Tradition:

The banner of this New Age offers powerful reason for our celebration. By making Reform Judaism more personal, joyful, and Jewishly authentic, New Age Judaism answers the critique of those who have turned away --- some to Orthodoxy, some to Christianity, some just quietly away --- because, they say, Reform Judaism has become cold and lifeless. New Age has opened the door to new possibilities, and infused new vigor into the expected.

Yes, it is a time to rejoice ... but it is also a time for caution.

A number of years ago, I presided over a class of adult bar and bat mitzvah candidates. By the third year the class had become a model of New Age Reform Judaism: they had delved into their spiritual selves, developed a strong sense of community, and awakened to a new discovery of their own Jewish tradition. During the Shabbat service marking their rite of passage, the sanctuary was filled with people experiencing transcendent moments.

The following year I phoned one of the more active members of the group and asked him to share his experience with a new group of adult b'nai mitzvah candidates. ``I'm sorry to turn you down, rabbi,'' he told me. ``I loved the class and I got out of it exactly what I had been looking for. But now I'm on to other things.''

Thus, a caution: with all the promise of the personal, Judaism should not become totally personal, totally consumed with ``me.'' When it comes to spirituality, however personally the spiritual self may connect to the Divine presence, if that connection does not prod the question, ``and now what does that God call upon me to do outside of my inner self as a moral member of a moral Jewish people,'' then, by Jewish definition, it is bogus spirituality. So too, if a seeker of community stops with himself/herself feeling affirmed and does not reach out to some other isolated person, to the larger Jewish community and to the community of humanity, then, by Jewish definition, it is less than authentic community. And with tradition, with all of its possibilities of warmth and beauty: if the only outcome is a warm and fuzzy feeling, without the moral urgency of our traditional covenant between God and Israel, without the Jewish moral passion of the early Reformers, then we have forfeited outright to celebrate the New Age of Reform Judaism, even with all of its exciting personal possibilities.

Martin Buber tells the story of Rabbi Chayim of Zans, who had married his son to the daughter of Rabbi Eliezer. The day after the wedding, he said to the father of the bride: ``Look, my hair and beard have already grown white. I'm an old man, and I have not yet atoned for my shortcomings.''

``Oh my friend,'' answered Rabbi Eliezer, ``Why are you thinking so much of yourself? How about forgetting about yourself, including your shortcomings, and think about the world?''

The moral, says Buber, is to ``begin with ourselves but not aim at ourselves.'' In our New Age of Jewish spirituality, Jewish community, and Jewish tradition, we should begin with our own seeking selves but not stop there, not until we aim at God's shabby world and God's needy children. Then we shall have every reason to celebrate, because of the wonderful things we have brought to pass.

Jack Stern is rabbi emeritus of Westchester Reform Temple, Scarsdale, NY; chairman of the UAHC Committee on Ethics; a past president of the CCAR; and presently a member of Hevreh of Southern Berkshire, Great Barrington, MA.