Thursday, September 20, 2007
Logically Jewish
I have a friend who recently de-converted. And I know once a Jew always a Jew, not to mention his DNA is an excellent match to the tribe of Levi, but let me explain...
This guy, we'll call him J, was originally a Christian, a very charasmatic, pentecostal one. He went from that to Messianic Jew and from Messianic to Orthodox. And he was a very serious Orthodox Jew.
J lost his faith in Judaism when he noticed the favoritism rabbis often showed to Jews who were blood over converted Jews. He still believed in G-d, just no longer the teachings of rabbis noting their flaws. This spiraled him into an atheistic phase and then an agnostic one followed by a return to Christianity.
His return to Christianity, as he explained it to me, came in that it was something available to everyone, he did not feel Judaism was because of the prejudice he had seen. He followed, however, with something that made me think.
J said he was going to raise his kids Jewish. He felt Christianity, while having a teaching available to everyone, was still a poor system, because in the Christian church you take things on faith as your pastor says, but in the synogogue, people disagree and are encouraged to ask questions as well as questions are asked for the sole purpose of provoking thought. This tradtion, he says, was at the core of Christianity originally, evidenced when Christ was in the temple and the Bible says the high priests were impressed by all the questions he asked. He says this is because Christ was answering the priest's questions with questions like rabbis often do to provoke thought.
This made me think. It made me think about Christians, and it made me think about Jews. I often run into alot of racist Jews, prejudiced Jews or Jews who dislike other Jews because they aren't "Jewish enough". I've long thought this hypocrisy, because after our immense, well known history of oppression, you'd think the first thing we would have learned was that that shit is wrong. Then it made me think about Christians and the emphasis on faith, how so many Christians believe whatever they're taught unquestioningly and the direction our world is taking with this.
I have undoubtably seen time and again demonstrated the human ability to be absolutely wrong and to persist in that wrongness. I have likewise seen the human ability to hate and persecute those who are right. The greatest example in our history are those we now call prophets that were previously tormented by us for speaking the words of G-d.
These things only confirm in my mind the need to be logical, rational and honest, to disagree freely and provoke thought (which is our tradition). So why, as Jews, are we not thinking about certain things, like say prejudice? Are we, as a race, going to finally learn from our mistakes, or is G-d, in his desire to perfect us as people, going to have to put us again in slavery until we figure it out?
This guy, we'll call him J, was originally a Christian, a very charasmatic, pentecostal one. He went from that to Messianic Jew and from Messianic to Orthodox. And he was a very serious Orthodox Jew.
J lost his faith in Judaism when he noticed the favoritism rabbis often showed to Jews who were blood over converted Jews. He still believed in G-d, just no longer the teachings of rabbis noting their flaws. This spiraled him into an atheistic phase and then an agnostic one followed by a return to Christianity.
His return to Christianity, as he explained it to me, came in that it was something available to everyone, he did not feel Judaism was because of the prejudice he had seen. He followed, however, with something that made me think.
J said he was going to raise his kids Jewish. He felt Christianity, while having a teaching available to everyone, was still a poor system, because in the Christian church you take things on faith as your pastor says, but in the synogogue, people disagree and are encouraged to ask questions as well as questions are asked for the sole purpose of provoking thought. This tradtion, he says, was at the core of Christianity originally, evidenced when Christ was in the temple and the Bible says the high priests were impressed by all the questions he asked. He says this is because Christ was answering the priest's questions with questions like rabbis often do to provoke thought.
This made me think. It made me think about Christians, and it made me think about Jews. I often run into alot of racist Jews, prejudiced Jews or Jews who dislike other Jews because they aren't "Jewish enough". I've long thought this hypocrisy, because after our immense, well known history of oppression, you'd think the first thing we would have learned was that that shit is wrong. Then it made me think about Christians and the emphasis on faith, how so many Christians believe whatever they're taught unquestioningly and the direction our world is taking with this.
I have undoubtably seen time and again demonstrated the human ability to be absolutely wrong and to persist in that wrongness. I have likewise seen the human ability to hate and persecute those who are right. The greatest example in our history are those we now call prophets that were previously tormented by us for speaking the words of G-d.
These things only confirm in my mind the need to be logical, rational and honest, to disagree freely and provoke thought (which is our tradition). So why, as Jews, are we not thinking about certain things, like say prejudice? Are we, as a race, going to finally learn from our mistakes, or is G-d, in his desire to perfect us as people, going to have to put us again in slavery until we figure it out?
