Peter Knobel

private prayer and public worship; daily religious observance; keeping the Sabbath and the holy days: celebrating the major events of life; involvement with the synagogues and community; and other activities which promote the survival of the Jewish people and enhance its existence. Within each area of Jewish observance Reform Jews are called upon to confront the claims of Jewish tradition, however differently perceived, and to exercise their individual autonomy, choosing and creating on the basis of commitment and knowledge.

Gates of Mitzvah is a guide to daily living and to critical moments in the Jewish life cycle. Gates of the Seasons is a guide to the sacred calendar. Their goal is to set forth an idealized and maximal Jewish practice. They are aimed at the individual but they were also intended to influence the movement as a whole. They by and large deal with religious practice in the realm of mitzvot bein adam lamakom. They offer simple statements that generally begin,“It is a mitzvah to do or it is a mitzvah to refrain from doing.” In each case there is a justification as to why, and notes that seek to offer a source from Jewish literature with the 7anakh being the preferred source, followed in order by Mishna , Talmud , Maimonides and then Shulhan Arukh. It is clear that they reflect a continuity with the Reform preference for the Tanakh over rabbinic literature. Whereas they use the word mitzvah to describe the deed, the word remains untranslated and in Gates of Mitzvah is the subject of four explanatory essays. Mitzvah has become, in Reform, a term that mediates between commandment and good deed. It is a value term that seeks to raise the level of deed above that of mere personal choice, but is careful not to be understood as mandatory. Gates of Mitzvah and Gates of the