Are Palestinians Jews?

I recently came across a study that caused me to ask this question...Are Palestinians long-lost Jews? Here's what I found.

A study by Ariella Oppenheim and her colleagues published in The American Journal of Human Genetics (Dec 2000) finds 70% of Jews and 82% of Palestinians share the same paternal chromasomal pool. This makes Palestinians distinctive from their Arab neighbors such as Lebanese, Jordanians, Iraqis and Egyptians who do not share the same DNA. The suggestion is that Palestinians are the descendants of Jews who converted to Islam in centuries past.

While many will dispute this claim, the important thing is what it means to relations between the two groups and their ability to live together in peace. If they are truly relatives of each other then why is this seemingly impossible? Could this study be a piece of the puzzle necessary to replace hate with brotherly love? I'm not trying to sound like an idealogue ungrounded in reality, but if attitudes are to change, it has to start with a questioning of the status quo.

In past discussions, I've advocated the the idea of one Federal Republic of Jerusalem replacing the failed two-state solution. The concept is that the current territories of Israel and Palestine would be divided into local canton-like units similar to Switzerland. Jerusalem would serve as the joint capital for both entities much like Washington D.C. does in America. Government would be kept localized as much as possible with the individual cantons controlling internal functions such as education, religion and local courts. National affairs such as defense, trade and the sharing of natural resources would be controlled by the national government which would be composed of a bicameral legislature with the House of Representatives elected by popular vote and a Senate divided evenly between the Palestinian Arab and Israeli entities. I would envision a Prime Minister, or President who'd be elected by the Senate.

How we get there is still unclear to me. But it seems to work well in Switzerland's multi-ethnic population and also in the federated system of the new Iraq, who's internal rivalries are at least as fierce as that between Israelis and Palestinians. By comparison, decades of the two-state solution have not gotten us any closer to peace in the Middle East.

Each week, we pray for peace during our Shabbat celebrations and sing the song "Oseh Shalom." In the song "Hineh MaTov" we sing of brothers coming together. DNA tells us that Jews and Palestinians are really brothers themselves. So let's continue to pray for peace between these two entities in particular. Perhaps a new approach and way of thinking will get us there.

Until next time....

Shmuel

Urkesh: Abraham's Ur of the Chaldees?

In prior discussions, we have explored possible connections between Abraham and India. Evidence is building that there might be a connection, or common origin between Judaism and the Hindu/Buddhist philosophies of India. Some claim that Abraham and his followers came west from India into the Middle East. I personally believe that the evidence is greater for a common origin for ideas present in both faiths from the homeland of both peoples in northern Iran and the Caucuses regions. This is the original home of the ancient Hurrians, who migrated from there to northern Mesopatamia in the 3rd millenium B.C.

The Hurrians came to be the dominant ethnic group in southern Anatolia, northern Mesopatamia and northeastern Syria from the mid-3rd millenium to the mid-2nd millenium B.C. Their capital and largest city was Urkesh at the base of the Taurus Mountains. Recent excavations reveal it to be a cosmopolitan city with great temples, palaces and even plumbing! From there the Hurrians controlled a small trading empire that spread their cultural influence throughout the Middle East. Nearby, in the heart of Hurrian territory was the Biblical city of Haran. Could Urkesh be Abraham's birth city, Ur of Chaldees? When one realizes that in Hebrew it is called Ur Chasdim, the possibility becomes more obvious. But a name alone is not enough. So is there more evidence that Abraham and his followers came from Hurrian origins?

Normally, Ur of the Chaldees has been thought to the Sumerian city of Ur in southern Mesopatamia. This has been based on the similar sounding name, the fact that the Chaldeans later came to rule this area and similar mythologies between the two cultures. But Josephus, Maimonides and other early Jewish sages claimed that Abraham's birthplace was in northern Mesopatamia right where we find Urkesh! There are also strong cultural connections between the ancient Hebrews and Hurrians. Lets look at a few highlights:

1) The prophet, Jeremiah claimed the Hebrews descended from a Hittite mother and an Aramean father. The Hurrians were the largest ethnic group of the Hittite Empire with an Indo-European ruling aristocracy.

2) Around the time of Abraham's life, there was an Amorite governor of Urkesh named Terru, who was appointed by the king of Mari, who'd recently conquered Urkesh. The name is very similar to that of Abraham's father, Terah, and could explain the family's move to Haran, as Terru was very unpopular with the Hurrian locals he ruled over.

3) Haran was a predominantly Hurrian city and we see many of their cultural influences in the patriarchal stories of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekkah and Jacob and Leah/Rachel. These include:

a. Property ownership was held by family clans and the "household gods." It's use was
leased to individual members. Control of the household gods and thus the family property
was held by the "senior" father which explains the importance of the Biblical story of
Rebekkah's stealing of them.

b. A cultural custom unique to the Hurrians was the practice of adopting a wife as one's sister.
This had to do with property and marriage laws and helps to explain the odd occurances
where Abraham claims Sarah as his sister in Egypt and with the Philistine king of Gerar.

c. Jacob's stealing of the "birthright" from Esau finds a context in the Hurrian customs of
passing down the "household gods" in a dying utterance to the eldest son, or sometimes
the wife's brother. If you remember, it was Rebekkah from Haran who instructed Jacob to
deceive his father, Isaac by dressing as his older brother, Esau.

d. Monogamy is thought to have originated with the Hurrians, where a wife could specify that
her husband have no other wife during the term of the marriage contract. This became a
staple of later Judeo-Christian thought.

e. Hurrian customs also explain the story of Abraham sending his servant, Eliezer to seek a wife
for his son, Isaac. According to Hurrian practice, if Isaac had gone himself, he would not have
been able to return to Canaan, as he'd have been required to visit his wife and children at his
mother-in-law's home. Rebekkah had to consent to leave Haran to meet up with Isaac.

