Can Jews Enter Churches, Mosques, etc? Considerations of When, Why & How

When Jewish Values On-line asked me to write on this question for their website, as an advocate for respectful co-existence of the world's peoples and traditions, my first inclination would have been to give a short "yes" answer.  As I really began to think carefully about it, the question requires a far more nuanced approach. This is the article I sent to them which they have posted as well.

 

Contexts to Consider

 

While Judaism has general principles, each is highly nuanced in application. Our tradition functions in regard to questions based on a principle called l'faneinu, the person or situation that is in front of us, i.e., on a case-by-case basis.

 

1. Might you enter the site of another religion as a tourist or scholar in order to better appreciate its historical, cultural or architectural significance?

2. Would you enter such a site to attend meetings of non-sectarian support groups (such as Alcoholics Anonymous), cultural (e.g. traveling string quartet), or civic events (e.g., voting booths are sometimes placed by civic authorities into sanctuary lobbies and the program rooms of religious institutions)?

3. Or to engage in interfaith dialogue, for a multi-faith Thanksgiving? Or for a multi-faith memorial service after a major societal tragedy (e.g. 9-11, or Veterans memorial?)

4. Would you enter a given site, or allow your child to enter the site as part of a multifaith or cultural awareness series? (e.g., when scouts visit each other's religious sites and services?)

5. Would you enter the site if rented or co-owned by your havurah, minyan, synagogue or other Jewish non-profit? For services? For a one-time Israel Independence Day concert? For youth group, religious school, or other Jewish social meetings? For a Jewish Day School or summer camp? Conversely would you vote for your board to rent your Jewish community site(s) to groups from other religious traditions? Never? Some? All?

6. Would you enter for a non-Jewish friend or colleague's rite of passage? (e.g., Wedding? Baptism? Conversion? Funeral service? Ordination?)

7. For a friend's interfaith rite-of-passage?

8. For a family member's interfaith rite-of-passage?

9. For the rite-of-passage of a family member being completely conducted under a jurisdiction other than Judaism?

10. Regularly attend services of another religion with a life-partner who is of that religion?

11. Would you regularly attend services of another religion, when you live somewhere that offers no Jewish community, or none in which you participate? Well, this is the easiest one, experience shows either you, or almost certainly your children, will be lost to Judaism if you do so.

 

Principles and Considerations





The decision of whether to enter the site of another faith depends upon the circumstances involved. A number of principles apply:

 

1. The majority of Jewish people appreciate the importance of cultivating sufficient mutual understanding to ensure civil legislation that gives all citizens the freedom to practice their own religion. Acting to advance understanding and avert the demonization of other groups and dangerous misunderstandings that lead to hate crimes is vital social justice work, tikkun olam. Some authorities encourage visiting each other's sites as part of creating understanding.

2. Others cite traditional sources that prohibit entering churches and temples, where what the rabbis considered idol worship is practiced. Those coming from this vantage point cite sources such as: Talmud Avodah Zara 17a as well as Maimonides, the Rashba, the Ritba, Rosh, and Rabbis Moshe Feinstein, Ovadia Yosef and Eliezer Waldenberg. Instead, they encourage that interfaith dialogue and contact be held on neutral ground, and suggest this has the advantage of not trivializing the religious power of other tradition's religious sites, nor our own.

3. Jewish law and custom appreciate that sometimes situations arise where entry to sites of other religions is necessitated to avert causing offense that might lead to malevolence towards Jews. (The Holocaust, pogroms, Spanish Inquisition and Crusades have made us a discerning people when it comes to safety and self-preservation.) The code of Jewish law called the Shulchan Aruch allows Jews being asked to represent their communities to the ruling government to do so, even if the gathering is in a religious site that offers idol worship and the required dress would not usually be acceptable under Jewish norms.

 

Chief Rabbis of England have attended events in Westminster Abbey when invited by the King or Queen. The Chief Rabbi of Haifa attended the funeral for Pope John Paul II, including a full Mass. Orthodox Rabbi Haskel Lookstein accepted a presidential invitation to a National Prayer Service held in an Episcopalian cathedral the day after President Barack Obama's inauguration.


 

In the well-known book, The Jew and the Lotus, author Roger Kamenetz described how Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg and Blu Greenberg, Rabbi Joy Levitt and several others accepted the Dalai Lama's invitation to travel to Dharamsala for dialogue and exploration of each other's religious traditions and survival skills. The prayer composed for the occasion by Reb Zalman was: "Blessed art Thou, Lord Our God, King of the Universe, Who has imparted of Thy compassionate awareness unto those who honor and respect Thy Names."

