(Including some of Rabbi Brenner's writings and High Holiday sermons)

It's difficult to be a Jewish Atheist
The Mansion of Jewish Identity

Jewish status of a non-Jewish spouse
Reworking definitions of marriage

Reform Halacha
Rabbi Brenner's explanation of Kashrut
Driving on Shabbat  (to be added)

Negative effects of Clinical Pastoral Education for Jewish patients

Extrabiblical evidence of the Exodus
History of Rabbinic Judaism
Other controversies

Lessons in Respect
Jewish concepts of sin

It's difficult to be a Jewish Atheist

Moving to atheism from Christianity is relatively uncomplicated.  Christianity has one conception about God, and people who reject that concept become atheists.

Judaism allows a wide range of conceptions about God.  They range from the idea of a personal God to concepts where God is "the [impersonal] power that makes for fulfillment in the Universe."  Even the traditional Jewish concept is a God who is not necessarily omnipotent, omnicient, or omnipresent, requiring humans to be partners in creation.  God can create wheat, but can't bake bread.  God can't bring on Shabbat by the setting of the sun; only the woman of the house can bring on Shabbat by lighting the candles.  God can be argued with (as did Abraham), and can make mistakes and be sorry about them.  God can also become distracted as a result of having created other worlds and needing to attend to them.

The problem in being a Jewish atheist is that mere rejection of a single concept of God isn't all that is needed.  A person desiring to become a Jewish atheist would need to search out and study all the conceptions of God allowed within Judaism and reject each one separately.

Read more details here.

The Mansion of Jewish Identity

At our Friday night event in November 2007, Rabbi Brenner discussed the image of the Mansion of Jewish Identity, a metaphor that he developed in his long experience in addressing the issues of interfaith marriage and Jewish identity.  The Mansion is held up by four pillars and has rooms devoted to aspects of Jewish history, thought, and culture.  The four pillars are:

• Lineality (which can be either patrilineal or matrilineal) or conversion.
• Willful self-identification. Ceremonially, Rabbi Brenner focuses on the statement "... asher bachar banu ..." that occurs in the liturgy. Someone who utters these words makes a statement of Jewish self-identification. (Rabbi Brenner mentioned this ceremonial detail during the discussion, and it may be one of the further aspects he plans to pursue.)
• The Mitzvah System. That is the life cycle events, annual cycle of holiday observance, and other mitzvot (such as ethical behavior, treatment of animals, kashrut, and shabbat) -- the Jewish way of doing things.
• Torah/Judaism. For a Jew faced with a question of religion, ethics, or similar nature, Jewish tradition should be the first place to turn.
  

Rabbi Brenner says the Mansion can stand with three pillars in place, although it will be structurally compromised. With less than three, it collapses. A four pillar Mansion can have weak pillars and remain standing.

Under this standard, Elvis Presley, who had Jewish matrilineal descent, would not be considered Jewish because he did not self-identify or observe the Mitzvah System. The same applies to Madeline Albright. In both cases, Orthodoxy would regard them as Jewish, purely because of their matrilineal descent. (Rabbi Brenner also often cites the example of a Catholic nun who had Jewish matrilineal descent. Orthodoxy would consider her Jewish. He would not.)

More details can be found here.

Jewish status of a non-Jewish spouse

The following is an excerpt from Rabbi Brenner's book:

"Presiding over a congregation as rabbi, I am assigned the responsibility of welcoming any Jew to our house of prayer, assembly and study. And I am obliged to extend that warm reception to all others as well who seek understanding of the Jewish heritage. ...

"We also swing and keep the door of the house wide open to those identified as a "ger toshav," a Settled Sojourner, that is, a non-Jew whose status is different than other non-Jews in the Jewish perception. The Settled Sojourner resides, or plans to reside, in a Jewish household. He or she has become, or one day may become, a parent raising Jewish children and, therefore, an "extension of the folk."

"Settled Sojourners ... are constituents of an altogether distinct and profoundly unique classification. They require very special attention ...

"Experience has shown time and again that raising Jewish children transforms, reconfigures or "converts" a non Jewish parent to a ger toshav - variously translated as a Settled Sojourner or an extension of the folk. "Not precisely a Jew but close enough," as the wife, referring to her husband of over 20 years with whom she raised their Jewish children, observed."

The full section discussing this is here.

Reworking definitions of marriage

This is a brief excerpt from a paper titled “Intra-marriage, mitzva-marriage, mixed-marriage, inter-marriage, and the family: Toward reworking definitions.”  Each paragraph has been shortened from the original.

“A Jewish Intra-Marriage is a marriage between two individuals who were born Jews; or between a born Jew and one who has been converted to Judaism; or between two individuals converted to Judaism.

“A Mitva-Marriage is a recently coined term to signify that a conversion to Judaism has taken place prior to the marriage.A Mitzva-Marriage is a Jewish Intra-Marriage; in reality, no different than any other Jewish marriage.The term Mitzva (a positive act/commandment)-Marriage is used only sociologically and not halachically. [Ed. note: “Halacha” -- derived from the Hebrew for “to walk” -- means Jewish Law.]

“A Mixed-Marriage is a marriage entered into by a Jew (born or converted to Judaism) and a non-Jew.No Jewish continutity is planned or intended.In those rare instances when a rabbi is asked to officiate, it is generally “only” for the sake of a particular member of the family, such as a grandparent.

“An Inter-Marriage is a marriage between a Jew (born Jewish or converted to Judaism) and a non-Jew.The couple has decided in favor of Jewish continuity.Th couple will establish a Jewish home in some form.The family is to be identified Jewishly by synagogue affiliation as well.Children, if any, are to be raised and educated Jewishly.A rabbi will be asked to officiate at the wedding.”

