Many people tend to see the worlds of the spiritual and the mundane as intrinsically conflictual; they see ritual and ethics as distinct and unrelated. The first, they suggest, is a matter of our quest for transcendence, our search for spiritual fulfillment, while the second ensures that the "nonspiritual" world in which we live is safe, habitable, and cordial. Although Judaism has distinct terms for rituals (which it calls mitzvot bein adam la-makom, or commandments between God and people) and ethics (which it names mitzvot bein adam la-haveiro, or commandments between people), it denies a radical separation between these two categories. Jewish tradition insists that everyday life, and particularly the realm of mortality in ordinary human interactions, has a profound capacity to enrich our spiritual existences. The words we use, the charity we give, the ways we invite people into our homes, and even how we make love are all part of Jewish life's broad path to spiritual encounter.
Suggested Discussion Questions:
1. How does Gordis understand the importance of Jewish ethics?
2. How do our ethics (mitzvot between us and other humans) relate to, or rather, reflect, our rituals and faith (mitzvot between us and God)?
3. Can we be justify being a people of a faith without expressing our ethics through fulfilling charitable acts?
Time Period: Contemporary (The Yom Kippur War until the present-day)