Moral and ethical values evolve when culture and ideas are shared

Where do our moral and ethical values come from and how are they related to our religious and ethnic identities? Clearly, our moral judgments evolve over time. In a relatively short time, homophobia has come to be widely recognized as a serious moral听failing. The forced assimilation of First Nations听in the residential school system horrifies our nation today.听

Is religion necessary for听living morally and ethically?听Most people of faith don't claim to have a monopoly on morality and ethics and readily acknowledge that those of other faiths and those of no faith can live moral and ethical lives. The Orthodox Jewish philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz maintained that ethics admits of no听adjectives; there is no specifically Jewish ethics, but only ethics听qua听ethics, practical rules of how people should treat each other.

听Most听cultures have some version of the golden rule.听Hillel, the 1^st听century Jewish sage and contemporary of Jesus, was challenged by a non-believer to explain the whole Torah while standing on one foot. Without hesitating, Hillel said, 鈥淲hat is hateful to you do not do unto others. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and learn it.鈥�

In traditional Judaism, learning Torah is a religious act akin to prayer. In Humanistic Judaism, we study 听the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish sources, both religious and secular, to seek听out those parts that reflect the commentary Hillel referred to and to critically engage with听those parts that clearly don鈥檛. We embrace the traditional Jewish concept of听tikkun olam, a Hebrew phrase meaning 鈥渨orld repair鈥� found in an ancient听Jewish sacred text dealing with issues of social policy and protecting the disadvantaged. In contemporary usage, it means our obligation to pursue social justice and protect the weak and marginalized.

Along with other humanists, Humanistic Jews affirm that human dignity and the promotion of human flourishing are the primary goals of morality and ethics. We believe that relying on critical thinking, life experience and the consideration of intentions and consequences is the best way to establish a moral and ethical stance toward our fellow human beings. There is evidence that we听are hardwired to have feelings of empathy and compassion, especially toward members of our own clan or family. According to Yale psychologist Paul Bloom, as soon as babies can make coordinated movements, they will often stroke and pat others whom they perceive to be in pain. Our educational system should nurture these natural tendencies and, as philosopher Peter Singer has urged, expand the circle of our moral concern not just beyond clan and family, but ultimately even to other species.

Being human, of course, takes precedence over all our constructed identities, including our Jewish identity. But we all live within specific cultures, with all the preconceptions and biases that entails. We Humanistic Jews choose to express our humanity in a Jewish key. But any ideology, religious or secular, that radically separates us from or sets us above those who express their humanity in other keys ultimately diminishes our humanity. To quote Rabbi Sherwin Wine, the founder of the Society for Humanistic Judaism:

鈥淚f our commitment were to Jewish culture alone, then the wisdom of non-Jews could be legitimately excluded. But if our commitment is to a humanistic philosophy of life, then such an exclusion is harmful. Our Jewish identity is overwhelmingly important. And so are the humanist resources within Jewish culture. But we cannot be fully developed human beings if we cannot dip into the pool of universal creativity for inspiration.鈥�

Moral and ethical values Alan Rutkowski听is active in the Victoria Jewish Culture Project and is a founding member of the Victoria Jewish dialogue group, If Not Now, When?听 He has contributed articles听to the online edition of the American journal Jewish Currents.