These ASK ABOUT topics are focused on INFORMATION about new paths, rather than on sharing our personal journey. Please keep it to one topic per new path. This is a place for SUPPORT and AGREEMENT only, not a place to tell someone their new path is wrong or why we disagree with them.
This relates somewhat to a discussion in Old Paths about Christian Mythology, in which we reached a point of discussion (roughly) about what we mean when we say 'God':
If there is any meaningful sense to Divinity it is approaching God metaphorically. All notions of Divinity are metaphors for the creative and ordering principles found within the universe. The “Divine” can be metaphorized in many ways, as change, relatedness, love, life, and so on. Some metaphors describe God as a person. But we must never forget that any talk of God is a metaphor.
From a Jewish perspective, the sacred, by whatever name we wish to call he/she/it – is the vitalism that interpenetrates nature and empowers the interconnected web of life – the energy flowing throughout nature and immanent in the earth’s cycles of birth, growth, death, decay and regeneration.
Philosophically, God has been spoken of in terms of being the ground of existence, the uncaused cause, the first principle of creation, and the underlying non-contingent being.
These philosophical categories yield to other concepts such as understanding God in terms of the absolute and the contingent, the necessary and the fortuitous, potency and act, possibility and impossibility, being and nonbeing, transcendence and immanence.
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
The following are some examples of the components of a modern Jewish spiritual practice.
Mindfulness (Zehirut) – cultivating an awareness of presence, a focus on the present moment and living it to the fullest. In practicing mindfulness, we may find we also cultivate awe and gratitude.
Prayer (TeFillah) – we find value in expressing our highest intentions in sacred language, in silence, and focusing on them in private and communal situations. Prayer is the language of the heart sanctified. There is power in focused human intention, even if that power is simply inner transformation.
Sabbath (Shabbat) – we honor and observe the Sabbath. We understand the value of rest and renewal. We grasp the importance of slowing down and spending time with loved ones. We value the sacred rhythm that Shabbat brings to our lives.
Loving Kindness (Hesed)- the ancient rabbis taught that the perfect sacrifice is acts of loving kindness. We therefore understand that our Covenant commitment to the Source of Goodness and Life is most profoundly expressed in acts of love and kindness.
Study (Chinukh) – Judaism places a strong emphasis on education, and in particular, the study of Jewish texts, practices, philosophy, ethics, and tradition.
Turning (Teshuvah) – self-examination and reflection on our lives is vital if we desire to grow in kindness and holiness. Much of our spirituality is an exercise in orientation – our task is to continually turn back to the Source of Goodness and the path of life.
Restoration (Tikkun) – Jews are called to heal the world. Our fundamental attitude should be one of restoring the world to the divine vision of wholeness, interconnectedness, and harmony – establishing right relationships between people and between people and nature.
Peace (Shalom) -striving toward wholeness broadly understood – a thriving of of the entire person – body and soul – and harmony among all.
Justice (Tzedakah) – maintaining proper relationships by giving to others their due and respecting fundamental human rights. Tzedakah also includes what Christians refer to as charity – the care of the needy, the poor, the vulnerable, and the marginalized.
Kosher (Kashrut) -The original intent of the dietary laws were likely to reinforce an emerging cultural identity. Today, Jewish dietary practices are, for many, an exercise in self mastery and a daily reminder of the need for kindness, the humane treatment of animals, and increased awareness of food and the ethical issues involved in its production. The traditional prohibitions involving pork, shellfish, and the humane slaughter of animals is often now blended with concerns over organic farming, fair trade sources, and health effects.
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Very little - or else so much, it is hard to define anything specific -
There is no definitive Jewish statement on God other than the central Jewish prayer called the “Shema/S’hma” which means “Listen” in Hebrew:
Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad – Listen Israel, Adonai (Our Lord) is God, Adonai is One (or 'Adonai Alone').
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Jews base their theology of God on Torah and experience, and neither offer a definition of God or a description of God’s ontological nature. Torah describes God as a power, a force, the summation of being, the ground of being, and a person, with qualities ranging from anger, indifference, mercy, love, and jealousy.
Many Jews therefore approach God from a variety of perspectives, some adhering to Classical Theism, some to views shaped by Process Theology, some to views of God as an impersonal force or power, others holding a view of God as person, but different in nature to human persons, and so on.
(from a Patheos column from a Reform perspective)
If there is any meaningful sense to Divinity it is approaching God metaphorically. All notions of Divinity are metaphors for the creative and ordering principles found within the universe. The “Divine” can be metaphorized in many ways, as change, relatedness, love, life, and so on. Some metaphors describe God as a person. But we must never forget that any talk of God is a metaphor.
Jews find the metaphor of God employed throughout Torah, so let’s begin there.
The opening chapters of Genesis depict reality as a unity – everything is interrelated – everything has evolved/emerged from a divine singularity – everything comes from the One sacred, creative source.
Further, in the words of Genesis – all things are deemed good – reflecting the sacred character of the divine and creation. Calling nature sacred establishes an ultimate value to nature and indicates that all creatures deserve our respect.
Torah informs us that the way of encounter with the sacred is by engaging the world, not escaping it. A holy life is a richly lived and full life – one that affirms the better aspects of human nature and is placed at the service of others.
