Yonat Shimron, left. Rabbi Kushner, right.
Religious News Service | September 12, 2026
(RNS) — Rabbi Noa Kushner has written a provocative new book for Jewish skeptics. It’s called “Pretend You Believe: How to Enter Religion.” In it, she asks readers to go on a thought experiment: Engage with God like you would a character in a novel. See where it leads.
Kushner is a San Francisco rabbi and the founder of an innovative synagogue called The Kitchen. She grew up in an observant family, and her father, Lawrence, is also a rabbi. But she wrote this book for the many people she has encountered who want religious belonging but confess they are “secular,” “atheist” or “culturally Jewish.”
Rabbi Kushner’s new book comes out in October. But RNS invited her to talk about it ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, which begin Friday (Sept. 11). That’s a time when many Jews reflect on their relationship to their faith and to God.
Yonat Shimron: Rabbi Kushner, welcome. I’m so glad to meet you.
It sounds like a big part of your life as a rabbi is attending to people who want or need a rabbi at some point in their life, but they’re not really religious. Your advice to them is kind of counterintuitive: Don’t worry about belief in God, start doing religious things. What would you recommend that people start doing?
Noa Kushner: Well, you know, I would refine it slightly. And first of all, it’s such a pleasure to be speaking with you. I really cherish this book and spent a long time refining these ideas. And one of the points that I would make is, it’s OK to worry about whether you believe or not, but it’s just not the best first question to ask. The first idea would be to enter the experience, much like the way a person enters a theater. If you’re in front of the theater saying, ‘Did this story really take place? Is that a set? Are those really trees? Don’t I know that actress from another role?’ You won’t be able to avail yourself of what’s going on in that theater. And so what I recommend is a suspension of disbelief in the beginning or bracketing that question so that you can start to avail yourself of what is around.
And then of course, ask. You know, Judaism is famous as being a tradition that encourages questions of all kinds.
You write that a big critique of our society is a kind of consumer mindset, that people approach religion with this mindset of buying something in a store. You’re really opposed to that. Explain why.
I think it’s a little bit of a dance because, first of all, I think most of us are not even used to how much we approach everything as customers. And there can be a very entry-level way of being a customer: ‘Is this worth my money? Is this worth my time? Is this a good transaction?’ But there can even be a more elevated way of being a customer of, ‘Am I going to get meaning out of this? Is it worth my investment and energy? Is it worth it?’
And the problem is, from the outset, much like a meaningful relationship or let’s say a move across the country, is that you often don’t know what to ask from the outset. And if you’re limited to your own perception of whether it’s worth it or not, you might never take the chance. And so what I encourage people to do, if people come and they ask me those kinds of questions, I’m going to do my best to answer them and to bring them in as best I can. Yes, I think it’s worth it. We would love to have you, please come and sit here. But at the same time, if I never help them transition from having that customer mindset to being invested in it or a participant in it or open to what could happen without them defining it, I really didn’t do my job.
Right. So how do you encourage people to move in if they acknowledge to you, as they often do, that they don’t believe in God or that they’re secular Jews?
I was raised with a lot of people around me who would say, ‘It doesn’t matter, especially vis-a-vis other religions where dogma is primary. It doesn’t matter. You believe whatever you want.’ And lately, what I think is a more honest approach for me, if those rabbis still say that, I have total respect for many kinds of people and many types of rabbinates. But for me, what I like to say is, it does matter. It does matter.
You will have my blessing if that is not something that you believe right now. But, get to know me. I’m going to work on you for a while. We’re going to see if I can help you move in that direction. Because I think if you take God completely out of the equation of religion, it’s hard to put it all back together. It’s not impossible. I just think it’s harder.
Yonat Shimron: Rabbi Kushner, welcome. I’m so glad to meet you.
It sounds like a big part of your life as a rabbi is attending to people who want or need a rabbi at some point in their life, but they’re not really religious. Your advice to them is kind of counterintuitive: Don’t worry about belief in God, start doing religious things. What would you recommend that people start doing?
