On God and Judaism
Copyright 2009
1978 Oct 9, Erev Yom Kippur My Mom died after a long illness bravely borne. I was somewhat shielded from my Mom?s cancer which spared me the pain although it kept me from sharing this very pain with my Mom at the time. My Mom was only 57 at the time. She had qualified as a lawyer in her early years, played violin in an orchestra and represented South Africa in the Bridge Olympics with Naomi Cramer in the 1960?s ? I think it was in Rome and Monaco.
Spiritual reconnection: During the year of mourning and saying Kaddish for my Mom, the spirituality of Judaism resonated for me and I came to realize that belief and spirituality go beyond rational intellectual analysis. It became unnecessary to wrestle intellectually with certain issues which anyway are imponderable ? like what is the soul, does G-d exist, what is the purpose and meaning of life. These became matters of belief and spiritual feeling: I could feel my Mom?s Neshama, the power of G-d as a higher being in the cosmic universe and make sense of the purpose of life ? which for is continuous growth and development at all levels and in all ways ? from myself to the broader global environment ? personally, socially, economically and in many other ways.
On Religion: I have grown in my Jewish practice and spiritual understanding over the years ? all contributing to, consonant and synergistic with the way I have grown and developed as a person. Today I am Shomer Shabbat, Daven 3 times a day, have a Kosher home, read the Parsha of the week, and love the services at Chabad of Lyndhurst ? which is 10 minutes walk from our house. I am still not a fanatic, preferring a humanistic Hillel worldview. I find Judaism liberating and uplifting eg. Shabbat is the highlight of my week ? precisely because I don?t need to think about work and can enjoy, relax, spend time with family, and uplift myself and my consciousness to where they should be?
Philosophically, I believe in our common humanity as the core of my belief system. Humanitarian imperatives inform our common sense of morality, and serve as a set of criteria for evaluating the credibility of belief systems. It also seems that humanity needs a moral compass or point of reference outside of itself ? to guard against the law of the jungle, as Thomas Hobbes, amongst others, argued in his classic work the Leviathan.
Psychologically, spiritual and religious experience reside largely in the Right brain ? the seat of unconcious, creative, inspirational and emotional processes. While the right brain is most active when we are sleeping, relaxation, visualisation and meditation are processes which allow one to access the right brain in one?s waking state. I personally learnt about the right brain from a Sports Psychologist who wrote a module of our Sports Management course. I have found visualization to be a particularly powerful technique in helping people to articulate their Visions, and to set inspiring goals, both as individuals and as members of organizations.
Existentially, Vision is closely related to a sense of Purpose and Meaning which hlps us to make sense of life. The ability to transcend one?s personal Vision beyond oneself to the larger context of humanity and the cosmos, is one of the dimensions that Religion provides which one may not necessarily come to on one?s own.
Spiritually, somewhat beyond the conscious process of visualization, lies the experience of transcendence and cosmic connection, which I believe is in the realms of the spiritual. Judaism has an entire scheme of levels of consciousness from basic cognitive levels to contemplation, meditation, prayer and the highest spiritual levels of closeness to the Divine which the entire nation was said to have experienced at Sinai.