Left to right: Naftali Brawer, Herschel Gluck, Sybil Sheridan Aaron Goldstein, JonathanWittenberg,
We learn the ten commandments f rom chi ldhood yet there are aspects of Jewish t radi t ion that they do not make expl ici t . We ask rabbis represent ing di fferent st rands of Jewish pract ice what they would add to these ten i f they had to choose just one addi t ional precept which they feel should have pr ior i ty today.
an eleventh commandment Naftali Brawer
thou Shalt nEvEr cEaSE to JournEy Judaismis about forging a relationship with God and this relationship demands continuous striving on the part of the Jew. This means being on a constant journey towards spiritual growth. Sadly, many Jews today apply a ‘destination’metric,meaning theymeasure Jewish commitment in terms of what level of religious observance a Jewmaintains. This results in differentiating between Jews who observemore and Jews who observe less. I don’t think this is a very helpful or usefulmeasure of Jewish commitment. I prefer a ‘journey’metric in which Jewish commitment is
measured in terms of the extent of one’s journey. In thismeasure whatmatters is not the quantity of one’s observance but rather the distance travelled in one’s personal quest for greater observance. One can be a fully Sabbath observant Jew and still not be on a
Jewish journey if it is nothingmore than a habitual lifestyle inherited fromone’s Sabbath-observant parents. On the other hand, onemight only observe one aspect of the Sabbath, such asmaking Kiddush on Friday night, but that Jew is on a journey if it involves a personal struggle and commitment. The point is not how advanced you are on the journey but
whether you keepmoving.AJew who feels he has arrived at his spiritual destination ranks lower in thismetric than the Jew who is struggling to take her first spiritual steps.
Naftali Brawer is Rabbi, Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue and CEO of Spiritual Capital Foundation.
Herschel Gluck
you Shall lovE your nEIghBour I believe, as stated explicitly in the Talmud (TractateMakot 23b), that there are 613 biblical and 7 rabbinic commandments which G-d has instructed us to perfom. I certainly don’t think that we need to add any more! Whilst all mitzvot are equally important as they are all G-d’s
commandments, there are certain ones which we need to pay extra attention to, since they are key mitzvot, which, in addition to being commandments themselves, also provide one with special assistance to further facilitate the performance of all the others in an appropriate and superior manner. One of these key mitzvot is “To love one’s neighbour as oneself” (Lev. 19,18). Though it is often quoted, its actual performance would certainly help create a much better society, being that if one truly loves the other, one will behave in the way that the Torah envisages for man to act in all aspects and areas of life, which would actually have a deep beneficial effect on all of one’s interactions with society and the other. That is what the great talmudic sage Hillel implied in his
8
JEWISh rEnaISSancE octoBEr 2011
J u d a I S M
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60