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From: teitz@aecom.UUCP (Eliyahu Teitz)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Humanistic Judaism discussion continued
Message-ID: <1316@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-Mar-85 18:21:57 EST
Article-I.D.: aecom.1316
Posted: Mon Mar 25 18:21:57 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 29-Mar-85 01:46:04 EST
References: <248@npois.UUCP>
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 39

> 
> 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.

	The question I now ask is what preserved the Jewish nation long
 after others of comparable antiquity disappreared? Why have we survived
 so long? Our being a nation of the book, not only reading it but observing
 it ( as it is written, not as one wants to ) has kept us going so long.
 We have in the Torah not only rules, but an entire lifestyle, of which each
 and every part is important. One of te mitzvot in the Torah is to know G-D
 and believe that He is our G-D, and that we are accountable and responsible 
 to Him. Humanists deny the very first of the Ten Commandments. Judaism isn't
 just doing some of the things in the Torah, but ignoring those that are a
 bother or seem illogical.

	You may not see G-D a supernatural. If that is so then fine, because
 then your definition doesn't cut out the Ten Commandments. But if you don't
 think G-D is a force in Judaism, then you knock out one of the foundations
 of Judaism.

	One last point. Why, just because you observe certain rules and
 regulations, and thereby preserve a way of life, do you think you will
 make contributions that are greater than people who do not observe these
 ancient customs? Because you don't eat non kosher things ( no matter how you
 define them ) that makes you intellectually superior to those who don't abide
 by this law? We make contributions beyond our number for no logical reason
 except maybe that we have a tradition of striving to obtain knowledge. But
 this has nothing to do with religious observance.

				Eliyahu Teitz.