Rabbi Etan Mintz is spiritual leader of the historic B’nai Israel Synagogue in East Baltimore.

I don’t remember every high school rabbinics class I took over 20 years ago. But I do remember one in particular like it was yesterday.

It was my junior year Jewish philosophy course. We were studying classical and contemporary responses to the “Big Questions,” such as how can you prove God’s existence, the afterlife and the messiah. We were in the middle of studying why bad things happen to good people, following my rebbe’s month-long absence from school. He had just tragically lost his one-month-old infant.

That morning, class began with five minutes of silence and a palpable intensity in the room. Finally, our rebbe turned to us and asked, “What is the most common reason people give for turning away from God and religion?” We were certain the question was a segue into personal reflections on his loss and the broader question of why bad things happen to good people.

Instead, he remarked, “It’s not what you think – the number one reason people question God and the Torah is when they see religious people acting poorly and unethically, they say to themselves, ‘Why would I want to be religious if that is the result?’”

I can’t say that I was convinced that morning but over the years and after many conversations with people who have been turned off by religion, I think my high school rebbe was spot-on in his assessment.

Too often, we separate religion from moral virtue. Wisdom, knowledge and study of Torah are critical, but do we ensure that they touch us to become more virtuous people?

As people of the book, we study it but do we embody it? We recently found ourselves in a time between Passover and Shavuot, leading up to the historic moment when we received the Torah. It is noteworthy that this time simultaneously commemorates the death of the 12,000 pairs of Rabbi Akiva’s students who died for failing to show respect for one another.

Yes, they were great sages, students of Torah, but that didn’t seem to impact their character. This, despite their master’s famous teaching that loving your fellow is the most important principle of the entire Torah.

It is no coincidence then that the custom is to study Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers, throughout the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot. These moral maxims prepare us for receiving the Torah, for a prerequisite to acquiring Torah is to live by its moral virtues. It is infinitely harder to acquire positive habits than to study them. One can study, one can even act, without it penetrating into the resources of their being.

Sadly, there is too often little correlation between religious observance and interpersonal ethics. As Nachmanides famously writes on the verse, “You shall be holy,” it is possible to observe every letter of the law and still be “depraved within the parameters of Torah.”

In truth, it takes repeated action and constant reflection to improve our moral character. It is not easy. Mussar, the spiritual and ethical practice developed by Lithuanian Jews in the 19th century, teaches that it is harder to change even one trait than to observe the entirety of the commandments.

But it is possible. It was the same Rabbi Akiva who noticed that small drops of water repeatedly falling on a rock eventually change its shape. So, too, with repeated practice, and with the right intentionality, Torah can penetrate into our moral fiber.

As we ascended to the mountain of Torah this Shavuot, let us remember that improving our character traits is a prerequisite to receiving Torah.

Rabbi Etan Mintz is spiritual leader of the historic B’nai Israel Synagogue in East Baltimore.

 

 

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