Opinion

September 14, 2011

Opinion: When rabbis politicize the High Holy Days

By Dennis Prager

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Every year, Jewish listeners to my radio show write to me from around the country about their rabbi using the High Holy Days to deliver political sermons.

Invariably, there are two constants: The rabbi is non-Orthodox, and the sermons are left wing.

It should go without saying — but lest some readers misinterpret what I have written, I will make it clear — not all Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist rabbis politicize their sermons. More than a few give inspiring, uplifting, challenging and Jewish High Holy Days sermons that steer clear of politics.

But those rabbis who do use Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to offer their political views are doing their congregants and Judaism a real disservice.

Rabbis who have used the holiest days of the Jewish calendar to give a sermon on behalf of the Obama health-care bill or to excoriate the Christian right or to expound on any of the many other left-wing positions have cheated their congregants. The primary purpose of the High Holy Days is to have the Jew engage in moral and religious introspection: What kind of person have I been in the past, and what do I need to do in order to be a better person?

I am well aware that rabbis who spoke on the Democrats’ health-care bill, for example, will respond that that bill was an issue of social justice and tikkun olam, and, therefore, exactly what he/she should be talking about on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur, because supporting liberal legislation is exactly what every Jew should do to be a better a person in the new year.

That response sounds compelling to liberal rabbis who offer it and to their liberal congregants. But even when meant sincerely, it is not an honest argument. It is a noble-sounding excuse to use the pulpit to advance one’s politics. One proof is that rabbis with conservative political views do not use Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to advance conservative political positions. I wonder if there is one politically conservative rabbi in America who has delivered a Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur sermon opposing what is known as ObamaCare.

Now, why not? Those of us who oppose that bill do so with just as much moral concern — yes, moral concern — and just as much passion as those who are for it. So why haven’t rabbis with conservative political views (yes, they exist, though some are afraid to come out of the closet) used their High Holy Days pulpit to sermonize against the bill?

Because separation of pulpit and politics is a conservative value, not a liberal one. Therefore, rabbis with conservative political beliefs do not use their pulpit to advance their political agenda. And because no conservative believes that advancing the conservative political agenda makes you a good person. Like Judaism, we know that becoming a good person demands arduously working on one’s character, not having the right politics.

And what about the notion that “social justice” issues are, by definition, Jewish issues?  This is believed by Jews on the left because “social justice” has become a euphemism for all liberal social and political positions. If you are for social justice, you are liberal; if you oppose liberals, you oppose social justice. Therefore, for liberal Jews and their rabbis, Judaism is identical to leftism. Proof? Ask a Jew on the left to name one political or social position in which Judaism and leftism oppose one another.

So why should left-wing rabbis bother talking about character when they could talk about health care or global warming or the Christian right? After all, they might offend some congregants if they talk about the congregants’ kids cheating on exams. But who in an overwhelmingly liberal congregation will be offended by a sermon on behalf of nationalizing health care or in favor of raising corporate taxes?

So, the left-wing rabbi has everything to gain from giving a sermon against the Tea Party, Glenn Beck or carbon emissions. For one thing, that takes no courage. For a liberal rabbi to espouse liberal politics from most non-Orthodox pulpits takes as much courage as it takes a conservative politician to espouse conservative politics at a Tea Party rally. And it’s a lot easier to talk politics than to talk Judaism and to use it to challenge the congregants to be more ethical human beings and more serious Jews, or to teach the congregants how to come closer to God in a secular society.

This year will be the fourth year in which I conduct High Holy Days services (pragerhighholidays.net), and from the beginning I have assured those who attend that I will never talk politics. Though I am as morally committed to conservative values as leftists are to leftist values, anyone who attends my services will be entering a politics-free zone. Jews would be much better off if all our synagogues had such a policy. If what you hear in shul is no different from what you hear on NPR or at a Democratic Party conference, why go to shul? Which is a major reason non-Orthodoxy is in decline: If Judaism and liberalism are identical, who needs Judaism?

A version of this article appeared in print.

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Well written, Dennis.

At Rosh Hashana services five years ago, the (Reform) Rabbi began his sermon by praising the Al Gore polemic on man-made global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth”. He then continued on as to how it was our duty as Jews to act based on Gore’s conclusions.

For the first and only time in my life I walked-out on a Rabbi’s sermon, returning to the sanctuary only when he had concluded his homily.

