In reality my decision to “stand up and be counted” is not a recent thing. Way back in 1972 I came to the irrevocable decision that my place in the world was as an observant Jew living in the land of Israel. Although there are countless reasons, theological and otherwise, that brought me to this decision, I thought it relevant to share one small facet of my decision making process in the following essay: The Pragmatist!

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

In the midst of this wave of world wide antisemitism, I have to take a stand! was originally published in 21st Century Guide to the Perplexed on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The pragmatist is one who claims or pays lip respect to all kinds of noble ideas, such as the sanctity of life and so forth. But when they are standing on the street watching a mugging occur on the other side, they will behave as if nothing is happening. At most they’ll say, “Oh, what a terrible thing,” but they won’t do anything.

At that time in my life. Becoming a young adult, I was trying to figure out who I was. Who am I truly? What do I have faith in? What values should I follow? It was very clear to me that no ideology or group of killers could ever earn my allegiance. Killing is not in my blood, thus I could never be one.

At the same time, I have to admit that the starry eyed trust in the appeal of Canada as a nation was in irreparably damaged.

The conclusion was, as much as I hated the murders, deep down I knew the pragmatist was the worse evil of the two. Terrible and horrible as they are, the killer at least believed in something and acted on their convictions. The pragmatists didn’t even go that far. They pretended to believe in noble ideas, but in their actions, they avoided every opportunity to put them into practice.

Although it could seem unreasonable. I decided that my only option in this world if I could not be a murderer, and if I loathed even more from being a pragmatist, was to join the murdered. Of course I’m not eager to die. But I decided that helping and protecting the people being killed since they had values the murderers hated and the pragmatism did not act on, was the only logical choice for a moral human being.

Slowly I started to see that most of the fundamental ideals of Western society derived from Jewish origins. My inescapable conclusion, then, was that if I wanted to live a good life, if I wanted to live a life where I championed undeniably moral values and lived by them. I had no choice but to adopt Judaism and become a Jew.

The pragmatist was originally published in 21st Century Guide to the Perplexed on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Let me share a story with you. A few years after moving to Israel, my wife and I considered returning to Canada temporarily. I flew there and took the chance to visit my mother in Windsor, Ontario. We were looking at Toronto as a potential new community, so my mother kindly agreed to drive me from Windsor to Toronto, where she stayed with her sister while I explored our options.

The drive from Windsor to Toronto took about four hours, giving us plenty of time to catch up on family matters and what had changed in Windsor since I’d been away. On the return trip, though, the conversation lagged, and there were many comfortable stretches of silence.

At one point, my mother asked a question I didn’t expect: “Why do people hate the Jews so much?”

To understand her question, you need to know the context. At that time, there were two high-profile trials in Canada involving Holocaust deniers: Ernst Zundel in Toronto and James Keegstra in Red Deer, Alberta.

Without hesitation, I responded almost instinctively:

“Mum, let’s try to set aside our usual skepticism for a moment. Imagine that over 3,000 years ago, an entire people had a direct encounter with the creator of all existence. In that encounter, they were given a set of absolute moral laws, the foundation for a thriving society. Picture how that story would be passed down through generations, with the belief that these moral absolutes were revealed by the creator of reality itself.

“Throughout history, anyone who wanted to promote beliefs or behaviors contrary to these ‘absolutes’ first had to undermine the Jewish people and their beliefs. Initially, efforts were made to convert the Jews to these new ideologies. When that failed, the focus shifted to delegitimizing Judaism. And when even that didn’t work, the extreme step was taken to try to erase every Jew who was recognizable as such.

“This idea isn’t new. Around 750 BCE, the Jewish prophet Isaiah spoke about this very concept. He suggested that the mere existence of the Jewish people is a testament to the presence of a creator and the truth that there are absolute values of right and wrong.

“So, when you see hatred towards the Jewish people, or efforts to undermine their beliefs or worse, to eradicate them, it’s because the very existence of the Jewish People challenges the values of those who hate them. Their existence is testimony that is a fundamental challenge to their entire worldview.”

The Theological Roots of Antisemitism was originally published in View From My Window on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The following series of posts and short essays are this author’s effort at “decoding” the messages embodied in this, the foundation document, for Western civilization, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and secular.

