Mitzvot – The Letter or Sprit of the Law

(Published in The Outreach, February 2006)
The Outreach is the newsletter of Valley Outreach Synagogue, Reseda, California
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I was recently asked how religious I am. It struck the person asking as odd that I could describe myself as "religious" and yet not wear the traditional trappings of my faith. Where was my kippah for instance? Why were we not having the conversation in a kosher restaurant rather than an ordinary café? I presented the controversial paradox of the committed or religious Reform Jew.

My family begins every meal – kosher or not with a blessing. As Reform Jewish parents, our primary aim is to raise grateful children and to teach them the value of including God in even their most mundane daily acts. If we choose one day to kosher our diet, it will be based on our embrace of the considerable value of kashrut – not merely its legal imperative.

Every Friday night, three generations of my family celebrate Shabbat in my home. We light candles, sing songs and blessings and share a Shabbat dinner. We discuss the week's Torah portion. Since Jonah and Hannah attend a Jewish school, they bring their own insights to the week's stories and lessons. Yet, our candle lighting occurs when we are ready for Shabbat rather than at the prescribed time of the sunset. Our delicious dinner often contains kosher chicken, but it is purchased for being organic and free range rather than for its kashrut. We choose, for right or wrong, to focus on the life elevating values of the Shabbat experience rather than on the adherence to strict religious law.

These examples are not offered in order to degrade orthodoxy or halachah (biblical law) but rather to present a familiar paradox. Our expressions of religiosity are based on both our concept of God and on our understanding of what God asks of us. Do we believe in the God of Mount Sinai who uttered commandments to Moses? Did God in fact speak or did God inspire? The Torah is clear. Our interpretation of its text is the definition our concept of the divine. Essentially, the division between conservative and liberal Judaism is encapsulated in that single moment of Torah; the receiving of the law. Is it history or moral mythology? The answer to this question forms the basis of our religious character.

Reform Judaism dwells on the spirit of the law rather than on strict reading of its letter. Reform Jews view Mount Sinai as possibly historical and as morally invaluable. We see that the values of Mt. Sinai as vital for society's survival. We choose however to meet the Torah's laws on our own terms and to wed them to our modern lives. We emphasize ethical law over ritual law, favoring mitzvot sh'bein adam lachavero (mitzvot between one person and another) over mitzvot sh'bein adam laMakom (those mitzvot that are between a person and God).

Have we got it wrong? Very possibly. Do our tiniest of choices impact the universe on a level beyond our perception? Perhaps. Will we ever know the answer to these enormous questions? That depends on our view of the God of Mount Sinai.

Cantor Ron A. Li-Paz