The Big Decision (Temple Beth Or)

November has arrived, and we are at the precipice of Decision 2016. Our “big” decision, in theory, is regarding who will be our next president. This is a topic about which we have been hearing for months on end. However, I would like to suggest that there are, in fact, bigger decisions that we face, and that they are decisions we face much more regularly than the electoral variety.

Now, by saying this I don’t mean to imply that the presidential election is insignificant. Much to the contrary, it is an exceptionally important choice for us, as a country, to make. However, we each make a multitude of decisions about our Jewish lives in an ongoing fashion that hold even more of an ability to affect our lived-reality than the presidential decision ever could. For instance, each week we decide whether or not we will celebrate Shabbat (in whatever way we may interpret this.) And, while the decision we make for a given, single Shabbat may not change the nature of our personal Judaism, the total sum of our decisions on this topic—over months or years—is consequential. Ultimately, our Jewish experience is built on the basis of all such smaller decisions. In this case, these decisions supply an answer to the question: Are we Jews who take Shabbat seriously?

To give a (perhaps timely) point of reference, the last Pew Research Study on Jewish life in America showed that 35% of Jews came to services only for High Holidays. This leaves out the 41% who said they seldom or never came to services. To do the math for you, the combination there suggests that 76% of Jews do not come to services in any kind of regular fashion. Now, this does not automatically—in my opinion—mean that they are not celebrating Shabbat. However, the minority of Jews who do regularly attend services have minimally made a decision that services will be part of their Shabbat observance- they have decided to celebrate Shabbat. I wonder, of those who do not attend, how many make an active decision to celebrate Shabbat in some other way.

Not to be pessimistic, I think that there is uplifting news in all of this. I think that recognizing that each of our mini-decisions can have macro-consequences empowers us to lead more fulfilling Jewish lives. In tractate Kiddushin of the Babylonian Talmud, we read a teaching that prompts us to think of our individual decisions in this way:

Rabbi Eleazar ben Rabbi Shimon said: “The world is judged by the majority of its deeds, and an individual is likewise judged by the majority of his deeds. A man should therefore always regard himself and the world as half-meritorious and half-guilty. If he performs one good deed, happy is he, for he has tilted the scale both for himself and for the entire world, all of it, toward the side of merit; if he commits even one transgression, woe to him, for he has tilted the scale both for himself and for the entire world, all of it, toward the scale of guilt.”

While I am not certain that we need to imagine the same cosmic significance for our deeds as Rabbi Eleazar suggests, I do feel that he beautifully points out the way all of our individual decisions can impact the type of people we are. With mindful control of our decisions, likewise, we can actively shape ourselves into the type of people we wish to become.

Fundamentally, the only way that I differ in my belief from Rabbi Eleazar is that I do not see God as a “judge” in the same way he did. Instead, I believe that each of us possesses the ability and responsibility to judge our religious actions for ourselves. As we live our lives, we are obligated to decide whether or not we are living them to our fullest, most fulfilling and Jewish potential. Our decisions will dictate the judgment to which we ought to arrive in this case- Let us strive together to make the right decisions!