The Torah Decoded was originally published in Torah Decoded on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I remember the day during summer vacation when I wandered through the shelves looking for something new to read, and a red-bound book on the religion shelf caught my eye. Something that had not been there before. The Jewish Publication Society’s English translation of the first five books of the Bible, what Jews commonly call the Torah. Fascinated, I took the book out, went to the local park, sat in the shade of a giant oak tree, and commenced to read. I was enthralled. Never before have I read the Biblical scripture in the vernacular, in a language that I understood, not Old English. After sunset, I realized I had to go home as there wasn’t enough light to finish reading.

But to this day, I remember the moment that I read the story of Abraham arguing with God over the future of Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember, I was a child of 11, maybe 12 years old, raised in a home where children are “seen and not heard.” The very idea of some insignificant individual arguing with the source of all truth was simply mind-blowing. To this day, I remember the punch-line of the entire story: “Will the judge of all creation not do the just thing?”

Over the subsequent years, I became something of a rebel, questioning social norms and conventional wisdom. Convince me of your belief; I’d be your stalwart supporter. Demand that I blindly follow, and I’d rebel with the full force of everything I am. I became a disciple of Abraham, and even God himself could not act arbitrarily without logical justification. I attribute to this experience my lifelong drive for social reform.

The Story That Changed My Life was originally published in JewsByChoice on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It is not my intention or desire to take on those who embrace Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Partly because it doesn’t matter to me either way. If you will, however the “creator” came about “creating” the reality we experience today, well that’s his or her choice. There is nothing in the concept of evolution to negate the validity of Judaism (please note that I did not say ‘religion’) except for the very fanatic fundamentalists. In many ways, I see the reality of DNA akin to being a kind of “Book of Life.”

I’m a Systems Analyst. Since childhood, I’ve seen the reality around me at every level as a mind-blowing collection of systems, one embedded within the other. Unfortunately, I am not an expert in any of the disciplines I’m about to discuss, but over the past 50 years, I’ve spoken with every professional who has had the misfortune to cross my path. Nonetheless, I hope I am not misrepresenting anything — but if I am, I’m certain someone out there will correct me.

The Cosmos

As a child have you ever wondered what is beyond the universe? Have you ever had the opportunity to gaze up at the incredible panorama of vastness, countless galaxies? Somehow, over the past 13 billion years, all this chaos has formed into these complex and delicately balanced star-planet systems and conglomerates of hundreds of thousands of such systems into galaxies.

The Solar System

Here on our little “Blue Marble” hurling around the star we call our Sun we experience this delicate balance in so many ways. Take just one factor and change it plus or minus 2% or 3% and life as we know it could not exist on planet Earth. The size and intensity of our Sun and the distance of our planet from it for example.

The Blue Marble

The unbelievable complexity of our planet’s atmosphere, the balance of oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen that form the basis of the air and water that enables our existence. The presence of other lighter gasses that rise to the highest levels of our atmosphere and act like some sort of UV filter, amongst other benefits they deliver. Just to name a few.

Down below the thin film of the air we call an atmosphere, we live on a thin mantel or crust that floats on an incredibly large mass of hot molten rock ad minerals. Rarely more than 150 kilometers in depth at most, these chunks of cooled rock and ocean sediment floats on the sea of molten rock, occasionally causing mishaps like earthquakes, volcanos, and tsunamis.

The fact that our planet has a solid metallic core and the molten mass circulates in one direction while that core turns into another direction generating — wait for it — a magnetic field. That magnetic field protects us from the solar winds that otherwise would fry every living thing on the planet with a few hours. Mars is a possible example of what happens to a planet without this magnetic shield.

Life

On this amazing shell of a world grow a seemingly endless variety of plants and other forms of life. Again the delicate balancing act between air, water, earth, flora, and fauna called an ecosystem boggles the mind in its complexity and yet stability is the norm, not the exception.

There is something about ‘life’, that spark that makes an ant, a chicken, a human being, and even a whale or elephant living creatures. Without that ‘spark’ they are simply lumps of protein. What is that ‘spark’.

Biology

The more I learn about the complexity of the human body, and that of all other creatures, the more I’m amazed. Cells that, based upon the little “Book of Life” (DNA) embedded in them, grow to fill a myriad of roles. Some become bones, others muscle. Many grow up to become one of the many organs hidden inside the body. Organs that manage to ingest, breakdown, and absorb nutrients from food. Organs that circulate blood throughout every nook and cranny of the body, delivering nutrition along with the necessary oxygen needed to burn it. Other cells become the communication lines between the brain and everything else, enabling all the parts of the body to act with one purpose in concert.

We haven’t yet mentioned the fascinating role of enzymes and other biological substances like insulin, gall bladder fluids, etc. necessary for the minute-to-minute function and maintenance of balances in the body.

