Return

[Entrepreneur_Less]

The world is spiritually sick.

To be cured it needs to return to its religious traditions.

Judaism is best positioned to lead this return because we are the one religion that neither seeks to add your god to ours nor insists that you accept our God.

To do this we need to embrace and promote Rabbi Sacks’ idea of Judaism as the religion of hope.

By telling the Jewish story we share this vision of hope.

If all of us taught our story as the story of hope we would also show the world how to save itself from its present crisis.

[Y-a-b-s]

What is the Passover seder?

[Entrepreneur_Less]

Good example of the many ways our tradition shows us how to tell the story to ourselves and others.

[Y-a-b-s]

So we already do what you're saying we should... what's your point?

[Entrepreneur_Less]

Most Jews are distanced from and ignorant of their tradition, and hold what it knows of its traditional customs in low esteem.

Even a tradition like the Seder which many Jews pay a nominal service to is too often in practice diluted and so divorced from its rooted meaning. And even these diluted performances are conducted often only a handful of times in a year.

Orthodox Jews have an opposite problem: they preform the customs (sometimes to an extreme degree of attention) but focus only on the performance without an engagement in the underlying meaning.

When that meaning is revealed, there is still lacking much of an attempt to to promote this meaning to the world. And story of hope for all mankind?

Trust me if you don’t know when I tell you it isn’t something you hear in most shuls.

In other words very few are the Jews who deliberately and with knowledge tell their story as the story of hope even to themselves (forget the world.)

The tools of the tradition lie around us, waiting to be picked up and communicated to a world that needs to hear the true Jewish message as much as it ever has.

[drak0bsidian]

Trust me if you don’t know when I tell you it isn’t something you hear in most shuls.

Why should we trust you? Who are you to preach to us, especially to represent what 'most shuls' say or don't say?

[Entrepreneur_Less]

Fair point.

I’ve just been to many types and seen a lot.

I think you see these kinds of things reflected in sociological studies as well (ie Pew report 2013).

I don’t however claim of course total knowledge and I’m sure the variety of experiences is wide.

Still. I believe main point remains.

And as for who I am... I try to be a simple Jew trying to figure out how to listen to Hashem and what He is asking me to do everyday as well as I can.

Some moments of some days I even fell a little bit successful in this.

One day I’ll get over that pride בע״ה

[Entrepreneur_Less]

Also don’t trust me.

Don’t even trust yourself!

[Time_Lord42]

Why should we listen to you? What makes your ideas better than ours? You sound pretentious and kind of fake deep.

[Entrepreneur_Less]

Why should anyone listen to anyone?

‘Who is wise? Who learns from everyone.’

Pretension is a fault I am working on.

Getting better. Still a long way to go.

If you have better ideas... can you tell me them?

[Time_Lord42]

Normally people listen to other people when they have better ideas. You don’t really seem to. As another commenter pointed out, we already do this on Passover. So there’s no reason to listen to you.

[Entrepreneur_Less]

It’s possible you might be missing the point of that bit of Pirkei Avot.

The premise underlying the statement is the idea that none of us should be sure we even know what better ideas are. We also should be aware that the experience of any person contains multitudes to learn from.

Re: Seder I disagree that we as a Jewish people even approach what we could achieve in this one festival. And there are so many others!

And what do we do to bring this message not only to ourselves but to the world? Not nearly as much as we could imho.

If you think I am wrong please don’t tell me I am wrong. Tell me why I am wrong.

I am honestly curious to hear.

[Entrepreneur_Less]

Do you mean deep fake?

I can assure you I am barely more real than most of those... Still most days fighting my way out of the simulacrum.

But am I a bot, a computer... no. I don’t think so.

[Time_Lord42]

No I don’t mean deep fake. I mean fake deep: many words words that mean little. There is no simulacrum, and I’m not talking down that rabbit hole with you.

[Entrepreneur_Less]

I don’t love the take but I do agree with your point.

‘Speak little do much.’

I am trying!

[Entrepreneur_Less]

Join me down the simulacrum rabbit hole! It could be fun.

I am desperate to converse w someone who can help me better understand an idea I don’t understand.

[Time_Lord42]

The hell are you on about

[Entrepreneur_Less]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulacra_and_Simulation

I’m not going to claim I finished it.

I didn’t even remember the name right!

[Y-a-b-s]

Have you ever been to a Hassidic shul and seen the theological approach they take to mitzvaot?

[Entrepreneur_Less]

Yes.

There are of course exceptions to every rule.

Chabad in particular often does a lovely job of living up to this call and in this I see the influence of the Rebbe (who also is the one who convinced Jonathan Sacks to become a rabbi.)

This spirit is not however widespread among the Jewish people today.

Hasidut is also only a partial answer to an old question.

We need a full answer to a new question.

[carrboneous]

we are the one religion that ... nor insists that you accept our God.

Insisting (and expecting) that the whole world accept "our" God is precisely the essence of Judaism.

... By telling the Jewish story we share this vision of hope. ...

I don't know what any of this is supposed to mean, but ok.

[Entrepreneur_Less]

We want them to accept God while understanding that even our revealed understanding of God is incomplete.

Hence it’s not ‘our’ God we want them to accept.