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From: adam@npois.UUCP (Adam V. Reed)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Humanistic Judaism discussion continued
Message-ID: <248@npois.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 20-Mar-85 12:08:06 EST
Article-I.D.: npois.248
Posted: Wed Mar 20 12:08:06 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Mar-85 03:27:12 EST
Organization: ATTIS, Neptune, NJ
Lines: 36

I wrote:

>> A Humanistic Jew is a Jew who defines his way of life as a Jew without
>> reference to supernatural authority...

Eliyahu Teitz responded with, inter alia:

>...when G-D says do something, and I do not understand it...I observe
>because I am a faithful servant, and my job is to do first, and question
>later.

This is precisely the kind of appeal to supernatural authority that I,
as a Humanistic Jew, explicitly reject. I accept the fact that Teitz
disagrees with me on that point; I would ask him to accept the fact that
I don't agree with him. At the same time, I welcome the discussion; I
think that we can all learn from discussions about Jewish thought,
practice, and observance.

Teitz also comments:

>Another, more basic question. If you don't hold the will if G-D to be 
>important, why be Jewish in the first place.

To me, being Jewish is a way of life, rather than a matter of adherence
to any specific belief. I am attached to the Jewish way of life because
it has been effective in preserving the Jewish people and civilization
long after all other peoples and civilizations of comparable antiquity
have disappeared; and because people raised in the Jewish civilization
have a record of being existentially more efficacious, of being more
likely to make creative contributions in art, science, and indeed any
intellectual endeavor, than those raised in any other surviving
civilization. I think that I can understand the reasons why the Jewish
way of life is so effective in secular, humanistic terms; I do not find
supernatural belief either necessary or helpful.

							Adam