A few days later I emailed him a list, scores of websites which contradict the concept of MMGW, many by climate scientists, and other professionals active in the field.  He seemingly ignored my list…at least he never acknowledged it, even when I asked if he’d read it.

Comment by John Hindsill on 9/14/11 at 12:43 pm

Yes, of course it’s only those evil liberal Jews (i.e. the vast majority) that are ruining everything. And the reason you never receive any complaints about a conservative ceremony is because you are a conservative as you make very clear. Not just that, you are an anti-liberal, liberal-hating, liberal-scapegoater. In other words, you practice all of the classic antisemitic tropes against liberals, who, incidentally the majority of Jews are.

Why do you hate us, Dennis?

Comment by Jon on 9/14/11 at 2:56 pm

When does Dennis Prager not politicize anything?

Comment by LarryLinn on 9/14/11 at 4:58 pm

Right wing Jews like Dennis Prager have never been able to acknowledge that MOST American Jews are led as Jews to deeds of lovingkindness. Dennis doesn’t go to Reform temples at all, but he’d be happy to see a segment of right wing Jews like him who do indeed make it very daring for a rabbi to speak passionately about issues of social justice.  And like Dennis, they tend to be very loudly dismissive of anything not in the Jewish Tea Party agenda. And re: Mr Hindsill’s unbelievable contention that there are ANY legit scientists who oppose the science of global warming, I think Dennis would happily help you find fellow travelers in such dangerous nahrishkeit.

Comment by rebhayim on 9/14/11 at 10:47 pm

Of course rebhayim finds unbelievable my “contention that there are ANY legit scientists who oppose the science of global warming…”. I would too, had that actually been my contention. But it wasn’t, nor is it.  Of course there is global warming, AND there is global cooling; both have occurred on the Earth beginning long before human habitation. Also, rebhayim changes the argument from Gore’s ‘Man Made Global Warming’—which I referenced—to a generic global warming. 
Finally, if there is any foolishness in this argument, it is failure to consider both sides of the premise, to accept Mr. Gore’s “case closed”.  In science there is NEVER “case closed”, else it is not science.

Comment by John Hindsill on 9/15/11 at 9:31 am

As a rabbi, I agree with you Dennis. I never get into politics when I deliver sermons. I remember a story my teacher at JTS Rabbi Burt Visotzky told us. The late Bill Safire’s rabbi asked him why he didn’t come to shul anymore to which Safire explained, “I don’t need to come to shul to hear about what Bill Safire wrote in the NY Times.” In other words, we rabbis should allow the political pundits to be pundits and we should use the HHDs to inspire and encourage repentance.

Comment by Rabbi Jason Millerr on 9/16/11 at 9:31 am

Imagine in 1855 a rabbi not speaking out against slavery because it was too political.
Imagine in 1965 a rabbi not speaking out for Civil Rights because it was too political.

Our job, in part, is to offer moral guidance to social issues of the day.  Is this political?

Comment by Rabbi Zach Shapiro on 9/16/11 at 12:34 pm

Mr. Prager should avoid Yom Kippur.

I recall, Isaiah 58:5-7 “Is such the fast I desire,
A day for men to starve their bodies? Is it bowing the head like a bulrush? And lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call that a fast? A day when the Lord is favorable? No, this is the fast I desire: To unlock the fetters of wickedness. And untie the cords of the yoke.  To let the oppressed go free; to break off every yoke. It is to share your bread with the hungry,
And to take the wretched poor into your home; when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to ignore your own kin.” 

This seems political to me, but what do I know, I am a liberal

Comment by Ari Moss on 9/16/11 at 4:35 pm

It’s kind of like when right-wingers complain against “activist judges.”  Code for judges whom they don’t agree with.  In other words any sermon could be labeled political, since most everything is political in one way or another.  Such is life. 

Another point is that right-wingers are (almost) always trying to stifle people and tell people ‘you can’t say this’ and ‘you shouldn’t say that.’  Usually known as the truth.  Except the truth would expose their complete greed, selfishness, hyposcrisy, etc., etc.  I for one won’t easily be stifled, and I will speak what I believe to be true.

Comment by theleviteline.com on 9/17/11 at 1:57 pm

How incorrect you are theleviteline.  It is the LEFT (MSNBC, college professors, academia, the leftist media, etc.) that twists the truth, slanders, stifles speech(check out most college campuses),selfishness(liberals give little to charity) hypocrisy-you name it, they got it!!!!

