You know the old, hackneyed question: Is a good Jew one who goes to the synagogue and follows the laws of kashrut, or is it the honest person who lives a life of integrity?
Well, as I’ve been teaching for over half a century, the two are not mutually exclusive. It’s not “either or.” In fact, the vast majority of shul-going, “religious” people I know are also upright and upstanding citizens who do their business honorably. Those who do not live up to that moral calling are the exception rather than the rule.
Still, what is a “good” Jew versus a “religious” Jew?
All the way back to the Ten Commandments, the Torah taught that there are two sides to the Jewish faith, as demonstrated by the two tablets brought down by Moses from Mount Sinai.
One tablet had laws governing our responsibilities to God, and the other bore laws dealing with our responsibilities to our fellow men and women. Both are reflected in the “Big 10,” and both are equally important. I don’t know any rabbi who can state categorically that the fourth commandment to keep Shabbat is more important than the sixth commandment not to murder.
This Shabbat, we will read two more Torah portions: Acharei and Kedoshim. I was looking through the second of the two, Kedoshim, and found that it includes no less than 51 of the 613 biblical commandments. That’s quite a chunk for one small Torah reading of only 67 verses. Virtually every verse contains another mitzvah!
And I also did something I don’t normally do. I counted how many of these 51 commandments are between man and God, and how many are interpersonal. Guess what? Some 23 are between God and us, and no less than 28 are human-to-human commandments.
The moral of this story?
A good Jew must be well-balanced. We must be “good to God and good to people.” It’s not one or the other. A so-called frum Jew who cheats in business is not religious; neither is a morally upright person who never goes to synagogue and is part of a communal congregation. We need both sides of the coin to qualify for the accolade of being a “good Jew.”
Interestingly, at the very beginning of Kedoshim, the verse reads: “Every person: Your mother and father you shall revere; and my Sabbaths shall you observe.”
In the same sentence, we find a responsibility to our fellow humans and also an obligation to God. There is no discrepancy here; we may not divorce the two. Judaism insists on a holistic faith, as enshrined in the Ten Commandments, with their division of duties to God and to humanity.
Ours is a comprehensive, all-embracing way of life. Ultimately, that’s what Kedoshim means—to be holy, to walk in the path of God in all our endeavors, spiritual or material, religious or worldly.
Being “holy” for Jews is not escaping the world for the mountains of Tibet. It is in the everyday activities of our lives, where we demonstrate sanctity and Godliness.
Among these 51 commandments are many seemingly ordinary things we do all the time: feed the poor, pay our workers on time, refrain from gossip, not standing idly over the blood of another, not being vengeful or bearing a grudge. And, of course, the most fundamental of all: “Love thy fellow as thyself.”
Isn’t being a “good person” enough? Is it better to be a religious rip-off artist or a free-thinking social-justice worker?
The truth is that both of the above are only good at 50% of what being Jewish is all about. If all that was expected of a Jew was to be a “good person,” then what did we need Judaism for in the first place? Let’s all just be nice, and everything will be cool.
A Jew, however, is expected to be more than just nice. A Jew is expected to be better, to be lawful, to set an example.
May we embrace both sides of Judaism, in all its faces and dimensions, and be well-balanced, whole Jews, fulfilling our responsibilities to God and to humankind.
