Before I moved to Seattle I used to work in Las Vegas. I wasn't a dealer at the Bellagio or doing weddings dressed as Elvis. I was working at one of the Conservative synagogues in the suburbs. It wasn't on the strip but it was just as colorful.
A member of the congregation, a physician, drove me to the airport at the end of my first weekend. I asked if the study of medicine brought him closer to a belief in God or further away. The Las Vegas airport is right next to the strip and I couldn't help but notice the discord between my theological question and the mega casinos glittering next to us. Without hesitating he said, "Closer. And I remember the moment," he said. "It was when I first saw the trochlea, in gross anatomy." The trochlea, he explained is a critical part of sight. It is a small round bone scarcely bigger than the head of pin that acts as a pulley. One of the tendons in the eye threads through this bone, does a 180-degree turn and attaches to the back of the eye socket. The resulting torque gives the eye the ability to track diagonally. "It was perfect engineering," he said. "And I just felt it could not be random. The design was too precise." It absolutely deepened his faith in a higher being, he said.
As a follow up question I asked whether the conversation of science and intelligent design ever comes up with his colleagues. His response was equally without hesitation. "Absolutely not." He suggested, somewhat sadly, that something in the study of medicine puts the conversation off limits -- an unwritten rule, a tacit agreement.
I have asked this question to many physicians, mostly Jewish, and the conversation virtually always follows a similar trajectory. Yes, the study of medicine has deepened their faith, brought them closer to a belief in a Something and no they would never speak to their colleagues about it. I find echoes of the Jewish experience in these conversations.
Faith, prayer and our concepts of a Grand Designer are subjects we Jews rarely discuss. Perhaps because it is too personal, but more likely because we don't have the context for it. As a way of shuffling off the question we claim these are not Jewish words. Not part of the Jewish dialogue. The rabbis of our tradition would not understand our discomfort. For them, God, faith and prayer were very Jewish words.
I am often struck when reading through our commentators how unabashedly they speak in terms of faith, God and prayer. And how uncomfortable it would be considered if we spoke in such terms. How awkward it makes so many people feel -- until they start talking. I suspect this lack of dialogue about an adult theology is among the things driving so many of Jews away from Judaism. I see it every day. There is a very deep and very human hunger for a spiritual or religious experience in Judaism.
A few years back, I lost a friend and teacher to cancer. An extraordinary woman whose faith was something that emanated a light from her withering body. During our last conversation I asked her where she found such a profound faith. "Faith is found by actively seeking it and surrounding yourself with people who have it."
I have taken her answer very seriously. Faith, prayer and God are deeply Jewish. They surround and are infused within our tradition. The rabbis of the Talmud, who laid the foundation of our tradition, presupposed God. The Jewish tradition requires no leap of faith. It is more of a step of faith. And I am not suggesting that we should abandon reason, but equally we should not sacrifice faith at its alter. They both have their place and at times that means allowing the two to be held in resonant tension, contradiction and utter discord. We need to create adult theologies.
Occasionally, I teach a class called "Unlearning God." As an exercise I ask students to take a small journal and jot down all the places over the course of the week where they experience the possibility that there is something greater, a higher power acting in the world. I used to say write down all the places where they see the fingerprints of God. But I learned they often became too caught up in the God language, so I changed it to the possibility of "something greater."
The answers they bring back are always as beautiful as they are profound -- tears on skin, time slowing down as a leaf falls to the ground, evening sun on hardwood floors, steam rising from coffee; reflections, laughter, compassion.
Commenting on the phrase, im shemohah, tishmah, if you listen you will hear, the Me'or Einayim says, "If you hear what is old, you will hear what is new." The struggle is to make the old conversations new, to make the old experiences new. And to not let words like God, prayer, religion or Torah cause such a shock to the system. Let them not be appropriated. Let them breathe, live and become new again. For me prayer, God, religion and Torah are not things I pick up when I walk into a sanctuary and deposit in the bag with my tallit or tefillin when I leave. I strive to make the entirety of my life prayer -- a constant striving to see the Transcendent in the world and in the people around me. Our tradition has never said that prayer needs to be limited to the pages in a book.
