5781.2
Representing Judaism at a Unitarian-Universalist Service
Sh’elah
I have been invited to represent Judaism at a regular Sunday morning service at a Unitarian-Universalist church. They have invited me to do whatever I want, which could be participating in the service as a co-leader, including Jewish prayers and Hebrew songs, and/or giving some sort of presentation on Judaism. What would be appropriate for me, as a Jew, to do in the context of this Unitarian-Universalist service? (C.C.)
T’shuvah
The questioner inquires about two possible roles for a Jewish visitor to a Unitarian-Universalist church: as a Jewish participant in the regular worship service, or as a teacher of Judaism. Let us consider each of these.
I. Participation in a Unitarian-Universalist service
As Reform Jews, committed to an open-minded and pluralistic approach to other religions, it can sometimes be a challenge to balance our commitment to a distinctive and exclusive covenantal path with cooperative interfaith activity.[1] We must avoid any inauthentic practices, as R. Solomon Freehof explained with reference to interfaith services:
Whatever parts of the respective rituals cannot be in conscience participated in or recited by one of the participants, should not be assigned to him, or else the participant becomes merely an actor reciting words for the sake of a dramatic performance. The joint service, in order to achieve its worthy purpose, must be completely sincere. As rabbis cannot participate in Communion, priests and ministers cannot recite such blessings as speak of Israel’s unique gift of the Torah; and so with other and similar elements of Jewish and Christian services. Only that which can be spoken with clear conscience and full sincerity can serve to make of these occasional joint services a true declaration of spiritual brotherhood.[2]
Paradoxically, however, the openness of Unitarian-Universalism complicates this question. We accord every religious tradition its own integrity, parallel to the integrity of our own, and we do not mix them. But the essence of Unitarian-Universalism is to reject that notion of integrity in favor of a broad acceptance of anything one finds meaningful, regardless of its source. This means that a Jewish visitor who participates in a UU service will be regarded by the congregation as a full participant, i.e., implicitly affirming for themselves the spiritual validity of that service. This is something we cannot do, as this committee has explained:
The Torah says: I am the ETERNAL your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage; you shall have no other gods besides Me (Ex. 20:2–3). But a Unitarian Universalist is free to choose to worship multiple deities or powers, including the earth, Jesus, Hindu deities, and more; or no deities….[A]ccording to the UU website, UU worship is characterized by the inclusion of spiritual practices (prayers, holidays, and rituals) from all traditions. For a Jew to engage in the worship of any power in addition to God is to engage in shituf, adding other powers alongside the One God, and we are forbidden to do so.[3]
In addition to shituf, we are concerned about the possibility of mar’it ayin, i.e., doing something permitted in a context where it would lead someone to conclude, incorrectly, that something forbidden is actually permitted. There may well be Jews present who are members of the UU church; a visitor representing Judaism should not do anything that would inadvertently lead them to conclude that their commitment to Unitarian-Universalism is Jewishly acceptable.
For all these reasons, any act that affirms, or appears to affirm, that the Jewish visitor believes and shares in the religious significance of the service is unacceptable.
II. Teaching Judaism to non-Jews
It may strike the modern reader as surprising that the Talmud forbids Jews to teach Torah to non-Jews, and also prohibits non-Jews from studying Torah, with the exception of the seven Noahide laws which apply to them.[4]
Subsequent authorities disagreed over how to interpret these prohibitions.[5] Did they apply to the Oral Torah (i.e., the rabbinic tradition) or also to the Written Torah? Or did they mean that a non-Jew is welcome to study the texts, but not to learn the interpretative hermeneutics by which the rabbis analyze Scripture and precedent to develop new law? However widely or narrowly the prohibitions were construed, it is evident that later authorities regarded them as necessary defensive measures. For centuries, rabbinic authorities feared—with good cause—that gentiles who studied Torah were motivated by a desire to do harm to Jews and to Judaism. R. Menahem Ha-Meiri of Provence (1249–1315), for example, explained that the prohibition reflected concern that “a non-Jew who becomes proficient in Torah scholarship may be accepted as a Jew and thus be in a position to subvert the religious practices of Jews.”[6] The rabbis’ fear that Torah scholarship could be misused emerges clearly in Maimonides’ codification of the prohibitions:
An idolator who studies Torah is guilty of a capital crime. He may only engage in the study of their seven Noahide laws. The same applies to an idolator who observed Shabbat, even on a weekday. If he designated it for himself as a sort of Shabbat, he is guilty of a capital crime. And there is no need to mention that the same is true if he observed a [Torah] festival for himself. The general principle is that we do not allow them to invent a religion (le-chadesh dat) and make up mitzvot for themselves. Either he should become a righteous proselyte and observe all the mitzvot, or he should continue to adhere to his Torah [i.e., the seven Noahide laws], and he should neither add nor detract.
