Dear Friends,
“Just be a good person!”
It is a common refrain that I have heard countless times when someone endeavors to describe what it means to them to be Jewish. “Be a good person.”
It is not a bad goal. In the Yiddish, the highest esteem one could offer another was to be deemed a “Mensch,” a good person.
Yet, I submit that being Jewish asks more of us than merely being a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout—and keeping a generic set of worthy goals to be a good person. If so, God would have commanded us to be Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts, and we would be no different from everyone else who seek to be good persons. But God charged us with far more, including 613 particular commands obligatory upon the Jewish world. Being Jewish demands more than merely holding the door for one another.
Thus, one would think that a certain command in this week’s Torah portion would conflict with my premise. We read, “Be careful to heed all these commandments that I enjoin upon you, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Eternal, your God.” (Deut. 12:28)
You will do good and right. It sounds like being a Boy or girl Scout. And it is! This command is unique and differs from all the others, which charge us to do a particular deed: keep kosher, observe Shabbat, offer a sacrifice. Rather, to do what is good and right offers no guidelines—other than to cultivate and heed one’s inner moral compass. It commands us to be good persons!
And this charge goes farther: it assumes that we have abundant reservoirs of common sense, moral probity, and personal courage and that we can choose to do the good and right in any given situation. In fact, a wise teacher of mine in Jerusalem once called this command the “catch-all command.” It obligates us to the holy and proper behavior in any condition and circumstance in which we may find ourselves, and especially in those situations where Judaism already does not offer explicit guidance.
Hence, for instance, if you do not know how to respond to an unforeseen online situation, do the good and right!
If we find ourselves in an odd business arrangement... do the good and right!
If we find ourselves in a clumsy interpersonal situation... do the good and right!
How wonderful! Perhaps we should dig out that old Boy Scout or Girl Scout sash with all the patches, and it can inspire our best Jewish selves!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
“Just be a good person!”
It is a common refrain that I have heard countless times when someone endeavors to describe what it means to them to be Jewish. “Be a good person.”
It is not a bad goal. In the Yiddish, the highest esteem one could offer another was to be deemed a “Mensch,” a good person.
Yet, I submit that being Jewish asks more of us than merely being a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout—and keeping a generic set of worthy goals to be a good person. If so, God would have commanded us to be Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts, and we would be no different from everyone else who seek to be good persons. But God charged us with far more, including 613 particular commands obligatory upon the Jewish world. Being Jewish demands more than merely holding the door for one another.
Thus, one would think that a certain command in this week’s Torah portion would conflict with my premise. We read, “Be careful to heed all these commandments that I enjoin upon you, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Eternal, your God.” (Deut. 12:28)
You will do good and right. It sounds like being a Boy or girl Scout. And it is! This command is unique and differs from all the others, which charge us to do a particular deed: keep kosher, observe Shabbat, offer a sacrifice. Rather, to do what is good and right offers no guidelines—other than to cultivate and heed one’s inner moral compass. It commands us to be good persons!
And this charge goes farther: it assumes that we have abundant reservoirs of common sense, moral probity, and personal courage and that we can choose to do the good and right in any given situation. In fact, a wise teacher of mine in Jerusalem once called this command the “catch-all command.” It obligates us to the holy and proper behavior in any condition and circumstance in which we may find ourselves, and especially in those situations where Judaism already does not offer explicit guidance.
Hence, for instance, if you do not know how to respond to an unforeseen online situation, do the good and right!
If we find ourselves in an odd business arrangement... do the good and right!
If we find ourselves in a clumsy interpersonal situation... do the good and right!
How wonderful! Perhaps we should dig out that old Boy Scout or Girl Scout sash with all the patches, and it can inspire our best Jewish selves!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
