07 Oct
Moment Magazine

Last day to send in your Elephant in the Room essays!

Today is the deadline to submit your entry for the Elephant in the Room contest. Many voices have already joined the conversation, but it's still not complete. Have a different perspective on the question than the ones you've seen here? We want to hear it. Here are a few more excerpts to get you started: “To be Jewish without God means to be able to say ‘I’m Jewish and . . .,’ not ‘I’m Jewish but . . .’ It means I am able to affirmatively state what I do believe and not define myself in contradistinction to what others believe. No sheepish apologies, or defensive postures are offered as I do not need to explain what I do not believe in order to be Jewish.  I am Jewish and I believe in the power and...

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06 Oct
Moment Magazine

It's All About Culture: The Elephant in the Room

Many writers approached the Elephant in the Room contest by discussing Jewish culture, both as a social and legal community: “What list did was ensure that, whether we believe in God or not, God would remain a central element in the Jewish experience. Law, ethics, traditions are all there as topics to sort out. But God, and  our belief in God, is at the head of the line of Things To Sort Out … Some Jews (and Jewish movements) may ascribe to a lack of belief in God, but that hasn't gotten them off the hook of needing to address (and sometimes debate) their position.” “What we do personally with any aspect of faith … is a deeply personal response. What we can't do is will it … out of existence. We can't behave as if...

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05 Oct
Moment Magazine

Questioning the Question: The Elephant in the Room

In proper Jewish tradition, many of the essays we received for the Elephant in the Room contest answered our question with a question: “So there I was, firmly stuck back at the starting point. … I chose to believe in God. But what sort of God should I believe in? My rabbi’s response to this question was, ‘Ask yourself: Which God don’t you believe in?’ So I did. Well, I don’t believe in a personal god, or a god who adjusts the odds of wars or quantum events. I don’t believe in a god that punishes or rewards our souls after the death of our bodies. … And I especially don’t believe in a god who cares if we put sour cream on chicken. So I need my own personal dogma. Here’s what I came up with; what I...

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04 Oct
Moment Magazine

From the Big Bang to Baseball: The Elephant in the Room

Responses to the Elephant in the Room contest have taken us on quite a trip, from the ballpark to the circus to the birth of the universe. Whether you are working on your own entry or just discussing among friends, these visualizations of Judaism may help on your own trip: “The Big Bang occurred 13.9 billion years ago; the Bet that begins the Torah. At that moment everything was an undifferentiated colloid of infinite density and temperature. As the explosion unfolded in the first tiny fraction of a second, the laws of physics and chemistry became manifest and subatomic particles began their organized movement … The power that makes this all happen, that’s God.” “Does this God have a human-like personality such that if we do things like pray or sacrifice goats or do compassionate actions God will...

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03 Oct
Uncategorized

Last Week for The Elephant in the Room!

There's still time to get your essay in for the Elephant in the Room contest; the deadline's October 7th, so be sure to send in your essay. To inspire you, here are a few more of our favorite passages: “Now, in my humble opinion, a belief in G-d is central to a full appreciation and understanding of what it means to be a Jew, and is essential to the completion of a person's mission in this world. And I feel this way for reasons that may or not make any sense or difference to anyone else. I never ask anyone to feel as I do – I just try and live my life as a reflection of my beliefs, and let things fall as they may. But if you do not have that belief for whatever reason (right...

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30 Sep
Moment Magazine

Jay Michaelson on the Elephant in the Room: “Belief in God” is not a Jewish Value

Judaism would be better off without the phrase “belief in God.”  First, it is a Christian phrase, not a Jewish one, and it suggests that the essence of religion is faith – a Christian value.  Second, the phrase implies a certain kind of God – a God in which one either does or does not believe, probably an anthropomorphic God, a cosmic puppetmaster who sorts the bad people from the good, and makes the rain fall. This naïve God-concept may be popular in the media, but it is not the God of reflective Judaism.  Rabbi Moses Cordovero, a great theologian and Kabbalist, called anthropomorphic ideas of God “foolish,” and insisted that we think of God not as some Big Man in the Sky but as filling every atom of creation itself.  Rabbi Moses Maimonides, Judaism’s foremost...

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16 Sep
Uncategorized

How has secularism in America changed since 9/11?

As part of the Elephant in the Room, we asked Dr. Christopher Brittain how the discussion on secularism has changed over the past ten years: I would not say it has progressed very well in America. Many who subscribe to the notion of secularism assume that religion is outdated, belongs in the ancient world, is slowly ebbing away, and will inevitably disappear. What 9/11 brought to the fore is religion hasn’t gone away. There are a lot of religious people; some of them seem to be disgruntled. Why is that? There has been some helpful discussion, particularly about Muslims, and some public education that developed a greater appreciation for why some citizens feel alienated from American society, but it seems that much of the rhetoric in popular media has gone in one of two directions. First, there’s...

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