Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

Once there was a rabbi and soap merchant who were debating the pros and cons of religion. The soap merchant said, “Frankly I really don’t see the good of religion. Observe how corrupt the world is because of religion!” The rabbi listened and said nothing. As they were walking together, they came across a youngster that was playing in a mud puddle. The rabbi said, “My goodness, I really don’t see the value of soap, why doesn’t soap keep the mud off of him? Just look how filthy that child is!” The soap merchant said, “But rabbi, owning soap is not going to make you clean; you must use the soap daily in order for it to be effective!”

The rabbi, replied, “So too is it with religion. It’s not good enough to simply have or own a religion—you must use it daily in order for it to be effective.”

But how effective is religion today? Is religion really good for people? Or is religion debilitating? What value is faith?

Jonathan Swift once said, “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough religion to make us love one another.”

C.C. Colton put it in even more forceful terms, “Men will wrangle for religion; write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live by it.”

When I was 15 years, I used to love reading philosophy. One of the most memorable books I recall reading at that young age was a book entitled, “Why I am Not A Christian” by Bertrand Russell. Russell regarded religion as, “ . . . a disease born of fear, and a source of untold human misery to the human race” (p. 24).

Bear in mind that Russell did not live to see the rise of Islamic fascism, but he did understand how Christian fanaticism caused centuries of untold suffering, Russell was correct, just read Fox’s Box of Martyrs.

One of my old Hassidic colleague told me about his father, who was once asked, “Why are religious Jews so dishonest in business?” He quipped, “If this is what a person is like with having the benefit of Torah, just imagine what a person would be like without the benefit of religion?” Mind you, this story occurred long before Al Gore invented the Internet!

Well, while I admire the rabbi’s wit, his answer really fails to address the real question: Why are there so many stories breaking out daily in the news about crimes one would ordinarily never associate with religious people?

On the one hand, we should not cast blame just on one group of people. Conversely, if Jews are indeed God’s “Chosen People,” then how does one explain the scandals affecting the Orthodox community—whether it be money-laundering, fraud, grand-theft, pedophilia, drug-dealing, the failure to provide proper kosher meat to the public, arson, and even murder—one must come to the inevitable conclusion that the yeshiva world has failed miserably in teaching its students how to behave morally and decently toward one another. The stories appear throughout the daily news all over the world. I shudder to think this is a new phenomenon or not; perhaps because of the Internet, we are now more aware of the problems than ever before.

Rabbinic tradition offers a valuable teaching of wisdom that I believe speaks to our problem. Once upon a time a 3^rd century sage named R. Reuben, stayed in Tiberias where he met a certain philosopher.

Philosopher: What is the most hateful person in the world?

Rabbi Reuben: The man who denies the One who created it.

Philosopher: How is it possible that God told Moses, ‘Honor your mother and father,’ ‘You shall not kill,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘You shall not covet’ (Exod. 20:12-17)?”

Rabbi Reuben: “Know that a no person commits any of these infractions without first denying the First Principle (i.e., God), and a person does not turn to a life of transgression unless he already denied the One who gave the above proscription.” [1]

Thus, the real atheist is not the person who denies God in word per se, but rather it is the person who denies God by his deeds. As I mentioned earlier, I believe the principle reason this is so rampant is because even “Orthodox” Jews are experiencing “loss of soul,” and no longer seem to recognize how ethics and faith are closely interrelated. Soul loss occurs whenever a people or community no longer feel spiritually connected to the traditions and ethical teachings of their people.

If religion is man’s “ultimate concern” as Tillich observed, what is the “ultimate concern” of people who routinely rip people off in the name of religion? What is the reason they act in such an antisocial manner? Actually, I think I can answer that question in one word: survival. The Ultra-Orthodox have painted themselves into a corner because they have for the most part, rejected the idea that working at a livelihood is an important religious value. In Israel, the vast majority of Ultra-Orthodox subsist on government welfare checks, while having large families they cannot financially support. In Brooklyn, unless one has a family that works in the jewelry business, most of the Ultra-Orthodox Jews do not have a college education; many of them never graduated high-school! Their fear of the general culture and its seductive values is the principle reason they have constructed an ideological force-field around their communities. Outsiders are thus perceived as a threat to their spiritual lifestyle. And so with each passing generation, the problem of survival increases with even greater ferocity and dysfunctional behavior becomes their destiny.

Because they are so poorly equipped and prepared to enter adulthood with a capacity to earn a decent living, many of them have resorted to any kind of underhanded shtick to make ends meet. Their behavior resembles the drug-lords of ethnic communities that think selling drugs is an easy way to become prosperous—regardless of the ethical consequences to other people around them. Rabbis, who can barely read English, have come up with novel ways to earn money by imposing new Halachic stringencies that people have wisely ignored for centuries. Why? Is it because of piety? Or the “piety” really a smokescreen that serves a purely economic purpose?

The dog-eat-dog world of halachic expediency is, oddly enough, grounded in a world governed by a Social Darwinian ethic rather than the ethics of Judaic tradition.

One of the important concepts introduced in the early 20^th century is the notion of Social Darwinianism as popularized by the 19^th century British social philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903). The Social Darwinian is the kind of person who sees life as a struggle for existence that likens societal behavior to the type of behavior seen in the animal kingdom. The social forces typically pit its weaker members against the stronger members in their struggle to survive; hence, “he who wants to live must fight, and he who does not want to fight in this world where eternal struggle is the law of life has no right to exist.”

But where did the Social Darwinians go wrong? For one thing, the human race belongs to a highly social species where human cooperation must also be seen as a part of natural selection. The reason why we have survived as a species is because we have learned to live together and offer mutual aid to those weaker than us, or for those members of society who depend upon our assistance for survival. That being said, survival is not necessarily for the sole benefit of the species; we have learned over countless generations of evolution that we as individuals do so much better by working cooperatively than we would otherwise. The human race’s future depends upon us continuing this evolutionary heritage that our ancient for-bearers learned.

In practical terms, I think the solution affecting the Ultra-Orthodox world is definitely fixable. The rabbis need to start stressing the importance of self-sufficiency and the importance of hard work. Not everyone is meant to be a Talmud scholar and most of the yeshiva students who graduate would do themselves and their families a huge favor by seriously learning a career in computer technology, or attend a vocational class that will teach them a practical skill like welding, tailoring, or accounting.

Secondly, ethical behavior—especially in the area of business ethics—must be taught from elementary school through the most advanced classes in the rabbinical academies. There are countless teachings that stress the centrality of religious ethics, which ought to serve as the fountainhead of all of our interpersonal values.

Thirdly, the Orthodox world must re-prioritize its spiritual values. Ethics must take on greater importance than the laws of hadash (grain not eaten between Passover and Shavuoth), or bugs in the broccoli. The real meaning of kashrut is not just limited to the kitchen or stomach; it operates within the epicenter of all interpersonal relationships. As they say in Yiddish, “You cannot have erlichkeit (refined character) without mentschlickeit (plain human decency) that inspires people to act considerately toward all of God’s creatures.

Fourthly, as mentioned before-Rebbes need to remind their followers that the law of the land is sacrosanct. Exploiting the law only causes a desecration of God’s Name.

In the final analysis, without this kind of heartfelt awareness of the Other, “ Without this keen ethical awareness, “the difference between man and the beast is naught” (Ecc. 3:19).

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Notes:

[1] Tosefta Shevuot 3:6