A Sermon for Rosh HaShana 5780
by Rabbi Scott Sperling
For a period of four years, NPR ran a remarkable series of commentaries under the title of ‘This I Believe’. Featuring commentaries from people of all walks of life, the series drew its inspiration from a landmark series that began in 1951 and was hosted by legendary journalist, Edward R. Murrow. The original series included essays by luminaries such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Robinson, Helen Keller and Harry Truman. Yet, the series also included many who were not just well-recognized figures, but as NPR put it, “corporate leaders, cab drivers, scientists and secretaries — anyone able to distill into a few minutes the guiding principles by which they lived.” At its peak, this original series drew some 39 million listeners. While I doubt that the reboot of the series hosted by NPR ever achieved that level of listeners, I know many people, along with me, who tried not to miss a single essay. I always found them engaging and often they were filled with insight and inspiration.
Over the past months, I have often thought about both of these series as I began preparing for these High Holy Days. I have been working to clarify both what I believe and to more carefully examine not simply what I believe, but why I believe what I believe.
I am so pleased that our former members, Debbie and Barney Feingold, are with us this morning…not just because I and many others miss them and remember their years in our community fondly…but because Barney’s many decades of remarkable research, writing and teaching have been based on, as he wrote in the introduction to his website, barneysplace.net, “My dissertation explored the questions, “What justifies classifying a belief as ‘superstitious’?” and “Why do people create and cling to superstitious beliefs?” Since then, I’ve devoted much of my personal and professional life to exploring questions like, “What distinguishes helpful beliefs from harmful ones?”, “What leads people to commit themselves to beliefs that are self-destructive or damaging to others?” and “How can people become more objective about the beliefs that guide them?” Before I go any further, I want to offer my thanks to Barney Feingold for his lifetime of research, testing and teaching and his generosity with his time in discussing these complex and important topics.
This morning, I want to focus on a specific dimension of ‘why we believe what we believe’ by exploring a specific set of my own beliefs that I think that some or perhaps many of you share, that is – Reform Judaism. I want to use Dr. Feingold’s remarkable structure as the lens by which I do this exploration for two significant reasons. First and foremost is the goal of the High Holy Days to carefully examine our deeds and our souls as we formulate our plans to do better in the coming year. I cannot imagine a better opportunity for us to step back ask ourselves why we believe what we believe and if, as Dr. Feingold bids us to do, we ask ourselves the hard questions, “How, and to what extent, are our beliefs shaped by our (uniquely human) capacity to ask reflective questions like, “Is what I believe true?” “Are my judgements well-grounded?” “How might I be fooling myself?” “Will my beliefs, if embraced, help create the kind of relationships, institutions, and environments I wish to live in and/or would wish for others?” “How might I evaluate my beliefs, judgments, and desires?” “Do I want to be the kind of person my beliefs encourage me to be?” “What are the virtues and failings of the procedures and criteria I bring to bear in answering questions like those above?”
Second, I have spent much of the past 50 years trying to understand how I would choose to live according to the principles of Reform Judaism. While I believe (and I use that word specifically) that I have done so in the context of a virtually constant process of self-examination as to the philosophical underpinnings of that effort, I am so grateful to Dr. Feingold for providing us with an approach to that process of self-examination that is appropriately complex and, I believe, incredibly helpful. All of that said, I take the credit and the blame for whatever proper use of Dr. Feingold’s work that I’ve made along with any and all misinterpretations or failures to properly grasp his writings. This morning, I will be touching on just a tiny fraction of his writings on belief analysis and I encourage you to visit barneysplace.net and continue your exploration of this important topic.
In preparation for today’s sermon, I went to the Union for Reform Judaism’s website and read through the page titled, What Is Reform Judaism?, so that I might begin my self-examination by looking at what is the current state of Reform Jewish belief. The opening paragraphs read,
“Throughout history, the Jewish people have remained firmly rooted in Jewish tradition – and yet, since its earliest days, Reform Judaism has asserted that a Judaism frozen in time cannot coexist effectively with those who live in modern times.
In this way, Reform Judaism has enabled the Jewish people to introduce innovation while preserving tradition; to embrace diversity while asserting commonality; to affirm beliefs without rejecting those who doubt; and to bring faith to sacred texts without sacrificing critical scholarship.”
Clearly, these two opening paragraphs represent only a brief summary of the belief system of Reform Judaism. The information available on the website is brief but gives its readers excellent summaries by which to begin exploring a much broader and deeper belief system. These summaries include a theological statement and brief overviews of Reform Judaism’s social justice goals that are couched in theological terms. While I will quote from these overviews in a moment, I first want to bring in a brief section of Dr. Feingold’s analytical framework.
