The Real Response to the Pew Report – Spiritual Proactivity

A FFB friend emailed me recently because he was very disheartened by the Pew Report and the potential loss of so many thousands of Jews. He wanted to know how I thought Kiruv played into the picture. I told him I thought that Kiruv has been very successful with the 60,000 – 100,000 families that have become observant. In fact many of us who read Beyond BT have been beneficiaries of that success. However I don’t think that our existing mindset will be successful at reaching out to the millions of Jews who are far from Torah and mitzvos. Let me explain why.

The primary role of the Jewish people is to be the spiritual leaders of the world. We’re here to lead the entire world towards connecting the physical world to Hashem. We lead by example. When the world sees clear evidence of the Jewish people’s connection to Hashem, we will assume our primary role as spiritual leaders.

However the vast majority of Jewish people have little spiritual connection to Hashem. How can we lead the world, if we as a people are not spiritually connected. It seems clear that Jews that are spiritually connected need to lead in connecting the Jews as a nation to Hashem. The problem is that even Jews who are regularly observing mitzvos are not achieving high levels of connection.

Let’s look at ourselves. We keep Shabbos, daven, learn, say 100 brachos a day, and observe many mitzvos, but can we honestly say that we and our peers are really connected. That fact becomes clear when you talk to a truly connected person. We’re doing the mitzvos, we’re fully observant, but we’re not achieving great results. It’s scary, but it’s true.

So let’s stop blaming this group, or these community deficiencies, or whoever is the scapegoat of the day or week. Let’s each look inside and take charge of our own spirituality. The purpose of the mitzvos is to connect us to Hashem, let’s focus on connecting as we do our mitzvos, pray, learn Torah and say our 100 brachos a day.

If we become spiritual proactive, and deepen our connection to Hashem through our Torah and mitzvos, the Pew Report will have served its real spiritual purpose.

9 comments on “The Real Response to the Pew Report – Spiritual Proactivity

  1. I think that Chanukkah, and the prominent role of Hellenism and the Misyavnim should make us all think about the results of the Pew Commission, as well as the articles in Klal Perspectives. The demise of RJ and CJ, as depicted in the Pew Commission report, means that bases for potential BTs will require more work and the use of social media to attract unaffilaiated Jews who have less Jewish knowledge than a Pre1A student in any yeshiva today.

    The real issue is who should be the focus group-IMO, teenagers and their parents, and students in college strike me as more willing to explore roots than either adults set in their careers. OTOH, boomers who are near retirement age may be more interested in eexploring Judaism than being self absorbed in the latest social and cultural trends. Retirees with at least a memory of a Seder, a Tekias Shofar or the davening on YK, may also be interested.

    I think that we have to realize that kiruv is a person by person, mitzvah by mitzvah phenomenon, and that anyone who dismisses kiruv strictly on results versus the investment, which pales considering what the secular Jewish world deems its priorties, or even what is the budget necessary to run the major Mosdos HaTorah in the US, is unaware of the fact that the budget alloted for kiruv pales compares in comparison, and must be viewed as a person by person goal, as opposed to a mass movement, which only happened after Kabalas Luchos Shniyos and Purim, as opposed to any other time in Jewish history, even when one considers the development and spread of both Chasidus and the Tenuas HaMusar.

  2. A somewhat related note to the Pew Commission findings-if one has read any of the “academic” literature re BTs, there is a cottage like industry of sociologists who are exploring every aspect of BTs and their integration to the Torah observant world from sociological, anthropological and other academic vantages. Unfortunately, the common denominator of these works, some of whom are authored by Torah observant people, and many who are far from Torah observance, who just “went native” to have a group for conducting their research, is that they cannot understand why anyone would become a Shomer Torah UMitzvos and reasons such as a global rise in cultic behavior and religious fundamentalism, etc are IMO offered instead of accepting that Torah Judaism has a profound and deep message to the average unaffiliated Jew.

  3. I’m using spiritually connected to mean feeling a constant connection to Hashem. The Ramchal uses the word Deveykus.

    Obviously there are different level to Deveykus, but in my informal polling, many people don’t truly feel that connection when they say a Brocha.

    Raise your hand if you’ve blown through a brocha, a Shema or a Shomeneh Esrai without being focused on Hashem. My hand is raised.

    This is observance with getting the resulting spiritual connection to Hashem. And a few people that of talked to including myself, know we can get and want to get more spiritual connection from our mitzvos, beyond just performing.

  4. Neil, I don’t think our role as spiritual leaders is unique to R’ Hirsch. Ramchal is quite clear that’s our National mandate, although he doesn’t use those words.

    As far as a road map, start with kavanna/mindfulness when:
    1) making the brocha over washing your hands in the morning
    2) the first posek of Kriah Shema
    3) consciousness that we’re standing before Hashem when starting the Amidah
    4) making a brocha on your first (or second if you miss the first) drink of coffee or water

    I think 30 days of that will make a real difference in our connection.

    Do you think that’s too much to start with?

  5. I think that, “When the world sees clear evidence of the Jewish people’s connection to Hashem, we will assume our primary role as spiritual leaders,” is referring to our role as both an Am Kodesh and also in the Hirschian view of our National mandate is the show the nations of the world what Hashem wants from everyone (mitzvah observanace). I could be reading more into what was posted, but this is how I read it.

    I agree that it is up to each of us to make a change, especially if we can do so in the our families, which is where we can have the most influence.

    Coming up with a concrete road map is sort of tricky.

  6. For those interested, the following comments made by RYBS in the 1950s translated from Yiddish, are extremely relevant in any consideration of the Pew findings.

  7. I am not sure what this comment means:

    “When the world sees clear evidence of the Jewish people’s connection to Hashem, we will assume our primary role as spiritual leaders.

    However the vast majority of Jewish people have little spiritual connection to Hashem. How can we lead the world, if we as a people are not spiritually connected. It seems clear that Jews that are spiritually connected need to lead in connecting the Jews as a nation to Hashem. The problem is that even Jews who are regularly observing mitzvos are not achieving high levels of connection.”

    I think that it can be argued that since the giving of the Luchos Shinyios, we have been given a mission that is dependent on our willpower, as opposed to the lights and fanfare that accompanied the Luchos Rishonos. Right now, there are more people studying Torah on various levels ranging from aboslute beginners to very high levels than at any prior time in Jewish history.

    OTOH, going through the motions has plagued Klal Yisrael since the times of the Neviim, with many different hashkafic responses, none of which have offered a perfect answer because different people respond to different hashkafic frameworks. While assimilation is rampant, think of the background to Purim and Chanukah, and why the responses to the threats posed were sucessful as opposed to any other responses.

    What does “spiritually connected” mean besides keeping Shabbos davening, learning, saying 100 brachos a day, and observe many mitzvos, as well as engaging in many acts of Gemilus Chasadim? I think that we have to realize that “results” mean one person at a time whose committment grows one mitzvah at a time.

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