What was new about shirat hayam, the song at the sea, was that it forever carries the power of renewal. That is why we say it during the shachrit, morning service, every day. Commenting on this, the Sefat Emet says, "Israel's faith at the sea was the saving act that would last for all generations. God was and God will be. The song and the attachment to God have been implanted in the Jewish soul forever." But we have to be willing step into uncertainty. We have to be willing as Nachshon did at the Red Sea to keep wading deeper and deeper until we risk drowning. And then maybe the sea will split.
"Something that is not hidden does not require faith," says the Mei Hashiloach, "only something concealed requires faith." The hidden and the revealed are woven together in the quest for the Transcendent. Yotzer Or U'vera hoshech, we say with the Shema. God forms light and creates darkness -- in the present tense, not the past. The One of all Being is still creating. Ze Eli, This is my God, declares Moses at the sea. This is my God to which Sforno says, "the everlasting First Cause, from Whom flows all existence that is impermanent and transitory." The Jewish God is everywhere and in everything. At once as imminent as a breath and as far away as the edge of the universe: The One who heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds. The One who counts the stars and gives each one a name. Ze Eli. This is my God.
How different would our lives be if we tried to live out what we declare with Nishmat kol chai -- The breath of all that lives praises you our God. How would we pray differently if song filled our mouths as water fills the sea? Would joy flood our souls? Have we ever tried to live a life of praise as limitless as the sky? Perhaps we could never fully state our gratitude, but do we even try to live in a state of gratitude. And what would it look like if we did? This is the challenge we are commanded to say each morning when we open our eyes and our mouths for the first time -- modeh ani lefanecha. I am grateful before you for putting my soul back in my body. Great is Your faith God. Great is God's faith in us.
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Matthew Dowd: Rumi and St. Francis: Healing Wisdom for Today
Jewish prayer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
God business (i.e., the business of clergy and of running synagogues) also veils one's connection with the divine. It may even dry up one's enthusiasm turning one into a cynic.
Judaism is an eastern religion which has migrated west and as such shares certain aspects with other eastern peoples. It has a sophistica¬ted theosophy & meditative tradition which is finding increasing popularity. For many this provides both the intellectual and emotional experience that they have been craving. It takes effort to grasp the basic theosophic metaphor. I recommend Sanford Drob. His background in psychiatry and philosophy is a starting point to which many secularly educated Jews can relate.
There are also excellent translations and commentaries on Talmud for the legal minded. Adin Steinsaltz comes first to mind.
The number of English translations of primary texts as well as both traditional and modern commentaries on all aspects of Torah is tremendous. This is stimulating a renaissance in serious adult Jewish studies.
I must admit, that I have questioned the intelligence of God who could give mankind such as great a share in his design, as he has done. We are Co-Creators. We too form the light and the darkness in our quest to know ourselves, environment, survive, thrive, and origin, God. As Co-Creators we find ourselves in an esteemed position, holding great responsibility, and it's not always easy to live up to it....but, as you so beautifully affirm, and remind us, "Great is Your faith God. Great is God's faith in us. "
As Rabbi Boteach points out, Evil exists and we all know it, and we all have a responsiblity to rise to the occassion and speak out, firmly, against it. While some may have criticized him for going a little too far in his call to "hate" sin, sometimes it takes something shocking to wake us up as well, a good old fashioned smack on the head, or as a frustrated mother might say, "You're working my last nerve here, kid". I chuckle. At least he got our attention, and if we were really paying attention this week...... as Brad Hirschfield said, in his recent article, "return to normal".
"Normal" is "rational". God did not call us to be abnormal, or irrational, but to be normal and rational human beings, or he wouldn't have given us the ability to be so, or given us such a responsible postion in creation.