[However,] a Noahide who wants to observe any of the rest of the mitzvot of the Torah in order to receive a reward—we do not prevent them from observing it properly.[7]
Indeed, our history is all too full of examples of pseudo-scholarly or completely baseless misrepresentations of our tradition.[8] The modern era, too, is rife with antisemitic attacks on Judaism and Jewish texts. We also face the challenge of groups like the “Messianics,” who assert that their conservative Christian theology is the “true” Judaism that has been suppressed by the rabbis,[9] and the “Hebrew Israelites,” a Black American group who believe themselves, rather than the “white Jews,” to be the authentic descendants of biblical Israel.[10]
There is a vast amount of confusion and misinformation out there about us. The best way to combat misinformation is to share accurate information. For that reason, medieval Jews defended themselves in disputations when necessary, and composed their own refutations of anti-Jewish polemics, doing their best to take control of their own narrative and define themselves. And in our own day, unfettered by fear of retaliation for a too-successful defense, surely we have no reason not to do our very best to explain ourselves to our neighbors. Many non-Jews are genuinely interested in learning about Judaism, and teaching them is both to our benefit and to theirs. This is the conclusion of R. Jehiel Jacob Weinberg (1885–1966), who adds, “It is possible that [teaching non-Jews about Torah] has an element of Kiddush Ha-Shem about it, for they will thereby learn to respect and value the laws of our holy Torah.”[11] We certainly share that sentiment.
We are not concerned that a presentation about Judaism in place of the regular sermon could be construed as participation in the service. Having guest speakers in place of sermons is a widespread practice, and there is no assumption on the part of a congregation of any sort that a guest speaker shares their religious views.
Educating non-Jews about Judaism need not be limited to a lecture. What about sharing words or melodies from our liturgy? Bringing or using ritual objects? We see nothing objectionable in anything that is obviously pedagogical and not incorporated into the church service.
Conclusion
In short, teaching non-Jews about Judaism is a positive, and we encourage it. The fact that the teaching is taking place within a church service is not an issue, as long as it is clear that you are present as a guest speaker (and singer) and not as a co-leader of their worship. We therefore offer these conclusions:
Inappropriate actions:
- Leading the congregation in a Jewish prayer, i.e., anything from our regular liturgy.
- Leading the congregation in performing a Jewish ritual.
- Co-leading the church service, e.g., reading one of their prayers OR reading a Jewish prayer, or a Jewish liturgical song, as an insertion into their regular service. (See one exception to this below, #4.)
Appropriate actions:
- A lecture or educational presentation of any kind in the regular sermon slot.
- Bringing a ritual object and describing its use.
- Saying the b’rachah and performing a ritual if it could appropriately be done at that time, e.g., demonstrating putting on one’s tallit (and t’fillin on a weekday morning).
- Singing some song from our tradition with suitably universal sentiments as the conclusion of their service. Like guest speakers in sermon slots, concluding songs and benedictions are often used as ways to go outside of one’s own tradition, and would not signal acceptability of participation in UU worship.
- Preparing in advance, for them to use in their service, adaptations of passages from our liturgy that express suitably universal sentiments (e.g., maariv aravim).
Neither of these lists is necessarily exhaustive; other possibilities could arise. But the preceding discussion should provide sufficient guidance in those cases.
CCAR Responsa Committee:
Rabbi Joan S. Friedman, PhD, Chair
Rabbi Howard L. Apothaker, PhD
Rabbi Carey Brown
Rabbi Lawrence A. Englander, DHL
Rabbi Audrey R. Korotkin, PhD
Rabbi Sari Laufer
Rabbi Amy Scheinerman
Rabbi Brian Stoller
Rabbi Micah Streiffer
Rabbi David Z. Vaisberg
Rabbi Dvora E. Weisberg, PhD
Rabbi Jeremy Weisblatt
Rabbi Gersh Zylberman, MD
[1] On Reform attitudes toward participation in interfaith activities in general, see Mark Washofsky, Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice (NY: UAHC, 2000), 274ff.
[2] Modern Reform Responsa #11:“Interfaith Services” (https://www.ccarnet.org/ccar-responsa/mrr-69–78/).
[3] 5780.4: “Conversion of a Committed Unitarian-Universalist,” https://www.ccarnet.org/ccar-responsa/5780-4-conversion-of-a-committed-unitarian-universalist/.
[4] B. Chagigah 13a; B. Sanhedrin 59a.
[5] See the thorough survey by J. David Bleich, “Survey of Recent Halakhic Periodical Literature: Teaching Torah to non-Jews,” Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, Vol. 18, no. 2 (Summer 1980): 192–211. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23258634. Accessed 5 July 2021.
[6] Cited in Bleich, 193–194.
[7] Yad H. Melakhim 10:9–10.
[8] See, e.g., Bernhard Blumenkranz, “Dominicans,” in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed., edited by Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik (Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007), Vol. 5, col. 745–746, Gale eBooks, accessed 13 July 2021; David Berger, Persecution, Polemic, and Dialogue: Essays in Jewish-Christian Relations (Boston, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2010), accessed 13 July 2021, ProQuest Ebook Central; Elisheva Carlebach and Jacob J. Schacter, eds., New Perspectives on Jewish-Christian Relations (Leiden: Brill, 2011), accessed 13 July 2021, ProQuest Ebook Central.
[9] See Barry Rubin, You Bring the Bagels, I’ll Bring the Gospel: How to Witness to Your Jewish Neighbor (Messianic Jewish Publishers, 1997). On our attitude toward “Messianics” see Reform Responsa for the 21st Century, Vol. II: 5761.2, “Donations to Synagogue By Messianic Jews” (https://www.ccarnet.org/ccar-responsa /nyp-no-5761-2/).
[10] “Canton Family’s Faith at the Center of McKinley High Football Coach Abuse Allegations,”
https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/2021/06/06/who-hebrew-israelites-what-tie-canton-mckinley- football/7522773002/. (N.B. I had a Black student tell me on the first day of class this past semester that he was a Hebrew Israelite, and therefore a real Jew, and that I, as a “White Jew,” was not a real Jew. – Rabbi Joan S. Friedman)
[11] Responsa Seridei Eish II, no. 56.