Rabbi Noa Kushner argues in her new book, Pretend You Believe: How to Enter Religion, that we need religion not to improve our lives or cultivate ethics, but for the sake of God and to enter into a relationship with the divine.
She explicitly rejects the label of self-help, contending that viewing religion as a tool for personal betterment or ethical improvement is a “consumer mentality” that diminishes its ultimacy. Instead, she invites skeptics to engage in a “thought experiment” by pretending to believe in God to discover the tradition’s perspective, which emphasizes humility, service, and the broader call to justice beyond individual needs.
“…Her book argues against one of the most familiar ways contemporary Jews talk about religion: as a means to an end, something they do because it gives them community, makes them more ethical, and helps them grow or otherwise improves their lives…”
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Source: Times of Israel https://www.timesofisrael.com/we-need-religion-writes-rabbi-in-her-new-book-but-its-not-there-to-make-our-lives-better/A rabbi writes a book on why we need religion. Just don’t call it ‘self-help.’
