When Tzemah Yoreh opens his prayer book, he recites the following passage: “I will pour out my heart. But to whom? Why, oh why, do you not exist, my God?”
You can’t find those words in any synagogue’s siddur — at least not yet. Yoreh prays from “Liturgical Experiments: A Siddur for the Skeptical,” the tentatively titled atheist-feminist siddur he composed.
“I don’t think belief in God is a necessary component of being Jewish,” said Yoreh, 31, an assistant professor of Bible at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles.
The full Hebrew text of Yoreh’s siddur is included on his Web site, “Jewish, Religious and Atheist” (www.religiousatheist.com), which he launched in December 2008. Yoreh plans to translate the siddur into English soon. Upon publication, it will be the first siddur of its kind.
Born in Toronto to Talmud scholars, Yoreh received an eclectic education at secular and Orthodox schools in Canada and Israel. At 24, he completed a doctorate in Bible studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, becoming the youngest person ever to earn such a degree from that institution.
After completing his doctorate, Yoreh entered the Israeli army and served in its history department. His experiences sparked serious soul-searching. “I quickly found out that ‘history’ in the context of the Israeli military was highly euphemistic, and that the unit I served in would have been more aptly named the ‘propaganda department,’” Yoreh said. “I also witnessed firsthand the glorification of combat soldiers involved in very questionable activities such as terrorizing Palestinians at roadblocks, or killing innocents in attacks of reprisal…. [The Israel Defense Forces] destroyed my ardent Zionism and made me question a lot of my core beliefs.”
By the end of his army service, Yoreh had become an atheist and found himself in a unique dilemma. Most atheists abandon religion entirely, but Yoreh, who grew up in an observant household, didn’t want to give up the Jewish traditions to which he was accustomed, including prayer. For this, he needed a special kind of siddur, one that was more egalitarian and less God-centered, but retained the poetic Hebrew.
“My two main problems with liturgy were that it’s deeply rooted in God conceptions, and there’s a gender dynamic that I find totally disagreeable in traditional liturgy,” Yoreh said. “Traditional prayer is filled to the brim with masculine gender and conception, and I wanted to write something women could read just as well as men.”
None of the alternative siddurim on the market, such as Reconstructionist siddurim, appealed to him. He admired Reconstructionist siddurim for adding feminine God language, removing the “chosen people” concept from the blessing recited prior to a Torah reading and eliminating sections of the Aleinu prayer that delegitimize non-Jewish worship. But he thought that such revisions sacrificed the poetic Hebrew.
“What they say about God and humanity is a lot more appealing than what you’d find in a regular ArtScroll Siddur, but it’s not fun to read. You don’t get an aesthetic pleasure like you would from a poem by [Israeli poet Yehuda] Amichai,” Yoreh said.
A poet himself, Yoreh took matters into his own hands. Four years ago, he began composing what he calls an atheist-feminist siddur. Rather than going through the traditional siddur word by word and eliminating patriarchal and hierarchical God language, Yoreh recomposed each prayer based on its original theme. The result is part poetic, part humorous, part-tortured and soul-searching.
The traditional prayer Adon Olam, or Lord of the World, becomes Malchut Ha-Adam, or The Sovereignty of Human Beings. While the original prayer reads, “He is my God, my living redeemer, rock of my affliction in the enemy day,” Yoreh’s version reads, “And they are my mother and they are my father, and my parents are my facilitators in times of distress.”
In other passages, Yoreh quotes the traditional liturgy and immediately questions it. One section examines a line from Psalm 99: “Exalt Adonai our God and bow down at the footstool of God’s feet — a patriarchal hierarchy is not a value for me. He is holy — but why not ‘she’?”
Inevitably, Yoreh’s project has garnered mixed reactions. “It’s a noble cause,” said Rabbi Haviva Ner-David, a writer and teacher and the founder of Reut: The Center for Modern Jewish Marriage. “Very few people identify with the traditional words. It will give people a chance to still pray, to be in the community and do their own thing.”
Bonna Devora Haberman, a feminist theologian and activist, is particularly enthused by Yoreh’s unique feminist approach.
“The Conservative movement’s Israeli siddur is meant to be more egalitarian, but they didn’t do nearly as much as [Yoreh] did,” Haberman said. “[Yoreh] not only made the liturgy more equal, he tackled the androcentric divine images. His siddur presents a nonhierarchical image of God, which is a feminist concept.”
Others, such as Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, head of Yeshivat Hesder of Petah Tikvah, disagree: “I’m happy that someone is searching for spirituality, but it’s trying to isolate the prayer from believing in Hashem and basic halachic principles. I think it’s too far to be identified as a Jewish alternative siddur.”
