Last year's Erev Rosh Hashanah sermon:" I am a Reform Jew"

I am a Reform Jew – Erev Rosh Hashanah, 5769
I am a Reform Jew. No surprise there – having arrived in Baltimore over a decade and a ½ ago after graduating HUC-JIR, the Reform Rabbinical and Cantorial seminary in New York, to serve our Reform community here in Baltimore, I have publically as well as personally been associated with the Reform movement throughout my adulthood. The majority of my Jewish connections growing up were also with the Reform movement. From the 3rd grade on, I was educated in a Reform congregation. I participated in NFTY events, put in a few years at a Union summer camp even attended the Reform movement’s leadership academy, Camp Kutz, for one summer. No question, I was inspired by many of these experiences, yet are these public alliances, my connections to certain organizations, what makes me a Reform Jew? A question that I don’t think we ask ourselves often enough: why are we Reform Jews? We may be quick to identify ourselves as Reform by virtue of our membership here at Temple Emanuel, a congregation affiliated with the URJ – the Union of Reform Judaism, the umbrella organization for all North American Reform synagogues, or by the various Reform organizations in which we may have participated in at various times in our life –but is that it – is that what makes each of us Reform Jews? I certainly hope not.
According to the Central Conference of American Rabbi’s 1976 Centenary Perspective, a document inspired by the centennial celebrations of both the aforementioned organizations, the URJ, then known as the UAHC, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Hebrew Union College, Reform Judaism is characterized by seven specific points:
• It should interact with modern culture
• Its forms and expressions should reflect a contemporary aesthetic
• Its scholarship should be conducted by modern and critical methodology
• It recognizes change as a fundamental reality – not just for the future, but of both past and present as well.
• It recognizes the ethics of universalism as an explicit part of our Jewish duty
• It demands gender equality with regard to the study and practice of Judaism
And perhaps most significantly,
• Reform Judaism demands that Jewish obligation begin with the informed will of the individual.

The informed will of the individual. This seventh point is the most challenging element of Reform Judaism. The first 6 certainly require effort, but can easily be delegated to others – to the leaders in the movement, Rabbis, Cantors, scholars, musicians, administrators. But point 7 is aimed directly at the individual. I would argue that it is this point with which we as Reform Jews most struggle and which leads to the gross misunderstanding of Reform Judaism in the larger community. It is also a point on which we have the utmost control to fulfill and in turn has the power to enrich us as individuals and as Jews.

“The informed will of the individual.” This critical point is at the root of Reform Judaism’s principle of autonomy. We are not a movement that looks to the Halacha, the traditional Jewish law, for final arbitration on our daily choices. Rather we are movement that certainly includes Halacha, but among other resources, both historical and modern, to inform our decision making; decision making that is ultimately left to the individual. This process demands a high degree of responsibility and effort; a degree to which, frankly, most of us fall short.
We take for granted even become lazy in our autonomy – as Americans raised on the values of democracy coupled with the freedom of religion, we simply can’t imagine our daily religious choices being anything but based on our own autonomous decision making. And the truth is, as much as others might argue otherwise, in a country such as ours which values (and hopefully will continue to maintain), the separation of Church and State, all religious choices are ultimately grounded in personal autonomy. No one ‘has’ to keep any form of religious observance. All Jews – Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist -- all of us have the power to choose for ourselves how to express our Judaism. Some may choose to follow a path in line with communal Halachik standards – such as Orthodoxy, but that is at its core a personal choice.

We Reform Jews celebrate autonomy by generally rejecting such rigid communal standards, but by doing so, we have a tendency to become complacent in this autonomy forgetting the Jewish value of placing community on equal footing, if not over and above the individual. A well-known mishnah recorded in tractate Avot reminds us of this tension between community and self:
הוא היה אומר: אם אין אני לי מי לי וכשאני לעצמי מה אני (ואם לא אכשיו אימתי:)
He was known to say: if I am not for myself, who will be for me? But, if I am only for myself, what am I?( And if not now, when?)
Written in the first centuries of the first millennium, this text not only highlights that this tension between individualism and communalism is ancient and is not solely a result of American ideology, but it also underscores that autonomy – the self-- is at the root of any commitment we make to the larger community.
19th century commentator Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch notes in his discussion of this very mishnah that while one can only attain “spiritual fitness” and moral worth by virtue of his own efforts, it is only by actively working to create, to establish and to increase the happiness and prosperity of his fellow man that one can begin to become truly human, b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. It is through community by which we find divinity.

Are we Reform Jews fully grounded in our identity, or has lack of observance replaced active and creative idealistic efforts, such as Hirsch describes, as the bond among Reform Jews? How I cringe when I hear a fellow Jew use the word “Reform” as a reason not to do. “I don’t go to services very often; I’m Reform.” “I eat bread on Pesach, it’s okay, I’m Reform.” “I eat shrimp because I’m Reform.” The Reform label seems to have become an excuse for lack of intention, connection, and involvement in the larger community. Not that I am advocating for a particular level of ritual observance, far from it! BUT, I fear we forget about the “informed” part of being a Reform Jew. We use that value of autonomy to support all of our decisions with regard to personal practice and often communal obligation as well, without taking the time and effort to “become informed” as Reform Judaism mandates.

