[HANASHIR:9134] Belief vs action in Judaism

[Tamar D. Earnest MD <tde...>]

Dear Callie,

You wrote

"In a society where we are the minority, we set aside a few times a 
week or less when we know everyone else in the room believes in 
basically the same things."

The great thing about Judaism, as opposed to Christianity, is that we 
do not know what the person next to us believes." We do know what they 
do (or are doing at that moment) that is Jewish. Judaism is very much 
about doing and very little about doing. We have no crede, no written 
dogma. Although Maimonides listed his "13 articles of faith" even he 
probably didn't believe in all of them (and got his books burned, 
banned and severely criticized for some of what he wrote).

We define ourselves as Jews by what we do - how we behave in prayer 
situations, making food choices, treating our parents, sharing our time 
and property in giving tzedakah, writing lyrics for a song, or 
studying. No one asks us what we believe. Lots of people ask us what we 
do. For example: "Do you go to synagogue on Shabbat" or "do you keep 
kosher". Most of the time no one will ask if we do these things because 
we believe that G-d descended on some place called Sinai and dictated a 
big book of rules to a man names Moses, or because our parents did 
this, or because we feel a closeness with our Jewish community and this 
is our way of expressing that closeness. Sometimes we get into those 
philosophical discussions. But then we go back to doing those Jewish 
things.

A story is told of a discussion among some members of a synagogue, on 
Yom Kippur, about whether or not G-d exists. There were strong 
arguments pro and con. When the call to resume the davvening went out 
they all said "Sh'ma Yisrael" together.

I hope to see and hear you at H"N. Your music is a joy and a delight.

L'hitraot,

Tamar D. Earnest MD

-----Original Message-----
From:   Callie Maidhof [SMTP:anomocal (at) swbell(dot)net]
Sent:   Thursday, May 17, 2001 1:03 PM
To:     hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
Subject:        [HANASHIR:9104] Non-Jewish organists, etc.

For me, the issue with a non-Jewish organist would be intent.  With as 
much work as we put into each service to make it perfect - perfect 
music, musicians, sermon, attendance, sound, lights, atmosphere, ... - 
I think we can forget that in the end it's not a performance.  It's not 
a theatre production or a musical show.  It should be a prayer .  The 
congregation should be able to see and hear the prayer so that they can 
find it in their own hearts.  Every note an instrumentalist plays, or a 
singer sings, was written as a prayer; and should be treated as such. 
 A non-Jewish organist may have trouble praying the notes instead of 
playing them, not because he is inferior or unfeeling, but because he 
doesn't hold the same beliefs!  I would have trouble singing a solo for 
a Catholic mass, or playing my guitar.  The reason we hold services is 
so that we may gather and pray. In a society where we are the minority, 
we set aside a few times a week or less when we know everyone else in 
the room believes in basically the same things.
I'm not saying a non-Jewish instrumentalist is always inappropriate; it 
just has to be handled correctly.
Respectfully,
Callie Maidhof
Overland Park, Kansas

------------------------ hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org -----------------------+