Speaking to a class at one of America’s major rabbinical seminaries, I once remarked in passing that “Judaism is built on the idea that God loves us and beckons us to love God back.” Seemingly bewildered by what I’d said, one of the students declared: “I’m sorry, but that sounds like Christianity to me.”
We have all heard it a thousand times. Christianity is about love, we are told, but Judaism is about…something else, like law or justice. In a similar vein, we often hear that whereas Christianity cares about how you feel and what you believe, Judaism cares only about what you do. Judaism is a religion of action, we’ve been taught, not emotion; a religion of deeds, of rote rituals, not inwardness.
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