2008 MAY
BULLETIN

From The Rabbi’s Study:                                                Dr. Raphael Ostrovsky, Rabbi

DOES RITUAL MAKE SENSE ?

In all human experience, that which we cannot express in conceptual terms, because of its abstract nature, we refer to through symbols, acts, gestures or objects.  There is no area of life in which this does not hold true.  A salute to a flag is a symbolic gesture of loyalty to our country.  A handshake is a symbolic expression of friendship.  A marriage ring is the symbol of the pledge of love and loyalty.

The necessity of symbols derives from their power to express ourselves more effectively than any purely verbal statement.  A warm, vigorous handshake, an embrace, can be more expressive of my friendship and fondness for you than the words, “you are my friend.”

What do Jewish rituals (symbols) express?  They say that there is more to life than simply objects and acts of common sense.  Illustration:  The Jewish marriage ceremony is called Kiddushim (literally, sanctification).  What is the marriage ritual?  The standing together under a canopy, the marriage ring, the drinking of wine by bride and groom from the same cup, the recitation of the berachot, the reading of the Ketubah – what does all this signify and express?  It says to us that a unique relationship is being established between two people; it bears the stamp of holiness.  Some young couples married only in a civil ceremony, have indicated to me that they do not feel married.  In their own way, they were saying that without religious ritual, which invests our major life experiences with the sense of the sacred, life loses its meaning.

A religious ritual also participates in that to which it points, and itself becomes invested with sacred character.  It helps recreate for us, as nothing else can, the original context out of which it emerged.

Think now of the Passover Seder and its ritual.  Which makes the experience of the Exodus from Egypt more vivid, more real? – tasting the matzah, eating the maror, seeing the roasted shank bone and egg, or simply reading an account of the departure from Egypt in the 12th chapter of Exodus?  Much of Jewish ritual, especially that which surrounds the various festivals is aimed at a reliving in every generation of the historic experiences of our people in the ancient past.

As a colleague once pointed out, “Jewish religious ritual brings us in touch with the sacred and the historical, essential dimensions of what it means to be a Jew.”