Comment by Earl on 9/17/11 at 4:29 pm

Prager’s column seems to be based on Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater.  And you can add Rabbi(?) Steven Tucker too.  Both seem to care more about liberalism than Judaism.

Comment by Zizzix on 9/17/11 at 6:07 pm

Earl, like your right wingnuts, you choose loose figures over real facts.

Fact 1- the remaining newspapers are mainly conservative, both in their ownership and columnists.
Fact 2-Conservative paladins dominate the radio, television and Internet- especially in the realm of ownership.
Fact 3- Research has shown that in academy, outside of the liberal arts sectors, that the colleges and universities are dominated by corporate money and agendas.

I know you hate facts Earl-otherwise you would done it the “fair and balanced Fox way.’’

Comment by Marc Rogers on 9/17/11 at 11:34 pm

Faact4_ the poor and lower middle class give more money, percentage wise, than the right wingnuts.
Fact 5- to john- 98% of climate scientists are in agreement regarding the ill effects of manmade global warming
Fact6-No one espouses more politics from his bimah than Prager, whose every utterance, written prose and selective use of the Torah , is drapped and dripping in conservative dogma.
Fact 7- these facts will result in a vituperative response from John and Earl- vituperative, not factual.

Comment by Marc Rogers on 9/18/11 at 12:16 am

I have attended Dennis Prager’s High Holy Day services for three years. He has never once uttered a political word. He has talked about honoring parents, raising ethical children, faith after the Holocaust, the need for moral heroes and other such topics. Marc Rogers simply lied about Mr. Prager in writing “No one espouses more politics from his bimah than Prager.” Most of what Rogers writes is made up. But Mr. Rogers is obsessed with Dennis Prager and resents Dennis’s enormous moral and Jewish influence.

Comment by Susan Cohen on 9/18/11 at 5:38 pm

Susan, I do not lie. Maybe you need to go beyond your myopia and blind fidelity and listen instead of talking.

I interpret bimach as a lecturn from which to speak and the rabbis that I consulted agreed with that interpretation. As such, whenever Dennis occupies a lecturn, he does speak nothing but his venom that liberals are the source of all the world’s evils.

I resent Dennis’s fixation on ONLY his conservative interpretation of morals and his influence is preety much confined, luckily, to the 20% of Jews that are orthodox.

I purposely prefaced my points with the perfix of factual, and you are free to ascertain their veracity.

Comment by Marc Rogers on 9/18/11 at 9:12 pm

But to check out the veracity of my statements, you would have to drop your emotional curtain and do something besides casting aspersions and acts of calumny like calling me a liar.

I am “obsessed” with making the world a better place and feel strongly thaqt Dennis’s views and political beliefs are causing immense damage and suffering.

Why do all you Dennis defenders always try to belittle or bully anyone who pulls back his wizard of oz curtain ?

Why do you always slander and execrate and whomever disagrees with you becomes the despised “other?”

Maybe Susan you need to look at yourself and answer those questions.

Comment by Marc Rogers on 9/18/11 at 9:19 pm

And you call yourself a Rabbi Mr Shapiro?
Unfortunately its Jews like you who have made a mockery of the Rabbinate. Choosing a career in politics would have suited you better.

Comment by Straight Shooter on 9/24/11 at 11:28 pm

Straight shooter is right if one desires a Rabbi who follows rather than leads; a Rabbi who cowers rather than stands tall; a Rabbi who hides behind the bimah rather than being in front of the bimah as a leader of the congregation; and a Rabbi who is bullied into submission by status quo conservatives rather than defending and fighting for the eternal Torah values of justice for the innocent, charity for the poor, hospitality for the stranger and love for the benighted.

Thank God Judaism sides with Rabbi Shapiro’s open and welcome-to-all approach rather than Straight Shooter’s closed and welcome-to-only- those-who-agree-with- me approach.

Comment by Marc Rogers on 9/25/11 at 4:57 am

Judaism the real one, not reform nor conservative, the halacha judaism is not liberal or conservative, it’s right in the middle.
Tzedaka means justice, not charity, where not giving charity, we are making justice when we help the poor, the justice Hashem ordered, real judaism has no political preferences, judaism only wants what Hashem wants. Talking or not talking politics in shul is not important, the important is making people understand that Hashem gave all Israel the way to go to live and that is social capitalism, where the more fortunate help the less, because that’s DIVINE JUSTICE

Comment by Bettino on 10/01/11 at 1:57 pm

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