Guilt is feeling bad for something we have done. Shame is feeling bad for the kind of person we are. Which is the characteristic Jewish emotion? Rabbi Sacks proposes that it is guilt, that each Jew stands with awareness of divine judgement looming, feeling bad for what they have done or not done. I argue that this is an idealisation. In fact our community as a whole is functionally atheist in moral terms, even if many individuals have faith. Instead, the community talks about Jewish pride, but runs in practice on shame and fear of shame. And we laugh off the associated ugly feelings as guilt. But when attention is paid to the role of shame, the possibility arises of weighing the unsettling truths associated with these feelings of shame, as well as potential misapprehensions.

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