Identity vs. Identification

From Wendy Grinberg at RJ.org:

The term identity refers to how the individual sees him or herself. Ari encouraged us to move towards thinking about identification, that is, a process by which individuals act out what they think and feel, through institutions, interactions and intersections of culture.

His challenge to us was that while these Jews express a high identity, they express a low identification. Meaning, the problem isn't with the demand, but with the supply.

Not sure I agree with her conclusions, but it's an interesting way of viewing the problem. If there is a generation of young Jews that have strong Jewish identity, how do we encourage identification with Jewish organizations?

Leaving the board

I've been thinking a lot about diving lately. I love swimming but fear heights, so there's always an interesting moment in swim class, lifeguard training, etc. when I have to face the endless, gaping abyss (actual height: 2m) to progress in the fun swimming part.

Part of why diving scares me is there's that moment after you leave the board when - in a great metaphor for faith - you have to trust that you did everything you could correctly, but from now until you hit the water you're essentially gravity's plaything. All that remains to us is to choose our response; do we stay calm and focused and enter the water smoothly, or panic, scream, and belly flop painfully? Of course, sometimes you stay calm and belly flop anyway.

My feet have left the board; I am committed. What happens between here and the water is beyond me, but I will try to stay calm and enter the water smoothly.

Milestone denied

I was very excited last night when blogger told me I had reached 100 posts! Then I looked more closely and realized about 25 of those are still unposted drafts. So no, not quite yet, and yes, this post is cheating to pad the numbers.

Soon, though. I'll see if I can do it before the end of the year. That's only 3-4 posts per week.

Yeah, this'll be fun.

Did God Create The Earth?

No, says Professor Ellen van Wolde.

She said she eventually concluded the Hebrew verb "bara", which is used in the first sentence of the book of Genesis, does not mean "to create" but to "spatially separate".

The first sentence should now read "in the beginning God separated the Heaven and the Earth"

No alternate theory on where the earth did come from. An interesting, exceedingly fine distinction. Practical impact? None at all. God still created man, after all, and very few commandments or rituals - apart from the occasional words in a prayer - are based on God as creator of the earth. Actual impact? Probably huge. Can't wait for the Religious Community's response. Google search results for "blasphemy" this coming week should be interesting.

Does this actually threaten anything in religion? Is God less important, meaningful, powerful, or authoritative if Prof. van Wolde is correct? I think not. What is interesting to me is how does this change the dialog between religion and science?

Thoughts?

The Other Dayenu

"Is such the fast I desire,
A day for men to starve their bodies?
Is it bowing the head like a bulrush
And lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call that a fast,
A day when the Lord is favorable?"

You listen to the sermons and read the haftarah and feel good about yourself. You talk about the homeless, as if it were enough.

As if it were enough to talk about the homeless, but not see them in your streets.

As if it were enough to see them in your streets, but not feed them.

As if it were enough to feed them, but not shelter them.

As if it were enough to shelter them, but not clothe them.

As if it were enough to clothe them, but not give them medical care.

As if it were enough to give them medical care, but not educate their children.

As if it were enough to educate their children, but not welcome them to your society.

As if it were enough to welcome them to your society, but not love them as yourself.

Soon You Will Call Me...

Reading today about the origin of rabbinic Judaism, and made an interesting connection.

"Rabbi" means literally "My master"; it is a title of honor for the rabbi's role as teacher. Therefore, it's essentially equivalent to "Sensei".

All of a sudden the combination of religion and sword fighting makes more sense.

Jewish Pantheism

Found this on Wikipedia's article on pantheism:

Biblical Judaism asserts the origin of the Universe was brought forth by the Torah law of nature. Thus the original Torah is found not within the writing of Moshe, but within nature itself. "Reading" the Torah of nature is seen as equivalent to "reading" the Torah of revelation and theoretically will agree with one another in the end [as illustrated for example in the discovery of the Big Bang in 1965]. Rabbinical Orthodoxy viewing this as a discrepancy, in order to maintain the written Torah above that given first in nature, has argued that written Torah preceded creation, and it was from the written Torah that God "spoke" creation. A view rejected by Biblical Pantheists.

Maimonides, though Orthodox, reflected the sentiment that the Torah of nature and the Torah of scripture were equivalent and found its logic inescapable, in his comments on the reconciliation of science with scripture.

Not sure what the bit about the Big Bang refers to (I know what the Big Bang is, and I can guess how it relates to Torah, but it's not a theory I've seen before), and I'm disappointed but unsurprised by the gross retconning by "Rabbinical Orthodoxy", but in general I love this view of connection between religion and science. This is what I've always believed, and how I came to my faith.

Also love this description of Hindu pantheism: "As the sun has rays of light which emanate from the same source, the same holds true for the multifaceted aspects of God emanating from Brahman, like many colors of the same prism."