This sermon was given at Stevens Chapel on October 5, 2003 by Rev. Judith Campbell.

Judaism, a Living Tradition

Tonight at sundown, as the sun sets around the world, observant Jews everywhere will begin their most solemn of holy days, Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. This is the day when observant Jews will fast and atone for any misdeeds or acts of unkindness they might have committed over the past year. If they are truly repentant, they will be forgiven. And, most importantly, if one Jew has offended another person, and is truly repentant, and asks forgiveness of his brother or sister, the offended, the injured party MUST forgive him or her! Women can be unkind and unjust you know! And if the injured party does not forgive when asked, the greater sin is upon the one who can not forgive. There is a good lesson in that for all of us.

On Sept. 29 Jews celebrated the new year 5,764. That’s a long time and well over five thousand years of tradition which is central to the lives of millions of people all over the world. A people who have been feared, maligned, dispersed, ridiculed, tortured, ghettoized, and methodically exterminated. It is not a kind history. But for Jews, it is a proud history that has moved into the present still trying to preserve a distinctly Jewish religion, culture and identity.

Broadly speaking, Judaism can be said to be divided into three major groups or branches. The Orthodox, which is highly observant and ritualistic, and tries in every way to be strict observers of the Law as laid out in the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew bible, commonly referred to by Christians as the "Old Testament".

The Conservative branch, which has retained much of the dogma of Orthodoxy but has modernized and adapted to the ambient culture. And the Reform movement, which, if you took away the label, would sound very much like Unitarian Universalism; it is the modern day practice of Judaism that ordains women, will marry same sex couples, does not have dietary rules, and is powerfully committed to social justice.

Let me go a little deeper into each one.

Orthodox Judaism is the most traditional and fundamentalist branch of the religion.. It holds to the laws, traditions and rituals as set forth in the Torah and fiercely resists adaptive change. Orthodox Jews have strictly ordered codes for dress, behavior between the sexes, foods, worship, study and the observance of the Sabbath. The Traditional Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday night and continues until sundown the following day. It is the day of the week on which God rested from his labors in creating the earth, and wherein observant Jews should do the same, keeping holy the Sabbath by refraining from all labor, and celebrating the many gifts of God. These people do not drive on the Sabbath, cook, or for some, even turn on lights. There are some observant Jews in the Orthodox tradition who feel that that even the word God is so Holy, that for a mere human to speak it, would be sacrilegious, and, therefore, use words like, the holy one of all creation, or Spell the word G-D, rather than be disrespectful.

Orthodox Jews keep kosher, meaning they observe strict dietary laws; they refrain from eating any animals that scavenge (Lobsters) or have cloven hooves, (Pigs). They do not mix meat with milk in cooking or at the table. Ultra Orthodox Jews will have four sets of dishes. Dishes to be used only with meat, with milk, and two special sets to be used only on Passover or Pesach, for meat and for milk. Orthodox Jewish women (like Muslim women) will cover their hair. Very orthodox Jewish women might wear a wig, rather than a head scarf, if they are going to a formal occasion, and to be sure they are not eating contaminated food will use disposable cutlery and dishes, and ask for vegetarian food, or simply fresh fruit that they cut themselves. Most of us know about ritual circumcision, performed by the mohel on the 8th day after a boy baby’s birth. But how many of us know that an orthodox woman must go to a ritual bath called a Mikvah, after she has menstruated, before she can have relations with her husband, or even sleep in his bed? The women, when they do go to religious services, sit separately usually in a balcony behind a curtain, so as not to distract the men at prayer, and have no part in the Sabbath service. Now this sounds very demeaning and restrictive, but the job of keeping the home as a place sacred to Jewish life and for the celebration of the Sabbath, the job of passing the doctrines and the rituals on to the children and creating Jewish family values are entrusted to the woman. In an Orthodox family, marriage to a non-Jew is forbidden. If an Orthodox Jew does marry a non-Jew, that person is considered dead to the family, and the family will sit "shiva’, the week of mourning, for the lost child.

What I find very interesting is that today, in a world that is changing at a frenetic and disquieting and accelerating speed, some Jews who were raised in the more liberal traditions have deliberately turned or re-turned to Orthodoxy in the same way that some Christian and Muslim fundamentalists have turned to a much more highly structured religious practice in an attempt to stabilize their lives in an otherwise chaotic existence. I can understand it.