But Yoreh espouses a broader definition of prayer.
“If you define [prayer] as communication between humans and a deity, I think that’s a very narrow conception,” Yoreh said. “I think prayer is communal and private expression of hopes, fears, an appreciation of aesthetic beauty, good attributes. But that has nothing to do with God.”
Yoreh has encountered everything from skepticism to hateful opposition to his belief system. He says that people mainly question how someone who doesn’t believe in God can be Jewish.
“People who say I can’t be a Jewish atheist live in a very narrow box. They immediately attach practice and belief, and there’s no way for them to separate those,” Yoreh said.
In addition to prayer, Yoreh stays connected to Judaism through other traditions. For instance, he keeps kosher, observes the Sabbath and all Jewish holidays, fasts on the traditional days and celebrates only his Hebrew birthday.
“[These traditions] distinguish you as a cultural, religious group. I place myself firmly within that group. It’s the way I grew up, and that’s the way I feel most comfortable,” Yoreh said.
Elana Estrin is a writer based in Austin, Texas.
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This is such a stupid idea. I am an atheist (but brought up Jewish) and would never participate in this dreck.
Apparently Yoreh can not get over his 'belief in belief'. He should read a couple of Daniel Dennett books - "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" in particular.
I applaud Yoreh. Religion is real, even if God is a fiction. It keeps us in touch with our sense of the ultimate, and binds us to a community imbued with historical meaning. What's the difference whether or not that spiritual history is ultimately tethered to a truly existing godhead? Especially considering that none of us can have any experiential knowledge of God's existence. George Santayana expressed the same philosophy, from a Catholic background, in Interpretations of Poetry and Religion, and in Reason in Religion (The Life of Reason, Book III).
No, Gene, Religion's main purpose is manipulation of people. It also instills xenophobia. Actually it SPLITS up communities by causing 50 different houses of worship in each municipality. Spirituality is just an excuse for living in the real world and learning about it.
NewEnglandBob, what you say about religion is true, but only insofar as it takes itself seriously as representing a transcendental truth. Which of course leads to conflicts, since the transcendental truths held by different groups are mutually exclusive by their nature. Manipulation is the main purpose of religious leadership, which is political, but not of religion conceived rationally. A rational religious person will necessarily exist at the outer edges of any established religion--"at the church door," in Santayana's phrase. From this vantage point he/she can participate in the poetry of religion while absenting him/herself from, and from time to time critically addressing, the politics. The experience of one's religion can be a rational form of poetry; the assertion of its Truth is an arational, antipoetic, political act. The "real world" need not be shorn of everything imaginative that makes it worth living in in order to maintain its reality.
Instead of the 'poetry of religion', one can immerse onself in the poetry of poetry or of literature or of physics, or evolution or many branches of science or sociology or other humanities or technology or engineering. Living life large does not require religion any longer. Paraphrasing Richard Dawkins: "there is so much beauty in reality that no one should need the bonds of religion"
It is an unfortunate legacy of 2000-plus years of Judeo-Christian tradition that religion is thought of primarily, and even essentially, as a bond and a burden. For the ancient pagans, it was primarily celebratory. There is no good reason not to "revalutate our values" (Nietzsche), and import the pagan celebratory spirit into our traditions as its primary core and essence. It is religious dogma, not religion itself, that is responsible for the deadening "spirit of seriousness" (also Nietzsche, and Santayana, and Emerson) that has bedeviled us for so long. Religion should not be subtracted from the list of things that it is wise to poetize about--in fact, a comprehensive approach to life would require its inclusion.
Keep searching. Unlike others, you have not given up.For this you deserve much credit.
I think this is a great idea. I am very much looking forward to the ENglish version. There's a lot to be siad for a prayerbook that is not only egalitarian but is not God-focused.
Prayer, by definition, is directed Godward. It is human to God communication. This new "siddur" is no longer prayer. I would never take away one's freedom to express themselves however they choose. But don't call it prayer. Use a different term.
Dear Friends:
I believe that Professor Yoreh is engaging in a very intriguing intellectual and spiritual experiment. I look forward with great interest to an English language version of his siddur.
But I question whether his siddur is the first of its kind. The Humanistic Judaism movement, founded four decades ago, with shuls all over the world, and thousands of adherents, has been atheist/agnostic from the time of its founding.
I am surprised that the article contains no references to their work, which long precedes Professor Yoreh's siddur.
Their website is:
http://www.shj.org/
My own group, the Inclusivist Judaism Coalition, welcomes both Jews who believe in G-d and Jews who do not, seeing both as valuable members of the Jewish people.
