, which take place every week. There are perhaps 10 different Jewish adult understandings of God that are both rational and comforting. We will explore three of them next month. But you can begin to look at your own beliefs now! L'shalom v'reiut, in peace and friendship, Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon |
