About Judaism [Top Menu]

Judaism is an ancient way of life in which people hope for and cooperatively work toward the renewal and healing of the entire planet. At the foundation of Judaism is the individual's humble, loving, and intimate relationship with God, in which the individual is molded by God (gently whenever possible) to more effectively serve God and bring healing to their own life, their family, their community, and the planet.

Judaism's effectiveness at achieving this goal is partially due to the almost 'scientific' approach to the study of spirituality and the meta-sensory human experience and condition. This study is grounded in the Torah and supportive books of study that branch out from and elaborate upon the Torah - an ever unfolding revelation of increasing understanding and enlightenment. Through faith in and reliance upon God, Judaism combines spiritual study and practice with cutting edge science and technology to achieve a better life for the individual and all humanity.

The teachings and guidance of today's Rabbis reinforce and further elaborate on premises set forth in the original Torah. So, with each new generation, Judaism grows in its effectiveness and relative impact upon humanity. For this reason, Judaism is like a tree that grows each year to produce more fruit than the year before. The fruit and leaves of Judaism bring nourishment and healing to the individual and to the world.

"Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river.
Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail.
Every month they will bear,
because the water from the sanctuary flows to them.
Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing."
Ezekiel 47:12

Branches of Judaism [Top Menu]

There are three primary branches to the tree of Judaism. Each of these branches serves a unique and important purpose. The primary distinction between the various branches of Judaism and their sub-branches is with regard to the interpretation of and application of the scriptures.

Other Expressions of Judaism

Rambam's Thirteen Principles of Jewish Faith [Top Menu]

The following thirteen principles are statements of Jewish faith and commonly accepted among those who adhere to traditional Orthodox Jewish expressions of faith and practice.

1. I believe with perfect faith that G-d is the Creator and Ruler of all things. He alone has made, does make, and will make all things.

2. I believe with perfect faith that G-d is One. There is no unity that is in any way like His. He alone is our G-d. He was, He is, and He will be.

3. I believe with perfect faith that G-d does not have a body. Physical concepts do not apply to Him. There is nothing whatsoever that resembles Him at all.

4. I believe with perfect faith that G-d is first and last.

5. I believe with perfect faith that it is only proper to pray to G-d. One may not pray to anyone or anything else.

6. I believe with prefect faith that all the words of the prophets are true.

7. I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses is absolutely true. He was the chief of all prophets, both before and after Him.

8. I believe with perfect faith that the entire Torah that we now have is that which was given to Moses.

9. I believe with perfect faith that this Torah will not be changed, and that there will never be another given by G-d.

10. I believe with perfect faith that G-d knows all of man's deeds and thoughts. It is thus written (Psalm 33:15), "He has molded every heart together, He understands what each one does."

11. I believe with perfect faith that G-d rewards those who keep His commandments, and punishes those who transgress Him.

12. I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah. How long it takes, I will await His coming every day.

13. I believe with perfect faith that the dead will be brought back to life when G-d wills it to happen.

Song of the Soul [Top Menu]

?In Africa, there is a tribe in which expectant mothers create a song-of-the-soul for their unborn children. Villagers sing this song to the baby at birth and at every important moment of his life - from his first step to his wedding day. The song is also sung when that person steps out of the integrity of his true self. Rather than be punished, the individual is brought back into harmony through the music of his soul. You, too, have a soul song that belongs only to you. Listen for it. Re-discover the harmony of your own life.? - Mary Manin Morrissey (20030121tu)

"As the people of Israel were 'birthed' out of Egypt through the watery 'birth canal' of the Red Sea, they began singing a song that is sung for Israel even to this day (Exodus 15). Perhaps this is their song-of-the-soul that commemorates and remembers Israel's birth." - Resources for Life (20030121tu)

About Jewish Mysticism
Excerpts from The Mystical Dimension
Volume 1 (of 3) The Mystical Tradition
by Jacob Immanuel Schochet (Pages 26-30) [Top Menu]

An objective view and appreciation of mysticism needs first and foremost an opening of the mind, a sincere and complete commitment to the pursuit of truth, no less than one must be prepared to give to the study of any other branch of knowledge. An appreciation of mysticism may require a reorientation of thought and attitude from what we are attuned to by a background and approach that focuses completely on practicality and empirical understanding. With the Kabbalah and Chassidism one does not enter a new or different world but a new and different dimension of one and the same world, a different plane of thought that transcends previously held modes and categories.