I believe in G-d, and follow the great Hasidic rebbe, R. Moshe Leib of Sasov (d. 1807), who, when questioned by his followers as to the purpose of atheism in G-d's creation, replied:
"But to what end can the denial of G-d have been created? This too can be uplifted through deeds of charity. For if someone comes to you and asks your help, you shall not turn him off with pious words, saying: 'Have faith and take your troubles to G-d!' You shall act as if there were no G-d, as if there were only one person in all the world who could help this man -- only yourself." (p. 89, Vol. II, Martin Buber's "Tales of the Hasidim").
Cordially, Robin Margolis www.inclusivistjudaism.wordpress.com www.half-jewish.net
It's always good to have more of a good thing, but to give credit where credit is due the idea of a siddur for people for people who can't pray to an Other, however conceived, is not unique to Tzemah Oreh. In 1996 poet and translator Marcia Falk wrote THE BOOK OF BLESSINGS which is a siddur for daily, Shabbat, and New Moon services. Falk's services, or pieces of them, have been used by Reconstructionists, chavurot, egalitarian minyanim, and individuals who have a sense of the sacred, wish to celebrate that sense in Hebrew, but do not wish to address the sacred as Thou, or as a being in any sense of the word.
On another note, I recommend Michael Benedikt's GOD IS THE GOOD WE DO as a theology of enacted divinity ("theopraxy"). Atheism (no disrespect to atheists intended) need not be the only alternative to Adonai Eloheinu Melech Ha'Olam.
Many philosophers, beginning with Aristotle, have understood concepts as abstract entities derived from experiences of similar things. If this line of thinking is followed out consistently, it ends with the concept "God" as an abstraction derived from human beings' experiences of the realities that are ultimate for them (mortality, the feeling of existential helplessness, etc). God, like all concepts, exists, but not in the same way or in the same realm in which the things we experience exist. "He" is an abstraction drawn from other abstractions. The concept "true God" is an oxymoron-God has nothing to do with any truth outside that of different individuals' different conceptions of the ultimate realities and of God (or gods). No matter how one conceives of God, prayer to God is an expression of desperation and hope ("God is a concept by which we measure our pain"-John Lennon). But it can also be an expression of joy and gratitude, even in spite of all the pain (Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"). We depend upon God for sustenance; God depends upon us, and on the different world-horizons we perceive, for existence. The mystical idea that God or spirit is original, true and real, while the material world, including religious texts and religious institutions, is derived and perhaps illusory, has it backwards. Religious texts and religious institutions are originary, creative realities from which all God and spirit notions are derived. This does not denigrate either God or religions; rather it should liberate us to remove all measures and scales of true faith, true belief, true practice, true prayer from our religious life, and replace them with notions of faith, belief, practice, and prayer that are true-for-me, or true-for-us, only. We can have both the inner peace that comes from particular religious practices, and the inter-group peace that can come from a universal recognition of the relative truth, as opposed to Absolute Truth, of all faiths.
If he is Shomer Shabbos v'Chagim and Shomer Kashrus as he says, he is not really an atheist, he's just a traumatised believer. I wish him Godspeed on his journey of faith.
To Robin Margolis. You comment on the first Sassover Rebbe ztl. is incredible. It could be a description of the late Sassover Rebbe here in London, who behaved exactly like that.
If he is Shomer Shabbos v'Chagim and Shomer Kashrus as he says, he is not really an atheist, he's just a traumatised believer. I wish him Godspeed on his journey of faith.
Dear Danny:
Thank you for sharing with me your experience of the late Sassover Rebbe zl in London! It is wonderful to hear that R. Moshe Lieb's successor, so many centuries later, continued this strain of Hasidus in this manner.
I have always followed the first Sassover Rebbe's suggestion about the spiritual niche of atheist Jews within the Jewish people, as it seemed so profound.
Very cordially, Robin Margolis www.inclusivistjudaism.wordpress.com
An ATHEIST FEMINIST PRAYERBOOK.
How charming.
A perfect story for the Forward, whose prior office building had HUGE bas reliefs on its front of their role models---MARX, ENGELS and LENIN.
G-d save us!
"I think prayer is communal and private expression of hopes, fears, an appreciation of aesthetic beauty, good attributes."
I agree and, as a highly practicing Jewish atheist myself, laud the arrival of this book.
Gene:
An excellent interpretation. You really must get Michael Benedikt's God Is the Good We Do (see Peter Schogol's comment). Look it up on amazon or www.godisthegoodwedo.com. Benedikt is a Jewish writer, the son of survivors. He describes a version of Judaism--and faith generally--that one critic called "the best theology rationality will allow."
