Mitzvah Day (Nov 15) is a relatively new fixture in the Jewish calendar. This makes it unlike most events in our year that have existed for many, and in some cases, thousands of years.
As it grows, involves more people from other faiths and becomes established, we are asking ourselves whether, and in what ways, this annual event has a religious connotation and indeed, whether this is to its advantage.
Religion has a bad press. Religion, Richard Dawkins and his fellow militant secularists would have us believe, is the reason for most of the ill in the world – for wars, for terrorism, for despotism and for oppression. We can all name aggressors who, under the banner of religion, caused grief and havoc over the years whist claiming to be doing God’s work.
We hear from the fundamental atheists that religious belief is, at best, misguided and at worst, ignorant and destructive, standing in the way of rationality, progress and clear thought. Religious belief is met with suspicion and whilst we insist that individual groups are allowed to express their religious views and practices in our politically correct society, we are suspicious of politicians who express to believing in God and we are embarrassed by public expressions of faith.
But all this misses the opportunity that religion has to offer. Setting to one side those charities that carry their beliefs in their name (The Red Cross, Muslim Aid, World Jewish Relief, Seva International) many others (dare I venture, “the vast majority”?) were all established by people who were, in whole or in part, motivated doing God’s work. Action for Children, Barnado’s, Shelter – the list goes on.
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Few doubt both the motivation and the achievements of Mother Teresa, Ghandi and Martin Luther King. Maybe it is credible to claim they would have acted as they did without their faith, but is it really credible to suggest they could have had the same impact without the support of religious institutions?
In all cases the belief led to action: to creative, positive acts, to good deeds and to constructive and optimistic endeavour. And their impact should be judged not by their beliefs, but ultimately by the practical outcome. Of course, you don’t have to be religious to do acts of kindness but all religions demand that we should. It provides a demanding moral framework – clearly delineated and firmly expressed. In other words, religion is not the solely motivator of good deeds, but it sure helps.
So on Mitzvah Day, believer or not, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jew or indeed atheist, why not join the celebration of giving something back, without embarrassment and in the knowledge that it can only do all of us some good.