More detail can be found here in Rabbi Brenner's book.

Reform Halacha

Jewish Law consists of the Torah, the Talmud, the codes (such as the Shulkhan Aruch -- literally the Prepared Table) and the responsa literature.  The responsa are questions and answers, usually questions by rabbis and answers by Halachic experts.  Since the early 1900's the Reform Movement has had a responsa committee.  The Reform Respnsa usually cite the same Halachic sources as the traditional responsa, but often arrive at different conclusions.  About once a year, Rabbi Brenner discusses some of the Reform Responsa.   There is an index to the Reform Responsa, and many are linked from the index.

Rabbi Brenner's explanation of Kashrut

At one of our Shmooz classes a few years ago, Rabbi Brenner gave his synopsis of kashrut (Jewish Dietary Laws).  Here is a summary of his points. 

"Kashrut is built on four main principles:

1. By what right are we justified to put to death another living creature?  If we are, which animals are permitted?  For this principle we make a concession. We should all be vegetarians, but we are not there yet.  Kashrut is a waystation toward being vegetarian.  The animals we are permitted to eat are vegetarian non-predators.  The Torah states that the life of an animal is in its blood, so we create a legal fiction that if we do not consume the blood we do not consume the life of the animal.
2. If we have the right to consume another creature, how should that be done?  (Note that kosher means appropriate, fit, or proper.)  The principles here are to minimize pain and to be kind to animals.  The opposite of kosher is trefe, which means “torn.”  We are not permitted to tear the flesh of the animal in the process of slaughter.  Judaism has other laws regarding kindness to animals, such as the Torah requirement that the mother bird must be chased away before taking the eggs.
3. The concept of taboo animals.  There is no rationale for this taboo.  The only concept is “yechh.”  This also has the effect of group cohesion, because you can only marry people you can have a meal with.
4. The ultimate taboo animal is the pig.  This is historic.  Nobody ever dangled a shrimp over an altar to get a renegade Jew to abandon Judaism, but this was done repeatedly with the pig.  One major instance is the story of Chanukah.
   

Driving on Shabbat

TO BE ADDED

Negative effects of Clinical Pastoral Education for Jewish patients

There is a movement called Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) that is attempting to create a "generic" hospital chaplaincy.  In this case, it turns out that "generic" means Protestant-oriented.  Rabbi Brenner was required to take classes in CPE and wrote a paper describing its negative effects for Jewish patients.

Extrabiblical evidence of the Exodus

Rabbi Brenner is writing a new Haggaddah, based partly on a finding of Immanuel Velikovsky and partly on his own discovery of correlation between an Egyption monument and the biblical description of the destruction of Pharoah's army.  He was recently able to identify the exact location and was invited to publish his findings in a journal of ancient history. We discuss this every year at our Seder Walkthrough.  Read more here and a related poem here (pdf).

History of Rabbinic Judaism

One Friday night Rabbi Brenner started a discussion and we continued it at the Shmooz class the following morning.  The topic that Rabbi Brenner started was a discussion entitled "From Chanukah to the parting of the ways."The topic addresses the history of the period in which Christianity branched from the stem of Judaism.  Sects that Rabbi Brenner discussed included the Pharisees, Saducees, Essenes, Dead Sea Scrolls sect, Zadokites, and others.

The discussion was wide ranging and covered a lot of the early history of Rabbinic Judaism.  Much of the basis of Rabbinic Judaism is contained in the Babylonian Talmud that was compiled mainly in academies in the cities of Pumpidita and Sura.  Tragically, we learned that Pumpidita, a primary birthplace of Judaism as we know it, has been much in the news lately.  Its modern name is Fallujah.

Other controversies

We occasionally discuss the work of Immanuel Velikovsky and Zacharia Sitchin.  Their work is controversial, but begins to explain historical issues in the Tanach (Bible) that are poorly understood and also have correlation with unexplained modern events such as stories of alien abduction.

Here are some links to sites that provide further information on Velikovsky and Sitchin:

• Wikipedia article on Velikovsky
• A site devoted to Velikovsky
• An archive of Velokovsky's papers
• Wikipedia article on Sitchin
• Sitchin's web site
• Wikipedia article on the Nephilim
  

Lessons in Respect

In this sermon Rabbi Brenner discusses some lessons in respect learned in his family.  The full text is here.

Jewish concepts of sin

Rabbi Brenner often points out that the Hebrew word for "sin" is a term from archery that literally means "missing the mark."  One of his High Holiday sermons was inspired by work of Rabbi Joseph Telushkin,

Rabbi Brenner's discourse pointed out that “our sins are often those of omission not commission.  And its not that we do things that are evil, wicked, bad, immoral as much as it is inattention to opportunities of doing good.  We are guilty more of acts of omission then of commission.  What we neglect, when we are turning away, standing idly by when there is so much that can be done!  Our delinquencies are in default in dereliction, non-observance, non-performance and remiss.

We forget to show our gratitude to people we don't see like the person who makes up our bed in a hotel room.   We are annoyed that when we are inconvenienced by a fire engine or ambulance or police car in the community when we should be wishing and hoping for their success in their mission.  We neglect to tell our children we apologize, we're sorry, we regret our behavior, actions and words when we expect that from them.  We often praise others, especially our children for achievements in sports or academics but do not do so as when they are performing mitzvots, acts of kindness and consideration.

And this question also applies: “What good things happened to me this year?”  Let's not neglect that this year.