The Lieberman Debate: Good or Bad Jew?

It seems that a debate has emerged in Washington -- or more precisely amongst those who watch what happens in Washington -- as to whether Senator Joe Lieberman is a good or bad Jew?

See:

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/2139/is_joe_lieberman_a_bad_jew_

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/12/14/the-joe-lieberman-debate-good-jew-or-bad-jew-or-just-a-dumb-on/

Its not the issue itself that concerns me. Its the fact that this is an issue that I find most interesting. The question is not whether Lieberman is a good person or not. The issue is not even whether one agrees with the Senator's views or not (although this, no doubt, will affect how someone answers the question about his Jewishness). The question concerns Joe Lieberman's Jewishness. One can only define a good or a bad Jew if one has a standard by which to measure this entity. For example, if one asks whether a certain restaurant is good or bad, one has to have a yardstick by which to measure restaurants. So here we have all these people discussing the Senator's Jewishness -- all, as such, declaring that they know and have the standard of yardstick by which to measure Jewishness.

The fact that one believes in one specific yardstick and wishes to apply it is not the issue to me -- nor should it be surprising. After all, Orthodoxy believes in standards of Jewishness and, indeed, Halacha defines such an entity as a bad or good Jew. If we had no standard, we would not have the concept of tzaddik or rasha. What hits me, though, is how all these individuals who, otherwise, argue for pluralism, in this case define a set yardstick which they wish to apply. If pluralism is the key word then the very definition of good or bad Jew is an impossibility, or almost an impossibility. There are even two books that came onto the market a few years ago, one by a Reform Rabbi and the other by a Reconstructionist Rabbi, which maintained that pluralism demanded that Messianic Jews, i.e. Jews for Jesus, should be given status within the broader Jewish community. Yet all of a sudden, there are so many Jews asking this question about the Senator. I guess pluralism is good when it works for you but something that you don't want to apply when it doesn't.

I am not really trying to give an argument in support of pluralism. Obviously, I am not in support of it. What I am really trying to argue is actually the opposite. If someone wants to define Senator Lieberman as a bad Jew, I can live with that. But recognize what you are doing -- you are setting a standard for Jewishness. Recognize, as such, other people may have different standards of Jewishness -- and with the reality of having standards comes the definition of right and wrong.

I can disagree with someone calling Senator Lieberman a bad Jew for his position of the American health reform bill. But this person should recognize that he is moving away from the concept of pluralism that seems to be the mantra of the general Jewish community. You are saying that Jewishness has standards. So understand when others also declare that Jewishness has standards -- even as these standards may disagree with yours.

I would rather live in a Jewish world where people recognize that we disagree in fundamental principles of how we understand our Jewishness -- and therefore be open to debate but also for the recognition that I have a principled opinion -- than to live in the mush of pluralism that leaves everything okay, and therefore gives Jewishness no standard and no punch.

Call Joe Lieberman a bad Jew. Now we can actually discuss the values of Jewishness.

Rabbi Ben Hecht