Dr. Feingold writes, “The approach to beliefs this website offers is grounded in a deceptively simple and self-evident answer to the question, “What makes a belief worth believing?” – A belief is worth believing if it provides the guidance that believers rely on it for. Beliefs serve us well if they provide the guidance we expect them to provide. They serve us poorly if they don’t.” This is an important beginning for my analysis but what I found most helpful was the series of four classes of precision and in particular, the fourth class which he calls, ‘catalytic narratives.’ He notes that these are beliefs that “make the most imprecise predictions” which seems to me to be just right for evaluating religious beliefs. But what was most helpful for me was the statement that “It’s easy to tell if a belief qualifies as a catalytic narrative. All you need do is ask a believer, “How would you know if this belief were wrong?” If the believer is incapable of answering that question or denies that error is possible (even if an answer to that question is evident to unbelievers), the belief is, for that person, catalytic.” We’ll look at this in regards to the stated beliefs of Reform Judaism in a moment but I want to bring in an additional statement about these ‘catalytic narratives’ that for me, is critically important. Dr. Feingold writes, “While they (that is, catalytic narratives) do not inform us about reality, they shape the way we see it. As such, we can evaluate them by asking the question, “Do I wish to be the kind of person my catalytic narratives encourage me to be?” Again, a perfect question for us to ask during these Ten Days of Awe.
Now I’m ready to go back to the stated beliefs about Reform Judaism and to offer my thoughts about them. Under the heading, What Do Reform Jews Believe, we read:
We see the Torah as a living, God-inspired document that enables us to confront the timeless, timely challenges of our everyday lives, and believe that Judaism must change and adapt to the needs of the day to survive.
Reform Judaism affirms the central tenets of Judaism — God, Torah, and Israel — while acknowledging the diversity of Reform Jewish beliefs and practices. We believe that Judaism must change and adapt to the needs of the day to survive, and we see the Torah as a living, God-inspired document that enables us to confront the timeless, timely challenges of our everyday lives.
Indeed, Reform Judaism asks us to renew our living Covenant with God, the people Israel, humankind, and the earth by acknowledging the holiness present throughout creation – in ourselves, in one another, and in the world at large – through practice that includes reflection, study, worship, ritual, and more.
These theological concepts certainly fall within Dr. Feingold’s category of catalytic narratives motivated by the desire to understand and manage reality. This idea that the Torah is “a living, God-inspired document” is for me, a foundational belief as a Reform Jew. I further share the belief that it must help us understand and manage reality as both a timeless and timely document that must change and adapt to the times in which we find ourselves. Clearly, the belief that the Torah is “God-inspired” and not direct revelation is a marked difference between Reform Judaism and both more traditional and non-theistic Jews. I assume that if we opened up a discussion now about Dr. Feingold’s question, “How would you know if this belief were wrong?” that we could be here all afternoon and beyond. We’re going to save that discussion for another time. It is in the other areas of the overview of Reform Jewish beliefs that I think we would find an even more debatable series of ideas.
The next section of this URJ webpage is titled, ‘We are committed to the ongoing work of pursuing justice.’ The text reads, ‘Central to Reform Jewish beliefs is the idea that all human beings are created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God, and that we are God’s partners in improving the world. Tikkun olam, the repair of our world, is a hallmark of Reform Judaism as we strive to bring about a world of justice, wholeness, and compassion.” In the introduction to the last section of this webpage, we read, “We believe that there is more than one authentic way to be Jewish, and we stand for a Judaism that is inclusive and open. Crucially, we recognize that we can become a stronger, more vibrant Jewish community only when we fully welcome and incorporate the diversity that is the reality of modern Jewish life.”
Even as I agree with these general principles, I am profoundly aware of the warning in Dr. Feingold’s statement in the section on catalytic narratives, “When assumed to be sources of practical guidance, catalytic narratives appear to provide us with profound understandings of broad swaths of reality. But they do so only because they are consistent with almost all outcomes and immune to almost all challenges. They appear rich in wisdom only because they are bereft of content. When we use catalytic narratives to help achieve palpable goals, we use the wrong tool for the job.”
I am, I like to believe, open and willing to test these principles both in terms of the Jewish history along with traditional and modern textual interpretations. I am convinced that testing these principles requires us to be ‘inclusive and open’ by listening to and validating differing interpretations of these long-standing Reform Jewish principles…whether they are theological, social or political. The concerns that some express within our own congregation and our Reform Movement about a too narrow band of acceptable ideas and behaviors are, I think, mostly well-founded. Suffice it to say that as I wrap up this all-to-brief look at why I believe what I believe about Reform Judaism, I am mindful of some of the ideas with which I began today in quoting Dr. Feingold. In particular, I am committed to asking myself ”Will my beliefs, if embraced, help create the kind of relationships, institutions, and environments I wish to live in and/or would wish for others?” and “Do I want to be the kind of person my beliefs encourage me to be?”
I can answer with a heartfelt affirmation, yes to both of his questions. What I also know is that I am just as firmly committed to another key element of belief analysis, “How might I evaluate my beliefs, judgments, and desires?” As I engage in the process of cheshbon ha-nefesh, an accounting of the soul, I commit myself to a cheshbon ha-emunah, an accounting of beliefs. I am just beginning on this process of discovery and I look forward to deeper study and deeper consideration of the questions that must be asked. In expressing my commitment to that difficult and likely painful self-inquiry, I can respond again, that this is precisely the person that I wish to become. The fundamentals of Reform Judaism have brought me thus far in my striving to be and become a person of faith and a person of deep moral commitment and action. Next year at this season, I hope to be able to look back and say that I have acted well and that I have done so out of principles that not simply reassure me but that I have challenged, considered deeply and found them to be able to stand up to the tests of traditions both old and new.
Shana Tova!