Dennis Prager


However, this advocacy of religion comes with two caveats.




Let's begin with my religion, Judaism. I recall a young man who attended a Jewish institute I used to direct. When he first arrived at the institute, he was a particularly kind and nonjudgmental individual -- and completely secular. After his month-long immersion in studying and living Judaism, he decided to become a fully practicing Jew. When I met him a year later he was actually less kind and was aggressively judgmental of the religiosity of fellow Jews, including me and others who had brought him to Judaism. In one year he had become in his eyes holier than the teachers who brought him to religion in the first place.

Now, of course, there are teachings in Judaism that, if honored (such as the Prophet Micah's admonition to "walk humbly with your God"), would have prevented him from becoming sanctimonious. But the religion's emphasis on legal observance enabled him to count the number of laws fellow Jews did not observe and judge them accordingly.

One major benefit of Judaism's being law-based is that it can provide an individual with a way to regularly ascertain right from wrong, to provide ethical rules on a daily basis. It can move him to visit the sick when he would rather be at home watching television, to resist gossiping, to give more charity than he otherwise would, to show honor to parents who may not deserve it, and so much more. But it can also lead him to judge fellow Jews by their level of ritual observance, to substitute law worship for God worship, and can lead a Jew to retreat from almost any social interaction with the non-Jewish world.

Dennis Prager