Needless to say the 'American Jewish University' is connected to the Conservative movement, the fastest shrinking of the main branches of Judaism.
Why in the world would I observe Kashruth, Shabbat, Yom Tov, and prayer if I did not believe in G-d.?Instead of walking two miles each way to shul I could drive. I would not have to worry about buying kosher meat which is much more expensive than non kosher and I would not spend a fortune on educating my children in Yeshivot.It is much cheaper to be an atheist .
It was several years ago when I first encountered someone who was Jewish and also an atheist. I was somewhat shocked at the contradiction.
If G-d does not exist then there never would have been a people called Israelites. It would follow that Abraham could not have talked to G-d and Moses could not have received the 10 Commandments from G-d on Mount Sinai. If G-d does not exist then you would have to agree that Judaism is a made-up religious belief and for myself as a Catholic Jesus could not have been the Messiah since there never was a promise of the Messiah from G-d since He does not exist.
Moses could not have parted the Red Sea so the Exodus now becomes a myth, Passover becomes a myth, Yom Kippur becomes a myth, all of the Prophets become false prophets since they never were speaking for G-d because He never existed.
Certainly you are still Jewish if you are an atheist but Judaism becomes absurd if there is no G-d. Just as Rabbi Rosenberg says above if there is no G-d then why knock yourself out with all of these "meaningless" observances. If you are Jewish and an atheist you are not finished thinking things through.
As a Jewish Atheist who is a member of The City Congregation for Secular Humanistic Judaism in New York City, I am not surprised that the writer of this article and the Forward have neglected to mention that our Congregation has been active in New York for almost 20 years. We take our strength from the acts and history of our ancestors but we ourselves combine our beliefs and action and do and say what we believe. To paraphrase the late Rabbi Sherwin Wine, founder of the Society for Humanistic Judaism, "We do not know if God exists or not, but God's existence is irrelevant to how we lead our daily lives. We are responsible for our lives and to change the world." The Humanistic Chaplain at Harvard University, Rabbi Greg Epstein, has written a great book (currently #31 on the NYTimes Hardcover Non-fiction List)entitled 'Good Without God: What Non-Religious People Do Believe'. I applaud the efforts of Tzemah Yoreh to find a place for himself within the spectrum of Judaism as mainstream organized Judaism doesn't speak to him today. However I suggest that he also contact other Secular organziations in Los Angeles -- branches of The Society of Humanistic Judaism, Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations (CSJO.org) and Workman's Circle (circle.org). There is a human need to congregate.
In the 1850s there was a Rabbi Adler who was the chief Rabbi at I believe it was the Temple Emanuel. He sent his son back to Germany to study and become a Rabbi. His name is Felix Adler. When Felix completed his Rabbinical training he returned to New York City and announced to his father that he concluded that Judaism's central idea is ethical living, not the ritual characteristics being practiced, mans relationship to man being the central idea to be practiced. Ethical living encompasses the idea of how we treat one another, respect one another, seeking the truth.......is holy ground. Bringing out the best in others and by so doing bring out the best in one's self. Ethical Culture does not teach any dogma, does not proselatize. Sadly, I have not seen one comment about this humanist wonderful organization that has done many wonderful things without seeking publicity and without trying to prove there is a god or for that matter whether or not there is not a god.
Living ethically is not easy but it is rewarding.
As former ritual director for Kol Shalom, Community for Humanistic Judaism, here in Portland, Oregon, I am delighted to read such a provocative discussion in the Jewish Daily Forward. My love of Judaism is greatly connected to the Forward and to Jewish music. As a young child, I was fascinated by the appearance of the Yiddish characters in my grandfather's newspaper, and after learning to read Hebrew in Religious school, it tickled me to learn to read my grandparents' language -- Yiddish -- in the Forward, as well. My mother tells me my grandfather often wrote letters to the editor for the Forward many decades ago. Hearing my grandfather's singing of Hebrew and Yiddish songs was such a pleasurable experience for me, and it was my joy in the Jewish languages and music that brought me back to Judaism despite my problems with organized -- especially non-egalitarian and theistic -- religion. I applaud Tzemah Yoreh for taking on the writing challenge that Humanistic Judaism has been pursuing since 1963 and I am excited to purchase a copy of his book.
As a point of clarification from my above posting, unlike Mr. Yoreh, Humanistic Judaism doesn't struggle with the question of a deity's existence in its ceremonies, but rather presents its songs and ceremony texts from a human responsibility point of few; for example, "Ya-a-seh shalom" (You will make peace) becomes "Na-a-seh shalom" (We will make peace).