 

Historically, the major considerations regarding this question have been:

 

1. Avoidance of being proselytized, or stepping into a coercive context.

2. There is a clear Biblical injunction against creating or encountering, embodied images of a god or gods with a human face, aka, forms considered foundational to avoda zara, "idol worship."
 

   

Islam: Maimonides, Yosef Karo, Moses Isserles and many other sages are among those who underscore that Islam is an unquestionably monotheistic religion. This rendered Islamic homes and sites as posing no problem for Jews since images are disallowed in Islamic tradition entirely, and Moslems do not worship any prophet, only Allah, which is their name for God.
 

   Christianity: The 13th century Catalonian Rabbi Menachem haMeiri argued against prevailing views that Christianity is a form of idolatry, and many still abide by his view. Others consider those branches of Christianity that consider Jesus as a separate God needing specific veneration (in addition to "God the Father"), as making those religious sites out of bounds.


   Other religions: Other religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism and many others are either bulk-listed under avoda zara, or are intelligently and individually reviewed and discussed depending upon the sources one studies.
 

3. Many contemporary Jews make a point of learning about the world's cultures and religions with the attitude advocated in Pirkei Avot 1:6 "Judge the whole of a person to the side of merit –dan l'chaf z'chut" - and are inclined to regard all religions as having good intentions in their general design, regardless of whether they do or do not have a god-concept (Buddhism), utilize images and iconography (such as Hinduism, the Eastern Orthodox Churches and others), or worship more than one God (Mormons, some Native American, African and other indigenous religions).

4. There are seven laws which Maimonides most famously considered essential criteria for ethical human societies and religions to whom we can relate. There are called the Noachide laws; they derived from the Torah and are listed by the Talmud and Tosefta as: Prohibition of idolatry, murder, theft, sexual immorality, blasphemy, eating flesh taken from an animal while it is alive, and the requirement there be the establishment of courts of law. 

 

5. Contemporary Jewish leaders and organizations vary greatly in opinion on the topic of entry into sites of other religions when worship services take place at all, and those that do sometimes add the condition that worship services not be in session. If you affiliate, you might consult accordingly.

6. It can be inappropriate and/or disrespectful to engage in practices of other religions, for example, one does not take communion unless one is a Catholic deemed in good standing by the priest. A long-standing Jewish practice is not to bow or kneel in obeisance to monarchs or other heads of nations, nor in religious contexts of others. Participation without commitment can be viewed as trivializing the traditions of others. One's quiet presence at a religious ceremony is often well received, in our tradition and others.
 

Rabbi Raachel Nathan Jurovics article in Seeking & Soaring: Jewish Approaches to Spiritual Direction, discusses the concept of "deep ecumenism," pioneered by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. She shows us how to be possibly present to religious rituals of others that might otherwise cause some of us to cringe and adds;  "Authentic spiritual direction cultivates a sympathetic ear for other traditions…Having this ear, however, does not require us to disregard our own spiritual understandings or compromise our personal religious practices. If deep ecumenism has a boundary, it is in the realm of practice, at the point where we sense something damaging to the spiritual immune system, which I understand as something that calls into question for us the integrity and beauty of Jewish teachings."

7. There is also the principle in Judaism called maarit ayin or maris ayin, which advises care not to give others wrong impressions about you, nor to act in a way that might cast doubt on the core practices or faith of the Jewish people.

8. Another consideration is the mitzvah of bal tashchit, caring for the environment. This speaks to the importance of repurposing available space in buildings to avert depletion of the planet's resources during construction.

9. Pikuakh nefesh, the mitzvah of saving lives, trumps, if one is entering to work at a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, respond to a medical emergency or fire, or seek sanctuary from persecution (some of our people survived the Holocaust in this way).

 

In Conclusion

 

I hope you will discuss the situations and concepts offered for your consideration with friends, family and in your Jewish community's study settings. I am sure Judaism has additional principles that can be applied, and your own values and family configurations are also important considerations. Will you enter religious sites of other traditions or not? If so, when? When not? These are answers we each must find and review at various points in our lives.

 

The one thing I most want to offer in the way of direct guidance is that before deliberately entering the religious sites of traditions other than Judaism, please attain a solid appreciation of the relevance and meaning of Judaism. Deeply meaningful experiences in Judaism that arise from our commitment to mitzvah-centered living afford us the appreciation for what healthy approaches to religion have to offer.

Knowledge and experience in Judaism is an essential part of developing the capacity for dialogue, understanding and coexistence with those who follow other religious paths. As an author I have chosen to explain the meaning and relevance of Judaism's core ethos of mitzvah-centered living in my books, lectures, workshops and retreats, and of course through this site, ReclaimingJudaism.org.