Question: Do Reform rabbis believe in God?
Dear Rabbi,
According to an old survey, the vast majority of Reform rabbis could not characterize their belief in G-d in ways that I could appreciate as an actual belief. Could you explain, then, how these rabbis can lead their congregations in prayer, especially during the High Holy Days confessionals? Secondly, is Reform Judaism a Jewish version of the secular humanism of the Ethical Culture movement?
Thank you for your time,
Martin
Answer: Dear Martin,
Thank you for your letter. You ask about what distinguishes Reform Judaism from secular humanism. You also ask about a survey of Reform rabbis that asked about their belief in God.
First, let me address the survey you mentioned. The Lenn Report was a survey of Reform rabbis that was published in 1972, a time of intense change in American society and within the Reform Movement. Today, the report mostly is remembered as a bellwether of increasing interest in traditional observance within Reform Judaism. The report showed large numbers of Reform rabbis who were re-introducing and reinterpreting traditional rituals. That ushered in an era in which Reform Jews have revived ancient practices such as kashrut, tallit, and mikveh, and injected them with new life.
The report also showed an American rabbinate that reflected the general population of the United States at that time -- a population that questioned common assumptions about belief, authority and the very meaning of life. American culture was emerging from an era of strict conformity and rationality. Many Americans, including rabbis, who questioned those assumptions saw themselves as rebelling from a stale and confining past.
A large percentage of the rabbis who responded to the Lenn Report survey indicated that they held a conception of God that varied from what they considered the traditional norm -- a God who created the world, literally revealed Himself at Mount Sinai, who receives and is effected by prayer, who judges human actions, and who intervenes in human history. Like many American Jews at that time, these rabbis just were beginning to question out loud those assumptions about God and saw themselves as rebels for doing so.
That was 34 years ago. Today, most American rabbis and most knowledgeable American Jews have different understandings of what is historically "normative" and what is "rebellious" in Jewish beliefs about God. They recognize that Judaism has never been monolithic in its theology.
For example, Maimonides described God as the unchanging "active intellect" of the universe who cannot be described by any positive attribute. The God of classical Kabbalism is indistinguishable from the deep reality of the universe of which we are all a part. Both of these conceptions of God -- which often are seen as diametric opposites within the spectrum of traditional Jewish belief -- challenge conventional descriptions of God as creator and revealer.
I don't know of any recent follow-up surveys to that of the Lenn Report. However, I would guess that many of those rabbis who, in 1972, characterized their belief in God as being outside of the historical norm of Jewish tradition, now see themselves differently. Contemporary Jewish philosophers such as Eugene Borowitz and Arthur Green, who were profoundly effected by the revolution of the 1970s (and in very different ways), have articulated systems of belief that are deeply rooted in Jewish tradition, yet transcend the Sunday school images of God as literal "Creator-Revealer-Judge."
Almost all of the contemporary Reform rabbis whose writings I have read and with whom I have spoken, understand their theology somewhere within this framework. As a whole, we reject the literal. Like Maimonides, we are unable to accept a God who is, essentially, a bigger and better version of a human being -- who operates the cosmos the way a conductor leads an orchestra. As a whole, we embrace metaphor. We imagine a God who is revealed in the experiences of loving relationships, of hope against despair, and of obligation to that which is beyond ourselves.
I cannot pin down the beliefs of hundreds of Reform rabbis more concisely than that -- we are, of course, a diverse group. We are believers, though, who take the idea of belief quite seriously. I never have met a Reform rabbi who did not feel that something cosmically important was happening in the moment that he or she led Jews in declaring themselves before their God.
How is Reform Judaism different from secular humanism? Like the day is different from the night.
The Reform Movement has explicitly separated itself from rabbis and congregations who do not articulate their vision in terms of a God who is the source of all meaning and purpose in the universe. Even more, we are distinguished from humanism by more than the mere convention of using the word "God" to express that which we choose to venerate.
Secular humanists make clear that they reject any claim of finding truth outside of the material world and human reason. Reform Jews radically and entirely disagree. Reform Judaism stands for the belief that the universe is informed by a moral order that transcends all material considerations. We do not seek to do what is right because it is practical, culturally determined, or conducive to social order. We pursue what is right because IT IS RIGHT -- a truth that has been revealed to us by our people's historical encounter with God.
I hope these comments are helpful to you.
Best wishes,
Rabbi Jeffrey W. Goldwasser
