Erev Rosh Hashanah 5776
Buckminster Fuller, a 20th century innovative thinker,
once said: “All organized religions of the past were
developed as beliefs in secondhand information. It
will be an entirely new era when man finds himself
confronted with direct experience.” That is what I
want - direct experience, not in terms of a revelation,
but of the fruits of efforts to grow spiritually. I want
to become a more secure, honest and
compassionate person. I want to develop better
judgment and more loving relationships. And I
believe that you are here at Kadima for that is what
you want too, not to just accept beliefs from the
past.
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As a Reform affiliated congregation, at Kadima we
are pluralistic, which is a central theme in Reform
Judaism. We respect and provide for the individual
freedom of theological perspective and of ritual
practice for all of our members. Our generally
accepted ideology as a congregation, though not our
style is that of Classical Reform, which emphasized
the Kantian notion of the God Idea rather than a
supernatural being envisioned as a judge who
rewards and punishes us.
Hermann Cohen, an influential figure as Classical
Reform Judaism continued to develop, was one of
the most important Jewish philosophers since
Maimonides. His book- “Religion of Reason Out of the
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Sources of Judaism” published nearly 100 years ago
emphasizes that it is the responsibility of the
religious person to develop the characteristics that
we associate with the God Idea.
Similarly, the 20th century psychoanalyst, Erich
Fromm, wrote that “God is the image of man’s higher
self, a symbol of what man potentially is or ought to
become.” He also wrote that “virtue is selfrealization, not obedience.”
Simply put, to be religious or spiritual means to work
really hard to develop one’s character traits in line
with the highest ideals that are associated with
Godliness in our tradition. Leviticus 19 begins with
the commandment: “You shall be holy, for I the Lord
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your God am holy.” Nearly 2,000 years ago, the
midrashic rabbis, interpreted the Torah’s directive in
Deuteronomy 11, “To walk in all God’s ways.” They
wrote: “These are the ways of the Holy One:
‘merciful and compassionate, patient, abounding in
lovingkindness and truth, forgiving wrongdoing and
granting pardon,’ as described in Exodus 34. This
means, they went on to say, that ‘just as God is
merciful and compassionate, you too must be
merciful and compassionate.’ They quoted from
Psalm 145: ‘The Lord is righteous in all his ways and
loving in all his deeds’ and taught that ‘as the Holy
One is righteous, you too must be righteous. As the
Holy One is loving, you too must be loving.’”
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The Torah projects onto the God image the highest
ideals of human goodness, part of a process called
anthropopathism, the projection onto the god image
of human emotion. Then, several hundred years later,
the rabbis come full circle and urge us to adopt
those characteristics for ourselves, or, in the words
of Hermann Cohen, to correlate ourselves with the
characteristics of the God Idea. Thus, religion is not
about trying to please God, but a resource from
which we can learn to be the best that we can
become, to be even more of a mentsch.
While many Reform congregations are becoming
more traditional in thought and in observance, our
focus at Kadima is on learning from the traditional
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Jewish sources about spirituality and personal
growth. We approach traditional observance and
ritual not as required for divine approval of us, but as
vehicles for teaching us profound lessons in
character development. Ritual has its place in this
effort, but must be seen as a means to an end rather
than an end in itself, just to fulfill a divine
commandment. For example, the Seder, whether we
are meticulous about its specific ritual details or not,
teaches us that black lives matter.
Religion often seems to be about required beliefs
and practices, but it is more importantly about
personal transformation through a commitment to
become a better person. A contemporary writer
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about spirituality, Ken Wilber, distinguishes between
religion that provides comforting mythology and
religion that enables us to grow in character. At
Kadima we emphasize the latter. Transforming
ourselves for the better is the core of religion, and it
is more easily enabled by setting aside the more
controversial and distracting aspects of traditional
faith with its quest for divine approval and
involvement in the minute details of observance. We
emphasize intrinsic as opposed to extrinsic
salvation, i.e. rather than observe traditions to
please and be accepted by a divine being, we focus
on self-actualization to become the best people we
can be and on contributing our best to life. So, there
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is no need to think of yourself as not religious,
because you have doubts about supernaturalism or
because you are not especially observant. If you
care deeply about becoming a more altruistic and
empathic person, then you are religious and a
spiritually sensitive person.
Throughout Jewish history there have been people
who understood that the real purpose of religion is
personal transformation and they have developed a
body of literature that has drawn from the Bible and
other Judaic sources to guide people toward a more
altruistic and empathic way of life, and there have
been people who have dedicated themselves to its
study and to seeking self-actualization and personal
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transformation. This approach is called Mussar,
which involves the study of these ethical ideals and
the commitment to putting them into practice.
Mussar means both instruction and ethics.
This resonates well with Reform Judaism that began
with an emphasis on the ethical as opposed to ritual.
Hence, at Kadima we have focused on the study of
Mussar, Jewish ethics for personal growth. We meet
every Shabbat morning to study different aspirational
character traits such as: humility, patience,
gratitude, compassion, loving-kindness and truth.
Please join us on Saturday mornings at 9:00 at our
location on Milwaukee Avenue. We are continuing to
study the book “With Heart in Mind” and will begin on
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October 10th to study a book entitled “Everyday
Holiness” and undertake a program by that name
which will engage participants even more thoroughly
in the process of spiritual transformation, including
occasional webcasts with inspiring teachers and
related activities.
Mussar, leading to personal transformation and
spiritual and emotional development, is available to
everyone regardless of faith or knowledge of
Hebrew. You just have to be interested in growing.
Mussar is a reaching to transcend oneself on a
journey toward wholeness. Rabbi Israel Salanter who
promulgated the study of Mussar in the 19th century
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suggested that it strengthens the solitary human
heart.
One character trait we worked on this year is
humility. We learned that there is a perspective
between self-effacement and arrogance toward
which to strive and that humility is not about
passivity, that everyone has a rightful place, not
more and not less.
We consider character development as so important
that we have decided to have our religious school
meet at a parallel time on Shabbat mornings and
focus as well on Mussar, Jewish ethics for personal
development, with their own themes at their own
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levels. Teenagers are welcome to be part of the
adult group.
Our congregation’s program also includes social
action to benefit the larger community, social
activities and Shabbat services with dinners which
foster relationships within Kadima. Social action is
in the category of what is known as Tikkun Olam,
repair of the world. Mussar is about Tikkun Atzmi,
repair of the self.
Making a commitment to both, repair of the world
and repair of the self, is what these holy days are all
about.
Shana Tova literally means a good year. I invite you
to commit to working together with us as we work at
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becoming better people and a kinder more caring
community in this New Year.
L’Shana Tova!
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