I want to add an addendum to this thought, because I am concerned that taken out of context it might be misunderstood. So, a sub-thread: 1/
I have sometimes found that people respond very positively to the principle I laid out here--"what matters to the poor is not your reasons for help, but simply that you help"--but are less comfortable applying the same reasoning to "ritual" acts, like reciting prayers, etc. 2/
Rabbinic (that is, Pharisaic) Judaism classifies mitzvot into two categories: (a) "Bein adam l'chaveiro" (between a person and his or her fellow) and (b) "Bein adam l'Makom" (between a person and the Omnipresent One, i.e. God). 3/
The first category includes not only the affirmative commandments of g'milut chasidim ("acts of lovingkindness"), i.e. feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, visiting the sick, etc.... 4/
...But also the entire apparatus of Jewish civil and criminal law: the prohibitions against theft and murder, fraud, property law, torts, and so on. All of that is in the category of "bein adam l'chaveiro", laws governing relationships between people. 5/
I think it makes sense to most people to say that those laws are obligatory regardless of whether you're feeling it or not. You don't get to ignore traffic laws just because you're not in the mood to stop at a red light. You don't get to steal someone's wallet just because... 6/
...you're having a lousy day and don't feel very law-abiding. And you're not allowed to turn a blind eye to the suffering of the vulnerable just because you're not in a charitable mood. The obligation is not conditional on your emotions or spiritual state. 7/
However, I think many people (particularly Christians, for reasons that I will try to get to later) balk at the idea that the same principle applies to mitzvot bein adam l'makom, commandments governing our relationship with God. 8/
The idea that you should recite your daily prayers whether you feel like it or not, that you should perform ritual acts like fasting or lighting Shabbat candles or wearing ritual garments like tallit or tefillin even if you don't feel a spiritual connection to the practice... 9/
That's the point at which I think a lot of people say, "Well, that's different." We use phrases like "empty rituals", "rote recitation", "mechanical practice", all as ways to articulate our discomfort with performing these mitzvot without an inner experience. 10/
I think the critique of "hypocrisy" (or at least "insincerity") seems both more natural and more potent when we talk about God-directed external rituals that are not matched by an inner experience. 11/
Here again I point out: the Pharisees of antiquity were completely aware of this issue, and it bothered them too! For example in Pirkei Avot (one of the earliest Pharisaic texts) we find Rabbi Shimon teaching "Be careful in the reciting of Shema (and praying)..." 12/
"... When you pray, do not make your prayer fixed, rather prayers for mercy and supplication before the Omnipresent, blessed be He." (Avot 2:13, see sefaria.org/Pirkei_Avot.2.… for context). 13/
The concern that we not turn our prayers into fixed, mechanical practices devoid of an inner dimension runs throughout Jewish tradition. And obviously to a Christian it has echoes in Jesus's critiques of Pharisees for whom "Everything they do is done for people to see." 14/
But -- and this is the point I've been trying to get to -- while Judaism recognizes the two categories of mitzvot, it *does not prioritize one over the other*, nor does it take fundamentally different approaches to them with respect to questions of intent. 15/
A mitzvah is a mitzvah. Whether it's keeping kosher or caring for orphans, reciting daily prayers or building a sukkah or providing hospitality to visitors, the guiding principle is: "Naaseh v'nishma" -- we will do it (first), and the inner dimension will (we hope) follow. 16/
I mentioned above that I think Christians in particular have a difficult time with the idea of God-directed activity that is not the result of a sincere emotional or spiritual experience. Let me take a shot at explaining why. 17/
I am not a Christian, but I think I understand their theology well enough to understand that the fundamental concept -- the core of the whole faith -- is personal, individual salvation. 18/
That "personal relationship" with God is not just one characteristic feature of Christianity -- it is the whole ball game, the sine qua non. If YOU, PERSONALLY are not INDIVIDUALLY in a salvation relationship, you're not "really" a Christian. 19/
(It may be that the characterization I have written above applies more specifically to evangelical groups than to other denominations -- again I am not a Christian so I only have an outsider's knowledge. I welcome clarifying comments on this!) 20/
If you conceive of your religion as being primarily or even exclusively about the individual's relationship with God, then the sincerity or authenticity of that relationship is obviously paramount. 21/
From this perspective, a person who says all the right God-talk but doesn't really mean it is the worst kind of hypocrite. And that's precisely the context in which the word "Pharisee" is likely to be used by Christians to condemn hypocrisy. 22/
What I think this perspective does not understand is that Judaism is not fundamentally about the relationship of the individual to God. Judaism from its beginning is about becoming an "'am kadosh" - a holy NATION. 23/
The covenant is always understood not as a signifier of special righteousness, or as a personal relationship with God, but as a call to collective action -- an expectation that AS A PEOPLE we create holiness in our midst. 24/
Because that expectation is national and collective, rather than personal and individual, the performance of mitzvot -- including the purely "ritual" ones -- is not contingent on our inner experience. 25/
The clearest illustration of this I can think of, in practical terms, is that certain core parts of the daily prayer services (particularly the parts dedicated to declaring the holiness of God) can only be recited in the presence of a minyan... 26/
...i.e., a quorum of 10 individuals that acts as representatives for the community as a whole. If you don't have a minyan, you are still obligated to pray, but you skip those parts of the service. 27/
That's why Jesus's exhortation to go and pray in private where no one can see you is such a radical break with how Judaism regards prayer. We regard prayer as fundamentally a communal experience. Solitary prayer is a poor substitute. 28/
So here I think is probably where Jews and Christians probably have the sharpest divide with respect to the whole "hypocrisy/sincerity/authenticity" issue. For a Christian, the relationship with God is a personal one, experienced in private and intimate ways... 29/
...and therefore if this relationship consists primarily or even partly of external forms that are unmatched by an inner experience, there's a real problem. 30/
Whereas for Jews, the relationship is between God and the community, and the individual's obligation to participate in that relationship is operative regardless of how one feels or doesn't feel. 31/
In that sense the "bein adam l'Makom" commandments function similarly to the "bein adam l'chaveiro" commandments: Judaism teaches that *it's not about you*. Your community needs you to participate and be part of a holy nation. 32/done
