Community Views

Editor's Notebook

Getting Down
To 'Jewish' Basics

By 'Hanging Out,' We
Might Become Friends

STACIE FINE SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

PHIL JACOBS EDITOR

My class is on the
final leg of the
rabbinics portion
of our seminary
training this
year. We are
wrestling with
contemporary
thinkers' concep-
tions of Judaism,
Jewish history and culture.
Many of the writers seem to try
to boil things down to "the essence
of Judaism. They make sweep-
ing proclamations about the "mar
and "true" essence of what Ju-
daism is.
Of course, they don't agree on
the answers, but they often seem
to agree that there is a single,
definable, core
essence of Ju-
daism. So, since
my doctoral dis-
sertation is due
some 18 months
hence, I'd darn
well better get
working on cap-
turing that
essence myself;—
no?
I have recently
finished teaching
two classes at the
local college in my
adopted home
town of Traverse
City: one on con-
temporary spiri-
tuality and the
other on the
philosophical im-
plications of the
Holocaust, with
particular refer-
ence to how the
lessons of history
can be applied in a
homogenous com-
munity like Traverse City.
Over and over again in these
seemingly unrelated activities, I
reach the same two-word conclu-
sion about the essence of both
courses: Be nice. Yes, "be nice." I
don't want to sound like Nancy
Reagan and her insultingly sim-
plistic "just say no" line over
which we roared with indignant
liberal laughter. But for me, the
paths keep converging on a sim-
ple truth: Be nice.
In March, I conducted my sec-
ond freelance Shabbat service in
Traverse City on the theme of
"Jews and Christians: Building
Bridges and Healing our Histo-
ries." How can we heal our histo-
ries? By studying what has united
and divided our cultures, by
learning some of the lessons our
cultures share.
And what is one of those

Stacie Fine is community
development director for the
Society for. Humanistic
Judaism.

lessons? (Please say this with me.)
Be nice.
Every Monday evening for al-
most two years, I have been of-
fering a women's spirituality
gathering. We wrestle with the
essential truths about our exis-
tence, with pain, with creativity,
with living a spiritual life. The
conclusion we reach over and over
again:
Be nice and find other nice,
like-minded people to be nice to
and with. A pattern is emerging.
Jews, in the words of Hillel;
say, "What is hurtful to yourself
do not do to others. That is the
whole of the Torah. All the rest is
commentary, now go and learn
it."

Christians say, "Do unto oth-
ers as you would have them do
unto you." In Islam, the saying
goes, "Do unto all people as you
wish to have done unto you, and
reject for others what you would
reject for yourselves." In Bud-
dhism: "Hurt not others with that
which pains yourself."
In Confucianism: "Is there one
principle upon which one's whole
life may proceed?" The Master
replied, "Is not reciprocity such a
principle? What you do not your-
self desire, do not put before oth-
ers." And in Hinduism: "This is
the sum of all true righteousness:
Treat others as thou wouldst thy-
self be treated. Do nothing to thy
neighbor which hereafter thou
wouldst not have thy neighbor do
to thee."
So this simple truth, which
if we could slow ourselves down
enough could really guide our
actions, is shared by most of the
world's major traditions. Jews
don't own it exclusively, so can
that be our essence? Can our

essential ethical principle be
something that is not uniquely
or exclusively Jewish? Embrac-
ing Jewish culture is in part
about celebrating what makes
us unique: our history and cul-
ture.
But a mature Jewish spiritu-
ality also embraces the idea that
the "Be Nice" commandment is
not ours alone and (despite what
I was taught in Hebrew school)
we did not invent it. We share
this great and simple ethical
truth with many other peoples,
and while it has found beautiful
expression in our culture, this es-
sential truth of Judaism is one
that links us inextricably with
most of the other traditions of the
world we share. I be-
' lieve that this
makes it even more
beautiful.
The fact that we
do not have exclu-
sive rights to this
truth means that
our dignity and
worth as a people
are bound up with
the dignity and
worth of all people,
which can best be
promoted through
the simple strategy
of learning to culti-
vate a place in our-
selves where we are
thoughtful and
kind.
So what is the
essence of Judaism?
The essence is that
we are a unique cul-
ture with a rich and
varied history and
that we are part of
the human family,
sharing in truths
and foibles like all peoples.
When I reflect on the world
and the areas where I can have
an impact on healing it, it boils
down not to some lofty action
strategies, far-out spiritual tech-
niques or esoteric practices but
simply this: to be awake and
aware enough to remember to be
a little extra-nice, to do a decent
deed, to give up a parking space,
to let someone into traffic, to lis-
ten a little more carefully to-my
family, to go out of my way every
now and again to make some-
one's moment a little nicer in
some way.
Many of us on the spiritual
path like to mask this simplici-
ty with practices and procedures,
meetings and meditations. These
tools are important and useful
but they are all simple signposts
to an essential human truth:
that we have the capacity to cul-
tivate menschlichkeit (humane-
ness, decency) and sharing this
is the essence of all gdodness, no
matter what our culture. ❑