One must cast away the prejudices imposed by rationalism and scientism. At the very least one must allow a measure of admissibility to the possibility of an order of reality that is not our normative phenomenal one, and allow the possibility of methods of perception that differ from our usual ones. This will indeed reduce our phenomenal world to no more than a partial reality; but surely it would be highly unscientific to deny these possibilities. The sincere pursuit of true knowledge is subject to a sense of humility. There must be a willingness to surrender the ego of self-assurance and to override personal bias. In the words of our sages: ??Pay close attention to all the words .. because it is no vain thing for you? (Deuteronomy 32:46-47) ? if it does appear to be a ?vain thing,? it is so ?for you,? because of you,? because of the deficiency in your apprehension!

A classical precedent for this principle is found in the following passage from the Gemara: When R. Zeyra left to ascend to the Holy Land, he fasted one hundred fasts in order to forget the methodology of the Babylonian Talmud so that it would not trouble him in the study and acquisition of the Jerusalem Talmud.

To put all this into perspective, it will do well to ponder a parable of the Baal Shem Tov:

A musician once played a beautiful melody with immensely moving sweet?ness. The beauty of that music so enraptured the listeners that they were unable to control themselves and felt com?pelled to leap and dance, almost reaching the ceiling. The closer one came to the musician, there was a pull to move still closer the better to hear, attaining ever greater pleasure and dancing ever more.

In the midst of all this, a deaf man entered. Unable to hear the beautiful music, he could not appreciate what was happening. All he perceived was people dancing intensely and a man on stage motioning strangely with some kind of instrument in his hands. To his mind they were all mad. He thought to himself: ?What kind of celebration is going on here??

Now if this deaf man were wise, he would realize and understand that those people were moved by the beauty and pleasantness of the musical sounds coming from the instru?ment, and he, too, would have danced. The moral is obvious...

The modern attitude to the universe is one of rational inquiry. It seeks in the phenomenal world ? its sole realm of concern ? a scientific uniformity to which all facts and factors must conform. The search is endless, but this does not deter the scientist. He refuses to admit defeat or the possibility of exception to his underlying scientific premises ?Scientism? and would-be ?objective rationalism? thus often slide into an uncritical dogmatism second to none, and a new ?religion? is born: a ?religion? of ever-new and changing revelations, with an endless chain of ?high-priests? reflecting the moods, conditions and revelations of their times.

There is a degree of legitimacy in this approach. Despite its glaring shortcomings, it is to be credited for tremendous technological advances. Nonetheless, in attempting to establish his type of uniformity, the modern rationalist paradoxically creates, in effect, an increasingly disturbing pluralism and an alienating divisiveness. Even as he converts the universe into a mammoth machine, he breaks it up into innumerable particles, separate from ? and non-related to? one another. His physiomonistic pantheism concerns itself only with species and universals. Individual identities become sacrifices for the sustenance of his deus in machina. The human individual (as well as any other particulars) diminishes in proportion to the growth of nature and the universe in the scientific, experimental grasp or consciousness. Human individual life is hedged in by a precarious day-to-day, here-and-now, existence.

Some may take this as a stark fact of life. There is, however, an intuitive categorical and transcending sense of morality deeply embedded in the soul and mind of man (and often emboldened by a host of empirical facts) which revolts against this callous materialism which leaves us with nothing but barren factualism. The resulting tension between the haunting Lorelei of modern rational inquiry and the groping attempts at human self-assertion lies at the root of many, if not all, of our present-day neuroses and vexations, and ?he that increases knowledge increases pain.?

The apparent alternatives are resignation or rejection: resignation to the admittedly frustrating paradox, and making the best of it, or the elimination of either the modern method or the recognition of individuality. Obviously, neither of these choices is satisfactory. At this point mysticism offers a viable solution, a new approach. No doubt that this accounts for the recent popularity of mysticism, in both legitimate and illegitimate forms. From our point of view, however, this viable alternative is at best an incidental fringe-benefit.

Jewish mysticism did not come into being to be a panacea for social, mental or emotional problems. As already stated, it is an integral part of Torah, an authentic part of Divine Revelation and instruction. It is part of the tradition that is subject to the mitzvah of talmud Torah, the study of Torah, both as an end in itself as well as to enlighten and ennoble man, to guide us along the path of the Divinely intended human self-realization and self-perfection.

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