Rabbi Charles P. Sherman
Shannon Zucker Bat Mitzvah
Shabbat V’etchanan
August 20, 2005
We Jews Also Love God
Friends, I read bumper stickers with a good deal of curiosity, amusement and, sometimes even theological interest. One of my colleagues, Rabbi Aaron Rubinger, suggests that bumper stickers can be categorized into five main types.
There are what may be called "tourist bumper stickers" which publicize the fact that the driver has visited some particular location, such as the Grand Canyon or the Amish Country or has skied the Tulsa Mountains.
Then there are the "political bumper stickers" which openly proclaim support for a candidate or give voice to a particular political point of view that one feels strongly about, such as "Support Our Troops" or "Bring Our Troops Home."
There are the "sports bumper stickers" which articulate the driver’s deep love and affection for OU, ORU, OSU, TU, etc.
Then there are what can only be called "attention-getters," bumper stickers which are silly or nonsensical, like the one that says: "Warning: Driver Not Wearing Underwear." When I see ones like that, I always want to respond "thanks for sharing."
Finally there are "religious bumper stickers". As a Rabbi, I find these messages particularly interesting and in the buckle of the Bible belt they seem to be very prevalent. Bumper stickers such as "God is Pro-Life. Are You?" or "Jesus Loves You" or even the rather enigmatic proclamation, "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter."
A survey of our Temple parking lot indicates that we Jews are not quite as prone to pasting a religious bumper sticker on the back of our cars as some of our Christian neighbors are. It is just not our style. Besides, what would we put on a Jewish religious bumper sticker? "Keep the Faith – Don’t Eat Traife"? "Forget the Pool, Come to Shul"? "Repent Now: Avoid the Yom Kippur Rush"?
As Jews, we simply do not believe there is any great wisdom in informing our fellow drivers on the Broken Arrow Expressway what we believe in and what religious practices we subscribe to – nor am I advocating that we should. At the same time, however, I do not believe that we can view such religious bumper stickers as being entirely silly. When you stop and think about why a person would go to the trouble of putting a religious affirmation on the back of his car, obviously it is because he or she believes that if others would adopt the particular conviction which his bumper gives voice to, the world would be a better place.
So, with all this in mind, I want to tell you about an interesting bumper sticker I saw. It read: "I’m Not That Religious . . . I Just Love the Lord." It is a slogan that makes you think,;at least it made me think – what’s this driver really trying to say? "I’m Not That Religious . . . I Just Love the Lord." What does it mean? I think he is suggesting, with some irony, that loving God is what being religious is all about. He is actually seeking to proclaim that there is no higher religious act than to love God.
So what is my response to this religious theology being promoted on the back of a Honda Accord? I actually have mixed feelings. My first reaction was one of smug amusement, maybe some latent Jewish chauvinism. My thoughts went something like this. Well, that may be fine for a Christian. Love of God for Christians is their ultimate religious act; it is the great proclamation of their faith. But for us Jews, my mind continued, that won’t cut it. In Judaism, it is not enough simply to love God. Love is an emotion; love is a feeling in one’s heart, and Judaism demands more from us than that – much more in fact. Judaism demands that we take our feelings of love for God and concretize them through religious deeds, acts called mitzvot, the Commandments of biblical and rabbinic Judaism.
According to our heritage, love of God in and of itself, without a disciplined religious commitment, is simply not of great value. Saying "I’m Not That Religious . . . I Just Love God," from our Jewish perspective would be like saying, "I’m Not that Faithful . . . I Just Love My Wife." That was my initial reaction. Good enough for non-Jews, but not for us.
But I must tell you something, friends; I also had a second reaction – an afterthought that has stayed with me for several weeks now. Is it possible, I wondered, that I was being somewhat defensive? Is it possible that I was taking this rather smug or chauvinistic attitude of suggesting that on this matter Judaism is superior precisely because I know that when it comes to the issue of love of God we Jews actually fall a little short?
Let me ask you to consider something honestly. As Jews, how many times in your lives – either as children or adults – did you hear about love of God from your parents, your religious school teachers, your rabbis, your fellow congregants? My guess, my suspicion is – not too often.
We Jews hear and we speak a great deal about mitzvot, about the Commandments. We hear and we speak a whole lot about Jewish responsibilities and obligations, about community involvement, supporting Israel, about helping the poor, about being decent and honest and caring human beings. But love of God, in the overall scheme of things, where is that on our Jewish agenda?