a
group of our
neighbors got
together to
make shalach
manot as part of
The Neighbor-
hood Project
and JEFF's
wonderful
Purim Parcel Project. The event
was held at the Jimmy Prentis
Morris Building of the JCC.
It was a joint effort spurred
largely by members of three
Oak Park congregations: Young
Israel of Oak Park, Temple
Emanu-El and Congregation
Beth Shalom.
Families donated kosher can-
dy, raisins, peanuts and other
items for the parcels. Children
and adults decorated squares of
muslin fabric with markers,
paint and stencils. Then the
parcels were tied together with
curling ribbon. The shalach
manot were distributed last
Sunday to Jewish people who
might otherwise go without the
mitzvah.
It was by everyone's estima-
tion a wonderful day. How could
it be anything but win-win?
Let's talk about the day over
the next few paragraphs. Then
I need to tell you, I'm sick and
tired. You'll see why.
"When looking around the
room I knew many of the incli-
vithisls and recognized many of
the faces," said Beth Shalom's
Sharona Shapiro, who helped
coordinate the effort along with
Beth Applebaum of Temple
Emanu-El and Esther Sherizen
of Young Israel of Oak Park. "It
didn't matter if they were affil-
iated with Orthodox or Reform
or Conservative [synagogues], .
they were families I knew or vol-
unteers I've come in contact
with. We were made to feel very
comfortable, and we were there
for a common purpose. We
didn't get into ideological or the-
ological discussion. We were do-
ing something with our children
for others."
For Ms. Applebaum, the
Purim Parcel Project was a huge
success for all the right reasons.
"It didn't really matter where
you came from," she said.
"Everyone was there to make
parcels and to help someone less
fortunate. Nobody asked any-
one else where he or she came
from. It wasn't that important.
What was important was that
we were getting along. You
started talking to the person
next to you. I think the success
of this activity should lead to
more joint activities. I can't
imagine we wouldn't do this sort
of thing again."
Esther Sherizen of Young Is-
rael of Oak Park agreed.

Recently,

"It was very exciting to be a
part of an event like that, watch-
ing people from different syna-
gogues working together," said
Mrs. Sherizen. "I think people
are generally curious about
what people do in other syna-
gogues. This gave us an oppor-
tunity to meet each other in a
nonthreatening kind of way. Do-
ing something like this togeth-
er was something very special.
I learned a lot from Beth and
Sharona. When we said good-
bye, we said we hoped to do
something else together."
Now, why am I sick and
tired? With quotes like these,
what's to be sad about? Because
when Orthodox, Conservative
and Reform Jews get together
for something positive, it be-
comes front-page news.
In last week's Jewish News,
we read of how Shir Tikvah's
Rabbi Arnie Sleutelberg was
part of a contingent of 50 Re-
form rabbis from all over the
country who were shunned at
the Wall in Jerusalem by Hare-
di, or Orthodox Jews.
Sunday, following a speech I
delivered for the Jewish Com-
munity Council, a friend, who
happens to be Conservative, told
me that the issue of pluralism
in Israel will take center stage
within the next couple of years.
If you are Reform or Conserva-
tive and you look to Israel as
your "homeland," there's a
chance you could be feeling like
a second-class citizen these days,
and those feelings could inten-
sify in the coming years.
But it goes both ways.
There are plenty of our Re-
form and Conservative friends
whose misconceptions and
stereotypes about the Orthodox
are nothing short of bigotry.
My goodness, how many dif-
ferent versions of this same
theme do I find myself writing?
Enough already.
We are Jews. Whether or not
you affiliate yourself at all in any
denomination or you are pray-
ing three times a day, nobody is
better than anyone else. And
this fighting, this name calling,
this rabid rejection has got to
come to an end.
If it doesn't, we don't need any
more Hitlers. Because we'll find
the destruction of our own peo-
ple at the other end of the mir-
ror.
Jews have figurative coronary
arrest every time they read
about a Louis Farrakhan or a
David Duke in the news. We
have national organizations that
fund-raise millions of dollars
and come out with all sorts of
mission statements about blacks
and Jews and Arabs and Jews
and anti-Semitism. Yet, we can't

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