Jewish spirituality and aesthetics
•
Without a
balance
between
self, family
and com-
munity,
spirit-
uality can
become a
self-
indulgence.
28
—
enjoying the world
only by accepting Judaism's entire writ-
ten and oral traditions. Reform and Con-
servative Judaism's more critical stance
toward these, he stated, suggests they
have more diluted forms of spirituality
than does Orthodoxy.
Rabbi Goldberger and Laurence
Kushner, a Reform rabbi in Sudbury,
Ma., differed considerably on the ulti-
mate experience that may result from in-
tense Jewish spirituality. A Jew, said
Rabbi Goldberger, "can become infinitely
close to God, but cannot merge with Him.
If a person adds to the oneness of God,
then it is not a Jewish God."
But Rabbi Kushner, who has written
several books on Jewish spirituality, said
a spiritual person may "not be content
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1990
—
are closely linked.
merely to see what God sees, but wants
to see with God's eyes."
One does mitzvot, said Rabbi Kushner,
"because you suspect that is what God
needs you to do because He doesn't have
arms. If we are transported and trans-
formed by doing something for someone
we love, think how much more are we
transformed when we do something for
God."
Rabbi Kushner does not "measure my
religiosity by the number of mitzvot I
perform. I measure it by my perceived
proximity to God. Doing mitzvot may be
a gauge."
For Rabbi Kushner, the ways to get
close to God "change from day to day.
The ground rules change daily, just as
they change in any healthy relationship."
Also changing for Rabbi Kushner are
the ways of Torah. Although he said a
Jew can most readily come to his reli-
gious tradition through Torah, he also be-
lieves that the Torah is "not [the] fixed,
static document" of contemporary Or-
thodoxy, but a divine compass tailored
for each yearning, individual human soul.
Being in the World
But beyond these disputes about spiri-
tuality, said Nathan Katz, professor of re-
ligious studies at the University of South
Florida, Jewish spirituality "teaches us
how to appreciate the life that God has