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visions — image of God, faith 
in God, love of neighbor — 
and turns them into patterns 
of behavior. Halachah (Jewish 
law) involves a set of routines 
that — like those of the great 
creative minds — reconfigures 
the brain, giving discipline to 
our lives and changing the way 
we feel, think and act.

A PATTERN OF BEHAVIOR
Much of Judaism must seem 
to outsiders, and sometimes to 
insiders also, boring, prosaic, 
mundane, repetitive, routine, 
obsessed with details and bereft 
for the most part of drama or 
inspiration. Yet that is precisely 
what writing the novel, com-
posing the symphony, directing 
the film, perfecting the killer 
app or building a billion-dollar 
business is, most of the time. 
It is a matter of hard work, 
focused attention and daily rit-
uals. That is where all sustain-
able greatness comes from.
We have developed in the 
West a strange view of religious 
experience: that it’s what over-
whelms you when something 
happens completely outside 
the run of normal experience. 
You climb a mountain and 
look down. You are miracu-
lously saved from danger. You 
find yourself part of a vast 
and cheering crowd. It’s how 
the German Lutheran theolo-
gian Rudolf Otto (1869-1937) 
defined “the holy”: as a mystery 
(mysterium) both terrifying 
(tremendum) and fascinating 
(fascinans). You are awed by 
the presence of something vast. 
We have all had such experi-
ences.
But that is all they are: 
experiences. They linger in 
the memory, but they are not 
part of everyday life. They are 
not woven into the texture of 
our character. They do not 

affect what we do or achieve 
or become. Judaism is about 
changing us so that we become 
creative artists whose great-
est creation is our own life. 
And that needs daily rituals: 
Shacharit, Minchah, Maariv, 
the food we eat, the way we 
behave at work or in the home, 
the choreography of holiness 
that is the special contribution 
of the priestly dimension of 
Judaism, set out in this week’s 
parshah and throughout the 
Book of Vayikra (Leviticus).
These rituals have an effect. 
We now know through PET 
and fMRI scans that repeated 
spiritual exercise reconfigures 
the brain. It gives us inner 
resilience. It makes us more 
grateful. It gives us a sense of 
basic trust in the Source of our 
being. It shapes our identity, 
the way we act and talk and 
think. Ritual is to spiritual 
greatness what practice is to 
a tennis player, daily writing 
disciplines are to a novelist and 
reading company accounts are 
to Warren Buffett. They are the 
precondition of high achieve-
ment. Serving God is avodah, 
which means hard work.
If you seek sudden inspira-
tion, then work at it every day 
for a year or a lifetime. That 
is how it comes. As a famous 
golfer is said to have said when 
asked for the secret of his suc-
cess: “I was just lucky. But the 
funny thing is that the harder I 
practice, the luckier I become.
” 
The more you seek spiritual 
heights, the more you need the 
ritual and routine of Halachah, 
the Jewish “way” to God. 

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks 

served as the chief rabbi of the 

United Hebrew Congregations of the 

Commonwealth, 1991-2013. His teach-

ings have been made available to 

all at rabbisacks.org. This essay was 

written in 2016.

SPIRIT

Religion as Action 
T

he Maharal (Prague, 
1525-1609), in his 
book Netivot Olam 
(Netiv Ahavat Reia, 1), records 
an iconic debate between 
the rabbis of early rabbinic 
Judaism over which is the 
greatest, most encom-
passing verse of Torah.
Ben Zoma begins, 
asserting it is the 
Shemah, “Hear, Oh 
Israel, Y-H-V-H — Our 
God — Y-H-V-H is 
One” (Deuteronomy 6:4). 
Ask 10 Jews in the pews 
what the central credo 
of Judaism is, and at 
least a few will prob-
ably say the Shemah. 
So, Ben Zoma’s logic 
is sound. God is One. 
That’s pretty inclusive. 
And important. 
Ben Nannos is up next, and 
he claims that there is an even 
more important verse than 
the Shemah: “You shall love 
your neighbor as yourself” 
(Leviticus 19:18). It’s not called 
the “Golden Rule” for nothing, 
right? And no matter what 
you think about God, loving 
your neighbor is an admirable 
foundation for a religious life. 
Again, the reasoning is solid.
Finally, Shimon ben Pazzi 
joins the conversation and 
offers his verse — a verse even 
greater, even more inclusive 
than the first two, which 
comes from this week’s Torah 
portion: “Now this is what 
you shall offer upon the altar: 
two yearling lambs each day, 
consistently (tamid). You shall 
offer the one lamb in the 
morning, and you shall offer 
the other lamb at twilight.
” 
(Exodus 29:38-39). This makes 
sense because … Wait, what? 
The most important, most 

inclusive verse in all of Torah 
is about sacrificing lambs?
Counterintuitively, perhaps, 
the correct ruling, according 
to the text’s narrator, is ben 
Pazzi’s.
Religion is made out to be 
this mystical, spiritual, 
esoteric experience. The 
Mt. Sinais and parting 
seas of the world. And, 
of course, in some ways, 
and in some instances, 
it can be. We yearn for 
it to be. But mostly, 
Judaism cares about 
doing Jewish, regularly. 
Aligning ourselves with 
Divine will every day.
The narrator sides 
with ben Pazzi because 
serving the Divine with 
consistency, commit-
ment and regularity is 
the key. For it’s that consis-
tency of practice that leads 
to loving one’s neighbor, and 
it’s loving one’s neighbor that 
leads to marveling in God’s 
Oneness. But we don’t start 
with the abstract. We start 
with the doing. Not so much 
sacrificing lambs anymore, 
but trying to live a life of 
goodness, righteousness and 
holiness.
According to this teaching, 
being Jewish is a title that 
must be earned through our 
actions. A verb not a noun. 
As Jews, our task is to live in 
right relationships, in integri-
ty, aligning what we do with 
what we believe, orienting our 
actions with our values, day in 
and day out.
That, says ben Pazzi, is the 
greatest lesson in Torah. 

Rabbi Nate DeGroot is the Hazon 

Detroit associate director and 

spiritual and program director. 

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi Nate 
DeGroot

Parshat 

Tetzaveh: 

Exodus 

27:20-30:10; 

Deuteronomy 

25:17-19; I 

Samuel 

15:2-34.

