The Movement for Reform Judaism

Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield

It’s fascinating how the Hasidic nigun, the wordless tune sung to ‘lai, lai, lai’, has caught on in Reform synagogues.  My son, Daniel, an arch conservative when it comes to Reform services, observed: “Reform Jews now have a choice on Shabbat morning.  They can either have a lie in or a lai, lai, lai in”!

I observed with at least an equal measure of cynicism.  “No, it’s lie, lie, lie.  The politicians’ tune”.

I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I flirted with politics in my late teens and early twenties.  I was brought up on Isaiah and wanted passionately to deal my bread to the hungry and let the oppressed go free; I wanted to improve the lot of the poor, the needy, the widow, the orphan and the immigrant.  But in the end I decided that politics was a way of putting values into action but Judaism was the source of my values and I went with the source.

Listening to Gordon Brown speak in Manchester – about change, about a greater degree of equity, about ending child poverty, about the scandal of Africa – I experienced a brief twinge of envy. 

But it didn’t last for long.  Politics would have destroyed me.  I couldn’t have coped with the intrusion into my family life.  I couldn’t have coped with the vilification and with knowing what my children heard said about me every hour of every day.  Above all, I could not have coped with the source-lessness.

I don’t believe that all politicians simply lie, lie, lie.  But what they don’t have is what makes my life and work not only possible but deeply enriching.  A rich tradition that goes back more than 3,000 years.  Texts in which I can find the insights of some of the greatest minds that have ever lived.  Principles, signposts, resources which root me in the distilled wisdom (and mistakes) of Judaism – its debates, disagreements, agonising, challenges, uncertainties, stupidities and failures.  It doesn’t provide me with all the answers but it gives me something far stronger to hold on to, far richer to work with than most politicians in today’s world.

It’s interesting that they sneer at Gordon Brown for being the son of the presbytery.  For once I made the right choice.  Lai, lai, lai.

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