What I Believe

What I believe is largely shaped by what I am. So first of all, let me say in Hebrew, and then in English: Ani Yehudi! I am a Jew, and I am a member of the Jewish People.

As a young person, I attended yeshiva, which is an Orthodox Jewish day school. I remember our sixth-grade graduation being a very musical and poetic experience. The one statement I still remember from the ceremony is as follows: I believe, with complete faith, in the coming of the Messiah.

I can assure you that everyone in that assembly believed with complete faith in the coming of the Messiah. How many people in this room believe in the coming of the Messiah? I don't believe in that anymore.

It's very hard for me to say what I believe because I'm not sure how to clarify it even to myself. I look at the world around me; I look at nature, I look at people, I look at what people have created, and I am amazed.


Take the physical world - I do not understand how things can be infinitely small, I don't understand how things can be infinitely large, and I don't understand how things can be infinitely far away. I don’t think anyone really understands this. No one really understands that there is no beginning and no end.

Everything I look at in nature is designed in the most beautiful and perfect manner. Yet you would think that if some supreme power created a form that would function perfectly, then that one perfect form would be enough. Instead, we find in nature millions of forms, all of which work perfectly and all of which are different from one another. At the same time, since the beginning of humankind, we have been trying to make substitutes for natural forms, like eyes, ears, brains, etc. (think of cameras, and computers) and have not even begun to come close to what exists abundantly in nature.

Look closely at any flower – look at an orchid. To say that it occurred by chance or natural development seems impossible. But to say that it was designed by God seems equally impossible.

So I am left to draw conclusions in a universe that I do not understand and never will understand, and here is the conclusion that I draw today:

There must be a force, or power, or energy, or God (choose a word) far beyond any hope of my understanding it. There must be wisdom and knowledge and capability and existence all of which are completely beyond anything that I could ever imagine or understand. Whatever that is – I call it God. It is unknowable. It is invisible to us. It may be right in front of us or it may be part of us. It may be inside of us. It may be around us. It may fill the space in between every particle in the universe. It is totally incomprehensible to the human mind, and we can speculate on it forever and never come to any discovery of what it really is.

So given the fact that we can’t clearly find and define God, what should we do? I believe we should continue to seek and ponder the question while learning as much as we can about ourselves and everything around us. Let us appreciate and enjoy and treasure and love life, and let us pass our wisdom and appreciation and love on to future generations.




Let us do what men and women have been trying to do since the beginning of men and women. Let us try to feel the presence of the unknowable, and let us try to feel the energy we call “life”, and let us try to find our place in the world and how we fit into it.

How do we get to these feelings that we yearn for? How do we get an opening, a perspective on all of this? How do we get in touch? As Jews, we have tools that have been developing over thousands of years. They have been passed on from generation to generation. We, the Jewish People, like to think it started with the journey that Abraham took. That’s why we call him Avraham Avinu – Abraham our Father.

Each generation has added and evolved the tools and the wisdom and passed it on. Our people and our wisdom have survived and flourished. Not only have we learned and grown, but many others have learned and grown by knowing us. But we hold on to what we have and we grow it and protect it. It is our treasure. We learn it and practice it and drive it forward. Our people’s name is the Jewish People and our treasure is called Judaism.

Jerry Kaufman
11/26/07

I'm still reviewing Exodus Chap. 30 and have some more thoughts. The word "holy" intrigues me. (parentheses are my supplement to translation) Verse 29 refers to an altar, table, vessels, menorah, etc. and says of these things: "v'kidashta otam" meaning you(plural) will make them holy (or sanctify them), continuing, "v'hayu kodesh kadashim" "and they shall be most holy", (to the extent that) "kol ha'nogaya bahem yikdash" "whatever comes in contact with them shall be made holy (by that contact.)"

In this case, the object is made holy by the action of persons. Holiness is passive, something that happens to things or people by the actions of people. Mix up a potion or a combination of olive oil and the essences of various plants, pour, or wipe, or rub them on things or people or animals, and make them holy. The holiness can also be transferred by touch (last words of v.29.)

But look at a quote from the Amidah - "atah kadosh v'shimcha kadosh", "You (G-d) are holy and your name is holy....." Obviously, man cannot render G-d holy, so in this case, the Deity is holy by its nature. But from Kedusha, "n'kadesh et shimcha ba'olam," "we sanctify (make holy) your name in the world...."

There are things, living, and inanimate that are rendered holy by other things physical, or spiritual, or even by physical contact. There are things and creatures of the Earth that are inherently holy, and there are spiritual entities, such as G-d, that either are holy, or are made holy by us. This is an area that is deeply interesting, confusing, troubling, enlightening, and perhaps, to some, mysterious. Or perhaps, it's just lazy use of a word without regard for passive, active, physical, spiritual, animate, and inanimate? I don't know.

But I think we learn something from the type of kedusha (holiness) implied by words like "n'kadesh" which tell us that we have the power to make things holy, or to at least create a perception of holiness. We can choose to do this, as we can choose to defile. We can do this through our thoughts, or actions, or simply by our perspective. I wish I could shed more light on this subject, but I don't have enough background to go into it too deeply.

Not to open a can of worms, but the word "b'racha" "blessing" and all the related words with the root b/r/ch which relate to blessing lead us into similar depths of wonder and confusion. We bless G-d, as in "Baruch ata" "You (G-d) are blessed (by me/us)"; we are blessed by G-d, as in "Y'varechacha Hashem V'yishmerecha""G-d will bless and watch over you", and things are blessed by their nature, as in "Shabbat shalom u'mvorach "a peaceful and blessed Shabbat." I won't even get into the root source of the Hebrew word "blessing" which is the same root as the word "berech "knee". We won't go there. Phew!

And just to cap all this off, where does "blessed" end and "holy" begin? As I write, I take note that these words are closely related. Enough for now.

This week our Torah study group read Exodus, Chap. 30, Tetzaveh/Ki Tisah. One word that I found interesting was "terumah" which can be translated in the context of the text as "an offering." It appears repeatedly, e.g. verse 13. Compare the word as it was used then and now. Then, terumah was an offering. Today, it is used to mean a contribution.

In this evolution of usage, we can see the span of Jewish history. When we had a Holy Temple in Jerusalem, we made offerings to G-d. When the Temple was destroyed and we lived in exile, our focus was on the community. What once was an "offering" changed to a contribution to the Jewish community and its institutions. We held our people and their faith and traditions together by redirecting our resources to protecting and growing the institutions which would preserve us as a people.

So, in short, the evolution of this word gives us insight into the evolution of the Jewish people.