Half Changed World

Tiny Coconut writes today about her tentative steps towards a spiritual practice that is compatible with her intellect and heart and sense of the world.  I posted a link that I thought she might like, and she wrote back asking if I had suggestions for books about progressive Judaism.

I always have suggestions of books, but as I told TC, I’m not sure that’s the right way to go about the quest.  For all the talk of Jews as "people of the book," Judaism really can’t be practiced in isolation — for one thing, many of the key prayers require a minyan, a congregation of 10 adults (traditionally, 10 men), in order to say them.   Orthodox Jews also don’t believe in driving on Shabbat, so they’re forced to live within walking distance of their shul.

More broadly, other than the central idea of monotheism, Judaism doesn’t care so much about what you believe, as what you do.  If you went to a rabbi and said, "Rabbi, I follow the commandments, I go to shul, I keep Shabbat, but I don’t know if I believe in God, can I still be a good Jew?" my sense is that most rabbis wouldn’t hesitate to say you can.

I also thought of something I read over on a blog called How to Save the World.  Dave Pollard writes (at the end of a long discussion of something called social network mapping):

"An application of all this that intrigues me is in assessing how we should (and can) change ourselves…. So do we start by a navel-gazing process that entails some personal, individual decisions and bold actions? Or, if our relationships and networks define us, do we start by first finding or redefining the circles, the communities to which we (and others) belong and then let those new and altered communities redefine and change us? For example, if we want to solve global warming or end world poverty do we first launch into personal study, self-improvement and individual activism, or do we first connect ourselves with those who can teach us and show us what needs to be done, and just get carried along with the collective wisdom of their activities?"

That made a lot of sense to me.  So I suggested to TC that she ask her local friends who are practicing Jews if she can go to shul (synagogue) with them, maybe wangle an invitation to Shabbat lunch.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 27th, 2005 at 10:41 pm and is filed under Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.