Who is a "good Jew" and how do we define a "religious" person of any kind?

-shelter-

One of my very favorite stories is told about the Baal Shem Tov, an 18th century radical religious revolutionary, and the founder of the Chasidic movement. But for every celebrated male mystical revolutionary who starts a movement that slowly sours over the generations into an ever-increasing patriarchal fever-dream, surely there was a forgotten female mystical revolutionary, so instead of the Baal Shem Tov, I’m going to tell this story about a Baalet Shem Tovah, a female spiritual leader and mystic. I’ve heard this particular story told in so many dramatically different ways, swapping out the protagonist's gender feels like a relatively minor edit in comparison.

Okay, enough of that. Here’s one of the many versions of the story:

The Baalet Shem Tovah is raising money to build a ritual bath, a place of sacred immersion, for her tiny village in Ukraine. The people in the tiny village are living hand to mouth. They have no money for the construction of this space. So the Baalet Shem Tovah makes the long unpleasant journey in the freezing winter cold to go to the big city, where she heads straight to the largest house in the Jewish quarter and knocks on the door. She wants an appointment with the wealthy mistress. The servants make the Baalet Shem Tovah wait around a bit, but they can tell she’s a learned woman, a woman of spiritual stature, so eventually the mystic is brought into an opulent study to meet the wealthy lady of the house. The Baalet Shem Tovah makes her most persuasive case: she needs one hundred rubles to build this ritual bath. The wealthy woman listens intently, but then shakes her head. It’s been a hard year in the city. She’s given to many charities already, she has nothing for this little village. The Baalet Shem Tovah tries every tool of persuasion, to no avail. The hour grows late, the wealthy woman is showing her out, she has one hand on the doorknob, when the Baalet Shem Tovah finally cries out in desperation:

“My World to Come! I will sell you my share in heaven, the World to Come, for one hundred rubles!”

The wealthy woman is shocked.

“Are you joking? You’re clearly a learned woman, Baalet Shem Tovah, it seems you’ve devoted your life to helping others. Your place in the World to Come is priceless. Of course I’ll take it, but why would you sell it to me?”

Only after the Baalet Shem Tovah writes up a contract granting the woman her share in the World to Come in exchange for 100 rubles, and the paper and money change hands, does she explain, eyes gleaming with joy:

“Now that I have no share in the World to Come, what a gift it will be to serve Goddess for no hope of reward, only out of pure love.”

(And, of course, at that, a voice issues out from heaven declaring that with that one declaration of devotion the Baalet Shem Tovah has earned an entirely new and total share in the World to Come.)

*

I have deep reverence for ancestral tradition, but I am not its slave. I don’t worship idols of any kind and I certainly don’t worship men behind curtains who pull the levers of a puppet God made in their image. It’s my life’s work and my deepest desire to serve Goddexx. That devotion has little patience for an obsession over patriarchal legal minutia. I am passionate about Goddexx’s will for justice, healing, truth, and human and full earthly flourishing.

And if I’m missing something in my calculations and I lose my share in the World to Come for my “sins”? Well, then I stand with the Baalet Shem Tov and declare: What a gift it is to serve Goddess for no hope of reward, only out of pure love.

There were many ancestors who stood on this ground, insisting that legalese and ritual meant little compared to the Divine imperatives of justice, healing, truth and human flourishing. Here’s a sampling from our most sacred texts of the Torah:

The prophet Micah (6:6-9):With what shall I approach Yah, Do homage to power on high? Shall I approach with burnt offerings, With calves a year old? Would Yah be pleased with thousands of rams, With myriads of streams of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for my sins? “You have been told, O mortal, what is good, and what Yah requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your Goddexx.

The prophet Jeremiah (1:11-17): “What need have I of all your sacrifices?” Says Goddexx. “I am filled up with burnt offerings of rams, and fat of fat cattle, and blood of bulls; and I have no delight in lambs and he-goats. That you come to appear before Me— Who asked that of you? Trample My courts no more; Bringing sacred gifts is futile, Incense is offensive to Me. New moon and sabbath, proclaiming of solemnities, assemblies with iniquity I cannot abide. Your new moons and fixed seasons fill Me with loathing; They are become a burden to Me, I cannot endure them. And when you lift up your hands, I will turn My eyes away from you; Though you pray at length, I will not listen. Your hands are stained with crime— wash yourselves clean; Put your evil doings away from My sight. Cease to do evil; Learn to do good. Devote yourselves to justice; Aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; Defend the cause of the widow.

The prophet Hosea (6:6): I desire goodness, not sacrifice; Devotion to God, rather than burnt offerings.

The prophet Jeremiah (7:4-7): Don’t put your trust in falsehoods and say, “The Temple of Goddexx, the Temple of Goddexx, the Temple of GOD are these [buildings].” No, if you really mend your ways and your actions; if you execute justice between one party and another; if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow; if you do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place; if you do not follow other gods to your own hurt—then only will I let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your ancestors for all time.

The prophet Amos (4:22-24): If you offer Me burnt offerings—or your grain offerings— I will not accept them; I will pay no heed To your gifts of fatlings. Spare Me the sound of your hymns, and let Me not hear the music of your lutes. But let justice well up like water, Righteousness like an unfailing stream.

Who is a good Jew? Who is a religious person? You can find many competing answers to that question, but I’m standing here along with one long and ancient Jewish religious lineage to declare: Honestly, I don’t care if you eat bacon. I don’t care if you eat on Yom Kippur. I don’t care if you don’t keep Shabbat. I don’t care if you can read Hebrew. I don’t care if you know the Torah inside and out. We can talk about what might possibly be of value in these ancient practices, or what might not. But as a rabbi, what I care most about is this:

Are you walking a path that strives for justice?

Are you shaping your life to respond to the needs of the vulnerable?

Are you honoring the Divine within yourself and others, between yourself and others, and beyond yourself and others?

As the great sage Hillel famously said (Shabbat 31a): "Whatever is hateful and distasteful to you, do not do to your fellow human. This is the entire Torah, the rest is commentary. Go learn."

Photo by Anna Shvets