The book, "Finding God: Ten Jewish Responses" by Rifat Sonsino and Daniel Syme, published by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1986, presents 10 different views of God by Jewish thinkers ranging from 4,000 years ago through the modern era. The aim of the book is to aid Jews who cannot accept traditional notions of god in finding a god concept they can accept within Judaism rather than seeking it within another religion. The ten views covered in the book are from:
- The bible
- Rabbinic Literature
- Philo: Spiritual Monotheism
- Maimonides: Neo-Aristotelianism
- Luria: Mysticism
- Spinoza: Pantheism
- Buber: Dialogue
- Steinberg: Limited Theism
- Kaplan: Naturalism
- Fromm: Humanism
There is a chapter on each of these views along with background on each thinker. A convenient multi-page chart in the back of the book makes it easy to determine which of the philosophies the reader is most compatible with.
One problem is that, even if the reader falls in love with one of these philosophies, there are not necessarily available Jewish congregations or organizations that follows them. We are limited to those congregations around us, which generally fall under the categories of Chasssidic, Orthodox, Conservative, Reformed, and Reconstructionist, with some wiggle-room within each for congregations to develop their own personalities.
My concepts fall closest to Fromm's Humanism. However, as a true agnostic, I cannot fully accept any of the God concepts put forth in the book. As far as I can tell, we have no way of knowing whether or not God exists and what his/her/its nature would be if he/her/it does exist. That makes it impossible to adopt any philosophies that claims to know the nature of God and man's relationship to him/her/it. My instinct tells me that, if there is a God, it would not be human-like. However, I consider it possible that there is one religion that has it right, but who knows which one that would be. I would be very amused if, when I die, I find myself in a particular religion's classic concept of heaven or hell. My instinct tells me that, if there's an afterlife, it would be something we are currently incapable of understanding and likely involves achieving unity with the universe.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
"Nation of Immigrants" Seder
The Boston area is great for Jewish cultural events. If you really wanted to, you could do at least 2-3 events per week without even being a member of a temple. This past Sunday we attended the 4th annual Anti-Defamation League of New England's "A Nation of Immigrants" community seder, which was open to the public. The theme was based on an essay by John F. Kennedy in which he emphasized the positive impact immigrants have had on this country and argued for liberalizing immigration laws to end the bias towards Northern Europeans. It was an inspiring event, with about 300 people of various religions and ethnic backgrounds in attendance.
The seder was designed to maintain the basic structure of a traditional seder yet promote the relevance of its themes to all other ethnic and religious groups who meet adversity. In this sense it was a very pleasant contrast to the words found in a traditional hagadah (seder book), which tend towards the outdated and chauvinistic. The traditional hagadah talks about the Jews being freed from slavery in Egypt, and thanks god for striking down our enemies and making us fruitful in multiplying. I have found this type of writing hard to swallow because 1) Jewish slavery occurred thousands of years ago, 2) any persecution the Jewish People suffered in Egypt very likely paled in comparison to the holocaust, 3) Jews outside of Israel have had a very low birthrate and our numbers are rapidly shrinking as a percentage of the U.S., European, and world population, and 4) We live in a pluralistic society, and ethnocentrism just doesn't sit well with me and a large portion of the U.S. population, particularly non-Orthodox Jews, and 5) Who really believes that the Red Sea parted?
While telling the story of the Jews escape from Egyptian slavery, the Nation of Immgrants hagadah broadened much of the language to include the redemption of a much broader range of oppressed peoples. There was multi-cultural entertainment interspersed with addresses by people of various backgrounds. The most inspiring was a woman from Honduras who was raised in a tough town in Masachusetts and found herself pregnant as a teenager and on the road to fitting the stereotype of someone from her ethnicity and class. However, she found the strength to take advantage of the opportunities that this country offers and she will be taking the bar exam shortly to fulfil her dream of becoming a lawyer who represents the disadvantaged.
Lenny Zakim was the leader of the Anti-Defamation League of New England for many years and he did tremendous work in bringing together Jews and people of other religions and ethnic groups to work on inter-group harmony and shared goals. Unfortunately he died prematurely of cancer and the beautiful Zakim bridge was named after him. The New England ADL has also been independent in its stances from the national organization, especially in regard to promoting recognition of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks during WWI. An organization like the New England ADL makes me proud to be Jewish.
The seder was designed to maintain the basic structure of a traditional seder yet promote the relevance of its themes to all other ethnic and religious groups who meet adversity. In this sense it was a very pleasant contrast to the words found in a traditional hagadah (seder book), which tend towards the outdated and chauvinistic. The traditional hagadah talks about the Jews being freed from slavery in Egypt, and thanks god for striking down our enemies and making us fruitful in multiplying. I have found this type of writing hard to swallow because 1) Jewish slavery occurred thousands of years ago, 2) any persecution the Jewish People suffered in Egypt very likely paled in comparison to the holocaust, 3) Jews outside of Israel have had a very low birthrate and our numbers are rapidly shrinking as a percentage of the U.S., European, and world population, and 4) We live in a pluralistic society, and ethnocentrism just doesn't sit well with me and a large portion of the U.S. population, particularly non-Orthodox Jews, and 5) Who really believes that the Red Sea parted?
While telling the story of the Jews escape from Egyptian slavery, the Nation of Immgrants hagadah broadened much of the language to include the redemption of a much broader range of oppressed peoples. There was multi-cultural entertainment interspersed with addresses by people of various backgrounds. The most inspiring was a woman from Honduras who was raised in a tough town in Masachusetts and found herself pregnant as a teenager and on the road to fitting the stereotype of someone from her ethnicity and class. However, she found the strength to take advantage of the opportunities that this country offers and she will be taking the bar exam shortly to fulfil her dream of becoming a lawyer who represents the disadvantaged.
Lenny Zakim was the leader of the Anti-Defamation League of New England for many years and he did tremendous work in bringing together Jews and people of other religions and ethnic groups to work on inter-group harmony and shared goals. Unfortunately he died prematurely of cancer and the beautiful Zakim bridge was named after him. The New England ADL has also been independent in its stances from the national organization, especially in regard to promoting recognition of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks during WWI. An organization like the New England ADL makes me proud to be Jewish.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Matisyahu's "One Day"
Matisyahu makes me proud to be Jewish. Here is a religious guy from a group that is usually very separate from everyone else and whose adherents generally give the impression that they feel they know the right way and everyone else (particularly non-Chasidic Jews) is wrong. Yet he somehow manages to be very observant of his group's strict tenets yet communicates beautifully through his music and lyrics to the rest of the world, providing a message of hope and peace. Here are the lyrics and official video of "One Day." You might also like to see the video of him at the Vancouver Winter Olympics to see his immense appeal to people of all backgrounds. Matisyahu is truly fulfilling the biblical edict to Jews, "You shall be a light unto the nations."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
