Why Talk About Other Religions?

The Torah content for this week has been sponsored by Ellis and Janice Cohen in memory of Rabbi Moskowitz zt"l.

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Artwork: Shatter Assumptions, by Chuck Lukacs

Why Talk About Other Religions?

Last week I wrote an article which concluded with the following paragraph:

One of the many aspects of Judaism I appreciate is the ability to conduct “halachic archaeology.” In other religions and cultures, asking, “Why do we do XYZ?” will often be met with a shrug – or worse, with the non-answer of “TRADITION!” In Judaism, there are always answers, and it is always possible to conduct research to find them.

A friend of mine posed the following questions, in a series of sequential Facebook comments (abbreviated here):

Why do you think this is a difference between Judaism and other religions and cultures, rather than a difference between thoughtful people and the masses in many religions and cultures? …  At least speaking for myself, I am more confident in my knowledge of the good of Torah, than in the things other cultures/religions are missing. How do you know that they lack that value (at least as an ideal)? Even if other cultures had a similar value, how likely would you have heard of it? Flipping the question, how likely would an outsider be to know Torah is chachma (wisdom) based? …

More importantly, what is the need to look outside and make the comparison? What is lacking if we “merely” had gratitude for being part of a system which values this, without raising the question if others have the value too? … I guess this is a special case of a broader question. Why do we sometimes focus on the contrast (“shelo asani Goy” “for not making me a gentile,” “asher bachar banu mikol ha’amim” “Who chose us from among all the nations” etc.). What do we mean by it and what does it add? What would be lacking if we only reflected on the good that we have (“she’asani Yisrael” “Who made me a Jew”), without worrying about how it stacks up with other peoples’ good?

Strictly speaking, my friend is probably correct. Other religions and cultures may indeed have a contingent which can answer the types of questions I raised. Perhaps other religions and cultures do share this same value of chochmah that we have in Judaism. Perhaps there is no need to look outside of ourselves. Perhaps we should focus exclusively on our own good – yet, I am nevertheless compelled by my pedagogic experience and intuition to make such statements anyway.

When I was a high school teacher, I taught many students who were in conflict about their Judaism and/or their conviction in God. I was not at all bothered by such students. In fact, I often found that they were more intellectually honest in their quest for truth than many of their peers. But you know what really irked me? When they expressed their doubts and questions by saying things like, “I’m not so into religion” or “I have questions about religion” or “I don’t think I can accept religion.” This bothered me. A lot. I would ask them, “Is your question about ‘religion’ in general or is it about your religion of Judaism?” Sure enough, their question was always about Judaism in specific. Upon establishing this, I’d ask, “So why are you expressing your questions and doubts as if they are about ‘religion’ in general?” This was a rhetorical question. I knew the answer: in their minds, Judaism was basically no different than any other religion. And since they were raised in a secular and anti-religious culture, many of their objections to Judaism were raised in the framework of generic “religion.” 

Because I taught so many kids like this, I got into the habit of emphasizing that Judaism is not an ordinary religion. Was this rhetoric on my part? Yes. But I felt that this rhetoric was necessary in our day and age. I did not want a single one of my students to waltz through their four years of high school making the mistake of lumping Judaism into the same category as other religions. I wanted to ensure that any time they felt an anti-religious impulse, they would ask themselves, “Is this a problem I have with religion or with Judaism? Does Judaism actually hold like this, or am I making assumptions?” 

To answer my friend’s question: yes, I can only speak with any degree of authority about Judaism. Perhaps I would be better off only talking and writing about what I know, without making assumptions about other religions and cultures. And yet, even though I am currently not a high school teacher, I feel compelled to continue doing my part in this ongoing culture war by differentiating Judaism from other religions. If such distinctions prove to be inaccurate but lead readers to question their assumptions and delve deeper into Judaism, then I have done my job. And I have Hillel as my precedent.

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