But not being incompatible with secularism is not the same as being attractive to secularists. What could secularists get out of a Jewish ethical system?
Let's turn the question around. What do they get out of joining extreme Leftist movements?
The extreme Leftist, usually secularist, movements like Animal Liberation Front, Extinction Rebellion and BDS have something in common rarely seen in their Rightist counterparts - a seemingly religious fervor and a quasi spiritual dimensions. They regard themselves as modern doomsdayers, warning the world of catastrophe if we do not repent from our evil ways like climate change. They demand that we "decolonize" our minds and embrace the new edicts as written in their sacred texts - Ibram X. Kendi's How to be an Anti-Racist and the Call to BDS. They chant new rhyming psalms at their demonstrations to the point of self-hypnosis. They anoint new prophets like Great Thunberg. Those who are part of the "oppressor" groups like white men must publicly repent and acknowledge their status, and salvation can only come from allyship with the oppressed. People who do not follow their dictates - especially believers who turn away - are "canceled," i.e., excommunicated. They actively recruit new followers, especially targeting young people. Finally, they promise a utopian vision of a world that they will perfect with their actions and redeem with their struggles - a pseudo-messianic vision.
While they claim that religions are one source of oppression, they have created a new set of beliefs that have all the trappings of religion, without God.
Blaise Pascal wrote, "What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? … [T]his infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by God himself’ (Pensées, 425).” Based on the extremist secularist movements actions, it appears that at least for some non-believers, they indeed are looking for a spiritual experience. People who reject religion still crave meaning, justice, community, and moral clarity, and these movements provide a shallow replacement for religion.
As we have seen, antisemitism thrives in groups that view Jews or Jewish beliefs or Israel as a threat to their entire existence. The Jewish ethical system does not accept one-dimensional, simplistic answers to life's questions. It rejects the binaries of oppressor/oppressed, colonizer/colonized, white/people of color, animal lives as sacred or worthless.
So if these movements succeed because they fill a need, what would it take for Jewish ethics to meet that same need more honestly—and more durably? Can a secular version of Jewish ethics, with few pat answers, offer what people are missing from their lives?
Yes.
While these movements present themselves as moral revolutions or secular equivalents to spiritualities, they bear far more resemblance to cults than to religions. They imitate religion’s outer forms—ritual, purity codes, sacred texts, prophets, and excommunication—but they lack its inner core: the pursuit of enduring truth through humility, tradition, and moral complexity.
Cults offer brainwashing in place of moral introspection. They satisfy the desire to belong, but only through enforced conformity. They promise redemption, but only through submission. They silence doubt, they punish dissent, and they demand emotional loyalty above all else. This is not spirituality. It is programming.
And once someone is drawn in, it is incredibly difficult to break the spell. Former cult members often describe their experience as a kind of moral gaslighting: they were told they were good only if they chanted the party line. Their doubts were demeaned. Their previous relationships were severed. The world was reduced to a binary of us vs. them, good vs. evil. The moral complexity of real life was replaced by a simple script. And the answers they were promised were all lies, often meant to give more power to their leaders.
Meanwhile, Jewish ethics form the true DNA of causes like human rights. "The Jewish tradition is a tradition of law and justice. The Ten Commandments and the teachings of the prophets are a source of inspiration for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," according to René Cassin, who drafted the Declaration itself.
So the question becomes: how can we prevent people from falling into these kinds of ideological cults? And how can we help those already captured to reorient themselves toward genuine ethical inquiry?
The answer, I would argue, is not just to critique the cults—but to offer something better, earlier, deeper. The antidote to cult thinking is moral maturity and literacy.
We must teach people—early and often—how to navigate ethical tension, how to hold multiple values in tension, how to argue without dehumanizing, how to seek justice without demanding perfection. And we must do this in community, through discussion, with humility rather than performative rituals of moral superiority. That might take the form of paired study groups, discussion circles, online forums, or even digital tools that foster thoughtful disagreement.
Imagine a secular activist who feels burned out by the moral absolutism of their climate or anti-colonialist group, constantly shamed for not being "pure" enough. They stumble upon a Jewish ethics discussion group, where chesed encourages them to practice kindness without judgment, where machloket lets them debate ideas without fear of cancellation. For the first time, they feel both morally grounded and free.
The medium can vary. The principle is what matters: we must teach people to think morally, not just claim the mantle of morality.
Jewish ethics offers a model for this. Not because it is the only source of moral truth, but because it is one of the few surviving systems that trains people from youth to think ethically without collapsing into ideology. The chavruta system of studying in pairs, the halachic process, the culture of respectful dissent and precedent - all of these immunize against unthinking cult-like movements.
This is not just a philosophy—it is a method. And if we can share it widely, honestly, and humbly, we may offer people not only protection from cultic-style ideologies, but a path to reclaim their moral autonomy after having been misled by them.
The secular extremists claim that they are brave, that they are courageous, that they are speaking forbidden truths. Yet when people try to talk to them, as we saw during the anti-Israel university encampments in 2024, most of them duck the questions and refuse to have a discussion. That isn't courage - it is cowardice.
Moral courage is being able to defend your beliefs in the face of the mob. That takes time and effort, it takes honest debate and discussion. The Jewish ethics system excels at teaching people how to find a moral position, refine it, and defend it against all arguments.
Becoming a mature, thinking person might not be as fun as shouting slogans and vandalizing buildings. But it is a lot more rewarding.
Thursday, April 24, 2025
Elder of Ziyon
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