I have had Jewish friends who indeed had faith, prayed, and believed in God. But they didn't assert nonsense. What they could know they did, and what they couldn't know they held as a mystery.
Rational thinking compares the unknown with what is known in order to find out what we do not know. Rational thinking is a comparative process. Faith is not rational. There are some things we cannot understand because we do not have anything to compare it to. We cannot find out what we do not know in areas that science or observation cannot touch.
But though faith isn't rational, that doesn't mean it is wrong. It is wrong, though, to assume that not having an answer now means that there will not be an answer later. Faith applied in the wrong way all too often stops thought processes altogether with mushy sorts of feelings. But faith can give energy to persevere even when nothing at all makes sense, or give a person a place to center their thoughts when confronted with the idiocy and rudeness of those around us.
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How is that possible? How do I compare the color red with ____, when I don't even know what I am comparing red too? I imagine that one could free associate, and claim ___ is blue, but that don't make it blue. I presume if I throw enough darts at it, I might possiblly and correctly fill in the ____ sometime in the future but, when?
Rational thought to me is comparing "knowns", and debating them in order to come to a resolution if possible.......some being particulary stubborn who wouldn't acknowledge something even if it was staring them in the face, so to speak, like atheists and theists, and intelligent design. lol
Why is faith not rational? That faith is not rational doesn't mean that all faiths are rational, or that they don't contain something in them that is. This sort of reminds me of the verse, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Absolutely, or Why not?
If ____ is a color, we can compare it to other colors. We do, too. Color has certain knowable and known properties.
"Faith" doesn't start with what is known, but with belief in an otherwise unknowable. Does God exist? We may believe it, but belief isn't "knowing."
We Christians "believe in" prayer. Do we *know* God hears and answers prayer? We believe it. But lots of prayers are unanswered. We make excuses -- the prayer was not made in faith, or it was not God's will, or God is testing our faith. But we know that some prayers are not answered, so we do not know that "God answers prayer." Belief and "rationalization" to fit the belief into what we know is not the same as knowing.
I won't say that there is no rational thought existent in faith discussions. One can proceed from what one believes to try to solve a problem or shed light on what is unknown. But if what you start with is unprovable or wrong, the results are often wrong. All too often what passes as rational thought in Faith is one leap in the dark from another leap in the dark.
Faith is necessary because some questions can't be answered, can't be known, and can't be rationalized.
If God is simply the locus of occurrences that have not been shown to be necessary; a holding cell for things that remain mysterious, failures of natural science may bring one "closer" to belief in God (to lending credence to the existence of such a locus qua potential answer). Such ‘belief’ is a logical necessity (a reason) not faith in the biblical sense of trust and obedience.
“Closer” is a spatial metaphor for a logical (cognitive) moment. To come closer to belief is to feel that the probability of his existence has intensified, not that God him- or it-self is nearer in the way most needful for biblical personages.
Once you decide to believe in God believing becomes awareness. Awareness can be renewed and confirmed by just about anything under the sun. But the decision to believe introduces an irreducibly random (arbitrary) element into the equation. Belief settles the question of God by referring to His revelation and bows its head. That is the Jewish answer. Period.
This article turned out to be kind of sham. Evocative, but not cogent, let alone stringent. I expected more from a "Master".
You don't have to beleive in god to be Jewish. In fact, there is a great and long Jewish atheist tradition that has produced great works of art and culture.
You can also be religious. In different ways. You can pray or not.
But while Judaism is a central aspect of Jewish peoplehood, tradition, history, etc., it is not, as a religion, a necessary component.
So next time your friend tells you that he "just felt it could not be random", please ask him to name one other scientific theory that's accepted because "it just felt right".
The fight beween good and evil is Sipritual warfare it not can not be seen.
For those who don't believe it is unexplainable. For those who believe no explanation is needed.
Have a nice day:)