From a Jewish perspective, the sacred, by whatever name we wish to call he/she/it – is the vitalism that interpenetrates nature and empowers the interconnected web of life – the energy flowing throughout nature and immanent in the earth’s cycles of birth, growth, death, decay and regeneration.
Philosophically, God has been spoken of in terms of being the ground of existence, the uncaused cause, the first principle of creation, and the underlying non-contingent being.
These philosophical categories yield to other concepts such as understanding God in terms of the absolute and the contingent, the necessary and the fortuitous, potency and act, possibility and impossibility, being and nonbeing, transcendence and immanence.
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
So who - or what - is God? What do we see God saying about 'who are you?'
in Genesis, at the burning bush, Moses asks God for God’s name – a question meant to understand the essence of God as well as a way to control God through invocation. What is God’s response? “I Am.” Or in Hebrew, Ayer Asher Ayer – translated roughly as “I am, I am what is, I will be what I will be” a vague response of sorts.
One interpretation of the ambiguous answer is God telling Moses, “never mind my name, I’m not telling you.” Another interpretation is that God is trying to convey that God is being itself or at least the necessary existence that allows for being to be.
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Loving Kindness (Hesed)- the ancient rabbis taught that the perfect sacrifice is acts of loving kindness. We therefore understand that our Covenant commitment to the Source of Goodness and Life is most profoundly expressed in acts of love and kindness.
Some Christians tend to think of God's grace in the abstract, as something God gives, rather than a characteristic of God. But other Christians (such as myself) understand that "hesed" or "grace" refers to God's loyal-love, mercy, and kindness toward his covenant people, and also their response of loyal-love toward God, which as you pointed out, is expressed most profoundly in acts of love and kindness toward other people. A question I have is whether Judaism regards God's loving-kindness (grace) as extending to all humankind as his original covenant people "in Adam".
Justice (Tzedakah) – maintaining proper relationships by giving to others their due and respecting fundamental human rights. Tzedakah also includes what Christians refer to as charity – the care of the needy, the poor, the vulnerable, and the marginalized.
Non-fundamentalist Christians sometimes speak of "peace and justice", where justice is understood in the same way that Judaism understands the term.
From a Jewish perspective, the sacred, by whatever name we wish to call he/she/it – is the vitalism that interpenetrates nature and empowers the interconnected web of life – the energy flowing throughout nature and immanent in the earth’s cycles of birth, growth, death, decay and regeneration.
I think that is what Paul was getting at when he said God is in all, through all, and above all.
A question I have is whether Judaism regards God's loving-kindness (grace) as extending to all humankind as his original covenant people "in Adam".
God is everybody's god, whether they know it or not.
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
What about the Talmud? You've heard of it, right? Actually know anything? It's huge - it's sometimes called 'the sea of Talmud'. Talmud means 'stuff to be learned' (approximately). It is also called 'the Oral Law' (we have two 'Torahs': Written - what you know as the Penteteuch, and Oral - what we know as the Talmud) even though it is written down. It's Oral because it WAS oral, for centuries, before anybody started writing it down - and it is STILL Oral, because 'the Talmud' is never actually finished.
What exactly is the Talmud?
The Talmud is a set of written teachings and commentary, related to the scriptures, and addressing aspects of Jewish law and tradition. The Rabbis began writing it down in the first century CE. And finished writing the initial version about 600 years later.
Each volume deals with general topics in Jewish life and poses questions, offers answers, debates the answers, clarifies scripture, and adds understanding to each issue.
Now, for the part about Jewish logic of mercy. Jews don’t relate to their law the same way as do Christians. Linear logic is not the logic of the early Jewish Rabbis. Their logic is more circular, organic, more conversational, more dialectical, and more phenomenological – and always an attempt to find mercy in the text.
Each issue in the Talmud begins with a short quote from the Mishnah – a statement of law and/or practice often derived from the Bible. The statement is then debated and commented on – for years, decades, centuries, by multiple authors, calling upon various sources, sometimes quoting teachers long gone and dead, but assuming to know what they would say.
It’s like having Abraham Lincoln engaged in conversation with Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and John Kennedy about the Constitution. Conclusions are few. The conversation is riveting. You learn tons.
But when you’re done, you’re not really done.
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Consider the Biblical commandment to stone a woman found guilty of committing adultery. The scriptures call for the woman to be stoned in front of her father’s house. The command appears in scripture at least twice.
The Rabbis raise the question in the Talmud and then begin applying their logic. What is adultery? How do we find someone guilty? How many witnesses are required? Why stone her in front of her father’s house?
By the time the commentary and analysis is done, it would be nearly impossible to stone any woman for adultery – the bar for conviction, the requirement of witnesses, the urging for mercy, the twists and turns of Jewish logic – always opting for compassion, justice, kindness, and forgiveness. Granted, adultery is never approved of, never condoned, but mercy prevails.
Can such conversation sound legalistic? Sure. Is such conversation motivated by legalism? Not at all. The motivation of even the ancient Rabbis was mercy and love. The entire enterprise of Talmud is one of gentleness and a move toward affirming human dignity.
Talmud, and thus Jewish law, understands that conversation isn’t over.
It's never over. And a student of the Talmud today (a talmid chacham, a 'yeshiva bocher', or anybody who involves him/herself with Talmud study) can - and will - answer, and question, and respond, and argue, with the opinions and sages recorded in the written Oral Law, at any time, for any reason.
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
