The God Squad: The short Psalms for summer study: Psalm 15

Rabbi Marc Gellman, Tribune Content Agency on Jul 8, 2021

4. Honor those who are morally worthy of being honored. Keep your word.

5. Be generous and charitable with your money. Don’t accept a bribe.

So, the preparation for doing religious rituals properly is to live an ethical life properly. This is not a rejection of rituals. It is a rejection of rituals performed by people who live unexamined lives. This was the secret of my friendship with Father Tom Hartman. Tommy and I did not share a single ritual practice. In the springtime holidays of Passover/Easter, he ate chocolate bunnies, and I ate horseradish. Even when there were similarities between our rituals they were still different. I ate unleavened bread, but it was just bread. In the Eucharist, he ate unleavened bread that was the body of Christ. I blessed wine that was just wine, and he blessed wine that was the blood of Christ. However, we shared in full and equal measure every ethical practice taught to us by God. Truth be told, Tommy was better than me in performing rituals and in living an ethical life, but we were on the same path up the same mountain to the same God. That was our bond. That was the secret of the God Squad. That is the meaning of Psalm 15.

One final thought. What if the abode in the tabernacle of God is not the ancient Temple of Solomon but Heaven or, in Judaism, The World To Come? There is an old rabbinic legend that when we die and our souls are brought to God the first question God will ask us is, “Were you honest in your work?” Do you think God cares more about our moral virtue or our ritual punctiliousness? I am voting for the moral life. In fact, if God lets me, I am voting twice!

Let us study:

What ethical practices do we most need to take more seriously?

Are there some ethical commandments that psalm 15 left out?

Why do we so frequently call people who are ritually observant religious but people who are good through and through not religious but just good?

Psalm 15 ends with a promise from God. The promise is not that moral people will be rewarded. The promise is that moral people will not be defeated or shaken or deterred or broken or abandoned by God. Psalm 15 is not a guarantee of an easy life. It is a guarantee of a holy life.

(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman.)