This podcast is inspired by this week's parsha (Torah portion) which is Va'eira (Exodus 6:2–9:35) . While almost any parsha contains an "ultimate issue" this one in particular brings up a major one. The very beginning verses of Va'eira are these:
2God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD. 3I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty,a but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. 4I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 5Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’”
Okay so what's the big deal? Well ask yourself, what does all this mean?
3And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
Is that to be taken literally? If so, we have a problem. Genesis (the book prior to Exodus) references the tetragrammaton (JEHOVAH, Y-H-W-H, יהוה) name repeatedly. I think it is safe to say the patriarchs definitely "knew" both names.
Being a ba'al tshevuvah I first really started studying Torah as an adult, and my most influential teacher (though not an ordained rabbi - regardless I regard him as my rabbi) is Dennis Prager. Prager taught in the name of Nehama Leibowitz who wrote in the name of Yehuda Halevi from his book "Kuzari.":
Paraphrasing in my own words the ideas taught in class:
This answer is a response to a previous indictment of God by Moses.
22Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? 23For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”
Chapter 6:
1But the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”
Now the reason for this argument was because since Moses had done what the Lord had told him, nothing has gone well. The people he was sent to save and liberate, have only been dealt with more harshly and suffer under more oppression directly due to Moses' actions. Moses acted because God told him to and now Moses is angry at God because He is allowing others to suffer...
How many of us can resonate with Moses' feelings and words? I know I can. I am angry with God on a fairly regular basis. Mainly when I learn of magnificent senseless and gratuitous evil that transpires currently or has transpired in history. I am reading about Mao and his sadistic treatment of his people, and I am angry with God that so many millions of people had to suffer such cruelty and evil. They had an ineffably torturous existence and The Ineffable seemingly did nothing about it! Damn right I'm angry. Now, I know that the evil that happened there was due to a man and not God (as I believe man has freewill), but what about all the act of force majure. The millions who have died or been horrifically injured due to earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, or the millions of children who battle horrific illnesses, cancers, and deformities.
In my own life, and I'm sure for many of you reading this, I think of myself as blessed and lucky. I can reflect on my life and look with amazement at how things have worked out... seemingly miraculously. God's work in my personal life has been mind boggling, but when I think about others lives and the horrors they have witnessed or experienced it is equally mind boggling.
Our patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, experienced very personal relationships with God. Each had their own special and real relationship with the Lord and each saw how God worked in their microcosmic lives. They no doubts or misgiving regarding the faith as there is naturally in the enslaved Israelites trapped in Egypt.
Yehuda Halevi: "The Patriarchs, on the other hand, were inspired with a pure and undiluted faith which was proof against all temptation even if evil had dogged them all their days."
And Nehama Leibowitz writes in response to Halevi: The Patriarchs were select individuals and it was not necessary for God to communicate Himself to them through miracles and wonders; for they saw Him in everything. It was the epoch of the individual. But in the days of Moses, the Jewish people evolved... The mass cannot appreciate the language of hidden miracles accompanied by no obvious change in the natural order. They would not have been able to discern the hand of God working in their lives and in that of the whole human creation without the display of the supernatural which would bring them out "with a strong hand".
And as Prager taught:
The Patriarchs' lives were God-centric and all was caused by God. You got pregnant... God made you pregnant. You moved to another land... God wanted you to move to that land. You found a wife... God wanted you to find that wife. You were barren... God made you barren. So on and so forth. Every aspect of their life was caused by God with whom they had a very omnipresent personal relationship.
This was not the case with the Israelites in Egypt. It takes a remarkably exceptional human who sees God in the darkest and most horrific parts of there life, but remember this is in reference to a mass number of people who have been there for multiple generations. They understandably needed substantial evidence for God existence.
So again, for the individual whose life is not horrific it may be easy to believe in God, because we can see God in our lives.
But when we think beyond ourselves, and realize the nightmarish existences others suffer.
And here in lies the difference between Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob... as well as Moses, and the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. Moses and the patriarchs had every reason to believe in God considering the circumstances of their lives. But what about the Israelites suffering in Egypt?
Sure, we all have suffering and tragedies in our own lives. Yet still, in general most of us living in America in the 21st century can realize God's involvement in our personal life.
So why do we doubt and have hostility toward God? Because at some point we realize that unlike us, others are unimaginably suffering. Where is God for them?
The question Prager asked in class was:
How many of you feel that your life, and only your life, has been fair or better than fair in terms of how life and fate have treated you? The vast majority of hands rose in affirmation.
And there lies the problem that plagues so many today... They believe in only a personal god. Or a personal concept of God. This is usually know today as "Spirituality". That is to say that many people (polls vary but its highly over 20%) consider themselves "Spiritual but not religious (SBNR)" so they realize that for themselves their is a transcendent aspect of their own life, but they don't recognize it as an overarching idea that constitutes a religion. And this is a dangerous idea by itself. Spirituality and the idea of a personal God is great, but it is not enough.
The idea of being spiritual but not religious or more than religious leads to people naturally blurring the distinctions between themselves and God. When I hear someone say "God told me to..." I feel uneasy. How do you know that was God speaking to you? And a major reason that spirituality over religion is dangerous is because without good religion there is nothing to tether the individual's relations with God to.
Notice that when people do great evil in the name of God or some spirit... they say just that... God told me to do it, as opposed to the Bible told me to do it. Yes, I know people have cherry picked the Bible to justify their actions, but 1) they take the Bible out of context and 2) had they been rooted in good religion they would understand the context.
For instance, as Prager notes: Muslims don't typically go and murder civilians shouting "The Koran in Surah 2 said...", NO! Instead the yell "Allahu akbar (God is greater)". This is an example of where spirituality seemingly trumps religion. He's right. My friends who are Muslim are heart broken over the actions some people are committing in the name of their God and claiming their religion's name. They hold fast that the tenets and behaviors these people hold is antithetical to Islam.
