In my search for profundity this eve of Yom Kippur, I came
across the perfect lyric for my sentiment about this day. “He sees you when
you're sleeping, He knows when you're awake, He knows if you've been bad or
good, so be good for goodness sake.”
Yes, there is an implication that Santa will only shmutz up
his red suit in your chimney if you behave yourself, but the words are quite explicit,
“be good for goodness sake.” The worldview of this song is not B.F.Skinner’s
world of behaviorism. Good is not rewarded and evil is not punished. Be good
for the sake of goodness; not God, not a judge, not to get good seats in
heaven.
This idea is explored in Judaism. It seems rational to favor
good for goodness sake than brownie points with the big guy, and the Jewish tradition
knows that it needs to address this, but Jewish tradition is not monolithic. It
is a trajectory with many branches. Metaphorically, it is a tree of life, just
like Torah. The problem and beauty of this is that we can point to any branch
we choose and call it Judaism. I would like to point to two of these branches.
One is from our sages, the other from a modern sage.
“He [Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah]
used to say: One whose wisdom exceeds his deeds is like a tree whose branches
are many but whose roots are few [and weak]. The wind comes and uproots it and
overturns it upon its top. But one whose deeds are greater than his wisdom is
like a tree whose roots are many [and deep] but whose branches are few. Even if
all the winds of the world come and blow upon it, they cannot even move it from
its place. ” (Avot, chapter 3, mishnah 22).
This is Mishnaic Judaism supporting goodness for goodness
sake. It doesn’t address the problem of determining the source of goodness or
“deeds” which is a reference to the mitzvot (the 613 positive and negative
commandments identified in Torah), but it also doesn’t say to do them in order
to get rewarded.
Yizhar
Smilansky, an early Zionist writer and professor of education, added to the
Jewish canon a different approach to motivation for doing good, or just being,
when he wrote, in The Courage to be Secular,
One may be non religious out of ignorance, laziness
or for no reason at all, but to be secular, one must make a conscious choice…To
be secular it is not enough to be non-religious. The distinction lies between
finding something and losing something…What makes someone secular? First and foremost,
a sense of responsibility; a sense of responsibility with no external
source…The secular have chosen to face the world on their own terms. To be
secular means to claim sovereignty over one's own life.
This Yom Kippur, as I deprive myself of food and blame
myself for the collective sins of my people, I will be hoping and praying that
more of us opt for this branch of Jewish thought that takes responsibility
seriously and chooses good for its own sake. Gmar Chatima Tova, whatever that
means to you.
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