By Claire Gaglione, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer

Raising questions both personal and theological, Beth Abraham Synagogue Adult Education Chair Joel Shapiro organized and hosted a panel discussion with local rabbis on May 27.

During the program, Philosophical and Theological Underpinnings of Judaism, rabbis Judy Chessin, Joshua Ginsberg, Nochum Mangel, and David Sofian offered insights on topics from the problem of evil to their faith in God.

Shapiro said the panel provided an occasion for people from across the Jewish community to come together and allowed “social intermingling between members of different synagogues.”

Nearly 100 people came out for the session. He noted that several Christians attended the panel to learn about the Jewish roots of their faith.

As for his role as moderator, Shapiro, a lawyer, said his questions “were a product of my fertile imagination,” and came from two decades of studying Judaism with area rabbis, including time he’s spent with each of the panelists.

Shapiro posed questions to each rabbi to “challenge their denomination and position as Conservative, Reform or Chasidic,” and to “maximize the educational value of the discussion.”

He asked the rabbis about how God interacts with people. Sofian, the senior rabbi at Temple Israel, argued that God acts “through inspiration and through empowerment of us, as opposed to the direct manipulation of nature or history.” Sofian described the nature of God’s effect on the individual as empowering “all of us to act in a godly way in the world, and thereby impact the world.”

In response, Shapiro asked, “Why should we bother with Him, then?” Sofian asserted that God is always present, and we always derive benefit, even if that benefit is intangible.

The evening’s discussion consisted of questions Shapiro posed, without input from the audience.

“Moderation is a necessity,” Shapiro said. “Without it, you risk questions that lead the discussion off point or people challenging the panelists in uncomplimentary ways.”

Audience members were able to engage with panelists after the event, when the rabbis answered individuals’ questions.

One of the liveliest exchanges during the panel occurred when Shapiro asked Mangel of Chabad why we would accept God as “the supreme moral authority in the universe, when empirically He doesn’t lift an anthropomorphic finger to save anyone?”

Mangel asked Shapiro, “So, what would you like God to do? You have this antisemite walking into this Jewish museum in Brussels with a gun and he starts shooting. What would you like God to do? Should God zap him with a bolt of lightning? Should he trip? Should the gun jam? What would you like God to do, when Al Qaeda or Hamas throws a missile? Would you like God to grab it, throw it back? How exactly do you envision God’s getting the bomb?”

“Would it have hurt if he moved the bullet that killed JFK slightly to the right?” Shapiro replied.

“So then God would have to do this all the time?” Mangel said. “So then none of us have freedom of choice. So then we’re a bunch of seals in Sea World, that every time we do something good we get a herring, when we do something bad, we get zapped. God wanted to create a world of human beings and God said, ‘Here I am going to give you the laws and I’m going to give you life and death, goodness and blessing, you’ve got to choose and I hope that you choose what is right.’”

To read the complete July 2014 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.