J-Quote: Telushkin on "Walking the Talk"
Judaism, Jewish Quotes, Living Jewishly, Online Media, Jewish Spirituality April 3rd, 2007I’ve been meaning to post on this (no joke) since last December but I just never got around to it. So anyhow here it is better late than never.
I stumbled across a very interesting lecture by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin which was recorded at the 2006 Jewish Funders Network conference. The lecture was entitled “A Jewish Code of Ethics” and was based on his latest work in progress which is no surprise a three volume series on ethics in Judaism. Thus far however only the first volume has been published and I’m not sure when the others are scheduled to come out. As a sidebar I do have the first volume and highly recommend it but then again I pretty much recommend everything Telushkin puts out.
He covers a lot of very interesting ground including how in Judaism (at least as he sees it) ritual and ethics go hand-in-hand in that ritual helps to inform and develop a sense of ethical awareness and ability in one’s life. I was impressed with how he framed things and although the idea of ritual and ethics as mutually inclusive is nothing new to me, I was really impressed and encouraged by his arguments and presentation on the subject.
I’ve probably listened to this lecture six or seven times now and it’s filled with insightful nuggets but listening to it again this morning one thing in particular jumped right out at me.
At about 11 minutes into the second audio Telushkin makes the following comment.
It’s not enough in life to have good intentions; you have to have a system.
Okay I realize that it doesn’t look like much of a quote written down but it really hit home and got me thinking about a few things, which I’ll get to in a minute.
Rabbi Telushkin basically touches on the idea that many people are caring, well-intentioned and want to do all sorts of helpful things. He goes on however to point out that often times our good intentions are never fulfilled. He suggests sometimes this is because people don’t have a system in place so that they can move forward. I also believe that sometimes our lack of a plan leads to a situation where people forget all about ethical ideas and intentions, which if you’re like me drift in and out of consciousness like clouds in the summer sky.
I suppose what really hit home for me listening this afternoon was the realization that ethical thinking does not in of itself create an ethical person. Without action it is really not much more than fanciful daydreaming. Of course ethical thinking creates a psychic space out of which ethical action can happen, but I realized today that I spend way more time thinking about engaging in ethical behavior and livelihood than I actually participate in any such activities.
Rabbi Telushkin goes on to provide some rather convincing arguments for how ritual (for example prayer) can help develop the emotional and spiritual muscles required for engaging in ethical behavior.
Of course I’m not sure what to do with this new insight other than spend a little bit more time thinking about how I can build mechanisms to help turn more of my thinking into action. This is certainly a very interesting topic and one I hope to come back to in future posts.
Anyhow the audio is worth checking out and as always if you do let me know what you thought.
Scholar-in-Residence, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
A Code of Jewish Ethics, Part 1
(MP3 audio 8205Kb)
A Code of Jewish Ethics, Part 2
(MP3 audio 6527Kb)
Technorati tags: Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, Jewish Funders Network, Judaism, Ethics, Living Jewishly, Spirituality
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April 3rd, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Good post.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Thanks Loirah