Noa Kushner: Well, you know, I would refine it slightly. And first of all, it’s such a pleasure to be speaking with you. I really cherish this book and spent a long time refining these ideas. And one of the points that I would make is, it’s OK to worry about whether you believe or not, but it’s just not the best first question to ask. The first idea would be to enter the experience, much like the way a person enters a theater. If you’re in front of the theater saying, ‘Did this story really take place? Is that a set? Are those really trees? Don’t I know that actress from another role?’ You won’t be able to avail yourself of what’s going on in that theater. And so what I recommend is a suspension of disbelief in the beginning or bracketing that question so that you can start to avail yourself of what is around.
And then of course, ask. You know, Judaism is famous as being a tradition that encourages questions of all kinds.
You write that a big critique of our society is a kind of consumer mindset, that people approach religion with this mindset of buying something in a store. You’re really opposed to that. Explain why.
I think it’s a little bit of a dance because, first of all, I think most of us are not even used to how much we approach everything as customers. And there can be a very entry-level way of being a customer: ‘Is this worth my money? Is this worth my time? Is this a good transaction?’ But there can even be a more elevated way of being a customer of, ‘Am I going to get meaning out of this? Is it worth my investment and energy? Is it worth it?’
And the problem is, from the outset, much like a meaningful relationship or let’s say a move across the country, is that you often don’t know what to ask from the outset. And if you’re limited to your own perception of whether it’s worth it or not, you might never take the chance. And so what I encourage people to do, if people come and they ask me those kinds of questions, I’m going to do my best to answer them and to bring them in as best I can. Yes, I think it’s worth it. We would love to have you, please come and sit here. But at the same time, if I never help them transition from having that customer mindset to being invested in it or a participant in it or open to what could happen without them defining it, I really didn’t do my job.
Right. So how do you encourage people to move in if they acknowledge to you, as they often do, that they don’t believe in God or that they’re secular Jews?
I was raised with a lot of people around me who would say, ‘It doesn’t matter, especially vis-a-vis other religions where dogma is primary. It doesn’t matter. You believe whatever you want.’ And lately, what I think is a more honest approach for me, if those rabbis still say that, I have total respect for many kinds of people and many types of rabbinates. But for me, what I like to say is, it does matter. It does matter.
You will have my blessing if that is not something that you believe right now. But, get to know me. I’m going to work on you for a while. We’re going to see if I can help you move in that direction. Because I think if you take God completely out of the equation of religion, it’s hard to put it all back together. It’s not impossible. I just think it’s harder.
And I think that that is a more useful description of what it means to be religious. ‘Religious’ also means many, many more things. But as a starting point, you could say, I have these coordinates. I’m connected to other people, I’m connected through the generations, and I’m under heaven. And now I’m ethical, too. This is not one or the other.
Jews are now preparing for the High Holidays. Rosh Hashanah begins Friday. It’s a hard time, I think, for Jews to enter into religious spaces because the services are very long and wordy and repetitive. What advice would you give them if this is the time of year where they’re going to engage with Judaism?
So, first of all, they should all come to The Kitchen in San Francisco, where we have the most incredible tefillah (prayer). I am very blessed to be partnered with a hazan (cantor) who brings us melodies from Morocco and Syria and Uzbekistan, and our community is singing. And we take it very, very seriously. We really pray. And so, I would say look for a place where you can really pray, where they’re not messing around. Life is too short to be in a room of people who are not being serious about the prospect of connecting to God, especially at this time of year.
How do you personally prepare for the High Holidays?
You know, there’s a teaching that all the fish are trembling in the ocean in Elul, which is the month before Rosh Hashanah. And I just returned from a trip to Jerusalem where we were praying the ‘selichot.’ Every day you say a series of prayers asking for forgiveness. And when you say them over and over again, you find your place. You remember what the holidays are really about, which is a sense of humility and maybe a sense of joy that, please God, "All will be forgiven."
Well on that note, happy new year. Shana tova. Thank you. And thank you for talking to me.
Shana tova.
My pleasure. Hope to meet you in person someday.