A-Z OF JEWISH VALUES -

U FOR UNIVERSALISM

It is always a pleasure to welcome visitors of other faiths to our service. This morning once again we have students from the Northern Ordination Course sitting up there in the ‘gods’ and it’s a pleasure to welcome you once again – it’s become a tradition for you to visit us once a year, and on occasion I have had the pleasure of returning the compliment, visiting your College and taking part in your study programme.

If you come again, as you are most welcome to, in a couple of week’s time, on the festival of Purim, you will experience a very different kind of atmosphere. Like a pantomime atmosphere as we read the book of Esther and celebrate our miraculous rescue from a tyrannical regime in Persia in the 6^th Century BCE which threatened to exterminate us all. On Purim, children are encouraged to wear fancy dress (some adults do too) and the custom is to boo the villain of the story (here we also cheer the heroes). It’s a fantasy story – we have faced real genocide, (whatever David Irving says) – it’s a way of opening our psychological safety valves. It’s the antidote to paranoia. Rather like the spirit in Britain during the 2^nd World War: ‘When you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you’, so in our trying times we need this kind of release.

The serious message of Purim, on the face of it, is a very specifically Jewish one. It also bears a universal message: the human right of self-determination. It is the message of universalism. Let me just say a little about this in the short time we have left.

Universalism was a 19th century Jewish concept which grew out of the Enlightenment. It became embedded in Reform Judaism. Today it is part of the liberal (with a small 'l') ethos of ‘live and let live’, affirming the values of multiculturalism, pluralism and any ‘ism which celebrates difference. But it’s under threat.

We are living in a polarised world: on the one hand there is a global epidemic of fundamentalist fanaticism, stimulated by the internet, by those who seek domination for their world-outlook, whether they are white supremacists, missionary cults within evangelical Christianity, or Islamists (I’m not sure that the word Islamist is gaining currency meaning those who seek the supremacy of Islam. I prefer to call it Sham-Islam).

On the other hand interfaith activity is proceeding apace with unprecedented intensiveness and urgency. Today’s universalism is sharing what we have in common and overcoming common problems of racism and disrespect.

Jewish people have a self-image of being apart from the globalization of religion. We are not a missionary faith; and it’s true we are not and mostly have never been.

The question that raises is: do we then not believe that our faith has anything of value to say to the world?

The Reform Movement in Judaism when it started out in Germany in the early nineteenth century and then later in the USA, actually did have a mission. It was more like what we would call today an ethos statement. It was, to put it in its broadest terms, that the Jewish people have a purpose in the world as bearers of the ethics of Torah and the prophets. And the objective was to bring nearer the Age of the Messiah. Reform did not hold a monopoly on this mission statement. Eminent Orthodox thinkers like Rav Kook the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine shared it.

For him sparks of the divine hide in every person and in every culture. It is our job individually and collectively to release the sparks and unite them with their Divine Source. Christians and Muslims have versions of the sparks which they inherited from Judaism. We all have to work on purifying and releasing the light. That’s our mission.

We don’t use this word mission today. It’s become archaic. I think people regard it as pretentious. Our Movement for Reform Judaism now speaks of Tikkun Olam (repair of the world). That’s our current version of universalism. Whether it’s backing the Make Poverty History campaign, or Interfaith Work, or peace work for Israel – it all comes under the heading of Tikkun Olam. If our Reform Judaism is to be truly meaningful, and purposeful we have to work on that one, you and I. Tikkun Olam (repair of the world) requires Tikkun Am, repair of the people (so much the victim for so long) and that requires Tikkun Atzmo – repair of oneself (how can we resist being dragged down by despair?)

It’s a dangerous world we are living in. The splits within religions can be as horrific as those between as we saw this week with the bombing of the Shi’ite Temple in Iraq. At times like this people tend to turn inwards. We are justifiably concerned about the level of Anti-Semitism which in this country has reached its highest level in terms of violent incidents since the war.

The Purim story, whilst it gives occasion for traditional Jewish fun, is a reminder that evil forces which threaten people with differences from society’s norms are a universal phenomenon.

Next month we’ll be celebrating a landmark in English-Jewish history – the 350^th anniversary of the readmission of the Jews into this country under Oliver Cromwell after another 350 years of being banned from these shores. It’s nothing to be proud of that England was the first country in Europe to expel its entire Jewish community in 1290. It is a history lesson which is at the very heart of identity as British Jews.

The lesson is to have a sensitive heart for the outsider, for we have been outsiders many times. A sensitive heart, publicly and personally.

Tikkun Olam – repair of the world, Tikkun Am, repair of the people, and prior to it all Tikkun Atzmo – repair of oneself.