Conservative Judaism is much more moderate and less restrictive. Many Conservative Jews keep kosher homes, but will eat non-kosher food outside of the home. They do not have dress codes for men and women, and men and women sit together at religious services. Conservative Jews observe the Jewish holidays, and work to preserve a distinctly Jewish home and family life. The male children will be Bar Mitzvahed, a coming of age ritual which declares a Jewish male an adult in the eyes of the Jewish community, and allows him to be counted in the "minyan", the number of males required, ten, to hold a religious service. The Bar Mitzvah is a huge event in all three components of ancient and modern day Judaism. After years of study, learning Hebrew language and Jewish law, the Bar Mitzvah boy is called to the Bima, the lectern, where he reads the lesson of the day from the Torah in Hebrew! He then gives a little speech thanking his parents and his Rabbi for being part of this achievement, and then there is a HUGE expensive Party. Ask me. I have made two cakes for the Bar and Bat Mitzvah for two very special young people, now very special adults. The parties were modest by some standards, but the cakes each served well over 100l!

Reform Judaism is the most liberal and progressive of the three branches of Judaism. Reform Jews have female rabbis, have a Bat Miztvah, a coming of age ceremony for girls, do not usually observe the dietary rules, although some do more out of habit than duty. Reform Jews will ordain openly gay men and women and many will perform same sex wedding ceremonies. If you read the platform of Reform Judaism, you would find it hard to see the difference between it and Unitarian Universalism. Probably the biggest difference is that Reform Judaism does profess belief in a Single God. Historical Unitarianism and Universalism developed in part because our founding fathers and mothers disagreed with conventional Christianity over the doctrine of the Trinity, and declared God (if there is or was a God) a solo act!

The Responsive reading of today comes from a Reform Shabbat service, a Friday night service honoring and welcoming the beginning of the Sabbath. I feel very much at home with those words.

Reform Jews, like us, are deeply committed to social justice, and believe, also like we do, that Social Justice doesn’t happen through prayer or ritual magic. You gotta get out there and get down and dirty. An observant Reform Jew is likely to be found raising money for charity, marching for justice, at peace rallies, working for prison reform, in Oxfam, and amnesty!

An old and valued friend from my college folk singing days is a man named Lou Shapiro. He was and is brilliant, Harvard Educated, with a doctorate in higher mathematics at 21. He was raised as a reform Jew with Unitarian Universalist leanings in Newton, Massachusetts. When he completed his doctorate, he made the decision at the tender age of 21 to take his white Jewish face and brilliant mind to Howard University, just outside of Washington DC, which is an outstanding historically black university, where he has been ever since. He wanted to make a difference. Never thinking for a moment that there were no brilliant black mathematicians, but knowing that in the late 60’s educational opportunities for black youth were anything but equal, and he wanted to do something about it, and did. He was following the traditional prophetic call to service and justice.

Within the three major branches of Judaism which I have briefly outlined here, there are as many sub-sects, cults and groups as we find in Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. And there is a strong mystical tradition in Judaism which I will discuss when I speak on Mysticism,

What all Jews have in common is their history of 5764 years, belief that the Torah is the ultimate source of Jewish law and religion and that study of Torah is a life long endeavor. God, as defined in the Torah, is of the male persuasion, and singular. And while there is a life of the spirit, and for many a spirit life beyond this one, most Jews do not believe in any kind of afterlife; rather, as in the Humanist tradition, that what we do here is what matters. For very observant Jews, keeping the traditions is part of the religious practice. For more liberal Jews, keeping the traditions alive has more to do with preserving the culture than worshipping a remote and distant God. Jews universally believe in working for Social Justice, and believe in the power of the mitzvah, the good deed, to make a difference, and to win favor in the eyes of God, who, according to tradition, is aware of every one we do even if no one else is. And that the reward for the mitzvah will happen in our own lifetime.

This is a very, very, very brief outline of a very great and wonderful and powerful world religion. Clearly, I could preach any number of sermons on the many things I have touched upon and will, in the future.

I would l like you to take two things away today. One is the idea of the mitzvah. (Although, I am really "preaching to the choir" on this one.) You all do so much - and I probably know who and what more than most. So thank you all for what you are already doing, and keep setting our good example for everyone else. (In Jewish Tradition, God does not tell the Jews to go out and convert the Gentiles to Judaism, God says to just go out and do good!) And your pocket can never have enough mitzvahs in it, they have a way of replenishing themselves the more you give away.

But maybe even more important than mitzvahs is forgiveness. Asking for and freely offering it without strings or conditions. How many of us have said something like, "Well all right, I’ll forgive you if you promise .. ", or add some other rider or condition. To forgive is to forgive. The verb does not need or want a qualifier.

Starting at sundown this evening, or maybe even right now, in the quiet of your own hearts, I would ask you to take an inventory. Is there someone of whom you should ask forgiveness, or to whom you and I also should freely offer it if asked? Good deeds are easy and they make us feel good. Atonement and forgiveness are not easy, but the rewards for the soul and the spirit are incalculable.

Amen….and Blessed be.