This Sunday Sam continued his series on The Word, this time focusing on the Law. In Judaism, the law is hugely important. The 613 commandments from God in the Hebrew Bible are the way they understand what God wants from them and the best way to live His way. I think Christian tradition views it in a more strict and constricting way: "We have to do these things or God will be so pissed!" That's sad to me, as I doubt God keeps Excel spreadsheets with all the commandments in the Bible on one axis and all our names on another, checking off each box as we break different commandments.
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner explains the reason Jews try to follow the Law in an interesting way:
"The Holy One of Being has an intention that is other than you. God's ego is not yours. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, 'My plans are not your plans.' Not because you don't want to do what God wants, but because you can only comprehend a tiny part of God's plan. I'm God; you're not. This is the beginning of the reconciliation between God's ego and our own."
In other words, following the law just helps us get closer to God's plan for earth. There's no way humans could completely understand what God wants, so we just have to do the best we can while we're here. I think The River is really trying to seek after what God wants, as we investigate the Bible and the life of Jesus, trying to understand what was important to Him and applying it to our current world and situation.
One more quote from Kushner:
"In Judaism, 'the word' is both the instrument of creation and the primary souvenir of God's love."
This sentence is referring to the text of holy scripture (including the Law), but I think it fits for Jesus as well. Jesus is our creator and the best representation of God's love. So Jesus and the Law point us in the direction we should go...
Always,
Beth
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2 comments:
Good stuff Beth, I enjoyed reading your perspective here and loved the quotes from Rabbi Kushner... I'll definitely have to check out some more of his writings.
I especially like how you presented the law as not a check list that causes distance between us and God because of our inability to keep it... but rather that it can be a medium through which we can become closer to God...
It's amazing how backwards humanity's way of thinking is sometimes...
Peace.
Josh
Beth, great reminder of our excellent calling-Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. It is "grace upon grace" that we not only share in this dream of God's, but that we do so with this great community called The River. We are far from perfect, but the dreams of this community continue to be Jesus rescuing me from self-destruction.
Thanks for the huge part you play in this community.
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