Under A Rabbis Hat

By Joel smith

Under A Rabbi's Hat by Joel A. Smith explores Israel, Palestine, and the essence of God in a thought-provoking blend of personal theology, theosophy, and unconventional perspectives on Judaism. Smith challenges traditional beliefs, offering readers a unique journey through spirituality, politics, and the eternal question of God's relevance in our lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joel smith
• Release date: Mar 14, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224408283

Book preview

Under A Rabbis Hat

Joel smith

Published by Joel smith, 2024.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

UNDER A RABBIS HAT

First edition. March 14, 2024.

Copyright © 2024 Joel smith.

Written by Joel smith.

Also by Joel smith

Under A Rabbis Hat

Under A Rabbis Hat

By

Joel A Smith

Copyright © 2024 by Joel A Smith

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

I set out to write about Israel, its policies vis a vis the stateless Palestinian Arabs, and only secondarily about religion. As a rational, well educated, pretty much assimilated American Jew, thoughts about Judaism in Israel, and here in America, were of some interest to me; but as I began writing, I saw how important religion - or more accurately, spiritual considerations - were as part of my thinking. The question Does God exist? always interested me, but I didn’t realize how much I had to say - or wanted to say about (and around) this question. Almost from the first, my thoughts about traditional Judaism were being challenged according to the way I understood it, or imagined it. In other words, I wasn’t going by the Book - I took it with some grains of salt and while I was not and am not antagonistic to The Book, what I really wanted to write, I realized, was about my personal theology - nay, theosophy (that’s how it should be described)- and so, I wrote about it - that, and of course, I was writing about Israel, too.

Is there any reason the two subjects should go together under the same cover? I think so - while one is a political state, and the other a state of mind - both are infused with more than three thousand years of pride, commitment, and devotion, a sense of inseparable loyalty - not to mention a sense of being a member of a select group of people- and a constant awareness that perhaps we owe of lives to the One who delivered us from Egypt with an outstretched arm, delivering us from slavery, one with whom we had a covenant. We may not understand any more today than we did back in the days of Moses, or David, or Amos, and we are, probably, less observant, but still, even today, we Jews are Jacob’s great grandchildren, and the land Israel (and Jerusalem) belong to us; this is the land Godgave us. Judaism isn’t just a religion, it’s a heritage, one culture, and many cultures (because Jews came to live in Iraq and Russia and America, etc., as well as in Israel, unified by the Torah, and our sense of being more or less threatened by others because we are Jews. Among some of us, (mostly among religious Conservative and Orthodox Jews) there is a constant sense of who we belong to, and a sense of responsibilities - while to others (possibly the majority of American Jews) being Jewish doesn’t mean so much (although when - increasingly - they become aware of anti-Semitism, they become more aware that they are Jews)

So, my book is partly about Israel, the country - and, as the reader will discover, about religion in general, and Judaism, and a bit of Taoism, and Zen - and the way I see it: my take on the religious scene my personal religion.

2 By the way I inform the reader here that I realize my writing wanders off regularly. I can say that that’s my style (and it would be correct), but still, I think readers want a message to stay on message - and I am, you might say, disorganized. But if the reader will bear with me, I believe he or she will find some of what’s there in print interesting, and so, worthwhile. All the strands make whole cloth; they have unity because they come from the same man. These words represent me. I have my own views (you’re paying to read what the author, a well-educated man with blind spots and shortcomings, believes) - my views on the Jewish religion are unorthodox. Anyhow, I hope I’ll be forgiven for my apparently unedited manuscript (neither cut nor pasted) because you will find things in this book interesting (I will add that while this little book is really unfinished, if there is sufficient interest, I may finish it).

I don’t claim expertise. I offer my thoughts realizing that there are others out there who have their own opinions, and we are like those blind Indians who, each grasping another part of the elephant, were asked what it was they were touching - but this book is about how it seems to me. What follows are observations - and opinions).

The concept of God is pretty big, and has commanded a lot of attention over the years - but is It needed? Is God needed!? (italicize) After all, really, He has no relevance (What?! Did I really just write those words?!) I mean I could get along in my day to day life without Him (discounting Him being the One who produces the air that we breathe - and everything else). So really, although it may sound peculiar or challenging, whatever, I ask again: is God is needed? How does He or She or It figure in your life...? Think about it How do you figure God (or God) figures in your life...? Think of it as a challenge - or an assignment by your English Composition instructor during your first year of college.

The question about God’s existence has always intrigued me. An examination of the concept we call God could said to be all the questions, desires, fears and faith, and the doubts we have, being played out in a game we walk through blindly, kind of a six dimensional chess game, so to speak, with wheels within wheels)It well may be that it is humankind’s unwillingness to give up on God that keeps the notion of God alive - and that’s all (there’s no way of knowing - still Enquiring minds want to know) - but why this unwillingness?

What if we have a seed in our minds (possibly now atrophied.) that may move like a tropism towards this whatever moved by something within say, an instinct, a living but invisible thing, maybe it’s what’s called the soul. it demands to stay alive.

Is IT (He, She, or It, this Being, God, or God, this Psychic metaphysical phenomenon, this supernatural Whatever) is there something out there that’ wants us to be moral? Pantheists, I think, would say no - and Deists will certainly tell you no. (Deists will say he Creator left right after starting the Big Bang; we have no idea where He is nowadays).

That something was responsible for the Big Bang is certain (but unknown); and things followed natural laws (as, I believe, are noted in the Tao The Ching). Together, they constitute the whole thing - lacking, maybe, only one thing: a sense of the good: inherent morality.

That is what distinguishes them from Judaism, and its followers.

The Tao is unashamedly amoral (it may suggest morality, but for reasons other than tis mandated by the Lord). Tao is amoral, whereas God, we are told, is the embodiment of morality. I believe the Tao could be considered God - but not God - not God as written about in holy scriptures (but again here is something subject to a lot of uncertainty).

God is about morality (that is what we’ve been told - I think that’s what you were told). That’s the dividing line. We monotheists, people of the Book, we believe God wants us to be morally upright. (and we know what that means because It’s all there in the religious texts). But Taoists say, read your Lao The. Think selfish without being cruel or unkind.

Here are a few things the Tao The Ching says about Tao. From the first chapter (Bahm translation) ..." No name can fully express what it represents. To describe Tao as the ‘ultimate source of all’ is still