Judaism: An Eastern Faith Come West

One of the aspects of current Jewish rediscovery and renewal is the mystical, Eastern-style rituals and techniques that have gone forgotten over the past century, or so. Living in the Western world, mostly in Europe and America, Jews have gotten use to seeing their faith through the prism of Christianity, which dominated most of the countries they lived in. Since the 1850's, there has been a determined effort to erase the Jewish "superstitions" and rituals that separated Jews from their Christian compatriots. But with today's global knowledge of the world and an interest in Eastern spiritual traditions, Jews are discovering the forgotten aspects of their own religion that originated in the East and resemble such traditions as Hinduism and Buddhism. And they are discovering that Judaism and Christianity are not as similar as has been taught over the past 150 years. So let's take a look.

Judaism was born and developed in the the Middle East between Egypt and Iran. As has been mentioned on an earlier post, there's also the possibility of a connection between Abraham and India. As such, the Jewish faith places a greater emphasis on concepts generally found in Eastern traditions such as personal spiritual growth, meditation, karma and reincarnation and the eventual reunion and dissolution of the individual into the Divine. God is considered universal and is accessible through multiple paths. Jews were to serve as a "nation of priests (Exodus)" who would set an example to the world. But theirs was not the only path, as evidenced by Biblical references to non-Jews as annointed and the formulation of the Noachide Laws for the Gentile world.

Christianity, as it is practiced today, is generally a development of Rome and Europe. Although there are and were some Gnostic traditions found in Egypt and the Middle East, these have been treated as heresy by the official church and generally reduced to history. Today, Christianity is the faith about Christ rather than the faith of Christ. Emphasis is on Christ the Savior and Original Sin rather than personal responsibility and spiritual growth. Public prayer has replaced private meditation as the path to God, which Christians believe can only happen through Jesus. In my mind, Chistianity owes more to the pagan practices of the Roman Empire than they do the the Jewish origins of Jesus himself.

I'm not saying that one faith is better than another. But they each have their place and contribution to the spiritual development of the world and Jews cannot properly fulfill their role, if they don't understand their faith themselves. Things such as the kosher diet and Shabbat become legalistic rather than techniques of spiritual growth, if not understood in their proper context. In the late 1980's, the Dalai Llama came to the Jews seeking understanding of how they preserved their religion for so many centuries in exile, as his people face the same struggle. The exchange was mutally beneficial in that Jews got a deeper understanding of their Eastern roots and realized they do have something to contribute.

Being one of the Chosen does not mean that you are somehow superior, but that you've chosen yourself to become part of a "nation of priests" who's role is to share with the world a path towards freedom, personal responsibility and individual spiritual growth. But before you can set that example, you must learn it yourself.

Until next time....

Shmuel