Written by Andrew Freeman
Before Avraham Infeld came to speak, Rabbis Josh Cohen and Todd Zeff, seemed to be incredibly star-struck by his presence. It did not take very long to figure out why. From the first words he spoke, there was little doubt that he was going to be a life-changing orator. He talked first about the Exodus from Egypt and how each leader needs to be like the four leaders that brought us out. We need to have a vision like Moses, we need to be able to articulate like Aaron, we need to have passion like Miriam, and, like Joshua, we need to take action and finish the vision of whatever we started. He then went on to say something even more important, that we should "NEVER, try to lead alone." His point was that for our people to get to Israel, we needed all four of those leaders together to bring us here. We need articulation to reach our subjects. We need passion to show we are excited about what we want to achieve. We need action to get what we want done, and above all we need a vision, a point we want to reach that is inspired by the three other attributes.
The next thing he talked about was what we were waiting for. "How do we ensure the continued significant renaissance of the Jewish People?" His response to that question got everyone's attention. "We need to stop thinking about Judaism as a religion." He continued to repeat those 5 words. "Judaism is not a religion!" The first time I heard those words, I didn't really understand what he meant, but the more he explained, the more it made sense. He first explained that Judaism was really only seen as a religion 250 years ago when one of the responses to assimilation was "No, we can't assimilate because we don't believe in your God." He talked about the things the Judaism has that only a people could have not just a religion. We don't just have a history, we have a זיכרון (zicharon), a memory of our events like we were there when they happened. We are not just a people who give charity, but we do צדקה (tzedakah), meaning essentially what is right or just. We are obligated in תיקון עולם (tikkun olam), repairing the world. We have our own language whose very words define us. Infeld is arguing that all of this is a culture, a people! Not a religion. The more he spoke, the more his words spoke to me. Now I know why our rabbis were so star-struck by his presence, and now my view on Judaism is forever changed.