Do you know that the membranes of the various cells ‘know’ which materials they can ‘permit’ to enter their walls and which they need to lockout?

And we’ve only mentioned the brain and nervous system in passing.

Chemistry

We all know that there are 118 basic stable elements in nature. Does anyone know why there are 118 and not 300 or 55? What is it in the laws of chemistry that determine the combinations that are stable and those that are not? The very concept of a Proton, Neutron, and Electron working together in some predetermined fashion to function as an Oxygen or Hydrogen Atom seems like so much atomic lego.

Physics

But we haven’t finished our exposition yet. You see Protons, Neutrons, and possibly Electrons are all comprised of even smaller entities like Quarks, Liptons, and Bosons. These sub-atomic entities appear to be no more than “bundles of energy.” Think about that. The building blocks of atoms are tiny little “bundles of energy.” Hence atoms are essentially energy that behaves like matter but in truth, there is no matter — only mass and volume.

The G-d of Systems

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃

“…In the beginning, Elokim created heaven and earth”

Genesis 1:1

The Chassidim have an insight they use to help us understand the first three words of the Torah. They demonstrate that the Gematria (numerical value) of the letters of Elokim is equal to the Gematria of the word “Teva” or Nature.” In other words, the vast collection of ‘laws’ that manage the worlds of particle physics, of chemistry, of biology, or ecology, geology, cosmology, etc. they are all, in essence, a “manifestation of G-d”.

Is it possible that all of this mind-blowing complexity somehow haphazardly worked itself out over the past 13.6 billion years? Maybe. But my money is on the hidden hand inside the physics, chemistry, biology, etc. that makes our reality a possibility. In Judaism, we call that manifestation of G-d, Elokim. More on this later.

The G-d of Systems was originally published in 21st Century Guide to the Perplexed on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Reality is Multi-Faceted

It is important to clarify something very fundamental to the question of a god. There can be many aspects to G-d as we perceive him or her. Let me give you an example.

I’m a person. I am a son of my parents. To my siblings, I’m a brother. To my wife, amongst other things, I’m a husband. To my children, I’m a parent and to my grandchildren, I’m a grandfather. My employees saw me as a boss.

In short, I’m perceived differently by everyone who encounters me yet I’m still the same person. I didn’t change from one minute to the next.

Although not analogous to the entity that we call G-d. G-d can be perceived by different people at different times in different ways. Yet, that ineffable entity is still one and the same. As you’ll see later on in the essays, this issue will become kind of a theme.

G-d of History

I first perceived or thought that I had, the existence of some force that was external and beyond comprehension while an adolescent obsessed with history. Eventually, I would begin to characterize the events of history as the works of God. Let me digress and tell you a short little story.

Moses, in the middle of a longer conversation with G-d on Mount Sinai suddenly interrupts the conversation and begs “God, show me your ‘kavod’. Now we’re going to have a problem with that word, and we’ll try to understand it later. In the meantime, the English King James Version calls it ‘glory’. For the purpose of my story, I’m going to pretend, for the time being, that ‘kavod’ means ‘essence’. It is as if Moshe is asking “Show me who you are. Show me your essence.”

So G-d gives Moshes an answer that doesn’t seem to answer his question, we’ll discuss that in a later essay as well. At the end of the answer, G-d says, “Listen Moish, you can’t see my face. Because a human being can’t see my face and live.” Again, I’ll take some literary license, and say, a living man can’t see G-d’s face, and be alive. As human beings, we do not have the capacity for perceiving and understanding what G-d perceives. Instead, the Kadosh Baruch Hu tells Moishe to go hide in a crack of a rock. A little cave.

G-d explains that he will pass by, and while doing so he will cover Moses, so he can’t see G-d. After having passed by, the covering will be removed and Moshe will be able to see where G-d has been!. But G-d’s ‘face’, where he is going — what will happen in the future, that Moshe will not be able to see.

To me, that scene speaks about man’s desire to know what’s going to happen. Or even more importantly, the ‘why’ of what is going to happen. G-d, this supernal entity says, “Sorry, Moish. You don’t have the capacity.” Or perhaps “It’s above your paygrade, but I’ll tell you what. If you want to see me, you can see where I’ve been!”

And so I often say the events of history are the disturbances in the wake of G-d, allegorically speaking.

