Podcasts religion From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life Talmud Class: Is There Any Idea That Can Persuade non-Orthodox American Jews to Take Jewish Law (Halakhah) Seriously?

Talmud Class: Is There Any Idea That Can Persuade non-Orthodox American Jews to Take Jewish Law (Halakhah) Seriously?

Published: May 27, 2023, 4:40 p.m.

This Shabbat is the second day of Shavuot\u2014a good time to think about our relationship to the Torah as a source of law (halakhah) that is supposed to shape how we live every day.\xa0

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Problem: For most of us, it doesn\u2019t.\xa0

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The Torah says: keep kosher. Many of us don\u2019t.\xa0

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The Torah says: observe Shabbat. For many of us, Saturday is not Shabbat but another weekend day, not particularly distinguishable from Sunday.\xa0

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The Torah (as the rabbis interpret it) says: we are obligated to pray daily.\xa0Many of us don\u2019t.\xa0Perhaps we come to shul when we have a Yahrtzeit, or when we are invited to a Bar/Bat Mitzvah or an auf ruf.\xa0But few of us actually believe we are required to pray every day.\xa0Witness that in our congregation of\xa0almost 4,000 souls, we average 20 to 40 people at our daily minyanim.\xa0

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The Torah we received at Sinai posits a commanding God whose commands we are obligated to observe.\xa0

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Few, if any of us, believe in that commanding God.\xa0

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There is a disconnect between the commanding God we are supposed to believe in and the autonomous lives we\xa0lead, where we do what we want to do, when we want to do it.\xa0\xa0

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How do we understand this disconnect?\xa0Can we solve for it, or at least ameliorate it?\xa0

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To consider these questions, please read the attached article by Elliot Cosgrove, the rabbi of Park Avenue Synagogue in New York, \u201cA Choosing People,\u201d published in\xa0Sources: A Journal of Jewish Ideas, Spring 2023.\xa0In addition, Rabbi Cosgrove was in dialogue with Yehuda Kurtzer in this recent\xa0podcast.\xa0

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Rabbi Cosgrove asserts:\xa0

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\xa0While the language of \u201cobligation\u201d may have run its course, \u201ccommandedness\u201d has not. The\xa0performance of mitzvot as an expression of service to God remains a powerful driver for Jewish practice.\xa0

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Can we resuscitate commandedness as a relevant category in our religious lives?\xa0If not, do you have an elegant theory that explains why you do what you do as a Jew?\xa0What is your personal definition of the word\xa0mitzvah?