Excerpted from Contemporary Humanistic Judaism: Beliefs, Values, Practices

THROUGHOUT JEWISH HISTORY, many Jews have questioned specific Jewish religious beliefs. In the nineteenth century, thousands of Jews became more secularized through the Haskalah (Enlightenment) and experiences of emancipation and integration in Europe and America. Sometimes ideological secularists—particularly early twentieth-century Zionists working for a secular, Hebrew-speaking Jewish state and socialists creating new expressions of secular Jewishness in Yiddish—also adapted traditional Jewish forms to their political agendas.

What marked Humanistic Judaism as important and distinctive from these expressions at its birth in the 1960s was its fusion of secular philosophical beliefs with Jewish religious structure: liturgy, services, synagogues, and rabbis.

In suburban Detroit in November 1963, Reform-trained Rabbi Sherwin Wine and the founding families of The Birmingham Temple did something extraordinary as they began questioning the beliefs and practices of conventional Reform Judaism. Trying to further reform Reform Judaism was not viable if they did not believe in a personal god; they felt hypocritical praising and thanking one in their services. If they personally connected with being Jewish more through history, culture, humor, and language than theology and ritual, could they make those the focus of Jewish holidays and life-cycle celebrations? Could they center people and the natural world in a new, Humanistic Judaism? Could they say what they mean and mean what they said, as a popular movement phrase has it, with integrity? Under Rabbi Wine’s leadership, the answers to all these questions were a resounding yes. In short, Humanistic Judaism would become a Judaism focused on people rather than prayer. Wine put it this way: “Laughing has always seemed to me more Jewish than praying.”….

Humanistic Judaism has always shaped its expressions of cultural Jewish identity through its humanist philosophy. Humanistic Jewish philosophy meets universal human needs and questions for those Jews for whom the answers do not lie in Torah or conventional religious observance. What is the meaning of human experience? How does the universe work? What is my purpose in life? How should I be a good person? And is what I see, touch, and analyze all there is to life?

In Humanistic Judaism, Jewish and human experiences are read as lessons in positive humanism: the importance of self-reliance, the value of human creativity, and the reality of human freedom. A Humanistic Jewish understanding of the universe makes the God of Jewish tradition a literary character created by human authors, reflecting their context and values. Given the literary biography of this character in the TANAKH [Hebrew Bible] and rabbinic literature, this character is vital to understanding historical Jewish thought and literature, but is not a conscious being who acts—or ever acted—in the world, reveals scripture, issues commandments, rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked, or should be beseeched or honored through devotional prayer. Attempts to redefine “God”—say, for example, as “love”—to salvage traditional liturgy must be rejected. “Love” is worth praising and beautiful enough without calling it “God.”

For Humanistic Jews, a sense of purpose in life comes from positive affirmations of human dignity, reinforced by Humanistic Judaism’s emphasis on human knowledge, power, and responsibility. The collective human achievement of understanding the natural world and applying that knowledge to improve and lengthen life has replaced reliance on revelation, miraculous intervention, and divine power both conceptually and liturgically. If human beings are the only conscious and active force that can do good, then it is a human responsibility to do so.

The question of how to define and do good (i.e., ethics) likewise reflects a human-centered approach. In the absence of binding divine or rabbinic commandments, Humanistic Jews are free to make their own choices. Our social nature and interdependence, as well as the historical Jewish experience, suggest that wise and ethical choices consider the welfare of others as well as the individual. Rather than ask whether a particular action is permitted or prohibited by traditional authority, Humanistic Jewish ethics evaluate the possible results of action or inaction as best as these can be predicted, an ethical system often called consequentialism. Traditional Jewish obligations bein adam la-havero (between people) are certainly worthy of consideration, even if obligations bein adam la-Makom (between a person and God) are mostly irrelevant. What ultimately makes an action right or wrong is not who or what commanded it; it is how it affects other people and oneself.

“For Humanistic Jews, a sense of purpose in life comes from positive affirmations of human dignity, reinforced by Humanistic Judaism’s emphasis on human knowledge, power, and responsibility.”

A full human life, whether religious or secular, is more than knowing and doing; it is also experiencing, feeling, being inspired. A Humanistic Jewish spirituality finds inspiration in natural transcendence. Scientific connections to each other and the world, from evolution to astronomy, expand our feelings of connectedness. Beauty—both natural phenomena, from mountains to molecules, and human creations like art and music—creates a sense of awe and wonder. Experiences of cultural heritage, like lighting a family menorah used for generations, spark emotional bonds. So, too, meaningful relationships with other people are life-affirming and create family and community. Going beyond the individual and the rational to experience psychological and emotional uplift without a supernatural being is one more way Humanistic Judaism meets religious needs through secular means.

These beliefs are the foundation of Humanistic Jewish community, practices, and values….

Synthesizing universal humanist philosophy and particular Jewish identity, Wine argues that the Jewish experience also demonstrates the absence (or, at best, unreliability) of the caring, intervening divinity of traditional Jewish belief. As a result, a Humanistic Judaism that emphasizes human power, freedom, and responsibility in both its messaging and liturgy is not only plausible; it is required for Jewish identity to remain relevant and meaningful. Wine stresses this at the outset of this Shabbat service meditation: “The Jewish experience is the experience of humanism.”

Written as a liturgical reading for a Shabbat service at The Birmingham Temple, which was published in full in 1985 in the movement’s journal Humanistic Judaism, this meditation served as information and inspiration, exposition and liturgy. It expressed the core philosophical belief of Humanistic Judaism that people are in charge of their lives, it derived that lesson from Jewish roots, and it demonstrated that conclusion by itself serving as new Shabbat liturgy consistent with that belief.

Other Humanistic Jewish lessons can and have been derived from the Jewish historical experience, by Wine and others. The evolution of Jewish belief and practice over centuries and in response to new ideas and circumstances is precedent for contemporary Humanistic Jewish innovation. A diasporic minority experience encourages sympathy for other minorities and advocacy for human rights. The problems of authoritarian rule by patriarchal kings and clergy—both biblical priests and postbiblical rabbis—argue for democratic Jewish community decision-making and egalitarian practice. While it is true that these conclusions could also be justified by philosophical argument, rooting them in Jewish history and culture gives them added force and emotional resonance.

This seminal liturgical passage, however, best exemplifies two key points: the humanism of Humanistic Judaism is natively rooted in its Jewish cultural context rather than grafted on from outside philosophy; and what makes Humanistic Judaism distinctive is its willingness to apply historical and philosophical conclusions boldly and explicitly to theology, liturgy, and communal self-definition.

Sherwin Wine, “Jewish History—Our Humanist Perspective” (1985)

The Jewish experience is the experience of humanism.

Through the eyes of tradition, through the vision of priests, prophets, and rabbis, Jewish history is a testimony to the power and justice of a loving God. The Jewish people is a chosen people, chosen for special duties, special suffering, and special rewards. All that happens to the Jewish nation is part of a noble divine plan, even though we humans, like poor Job, have difficulty understanding its nobility.

But the real history of the Jews has a meaning different from that which the authors of its tradition—the priests, prophets, and rabbis—wanted it to be. No historic belief system can hide the undeserved suffering of the Jewish past. No age-old ideology can hide the cruelty of the Fates. In the century of the Holocaust the illusions of the past insult the memories of our martyrs.

If Jewish history has any message, it is the demand for human self-reliance. In an indifferent universe there is no help from destiny. Either we assume responsibility for our fate or no one will. A world without divine guarantees and divine justice is a little bit frightening. But it is also the source of human freedom and human dignity.

We stand alone, and yet together, to create the world we want.