Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

Modern Orthodox rabbi and author Joseph Telushkin spoke at the David Posnack JCC's 19th Jewish Book Month (ably chaired by my good friend Hannah Handler Hostyk, Esq.) last night, and I went and listened to him speak. (I also said hello to him; I met him in the summer of 1994, when I attended CLAL's Jewish student leadership retreat.)

He spoke mostly about Jewish ethics, in part because his newest book, newly released, is the first volume of what is to be a three-volume series, the first code of Jewish ethics written in English, A Code of Jewish Ethics: Volume 1: You Shall Be Holy.

But one thing he said impressed me greatly. One reason he spoke about ethics, and one reason he wrote You Shall Be Holy (and several other books on Jewish ethical themes) is as follows. Not every Jew is comfortable or willing to pray in the same environment. The example he used is the mechitza, the divider in Orthodox synagogues that separates the men from the women: some Jews would feel uncomfortable if they could see, or in the case of Orthodox Jewish men, hear, women praying during synagogue services, while some Jews (I among them) feel uncomfortable in a sanctuary with a mechitza. (I long ago resolved that I would only attend services in a sanctuary with a mechitza if there was a very good reason, like making up a minyan to allow someone who needed to to say the Mourner's Kaddish.)

And this is a state of affairs that neither Rabbi Telushkin nor I are uncomfortable with — pluralism is a good thing. But as Rabbi Telushkin pointed out, one subject that most Jews can profitably discuss together and learn about from each other and from the traditional texts of Judaism, Tanakh, Talmud, and others, a subject central to Judaism — is ethics. As Rabbi Telushkin said, Judaism may have brought monotheism to the world, but monotheism by itself is neither good nor bad. What Judaism — and Hashem, pace my good friends the Hostyk family — brought to the world is ethical monotheism. (FN1)

First of all, I have always enjoyed studying ethics, Jewish and otherwise, for two reasons: discussing and learning about ethics increases the chances of my acting rightly, and because I find the discussion of ethics intrinsically interesting.

And second — as much for that reason as because Rabbi Teluskin both is a great person (in at least two senses of the word I can think of) and has a virtuoso command of his subject, I had a fantastic time listening to him speak last night, and I am looking forward to reading his book. In addition to discussing some of what I enjoyed about his talk, I hope I have also given you some flavor of it.

(FN1) "Ethical monotheism" is how a humanistic Jew might describe Judaism's defining characteristics. This is my comment, not Rabbi Telushkin's.