Jim:
The belief in religion is not inconsistent with atheism. The difference between beliefs rejected as "myth" and beliefs accepted as "religious" is only that the latter are taken seriously while the former are not. Believers imagine that their beliefs are validated by a long-ago connection to the existing God, while mere myths are false because they lack this connection. But what validates their assertion of the existence of God? Only their religious feelings. This is circular logic--I validate my feelings by reference to God, and I validate my assertion of God by my feelings. Let's be honest and admit that it is all myth, and that all myths are symbolic expressions of human religious feelings, nothing more. Why practice religion? Because it makes us feel better, reconciles us to life's inevitable problems, and helps us to become better persons. The discipline involved is worthwhile in exactly the same way any other discipline is. The violinist practices in order to improve in the art of the violin; the religious person practices in order to improve in the art of living a religious life, which means embodying a system of symbols that represents a human community's sense of its relation to an idea of ultimate reality whose shorthand--and absolutely inadequate--name is "God." Any attempt to attach the quality of existence to this idea is both unnecessary and bound to fail. The idea is all, and it is enough.
In addition to the Society for Humanistic Judaism, SHJ, the is also the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations, CSJO. For all who consider our atheistic or humanistic Jewishness absurd, observe that we humanists make no such criticism of you, in spite of our belief in Jewishness as a philosophy and heritage, rather than as a religion. I respect your right to believe in god, even though I don't understand it. I believe that the world is made a better place by our allowing and respecting our differences, rather than our desire to call each other names and denigrate each other's beliefs.
As a point of clarification from my above posting, unlike Mr. Yoreh, Humanistic Judaism doesn't struggle with the question of a deity's existence in its ceremonies, but rather presents its songs and ceremony texts from a human responsibility point of few; for example, "Ya-a-seh shalom" (You will make peace) becomes "Na-a-seh shalom" (We will make peace).
As a point of clarification from my above posting, unlike Mr. Yoreh, Humanistic Judaism doesn't struggle with the question of a deity's existence in its ceremonies, but rather presents its songs and ceremony texts from a human responsibility point of few; for example, "Ya-a-seh shalom" (You will make peace) becomes "Na-a-seh shalom" (We will make peace).
As a point of clarification from my above posting, unlike Mr. Yoreh, Humanistic Judaism doesn't struggle with the question of a deity's existence in its ceremonies, but rather presents its songs and ceremony texts from a human responsibility point of few; for example, "Ya-a-seh shalom" (You will make peace) becomes "Na-a-seh shalom" (We will make peace).
As a point of clarification from my above posting, unlike Mr. Yoreh, Humanistic Judaism doesn't struggle with the question of a deity's existence in its ceremonies, but rather presents its songs and ceremony texts from a human responsibility point of few; for example, "Ya-a-seh shalom" (You will make peace) becomes "Na-a-seh shalom" (We will make peace).
While I don't find the content of Yoreh's liturgy particularly compelling, I am glad to see that people are continuing to think about Judaism with an outside the box approach. Our ancestors were able to write liturgy that spoke to them - so why shouldn't we be able to do the same? Judaism evolves over time - and I choose to embrace the evolution (and related opportunities) rather than reject it. At www.OurJewishCommunity.org - we have a contemporary Jewish voice. We have created a liturgy (at our sister-congregation, Congregation Beth Adam in Cincinnati) in which we say what we mean and mean what we say. We combine Judaism and commonsense. We recognize there is a range of beliefs among Jews - and we seek to be inclusive and compelling.
While I don't find the content of Yoreh's liturgy particularly compelling, I am glad to see that people are continuing to think about Judaism with an outside the box approach. Our ancestors were able to write liturgy that spoke to them - so why shouldn't we be able to do the same? Judaism evolves over time - and I choose to embrace the evolution (and related opportunities) rather than reject it. At www.OurJewishCommunity.org - we have a contemporary Jewish voice. We have created a liturgy (at our sister-congregation, Congregation Beth Adam in Cincinnati) in which we say what we mean and mean what we say. We combine Judaism and commonsense. We recognize there is a range of beliefs among Jews - and we seek to be inclusive and compelling.
Gene: Who are you? Your comments are spectacular.
The Forward is always worried about our good ol'fashioned Gd Fearing Jewish Religeon. I believe the paper is paranoid wih their gentle concern about Yidishkeit. When will all those socialists at the Forward really go forward and Be Forward in the true faith of Israel today, tomorrow and forever.