An Interview with Rabbi Sherwin Wine (Part 3 of 3)

Is the Bible in any way sanctified or holy?

No. The Bible for us is the beginning of Jewish literature. And therefore it is interesting in two ways. First of all, like the Iliad and the Odyssey for the Greeks, some of the narratives are gorgeous; some of the poetry is wonderful, regardless of the ideology. I don't have to subscribe to a belief in the Greek gods to enjoy the Iliad and the Odyssey because I'm Jewish. The Bible is the beginning of my people's literature. Some of it is OK, but some of it isn't. We go to the Bible to find out what the people in the Bible believed. What they believed is fine. Some of what they believed may be useful to us; some of it may not.

Don't most Jews believe that? Aren't you saying things that many Jews believe, and saying them as it they were new insights?

I don't doubt that at cocktail parties and in classrooms and in sermons these things are said. But why does this conversation have no impact on the celebration life of the Jew? I was a Reform rabbi, so we opened the Ark and treated the Torah, not as a book or a work of literature, but almost like an icon: "This is the Torah which Moses..." Everybody knows Moses didn't write this, why is he saying this? He learned in class that he wasn't the author. Why are we going through a ritual which is appropriate only to Orthodox Judaism? Why can't we translate what we talk about in private conversations and in classrooms? The question isn't, "Why am I doing what I'm doing?" The question is, "Why do all these so-called liberal Jews use this theistic vocabulary and participate in their celebratory life in a way that has no connection to what they say they believe?"

How does one become a Humanistic Jew?

Let me go through what I would call the definitions of a Jew because it's relevant. There are what I call ethnic Jews - Jews who are descended from the original people of Israel. That is an idea that is still pervasive among Jews, and it certainly has had some validity throughout the years. Then there's what I would call the religious definition - the Reform movement pushed that in the 19th century - and that is the notion that Jews are the people who subscribe to a certain set of theological doctrines. That would exclude most likely over half of the people who normally are identified as Jews. Third is the cultural definition which says Jews are the people who participate in the historic culture and civilization of the Jewish people. And that's a pretty good definition except that there are many Jews who feel very strongly Jewish and they don't have a lot of what I call Jewish cultural content in their life. So there is a definition which I think is the broadest and which is one that we're comfortable with and which was affirmed at our meeting in 1988, which basically says that a Jew is a person who identifies with the history and civilization and social fate of the Jewish people - and primarily the history, the historic experience of the Jewish people.

What's social fate?

History has given us a place in the story of humanity. If you're unwilling to accept the social fate, then you'd better not join the group because you'd better be willing to accept all the consequences, positive and negative.

What marks you if you're not Jewish? What marks you as accepting these? You say "identify." What does it mean to identify?

To identify, the manifestations would be, one, that you are effortful about understanding and mastering the history of the Jewish people - that it becomes important to you. Two, that you develop a celebration life which celebrates the history of the Jewish people. Three, it would mean that your ethical behavior is a response to the historic experience of the Jewish people, which has been that, generally for the last 2,000 years of an oppressed people; and therefore, your ethics would be a compassionate one, not an arrogant ethic. Those are the manifestations of identifying with the history.

Do you have a conversion ceremony?

We have what we call an adoption. The word "conversion" was borrowed from the Christians, and it's really an inappropriate word even for Orthodox Jews. Conversion means that that one moment I didn't believe and then all of a sudden, I saw the lights, and I now believe. What we believe is that the Jewish people is a large international family. And you join it. When you're born into a family you're born into it. When you are welcomed into a family, you are adopted into it. So we tend to use the word "adoption" ceremony; you are adopted into the Jewish people. The sign of your adoption into the Jewish people is that you take a Jewish name. And that isn't unique, that happens in other branches of -

What do you mean by a Jewish name?

A Hebrew name.

You mean that they use, if a man -

Well, no, today if you have a bris or a naming, you give the child a Hebrew name. Does the child go to public school using a Hebrew name? Most likely not. I mean my name is Shimon; I go though life generally as Sherwin.

Source: MOMENT MAGAZINE/February 1999