Winds of Change

Interestingly enough Rav Kook describes something very similar. He doesn’t talk about G-d specifically. But he does mention a phenomenon known to many historians as the “Winds of Change.” It is as if an entire generation woke up one morning and acted on a radical belief that was out of character for them. Rav Kook points to various periods in human history when there’s been a kind of ‘wave of spiritual or intellectual awakening’ that washes over humanity. Sometimes in a destructive fashion. At other times, to the benefit of all.

Rav Kook discusses this, in his book about Zionism where he speaks of the tremendous awakening that occurred within two or three generations. That awakening turned the age-old longing to return to Zion, to the land of Israel, from the unrealistic aspiration of a few to the desperate cry of entire generations on every part of the globe, secular as well as believers.

One can be jaded or cynical, but as an amateur student of history, and someone who lives now during this tremendous human experiment called the ‘Return of Jews’ to the land of Israel after two thousand years, it is nothing less than a miracle.

The fact that a Jew wakes up one morning in Melbourne, Australia, or Seattle, Washington some other place on earth, and decides to uproot his or her life. Decides to leave where their parents and maybe their grandparents or maybe even their great-grandparents were born and raised and lived. To go to a country they’ve never lived in, to a new reality that will force them to learn a new language, to become immersed in a culture different from what they grew up in. And all this as an adult, not some starry-eyed idealistic teenager. This is nothing short of a mystical awakening.

Almost three thousand years ago, shortly after the dawn of written history, a prophet proclaimed that the Jewish People would be dispersed into exile from their land. But they will not disappear. They will not assimilate. The time will come for “The Ingathering of the Exiles.” If what we see in this past century is not the manifestation of G-d’s will, then I don’t know what is.

Your comments as always are welcome.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai

An Introduction to G-d was originally published in 21st Century Guide to the Perplexed on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

My Reponse: There can be no question that the timeline you described is both fanciful and devoid of underlying scientific basis. Yet I wonder if this “magical” narrative came to teach us cosmology or geology, subjects no one 3,000 years ago could begin to comprehend. So it must have had a different reason. As the entire narrative is in essence a tale intended to teach ethics and morality, I wonder what ethical or moral lessons the first sections of Genesis were intended to teach?

Maybe, just maybe, it was intended to teach a lesson that all men are intrinsically equal, at least in terms of their spiritual worth — even woman!

וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃

And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Perhaps by claiming “divine” ownership where the “owner” gives humanity permission to work the land as long as it was protected.

וַיִּקַּ֛ח יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיַּנִּחֵ֣הוּ בְגַן־עֵ֔דֶן לְעָבְדָ֖הּ וּלְשָׁמְרָֽהּ׃

The LORD God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden, to till it and protect it.

Perhaps it was necessary to instill in humanity the realization that despite all the struggles for survival, it would be necessary to seek a balance in life between the profane and the sublime — family, spiritual or (in the OP’s case) philosophical contemplation.

וַיְבָ֤רֶךְ אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־י֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י וַיְקַדֵּ֖שׁ אֹת֑וֹ כִּ֣י ב֤וֹ שָׁבַת֙ מִכָּל־מְלַאכְתּ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֥א אֱלֹהִ֖ים לַעֲשֽׂוֹת׃ (פ)

And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it God ceased from all the work of creation that He had undertaken.

I can’t be certain. But in my mind these explanations make far more sense than to imagine their fundamentalist literal interpretation. Oh and BTW, the text itself does not count the years. It was men, years after its original “publication” date that came up with those numbers.

6000 Years of Creation? was originally published in Torah Decoded on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Almost fifty years ago I made the momentous decision to become a Jew and move to the Land of Israel. Over the years since that personal milestone, I have had the privilege to study in Torah institutions — yeshivot, rabbinic seminaries (Kollels) and unique colleges focused on the integration of traditional Torah studies with the tools and methodologies of academia.

As I approach my 70th birthday, I’ve come to realize that there is a great deal of misunderstanding when the topic of biblical scripture comes up. The distorted “biblical criticism” of earlier generations apparently still has a hold on otherwise intelligent and rational people. This collection of essays is my modest contribution to clarifying how a rational and educated 21st-century individual can still respect these ancient texts, and see in them a source of philosophical and ethical relevance.

I hope these essays will foment a dialog between myself and my readers. It is therefore my hope that you will use Medium as a platform of discussion and an exchange of ideas, insights, and opinions.

I look forward to your questions and feedback.

What is “The Torah Decoded”? was originally published in Torah Decoded on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I invite you to join me in this journey of reflection and self-discovery. I look forward to your feedback and engagement.

21st Century Guide to the Perplexed was originally published in 21st Century Guide to the Perplexed on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.