And as Prager further noted, the Nazi soldiers walked around with "Gott mit uns (God is with us)" on their uniforms. Notice they didn't have anything referencing the Bible (i.e. James 3:16). Why? Because Hitler and the Nazi movement was not rooted in Christianity but rather an evil megalomaniacal man's hatred for others. (In fact, it was the religious Christians in Poland and Germany who overwhelming took the Jews in to their home and hid them ... at the risk of peril to their own family.)
Can religions be overtaken and turned bad? You bet! But notice it is generally by someone claiming to be more "spiritual" than the rest (i.e. connects or communicates with God personally in ways beyond the common man). And then they change the religion to meet their new "spiritual" agenda.
Spirituality that is not contained by religion is dangerous. Religion is to spirituality what power lines are to electricity. It harnesses the power and directs in a way that is safe and applicable to many people.
Religion also provides a code by which you can check your spirituality. For instance, if I think I have a message from God to go and murder someone, then I know something is arwy because prior to my "personal message", God prohibited man from murder in the Ten Commandments.
Religion also makes demands on you that your spirituality will likely not do. My religion demands we love the stranger, and love our neighbor. My religion demands we give charitably to others. My religion demands we see human beings as sacred and act to save their life. My religion demands we visit the sick. My religion demands we honor and respect our father and mother. There are many obligations found in religion (Judaism in particular). All of which are intended to improve or elevate the person obliged. Many are ethically based. Many are holiness based. All are based on goodness.
What does individual spirituality demand? Simply that you are obliged to yourself? Or whatever the spirit moves you to do?
This is why you see school and hospitals erected in the name of religion and not spirituality. This is why the greatest charities that do the most good for mankind are rooted in religions and not spirituality.
Another question what does your spirituality prohibit you from doing?
My religion not only prohibits theft in the most obvious of cases, but it further elaborates that I am prohibited from asking a merchant about a product if I know that I am not going to purchase from him... as that would constitute a form of theft (i.e. his time, hope, etc.)
In general "spiritual but not religious" means that your prohibitions are up to you. And what you are obliged to do... again guess who is dictating that as well... you. You are in effect God. Do you disagree with yourself and your own opinions? Probably not... as most people understandably think their own thinking is the right thinking.
Now this does not mean that you if you are spiritual but not religious your are a bad person or a lesser person. Nor does that mean that religious people are better. Goodness and wickedness is inherent in all people regardless of their beliefs.
But what I am saying is that having a spiritual relationship with God and not a religious one has tremendous potential for numbing our awareness of others suffering, or far worse committing evil in the while claiming it the will of the Divine.
You have a great relationship with the spiritual? Okay, so what? How is your spirituality going to have leverage over you and your actions? How do you know what you believe is "spiritual" and not just your opinion? How do you question yourself in regards to your spirituality? What do you reference when you face an ethical dilemma? How do you know what is right and good, or wrong and destructive?
My religion poses many challenges to me and my thinking that were I just a spiritual person I would likely never wrestle with. Sure I have spirituality in my life, but my spiritual beliefs must remain consistent with my religion. My values must come from my religion. Where else will they come from? World opinion? Spirituality? My heart? None of these are a good source for ethics or values.
This reminds me of a debate between a religious Jew, Dennis Prager, and a more secular Jew, Alan Dershowitz. This debate was once available on youtube but alas youtube or the 92nd St. Y or someone has taken it down...
The main point relevant to this idea is Prager's profound conclusion:
“Ladies and gentlemen, the major difference between Alan Dershowitz and me is this: When professor Dershowitz differs with the Torah, he assumes that he is right and the Torah is wrong. When I differ with the Torah, I assume that I am wrong and the Torah is right.” ~ Dennis Prager, in a debate at the 92nd St Y.
Then, Dershowitz quipped that for the first time that night he agreed with Prager.
Prager's insight brilliantly exhibits the power that religion can have in challenging yourself and your thinking. A good religion is something that is wiser and better than you, and it should challenge and confront your opinions and values in order to make you a better person. How else does one confront such challenges if you don't take religion seriously? Does your spirituality challenge you? Does your secularism challenge you?
Spirituality sans religion is dangerous. Religion sans spirituality is dead. We as a people must have both. It is necessary for man to have a good religion so as to have a constant reference point by which his moral compass is bound. Religion is the magnetic north that directs your spiritual needle inside your moral compass. No religion... then that needle has no set bearing.
Notice I keep referring to a "good" religion. I fully recognize no religion is perfect. All religions have problems. So what? I don't even know what "perfect" would look like. So just because no religion is perfect, that is not a logical reason to therefore abandon religiosity. A good religious life brings meaning, wisdom, and improvement to a persons life in ways they could never imagine. I know it does for me and millions of others. And this is not a sales pitch for Judaism. Rather, if you are spiritual but not religious or just a plain secular athiest... then I suggest first investigating the religion you were raised in or your family's religion. It makes life easier for you and them. But, if after truly investigating and doing the religion sincerely, you find that that particular religion does not fit you... then try on another. Shop religions and become observant about their followers. Notice, which religion (or church, mosque, synagogue, temple, etc.) available to you seems to be bearing good fruit. Do you know someone who has converted to a religion and become a better person? Then investigate that religion. This is a fundamental role religion should play in peoples' lives... Good religion makes gooder people.
In the final analysis, yes you can have good irreligious individuals (spiritual or not), but you cannot produce a good people without good religion. Hence why God was going to reveal Himself in ways never known before, not even by the most spiritually attuned individuals Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob.
