Nothing Sacred

Many disaffected Jews looking for an intelligent inquiry into spirituality have turned elsewhere, or nowhere. Meanwhile, faced with the chaos of modern life, returnees run back to Judaism with a blind and desperate faith and are quickly absorbed by outreach organizations that--in return for money--offer that those who adhere to this righteous path will never have to ask themselves another difficult question again. Ironically, Judaism was designed to avoid just such a scenario. Jewish tradition stresses transparency, open-ended inquiry, assimilation of the foreign, and a commitment to conscious living. Judaism invites inquiry and change. It is an "open source" tradition--born out of revolution, committed to evolution, and willing to undergo renaissance at a moment's notice. But some of the very institutions created to protect the religion and its people are now suffocating them.