You are a good Jew

Welcome to the season of apologies, the weeks leading up to Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, when many of us try to make amends for any wrongs we committed in the last Jewish Year.

Regardless of the season, when people find out I am a rabbi, many of our conversations begin, “I am so sorry rabbi that…” 

“…I don’t go to services more often.”

“…I don’t belong to a synagogue.”

“…I am not more Jewishly involved.”

And then we talk about how that person cares about living and doing with integrity, cares about being a good member of their family, an attentive friend, and an active part of their work and neighborhood communities.

I ask: “Don’t those things, what you do as a good person for the people around you, also make you a good, committed Jew?”

The measure of our Jewish qualities should really overlap with the measure of our human qualities.

Most of all, Judaism serves to help us become good people.

People living in peace with each other, figuring out how to have productive civic society – these form the fundamental goals of Judaism.

All Jewish ritual practices, celebrating Jewish peoplehood and finding belonging in Jewish communities, what we eat or don’t eat, imagining that we manage to do what the Universe demands of us, and everything else, all intend to help us find our way to ethical, compassionate, and righteous lives and societies. Maimonides describes the commandments, the terms of the Jewish covenant or binding contract with the Universe, as a program of personal improvement.[1] We improve ourselves to improve the world, and the society that we build is how we take individual improvement into the area of world improvement. 

This is not some modern, radical, new age, idea – the center of Judaism is: “make the world a better place”. 

We do this first and foremost by being better people – better to ourselves and each other.

Haven’t been to services in a while and still work hard to be a good neighbor? You are a good Jew.

Had a bacon cheeseburger the other day and still volunteer for good causes? You are a good Jew.

Didn’t have a bat or bar mitzvah and still feel Jewish, and work hard at being a good person? You are a good Jew.

This is not an exhaustive list.

We are something of a list-crazy people.

We have 613 commandments from the Torah, from just the Five Books of Moses, and for centuries we disagreed about which they were.

We have enough summaries, “these are the top three things we should do to be Jewish”, that different Jewish institutions choose different top three lists for their letterheads and mottos.

As we enter the New Year of 5786, I apologize.

I am sorry that as a rabbi, I participate in a culture that makes Jews feel bad for not being “Jewish enough”.

We don’t need a scarcity approach in any of our worlds.

Instead of scarcity, I offer you:

“You are enough. You are enough of a Jew.” 

Yes, many of us, not even half of Jews who self-identify, will go to synagogue next week.

And yes, those in synagogue between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur will spend time confessing all the wrongs we have done.

Let’s avoid one of those now and in the future.

Let’s celebrate the Jewish people that we are.

Identifying as Jewish is hard enough. 

You are Jewish enough.

You are good enough.

We are good enough.

May we all find enough to make the New Year a better year for everyone.

L’Shanah Tovah u-metukah – a good and sweet year to us all.

[1] For more on Maimonides and the “Reasons for the Commandments”, see Goodman, M. (2015). Maimonides and the book that changed Judaism: Secrets of the guide for the perplexed. University of Nebraska Press., Chapter 7, pp. 113-137