Strangers and Neighbors Rt 201/Ru07 Judaism My

Strangers and Neighbors

RT 201/RU07

Judaism

My understanding of Judaism was challenged by the central belief that Jews -- especially more Orthodox Jews -- live as they do to ensure that a holy place exists where God can enter and dwell among them. The use of the Mezuzah to sanctify peoples' homes is a manifestation of this belief, and the act of kissing and touching the Mezuzah is very similar to the Catholic practice of dabbing holy water on themselves when they enter a church or cathedral. Many other religions hold to practices that sanctify their homes or places of work. Buddhists set up little shrines -- I have even seen them in nail salons! It was a new idea to me that Jews keep many of their traditions not only because they are laws of the Torah, to which they are bound, but because following the law seems to create a kind of sacred bubble of protection and faith around them and their families. It seems like the underlying sentiment is that this appeals to God and attracts God to the space.

I love the saying "The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space…to become attuned to holiness in time." I recently saw a show on time travel in space hosted by Stephen Hawking. The point of the show was to show how time is the one variable in space travel that humans seem incapable of sufficiently manipulating to make very long-distance intergalactic travel possible. We simply cannot travel fast enough to get where we would like to go -- in our lifetimes, even when those lifetimes are extended by traveling nearly at the speed of light. Light and time. Those are two of the elements that most represent the Shabbat rituals to me. Of course, there is the communion that takes place with family and friends at the synagogue, and then later at home. But is time that enables the ritual -- it is making time to step out of quotidian demands that permits Shabbat to be what it is. Light, often in the form of candles, is an element of many religious ceremonies. Light is elemental, and seems to have such primitive roots. Light is essential to our lives, and its use in Shabbat and at Hanukah is fitting from the perspective of the holiday narratives, but also as a reminder of the creation. The beautiful practice of Shabbat makes more sense to me -- and some equivalent of it more necessary to the human psyche -- the more I think about it.

Before I took this course on Judaism, I didn't really think about how very difficult it was for the disciples to leave their religious teachings behind. Johnson does an excellent job of presenting the angst that Paul and others experienced as they came to a fuller realization of what was happening in their lives. Paul and other early Christians would see their families and friends in a different light if they did not convert to Christianity. Enormous contention broke out among people who had previously lived in peace. I had never really appreciated the enormity of the chasm that was created between Jews and Christians at the time of the establishment of the Christian church, particularly that it would be personally very difficult to make the transition. It was interesting to note that a decision was made to only ask the Gentiles to adjust to only three of the 613 mitzvahs of the Torah: To utterly renounce idolatry, to not eat meat with blood, and to adopt high standards of sexual purity.