You know when I hear about love of God? During the many years of my rabbinate, most of the time I ever even hear the phrase "love of God" used by Jews is from those who have come to Judaism from outside our tradition, from those who have converted to our faith – particularly from Christianity. I must tell you that whenever I hear a Jew-by-choice, a new Jew, speak of his or her feelings of loving God, it always sounds a little strange to my ear, a little foreign and yet at the same time, very beautiful. Judaism appeals to these folks, and they like the fact that Judaism teaches that love of God must be concretized through religious deeds and social responsibility. Moreover, they are often very ready to do that, to observe the mitzvot precisely in order to demonstrate their love for God.
What about Jews by Birth, those of us who have been Jewish all our lives? Whichever mitzvot we perform, in truth, we usually do for other reasons – for the sake of Jewish continuity, for the purpose of Jewish survival, out of warm nostalgic feelings toward Jewish tradition, from a sense of allegiance to the past or, from wanting to instill Jewish loyalty in our children. Now please do not misunderstand me; there is nothing wrong with any of that. But I am wondering today – isn’t there maybe something missing in all of that – some basic ingredient that is lacking, some feeling, some emotion, some love for our God?
Now you may rightly ask: but Rabbi does it really matter? After all, if we are performing the mitzvot, if we are being loyal to Torah, does God really care why we do so? And the typical Jewish answer to that question, one I myself have said repeatedly, is that in Judaism the doing is more important than the wherefore. It matters more what you do and less why you do it. In Judaism, this surely is true. But you know what? It is not quite the whole truth.
We listened to Shannon read from the Torah, from this week’s sedra: "Hear, O Israel: Adonai is our God, Adonai is One." And the very next words, we all know them; they are part of our liturgy in every service – Shabbat, weekday, festival, Holyday. Whenever we recite the Sh’ma, we say "V’ahavta et Adonai Elohecha, B’chol L’vavcha Uv’chol Nafsh’cha Uv’chol M’odecha – and you shall love the Eternal your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
Loving God is not only a Christian virtue, friends; it is a Jewish Commandment. As Jews we are commanded to love God from the first moment of our life til our very last breath on earth. Yet despite such teachings from the richest legacy of Judaism, for modern Jews like ourselves, love of God has simply not become part of our religious vocabulary. Think about it. Think about how easy it is for you or for me to say "I love Jews", "I love Judaism", "I love being a Jew" or, "I love Israel." Such words flow naturally from our lips; we say them with conviction and with true sincerity. But to say "I love God" just does not come out as easily, somehow does not sound quite natural. There is that momentary hesitation, that catch in our throats. Why? Why has this basic and important concept of love of God become so alien to us in recent years? Why have we emotionally distanced ourselves from such an authentic Jewish concept? Why, to be blunt, have we become embarrassed to verbally express our love for God?
I believe that to a large degree it is because we associate such emotional expression of loving God with the Christians whose religious orientation and world view we think of as being narrow and unsophisticated. We have come to closely associate the words "loving the Lord" with TV evangelists and faith healers, and with those who cruise the Broken Arrow Expressway in pick-up trucks with gun racks and with bumper stickers that say "Praise the Lord!". Psychologically we do not want to identify ourselves with such people nor with that kind of religion and so, consciously or otherwise, we have expelled from our mouths and banished from our vocabulary expressions which sound in any way close to those affirmations.
But I must tell you this morning, for us to do that, for us to simply discard this important Jewish concept of love of God, is tragic. Loving our Creator, appreciating the mercy and compassion with which God fills our lives is just too important an aspect of our faith to surrender. Mind you, I am not suggesting that we Jews start spouting off to our neighbors or co-workers "I Love the Lord! Hallelujah!". I am not suggesting that we should launch a national Jewish campaign to put bumper stickers on backs of Jewish owned vehicles to publicly proclaim our love for our Creator. As I said, in Judaism that is not how we primarily express our love of God. We Jews testify to our feelings of love for God through the mitzvot, through commandments, through reciting the Sh’ma, and saying the blessings, and helping our fellow human beings as well. But my friends, perhaps we could do these things with a little more Kavanah, a little more feeling for ha-kadosh baruch hu, for the Holy One, blessed be God.
Let all of the deeds which we perform as Jews be done as an affirmation, both to ourselves and to others, that like the generations of Jews who came before us, we, too, love the Eternal our God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our might. Amen.
This message is based on the writings of Rabbi Aaron D. Rubinger.
