Leap of faith: Micah
What would the prophet Micah say about Progressive Judaism?
Progressive Judaism came to being because 19th century Jews found themselves unable to reconcile the beliefs and practices of Judaism with the new knowledge emerging through the Enlightenment. Advances in all areas of science and arts, notably Darwin’s theory of evolution and the advent of bible scholarship, challenged the normative statement of pre-modern Judaism. Many Jews needed a Judaism that better matched what they learned in schools, universities and general life.
Judaism gradually split between those who wished to reform and evolve Judaism more speedily and those who wished to conserve it as it had been or, at best, develop it slowly.
In that period, and even more so in our time, such advances accelerated and were wider-reaching in their implications.
There were those back then who, faced with a choice between traditional Judaism and what was going on in the world, chose to abandon Judaism completely. That is still the reality today, yet we offer an understanding of Judaism that enables Jews to both engage with the wider world and have their Judaism inform that engagement.
Progressive Judaism’s role, in the vanguard of change, has been to use our best endeavours to determine what new wisdoms emerge into our world and how they demand that we evolve our Judaism by each new step.
Thus equality for women, allowing all to sit together in services, recognition of people in the LGBTQI+ communities, access for people with disabilities, interfaith initiatives, social action and campaigning for social and economic justice have been and are areas where we lead and others follow.
We don’t always get things right – no experimental and leading group can – but we seek to continually update the balance of continuity and change. Nor do we always apply our principles fully, as tradition can exert a powerful influence. But it is in the effort, the challenge, that our approach to Judaism sits.
We take upon ourselves to regularly re-ask the question of Deuteronomy: “V’ata Yisrael, mah Adonai Elohecha sho-el mei-imach?” (“And now, O Israel, what does the Eternal your God ask of you?”) What is it that the force for what is good and right in this world needs us to say and do in this age?
But what would the prophet Micah say?
Micah suggested, in answer to the Torah’s question, principles and underpinning values that are timeless: “To do justly, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.”
The manifestations of this answer are also timeless – how do we address and ideally eliminate poverty; how do we treat the stranger, the outsider, the refugee, the asylum-seeker; how do we prevent corruption; how do we eliminate discrimination; how do we improve our stewardship of planet Earth, and so on.
As Jews in the best of Progressive tradition, we begin this New Year by heeding Micah’s question and asking what we can do differently and better
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