Strengthening Reform: 12. Buber and Reform Judaism
September 3, 2008
Religious Life
(7 comments)
By William Berkson In the previous post in this series, I described one example of the approach that I think can greatly strengthen Reform Judaism. The key is better to support the sanctity of relationships, and in particular family relationships. And the way to do this is through studying and living the values of Torah and Talmud, supplemented by some of the insights of modern psychology. And the synagogue can be the center of a community that carries out this mission of sacred learning and family support.
My recommendation for Reform to focus on the sanctity of personal relationships of course owes a great deal to the great 20th century Jewish philosopher, Martin Buber. Buber said that a central way we experience holiness is in I-Thou relationships. In these open and honest relationships we are not simply viewing the other person as a means (an I-it relationship), but are encountering them in a relationship in which both egos are to some extent merged in the I-thou interaction, even while keeping their identity. And we also experience a oneness with God in such interactions.
This idea that we directly experience the presence of God through relationships with others and with nature is extremely important and I think a widely accepted, even central idea now in Reform Judaism. It is important because it does not rely on a traditional idea of an interventionist God who rewards and punishes in an afterlife, nor that the words of Torah must be taken literally. But at the same time it affirms a transcendent, religious dimension of our experience as real and important.
Another important feature of it is that it is not fully mystical, though related to mysticism. In mysticism the aim of the individual is to merge his ego into God, or vanish his ego to become one with God. In Buber rather we experience God as a dimension of ordinary relationships and daily life. This is both a traditional aspect of Judaism, and an aspect emphasized in the early Chassidic movement that Buber so admired.
This grounding of religiosity in neither the traditional image of an interventionist God, nor authoritative texts, nor set prayers, has been a very important contribution to Reform Judaism, post Darwin. For it shows us how Jewish religion outside its traditional boundaries of an interventionist God and of halacha can still be a vital force in our lives.
All of this influence has in my view been for the good. However, there is another aspect of Buber's views that has been equally influential, and in my view harmful.
This is what I will call Buber's Romantic Individualism. Buber wanted to have nothing to do with the rational discussion of ethics and Jewish law that is in the Talmud, nor any sense of obligation to perform what is written in sacred texts. For him, all is direct inspiration, the experience of sacred responsibility in I-thou relationship.
Now this romantic individualism, which emphasizes that the individual consult his own intuition and emotion, and downgrades critical discussion, was of course part of a larger Romantic movement in European and American culture in the 19th century, and one influence on Buber. In my view, the acceptance of this romantic individualism by some leading Reform rabbis is an obstacle in the way of strengthening Judaism, for two reasons.
The first is that while empathy for others is a basis for ethics, feelings are not all there is to ethics. You also have to look at the consequences of actions, and in a given society. Then you can see what actions will help or hurt other people. The statements of ethical obligation in the Torah and Talmud are in fact such insights. And in Talmud in particular there is discussion of how to resolve conflicts between two good values, such as justice and peace, and also choices of the lesser of evils.
Now I don't propose to view these statements as infallible and to be followed without any critical assessment. But I do say they are a treasure of insight, and to throw them away and only rely on intuition is to impoverish Judaism and to greatly reduce the help and guidance it can give us in our lives. Rather we should view them as a starting point for our own life decisions, and a starting point for further development of Judaism.
The second problem with Buber's romantic individualism is that it kills the community of learners and scholars that is a core feature of Judaism traditionally, and even now. Traditionally, the ideal was that all Jewish men would study and discuss Talmud. The process of looking at diverse sources on an issue, and resolving the conflicts to see how we should act was a sacred process in Judaism, a form of prayer. Through critical discussion of sacred texts we related to one another in sacred relationships, and in a community where the best of new insights would be incorporated in the tradition as more Torah for the next generation.
Now rather than abandon Talmud Torah, we should expand it to all, so that Jewish women and men, young and old, can be part of one vital, growing sacred community.
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This post motivated me to go back and do a quick runthrough of the eleven predecessors in this excellent series. I find myself in substantial agreement, especially with the bottom line, talmud torah k'neged kulam -- and I also agree with translating those four words not merely as the study of Torah encompsses them all, but that it takes both the Talmud and the Torah to encompass all the Jewish values.
With the emphasis on ethics, values, family and community connections, all deriving from our sacred texts, what has not yet been addressed is the place of ritual. Implicit in the prior assertion that Reform made a serious error in de-emphasizing Talmud is that it was also an error (at least in hindsight) to move away from ceremonial practices, which we now see as the glue that binds us to our past, to our distinctiveness. Man does not live by prophetic values alone, nor by Talmudic ethics alone. Passover may be about liberation, but it's easy to forget zman cheruteinu, the time of our freedom, without the reminders of matzo and maror.
I hope that sooner, rather than later, we'll have your take on the role of ritual in re-forming Reform.