Levi Brackman’s Website

Auslander was brought up in the ultrareligious Jewish neighborhood of Monsey, New York.Throughout his childhood and beyond, he was taught the fear of G-d. He was told that if he sinned he would be punished from Heaven. Sins, Auslander was taught, have grave consequences. Numerous examples of the outcome of G-d’s wrath throughout the ages were taught to back up this teaching and strike fear in the heart of the student.

Auslander was obviously traumatized by this image of an ever-watchful punishing G-d, and even when he eventually left traditional Jewish practice, he was unable to shake off the fear of Heaven that had been instilled in him by the teachers of his youth. This is seemingly the subtext to his book. Although I cannot review a book I have not read in its entirety and do not intend to comment on his general thesis or content, I feel it is worth considering how fear of heaven is taught in the Orthodox Jewish world.

Traditionally instilling the fear of Heaven in the general Jewish population was the job of the professional preacher. In bygone times, these preachers were called Maggidim. In the Pale of Settlement these preachers were hired by villages to preach to their communities. Wealthier communities had their own full-time Maggid to reprove the congregation and strike the fear of Heaven in their hearts regularly. The community would gather in the synagogue to listen to the preacher’s fire-and brimstone rebuke. The most talented preachers were able to reduce even grown adults to sobbing and wailing.

Whereas this practice continued up until the late 1800s, in the mid-1700s an alternative method of motivating Jews to religious practice had also been promulgated. The founder of modern Chasidism, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760), taught that one can serve G-d primarily through spiritual inspiration and love. And even fear of G-d was presented as awe for the infinitude of the Divine rather than the punishment G-d metes out to those who do not follow His wishes.

The following story illustrates the tension between the two approaches. The Baal Shem Tov once walked into a synagogue where a preacher was reproving the congregation and telling them about all the different punishments that lay in store for them, including famine and starvation. When he saw the town’s simple folk crying, the Baal Shem Tov quoted a rabbinic source, which says that G-d asked Moses to reprove Him. He therefore told the Maggid that he had no right to castigate the townsfolk in such a  harsh manner and that if anyone needed to be reprimanded it was G-d Himself, who had caused so much suffering to the faithful Jews of the town.

In the Jewish tradition there are many ways of finding a relationship with G-d. Unfortunately, there are some who feel it necessary to see G-d as vengeful and punishing toward those who do not listen to Him. It is clear why seeing G-d strictly in those terms would cause discomfort and possibly even resentment, as happened with Shalom Auslander. Happily there is another way. To me G-d is a loving existence, who only wants good for me, even if sometimes I find it difficult to grasp that goodness. If more people were taught primarily about the loving side of G-d, Judaism would be better off and there would be no need for books such as Foreskin’s Lament.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."