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Hanukkah begins Saturday.
De ► emner 2 - ■ tn.
Friday, November 21, 1986 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Hours: M-F 10 am-5:45 pm
Th 10 am-7:00 pm
Sat 10 am-5:00 pm
A
recent survey by a
noted social scientist
revealed that over 95
percent of the American
people consider religion to be
a very important part of their
lives. It would seem that God
never had it so good as in
contemporary America. But
in this same survey another
question was asked: "Would
you say your religious beliefs
have any effect on your ideas
of business or in your per-
sonal life?" To this question a
majority answered "no."
This survey indicates quite
clearly that the acceptance of
religion as a force in life is
much stronger in theory than
in practice. Preachments
about kindness, love and
charity are lauded by the
majority of all listeners. But
those same people would
never think of carrying out
these noble ideals in their
business or everyday life.
Religion and ethics are fine
for the synagogue,' but busi-
ness is business.
Why do we fail to take our
religious goals seriously?
Why has religion today be-
come respectable but irrele-
vent?
We are basically practical
people. We expend our
energies on projects which
promise concrete returns and
immediate dividends. The
unspoken question on our lips
when confronted with a task
is: "What's in it for me?" Our
measuring rod is a pragmatic
one.
In a world, where practical
results are expected, religion
must suffer a dismal fate.
Religious commitment and
Tolkut is rabbi at
Cong. B'nai David.
pragmatism are polar oppo-
sites. The one preaches un-
compromising idealism, the
other comfortable accommo-
dation. The one necessitates
subservience to a higher
authority, the other recog-
nizes no authority except the
subjective, short-range view
of man. In the long run
Judaism is of the greatest
spiritual benefit — in the
short run it is impractical.
Kashrut — expensive.
Shabbat — restrictive.
Charity — depriving.
Repentance — anxiety and
guilt producing. And what
could be less practical than
one Jew looking for another
Jew as a marital partner?
Immediately 97 percent of
the population is excluded as
Shabbat Vayera:
Genesis
18:1-22:24;
II Kings 4:1-37
a possible choice. And yet, if
we will not withstand this
pragmatic challenge, Judaism
itself could very well become
nothing, more than a footnote
in history in a matter of a
few generations.
It is the task of religion to
raise man from the depths of
pragmatism to the heights of
idealism. This lesson was
taught to us in its most strik-
ing form by Abraham, the
dominant personality of our
current Torah reading.
We call Abraham, ha-Ivri,
the Hebrew. What does that
word mean? The rabbis of the
Midrash give the following
interpretation: Ki hu me-ever
zeh, Vechol ha-olam me-ever
acher, he would be on one
side even if everyone else was
on the other. Abraham was
not only an iconoclast, he was
also an outcast, taking his