“Be holy, because I your God am holy”. Ramban, commenting on this verse, explains that it means that one should not be a “naval birshut haTorah”, one who engages in unworthy practices not expressly forbidden by the Torah. Ironically, in doing so, he makes the “naval birshut haTorah” not birshut haTorah, since it is prohibited by the Torah under “kedoshim tihiyu”.
To be religious means to dedicate oneself to serving God. This is done through observing halacha. There are many halachot. Some are ben adam laMakom, while some are ben adam lechaveyro. In a sense however, this distinction is false. Mitzvot ben adam lechaveyro, because they are halachik obligations, are part of serving God and as such are ben adam laMakom as well. To say lashon harah is to violate the deoraita prohibitions of “lo telech rachil biamecha” and to be over on the miztvat aseh of “viahavta lereecha kamocha”. One can not say that is any less serious of a sin than not waiting between meat and milk. Yet somehow we define someone who says lashon harah but waits between meat and milk as religious if he is “Orthodox”, but someone who is a kind person and never says lashon harah but doesn’t wait between meat and milk as irreligious if she is not “Orthodox”. In other words, we have come to define “religious” as ben adam laMakom observance/ritual observance/affiliation with Orthodox Judaism. In part, this is a political reaction of Orthodox Judasim attempting to maintain its religious legitimacy when faced with the development other branches of Judaism.
Nevertheless, this definition of religion is false. It is not for us to say which mitzvot are more important than the others (unless it is to say safek deoraita lehachmir, safek derabanan lekulah, etc.). Thus, we can not say that one person is religious because they observe shabbat, unless we are also going to say someone is religious because they give tzedakah. Of course, Orthodox society would not consider a tzedakah giver who violates shabbat religious, but would consider a stingy observer of shabbat religious. This is extremely hypocritical, and allows us to make judgments we don’t have the right to engage in.
Instead,we need a more holistic definition of religious, where we define religion as attempting to adhere to the halachik framework in order to serve God. We do not have the right to second-guess anyone’s religious intentions however, so this definition becomes shortened to anyone who is attempting to adhere to the halachik framework. Under this definition, a person who is kind due to secular values or even due to Torah precepts but has no regard for Jewish law is not religious. On the other hand, someone who is kind because they consider it a religious obligation is religious. Scope counts: Someone who only cares about the religious obligation to be kind but disregards all the other obligations can be said to be somewhat religious, but not truly religious, since they are not trying to follow the halachik system as a whole. On the other hand, someone who attempts to adhere to the entire halachik system but slips up or is ignorant of certain halachas is still religious.
This holistic, a-political definition would also make the exteriorities taken as markers between various factions of Orthodoxy less relevant to how “religious” someone is, thus once again focusing on what unites us, instead of what divides us. It would also help prevent the dichotomy between ritual worship and daily interpersonal relationships that seems to permeate our society. We must understand that religion is not just about shabbat and kashrut, but integrating God into our daily lives, which includes being kind to those around us. Often, mitzvot ben adam lachaveyro are the hardest to keep, so they do need the most emphasis. The Neviim are constantly reprimanding the people of Israel for living in unjust societies while giving korbanot, reprimanding them for their hypocrisy in serving God one way but not the other. Surely our generation is committing the same mistake, with korbanot replaced by shul, for why else would mashiach not have come? We know that Hashem desires what is best for us and wants to send mashiach. Therefore, we must look inward, and not upward, if we want to know why we are still in exile.
May Mashiach come bimheyra biyameynu, allowing us to serve God properly and in unity, in Yerushalayim ir hakodesh.
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