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Some fear the obsession with "relevance" that turns eternal truths into the putty of fads. Others fear the ven- eration of habit, the confusion of antiquity with authentic- ity. Some fear the distillation of Judaism into ethical culture alone while others fear the en- forced muteness of the pro- phetic voice. Some fear the unmoored idealism which encourages us territorial imperative has desensitized our moral sense. Identifying and understand- ing the fears which tacitly in- form all our theories and practices may help us develop a warmer and more natural pluralistic outlook. Another side to the train- ing of the pluralist sensibili- ty is the willing suspension of fault finding. With that in mind, I announced a series of lecture-sermons on "The Best of Judaism": The Best of Or- thodox Judaism, The Best of Conservative Judaism, The Best of Reform Judaism, The Best of Reconstructionist Judaism, The Best of Satmer Judaism, The Best of Luba- vitch Judaism, The Best of Secular Judaism — seven va- rieties of Jewish interpreta- tions. The exercise is designed to overcome invidious com- parisons, and the "ger- rymandering" that assigns the best to our own jurisdic- tion and leaves all the rest to the others. It confronts the avowed pluralist with a series of questions. Can I preach and teach another approach to Jewish theology and obser- vances without condescen- sion? Can I suspend all nega- tivities about the other's theory and practice and allow its strengths and affirma- tions to shine forth? Can I identify the elements which attract other fellow Jews to these movements and res- pond to their needs? In the course of preparing for such lectures, I experi- enced the temptations to find faults in other movements, in- stitutions and leaders. Some- how their weaknesses are taken as my strength, their failings my victories, their flawed projects as justifica- tion for my having to do nothing about the problems they seek to address. With twisted logic, I drew dan- gerous conclusions: If they are wrong, I am right; if they falter, I stand erect. The con- clusions do not follow. Erik Erikson once commented "You have heard of the rabbi who felt inhibited when he was asked to make a speech in heaven. 'I am only good at refutation: he said. Refuta- tion has replaced affirmation. Can I make a speech without refutation?" The exercise in pluralism is not designed to kill the critic- al sense or to subdue the reservations or objections. I bracket these, hold them in abeyance because they tend to eclipse the brightness of the other side. The task is to humanize our disagreements, clarify our own fidelities, and acknowledge the plentitude of our old-new traditions. The pluralistic exercises celebrate no piety of poly- theism — all the gods are gods. It is not meant to deny conflicting preferences. But, in the preparation for the series I sensed the transcen- dent unity in Judaism, a con- firmation of Chesterson's in- sight that "heresies are splinters of the whole." The empathic exercise is not for rabbis alone. Through such projects, havurot and adult education circles could serve the well-being of the Jewish community and the self-understanding of the in- dividual Jew. No one, I suspect, will be converted from his denominational pro- clivity to another, though it would be far from calamitous if such a change took place out of conviction. More like- ly, the attitude towards alter- native ways of Jewish believ- ing, thinking and behaving would be altered towards the good and one's own Jewish awareness elevated. 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