essential torah
At the tikkun on Shavuot (well, I did say I had more coming
on this topic :-) ), my rabbi asked the question: what in torah do we,
as individual Reform Jews, accept as binding? All of it? If not, how
do we decide what is binding and what isn't?
There was a lively discussion. As regular readers of my journal know, this is something I often come back to. I don't see how I could just pick the easy/fun/appealing stuff, and I don't. Life would certainly be a lot easier if I didn't keep kosher, for instance; I could eat more easily in restaurants, and I could eat the foods I like but no longer eat. If I didn't keep Shabbat I could run errands on Saturdays, go to shows on Friday nights, and not have my work schedule constrained in the winter. But yet, I do these things anyway (and others).
Sure, there is intrinsic value in being mindful of what and how you eat (even if the rules seem goofy), and in taking a forced day off from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the week. But there are lots of ways to achieve those goals without wrapping them up in religion. And for me, they weren't goals but, rather, effects.
Yet I do not keep the torah in the way that Orthodox Judaism teaches. There are theological reasons for this (which I'll go into if asked). But I don't set the torah aside as irrelevant; it plays a central role in how I live my life and relate to God.
What, then, is my "essential torah", the principle that guides how I understand the whole of torah and the traditions that follow? Talmud torah k'neged kulam, the study of torah is equal to all the mitzvot because it leads to them. My core obligation to the torah is to study it, try to understand it (recognizing that this is a lifelong task), and be willing to make changes in my life based on that understanding. As Rabbi Hillel said, all the rest is commentary.
There was a lively discussion. As regular readers of my journal know, this is something I often come back to. I don't see how I could just pick the easy/fun/appealing stuff, and I don't. Life would certainly be a lot easier if I didn't keep kosher, for instance; I could eat more easily in restaurants, and I could eat the foods I like but no longer eat. If I didn't keep Shabbat I could run errands on Saturdays, go to shows on Friday nights, and not have my work schedule constrained in the winter. But yet, I do these things anyway (and others).
Sure, there is intrinsic value in being mindful of what and how you eat (even if the rules seem goofy), and in taking a forced day off from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the week. But there are lots of ways to achieve those goals without wrapping them up in religion. And for me, they weren't goals but, rather, effects.
Yet I do not keep the torah in the way that Orthodox Judaism teaches. There are theological reasons for this (which I'll go into if asked). But I don't set the torah aside as irrelevant; it plays a central role in how I live my life and relate to God.
What, then, is my "essential torah", the principle that guides how I understand the whole of torah and the traditions that follow? Talmud torah k'neged kulam, the study of torah is equal to all the mitzvot because it leads to them. My core obligation to the torah is to study it, try to understand it (recognizing that this is a lifelong task), and be willing to make changes in my life based on that understanding. As Rabbi Hillel said, all the rest is commentary.