All that Spiritual Stuff

[eumelia]

Purim and the lunar eclipse got me thinking... again!

I've said this before, but I think it's wroth mentioning, but one of the beautiful things about Judaism is the fact that it is a living religion and that it is based on questioning authority and interpreting things in your own view.
Of course this is the ideal and not the way it actually is, a shame, in my humble opinion.

When I was in America I found Judaism there both more liberating and a touch ridiculous, since in Israel there are three, maybe four streams in Judaism (without getting into all the little sub-streams) which would be Orthodox, National-Religious (דתי-לאומי), Masorati/Conservative and Secular. There is very little wiggle room for the very lovely streams across the pond like Reconstructionist or Renewal. Israeli Jewry is in the whole, more closed to "alternative" ideas such as seeing GD as Goddess or giving the Shekinah equal standing with הקדוש ברוך הוא (The Holy One), or perhaps even grater standing as the Shekinah is considered Imminent and thus actually closer to humanity than The Holy One.

Judaism as it is today (in Israel at the very least) is in my opinion, a very repressive and oppressive religion, not the more progressive streams obviously. In the Shul my family are members, women wear Talleisim, Kippah, have proper Bat-Mitvah's just like the boys, but I still feel the closed mindedness of it all when there is this superior attitude -"my God is better than your God"- which can be found in all three Abrahamic religions (i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam, A subject I will expand on in the future, I promise).
And it is this closed minded attitude that makes me reject a great part of Jewish, because the teachings, interpretations and the rest of Jewish history and nationalism is based on Patriarchy and Xenophobia and I feel I've reached a point in my life where I either leave that belief system behind me and keep Judaism as an ehtno-nationality or take what Judaism gave me and twist it until it suits me.
Which would mean uprooting the basis on which Judaism is based and that is Monotheism and Tradition.

More on this subject soon.

Comments

[antongarou.livejournal.com]

The Crusades were very much *not* religious in their actual origins, my junior high school history book quoted some of the original words of the Pope who called for it and a major point was the fact that "...in the Holy Land there will be enough land for all of your second sons who have no share of land..."(not exact- I'm translating from memory).The crusades, as well as most of the other "religious" wars in history were simply using religion as a pretext for socio-political power play(the 30 year war is another quick example).

If the American colonists have been Jews I'm not sure that they would have been less cruel- Judaism has a very strongly defined "in group" and can be very easily be used as pretext to dehumanize people from the "out group" under the right circumstances(see the way extreme settlers behave toward the Palestinians for an example)

[hagar-972.livejournal.com]

(Replying to both you and Mel.)

And back to my original point from Mel's previous discussion-post, that religion - any religion - is problematic by definition, because all religions may be translated to "What we believe in is morally right and what you believe in is morally wrong."

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Such is the destructive nature of organized religion.

[antongarou.livejournal.com]

Agreed.