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
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
