Out of respect for the sacred name, some devout Jews never pronounce the Hebrew word for God. Rabbi Sherman Wine, 36, of Birmingham Temple in the Detroit suburbs, has another reason for not mentioning the deity: he cannot prove that God exists. To the consternation and dismay of his fellow Reform rabbis, Wine publicly declares, “I am an atheist,” and has expunged the name of God from all services at his temple. Wine is a rather special sort of atheist. Technically, he calls himself an “ignostic,” which Wine defines as someone who will only accept the truth of statements that can be empirically proved. “I find no adequate reason to accept the existence of a supreme person,” he insists. although he is willing to change his mind if new evidence appears. Believing that “man’s destiny and fulfillment” are more important than the idea of a deity, Wine has rewritten the Reform ritual to give it a more humanistic cast. At Friday evening services, for example, “You shall love the Lord your God” becomes: “We revere the best in man.” Wine has eliminated the Shema, the traditional Jewish confession of faith in God.
A former Army chaplain in Korea, Wine studied philosophy at the University of Michigan, graduated from Cincinnati’s Hebrew Union College in 1956. Two years ago, he urged a group of Detroit Jews who were doubtful of their faith to start their own congregation; last July, after the expiration of his contract at Temple Beth-El in Windsor, Ont., Wine moved across the river to serve as their rabbi. Since then, Birmingham Temple has grown from eight families to more than 140, most of them young couples.
The congregation generally finds Wine’s godless, empirical approach inspiring. Says Attorney Merrill Miller: “He has made religion the most meaningful experience for me in terms of ethical and moral decisions.” Other rab bis in Detroit, however, think that Wine is an immature sensationalist, and the schedule of his weekly sermons has been struck from the local Jewish News. Pittsburgh’s Rabbi Solomon Freehof, one of Reform Judaism’s leading theologians, suggests that Wine ought to drop all pretenses entirely and call his Birmingham Temple the “rationalist association of Detroit.” “When he uses the title rabbi and the term synagogue or temple,” says Rabbi Freehof, “he is luring in new members by false and heartless pretenses.”
Wine’s critics can do little more than complain unless the Birmingham Temple votes him out of office. The Central Conference of American Rabbis, the governing body of the Reform Rabbinate to which Wine belongs, has no provision in its bylaws for defrocking theologically errant clergymen, even those who don’t believe in God.
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