September 19, 2009

Maurice Harris

Humility counteracts arrogance, certainty

As we approach autumn, I focus on the great theme of the Jewish High Holy Days — teshuvah, which is Hebrew for “turning” or “returning.”

Teshuvah is the multi-step process of repentance. The process involved in teshuvah resembles elements of the famous Alcoholics Anonymous “12 Steps.” Step 4, “making a searching and fearless moral inventory of oneself,” and Step 9, “making direct amends wherever possible, except when to do so would injure someone,” are core elements of teshuvah.

This year I find myself asking, “What if entire religious movements underwent a process of teshuvah, doing a moral inventory on their impacts on the world, and seeking to improve their record?” Seeing the hatred, the war, the triumphalism and the arrogance that have unfortunately found expression in parts of so many religions, I ask myself sometimes whether I am inadvertently contributing to a force in the world — religion — that creates more suffering than it heals.

Whatever religious path we follow, I believe we are morally responsible for what we do in the world in the name of that path. In Judaism, in preparation for Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), we are each individually called to do cheshbon ha-nefesh — a moral inventory and examination of the soul.

In the larger world, I wonder what would happen if all of us did a moral inventory of our own religion. When am I making religion a tool for spreading joy, for peace-building, for service to others? When am I making it a tool for absolutism, for xenophobia, for violence? I’m not just an inheritor of my religion; I’m a shaper and participant who bears moral responsibility for my actions.

As an Orthodox Jewish teacher of mine taught, “There is no ‘I was just following orders’ excuse that is acceptable to account for wrongs committed in the name of religion.”

I believe much rests on our ability to adopt an attitude of humility about the greatness or absolute rightness of one’s own religion. This is an attitude I call religious humility. The Talmudic sages taught that humility is the greatest of all personal virtues.

What’s true for me as an individual also holds true for my religion. I believe the Jewish season of teshuvah can be, for all of us, a call toward expanding our concept of repentance to include not only our personal actions, but the actions of the religious communities we are part of. This is a truth that I feel deeply compelled to state and that I feel needs to be heard: It is arrogance and absolute certainty, whether personal or religious, that gets us into trouble.

The Israeli poet, Yehuda Amichai, wrote:

From the place where we are right

Flowers will never grow

In the spring.

The place where we are right

Is hard and trampled

Like a yard.

But doubts and loves

Dig up the world

Like a mole, a plow.

And a whisper will be heard in the place

Where the ruined

House once stood.

May religious humility blossom and help us heal our world.

Maurice Harris was ordained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia and serves as one of two rabbis at Temple Beth Israel in Eugene. This column is coordinated by Lane Interfaith Alliance to offer inspiration, share personal spiritual experiences and bring a deeper understanding of individual faith perspectives with the intention of blessing our community and world. For information, visit www.laneinterfaithalliance.org or call 344-5693.