May 12, 2009 at 12:27 pm (Ethics)
Tags: Christianity, Ethics, Islam, Judaism, moral relativism, morals
How can you not be a moral relativist? You had to learn your morals from somewhere. After you learn what the moral behavior is you need to do it in relative terms to the situation.
The rabbis had figured this out a long time ago. If things were not relative to the situation why do we need a fence around the laws in the Torah. This fence or grey zone is ever widened so that you do not accidentally transgress.
Today we have the Pope giving yet another speech on the moral relativism of the world. Relative to what? Jews and Christians drink wine and Muslims don’t. Christians and Muslims eat chicken with milk but Jews do not. The law says do not boil the kid in the mother’s milk. And what does this have to do with chicken? To keep you from mistaking meat for chicken it is applied to all meats besides fish. It is all relative.
Christians pick and choose which laws they would like to follow from the Hebrew bible but remain moral relative to the teachings of Jesus. Jews do not follow any of the teachings of Jesus or Mohammad. Relative to which religion do we make the morals work?
Let me give another example where all three religions would agree. Stealing is wrong. It seems very clear. So let me ask you at what point do you believe it is stealing? Let’s say you work in an office all day long and:
- You remember you have a few things to do at home and you take a piece of paper and write down your list and you bring it home. Are you stealing?
- You have to buy your mom a present and you have some time before your next meeting, so you use the computer at work and buy a gift. You use both company time and their computer is that stealing?
- You are going to professional meeting not associated with work and you forgot a pencil. You go in the closet to get a pen and pencil and bring it with you.
- You need to print something out at home and you do not have time to go to the store so you bring a few sheets home.
- Your kid needs a notebook and you have an unused one on your desk. You bring it home for him to use.
Have any of these made you think that you were stealing?
Technically speaking these are all stealing. Now what if your company has a policy that allows you to do any one of these things every once in a while. Now when does it become stealing? How frequent do you need to do it to be stealing?
Moral relativism is a human trait. Those who believe that they are not moral relativists really need to provide me some good proof because I just don’t believe it.
Cross-posted on Blog Midrash
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October 15, 2008 at 4:53 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: doing, Judaism, Temple Shir Tikva, with intention
How do you pull yourself together after a good public balling? You just go on.
So how is Judaism part of my life? What do we do? Doing is key in my approach to Judaism. Doing with intention is approach. It was not feasible to take on all the Jewish traditions at once. My wife and I started by trying some traditions.
First we removed watching TV and working on Saturdays. After the children came along we added Friday night. We added lighting the candles and saying the blessings over wine and bread. We started inviting others over to join us. While we did not belong to any community we participated in the family gatherings for the holidays.
We joined Temple Shir Tikva a few years ago and have started to participate in every holiday. We started following the rhythm of the year and all the special days we have.
I belong to the ritual committee … sometimes. I have started an online study website. I am in the middle of getting my adult bar mitzvah. I going to morning minyan twice a week.
One thing I do everyday is where my kippah. Everywhere I go I where it. Everyday it makes me think of the fact that I am Jewish. Everyday I realize that someone looks at me as a Jewish man not just a man.
In the end, I try to make Judaism the lens by which I approach the world. It is not only part of my life but it is my life. Like I posted elsewhere I do not think of Jew as a noun but a verb — to Jew. Do you Jew?
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October 14, 2008 at 8:54 pm (Jewish, conversion)
Tags: conversion, family, Judaism, sharing
What do you do in the middle of the day on Yom Kippur? Our temple puts on a round table with a different topic each year. This year I was invited to talk about how Judaism has shaped my life.
Let’s see if I can paraphrase.
I was born and baptized Catholic. My wife was probably the first Jewish person I met (at least that I knew). It just happens to be our 14th year anniversary. (Several congratulations were given from all around us.)
The room was full of people I knew and many people I did not know. Perhaps there were 50 people. I was on a panel of 3. I decided to talk second. The first gentleman went through a description of his long standing Jewish heritage and the many organizations and Jewish deeds he has done. He also gave a nod to his wife who had converted many years before and has shared in many of the Jewish accomplishments.
Anyway, I continued to describe how I spent a year studying with Rabbi Deanna Douglas. About a year had gone by and I asked if Rabbi Douglas would marry us. She looked at me and said that she could not because I was not Jewish. Not once during my studies did she ask me or talk about conversion. We were studying because if I was to marry a Jewish woman I needed to know something about Judaism. At least so I could hold a good arguement.
As you can see I converted to Judaism and got married. I have a beautiful family and we live everyday as a Jewish life. No it did not happen over night. Slowly we started including traditions into our lives. Gradually we keep incorporating more into each day.
Last July we went to California for a family reunion on my father’s side. This side of the family are Catholics, conservative Christians, and areligious at best. It is not something we have many converstations about. However that Friday I was not sure what to do as Shabbat approached. I asked my cousin if she would mind if I lit the Shabbat candles and did the blessings. I asked my cousins quietly, one on one, if they would like to join.
With the whole family gathered around the table I explained what I was doing and led the 35 people in their first Shabbat. My father approached my wife and told her that he thought the whole thing was beautiful and that he was so proud of how well I presented Shabbat.
Back to Yom Kippur, at this point … I lost it … a room full of people and I start crying.
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June 25, 2008 at 8:30 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: conversion, convert, Judaism
I am a convert. 14 years ago I converted to Judaism.
Why is it that Jews today still fear the idea of talking about what is great about Judaism? What’s wrong of looking for and creating converts?
The local Jewish newspaper always has a couple of issues a year where the local temples can describe why you might want to come and visit. It is a great time to read the personality of each temple. It is also the time in which I get really irritated with the attitude of intermarried families.
Now this is not my diatribe on intermarried families. That is not of much interest to me. I will leave that to others.
Why is it that so many temples say that they are friendly to interfaith families, we accept interfaith families, we have programs for interfaith families? Huh? This is a Jewish temple. This is a spiritual community. The churches I belonged to did not cater to interfaith families. They worked hard on showing why their church was the one you should participate in. Why don’t synagogues do the same? Why isn’t each family member that is not Jewish not an opportunity? They do not have to convert but why not give them every reason to convert? Why not give classes aimed at the non-initiated )(Jew or not)? Why not invite them to Torah classes? Why not invite them into the sister/brotherhood? Why not ask them to do something that makes them feel part of the community? Why not introduce them to Jewish spirituality? It’s an opportunity not to be missed. We need a few more people for tikkun olam.
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