Recall point 7:
• Reform Judaism demands that Jewish obligation start with the informed will of the individual. Sorry folks, Reform Judaism was never intended to be the easy way out. On the contrary, it requires us to explore, to think for ourselves, and make decisions accordingly. A mistake we often make is to view those who choose a more stringent level of observance as somehow more valid, even more pious, than ourselves. Reform viewed as the least committed on the continuum and the orthodox the most. Sadly, this continuum is often reinforced by our own reticence to speak out and our own lack of involvement in the larger Jewish community.

A bit of history is noteworthy. The Reform movement grew out of the late 18th century European enlightenment. Ironically, so did Orthodoxy. In a very real sense, they are parallel movements. The word “orthodox” a term used by the Lutheran Church to refer to dogmatic Biblicism, wasn’t used by a Jew in 1755. It was in that year, that the great Enlightenment figure, Moses Mendelsohn used this term in a letter to another such thinker asking if a contemporary of theirs, a modern scientist, was really “orthodox“ or just pretending to be so. Orthodox at this time was a referent only to the unwillingness of allowing modern ideology into religious thought. It wasn’t until the mid-19th century when a group of Jews successfully advocated for change in ritual expression that allowed for enlightenment values to impact Jewish practice that orthodoxy as a self-defined movement developed. Indeed, it grew out of opposition to become the self-avowed standard bearer of Judaism. 19th century Europe was not the first playground for change, Judaism has constantly evolved over time – but it was a period that marked the coming together of the social, cultural, and philosophical forces of modernity in a manner which forever changed the face of Jewry.

While the image of Orthodoxy as a standard bearer of Judaism in our community persists, Reform Judaism has been far more influential in its impact on modern Jewry. The issues which others debate today are generally issues which the Reform movement placed in the forefront and with which Reform Judaism has already come to terms. Social justice and the ethical impulse as a paramount virtue has its roots in Classical Reform ideology; Gender equality was a stated value in the earliest platforms of Reform Judaism, and HUC was the first American Jewish seminary to admit and later ordain women; the Reform movement has actively welcomed interfaith families into our congregations; HUC has welcomed gay and lesbian candidates for ordination without reservation, and Reform congregations across North America openly welcome gays, lesbians, and their families as fully participating members in our midst.

Even our style of worship and our music has made its impact. Praying in the vernacular is a Reform innovation as is the inclusion of our matriarchs and gender sensitive language into the liturgy. So many of the tunes that are simply labeled as “traditional” are products of Germany’s 19th century early Reform synagogues – gems like Shema, Hodo Al Eretz, Adon Olam. These early Reform synagogues hired musical directors and cantors that, simply put, revolutionized synagogue song and made an impact far beyond the bemas of their then nascent Reform synagogues.

So if the Reform movement has been such an avant garde movement, setting the standards for others to follow, why is it that it is viewed in the community as the “least” on that continuum of commitment and activity?
Informed will of the individual. How we define ourselves as Reform Jews is at the crux of the matter. We must reframe our definitions of ourselves. Instead of defining ourselves by what we choose not to do, we must begin to define ourselves by what we do. We are a movement of action, and thus need to market ourselves as such – as individuals and as a movement.
As we begin this new year, 5769, I challenge all of us to grapple with our Reform identities – let us challenge ourselves to be actively Reform rather than by default. Certainly, no easy task. Striving to define Reform Judaism based on tangible practice has been divisive to say the least among Reform leaders since the days of the Pittsburgh Platform. The cherished value of autonomy holds up any standardized vision of Reform practice. Indeed, individual autonomy makes that challenge of informing oneself on the one hand, more compelling, but also all the more difficult. It requires self-imposed motivation and discipline. Doing simply because communal guidelines exist telling you so isn’t an option here.
So what is it that makes us Reform Jews?

My parents made a conscious decision when I was young to affiliate with a Reform congregation after belonging to a liberal, albeit modern Orthodox synagogue. I can’t speak to their motivations as I was just a kid (you can ask them for yourselves), but their decision, whether they were or are aware or not, left a decisive mark on me. After getting over the disappointment that I would not be attending that extra day of Hebrew school that I had been eagerly awaiting (clearly synagogue life was meant to be my destiny), I discovered that the beauty of Reform Judaism isn’t about the amount of practice but rather the journey one takes towards or away from that practice. Being a Reform Jew is about the values and the manner in which the choice to or not to practice is made. I could define myself by the many things I don’t do: I haven’t walked to synagogue save for the periods of time I’ve spent in Israel since childhood. I don’t keep a kosher home per standardized heksher standards. I have no interest frankly in laying Tefillin. I could go on in this list, but rather and more importantly I chose to define myself as a Jew by what I do, by the actions I take, such as: studying Torah regularly – struggling with, striving (even if not with success) to find meaning even in its most challenging sections; observing Shabbat in a meaningful way that connects me and my family to family, synagogue life and klal Yisrael; consciously and carefully giving tzedakah; taking pride in the our movement’s Religious Action Center and striving personally to champion the ethical values of social justice voiced by our prophetic tradition; remaining connected even if at times remotely to Israel and the values for which she stands; raising, together with Chuck, our children in a home filled with Jewish values and learning and within a caring synagogue community; striving towards the engagement of g’milut chasadim, acts of love and kindness.
Indeed: I am a Reform Jew.
What about you?