Another connection of the Abraham to the Hurrians is with the story of his seeking a burial chamber from the Hittites. We've already discussed the close connection between the Hittites and the Hurrians. In Genesis 23:4, we read that the Hittites tell Abraham "thou art a prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none shall withold from thee." So was Abraham considered part of Hittite/Hurrian royalty? Possibly through his father, or his marriage to Rebekkah? Even today, traditional Jews trace their faith and culture through the mother. In Hurrian culture, women held a much more prominant role and were represented in almost all areas of commerce and civil society.

An interesting fact is that Hittite records show that the dominent ethnic group represented in the Habiru's who served as mercenaries to the king were the Hurrians with a small Semitic contingent. Many historians see the Habiru and the Hebrews as likely representing the same groups of people.

In 2001, teams of Israeli, Indian and German scientists discovered that the majority of Jews are more closely related to the Kurds of northern Iraq, Iran and southeastern Turkey than to any other ethnic groups including their Semitic Arab neighbors. Scholars believe the Kurds to be the descendendants of the ancient Hurrians (Nov 2001, The American Journal of Human Genetics by Arriella Oppenheim).

Other than for historical accuracy, why is this important? How can it inspire us as Jews today? I feel it gives a context for greater understanding of the culture that Judaism developed within and reveals a common origin for Jewish and Indian spiritual philosophies. The Hurrians were not ethnic Semites, but came from the same area as the Aryan tribes that were invading India about the same time as Abraham's journey to Canaan. For parts of their history, the Hurrians were also ruled by an Indo-European (Aryan) aristocracy in both the Hittite Empire and also later in the kingdom of Mitanni. The rulers of Mitanni give praise to many of the Vedic gods of India in their treaties with neighboring cities.

Also, the Hurrian faith shows much more shamanistic influence than that of Mesopatamia with their gods communicating directly to rulers and priests from deep underground chambers known as "abi" that were thought to be entrances to the underworld.

Today, Jews are rediscovering a heritage of meditation and reincarnation within their faith that is bringing renewal to a religion that many thought void of personal spirituality. Perhaps we are finally understanding the nature of the faith that inspired Abraham and his followers with it's Eastern philosophy and lofty, spiritual concepts of union with God.

Until next time....

Shmuel

Jewish Renewal Through Sufi Mysticism

In our last discussion, we talked about how Sufi mystics were influenced by the ideas and theories of their Jewish contemporaries. For almost 1000 years, there was a borrowing and sharing of ideas from both sides that grew the spiritual wisdom of both faiths. Today, I'd like to look at how Judaism experienced a renewal at this time from ideas they borrowed, or rediscovered from Sufi mystical beliefs.

Jews from Cordoba to Cairo lived in relative peace and prosperity with their Muslim neighbors during this time period which is known by Sephardic Jewry as their "Golden Age." Moses was seen as the model of the spiritual seekers of both faiths and is quoted over 100 times in the Koran. One who saw Moses as their model was the 9th century Sufi mystic, Mansur al-Hallaj.

Jewish libraries at this time were filled with the works of al-Hallaj. He inspired many with his fight against the authoritarian legalism he felt Islam was degenerating into and the simple, personal faith he advocated. Following his crucifixion for blasphemy for saying that "he was He" in reference to the fact that his level of mystical attainment meant that he and God were of one consciousness, al-Hallaj served as a role model for many Jewish Kabbalists who were tormented by the orthodox authorities of their own faith.

The Sufi saint, Al-Ghazali is quoted by a number of Jewish thinkers including Moses Maimonides (12th Century), Judah Halevi (12th Century), Abraham Ibn Hasdai (13th Century) and Abraham Gavison of Tlemcen (17th Century) who said, "I have translated the poetry of this sage, for even though he be not of the children of Israel, it is accepted that the pious of the gentiles have a share in the world to come and surely heaven will not withhold from him the reward of faith."

Solomon Ibn Gabirol of Adon Olam fame represents the interweaving of Jewish and Islamic thought more than any other scholar of the Middle Ages. At the core of his thought was the belief that truth and rightousness are not the exclusive realm of the Jewish people and that one should embrace words of wisdom regardless of their source. He so incorporated ideas from the Islamic mystical tract, Ikhwan as-Safa, that after the Bible it was his primary source of inspiration.

Moses De Leon, the reported author of the Zohar, was inspired by many Sufi influenced Jews including Abraham Ibn Ezra, Moses Maimonides, Judah Halevi, Bahya Ibn Pakuda and the Sufi mystics themselves. It was the Sufi scholar, Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi who presaged many of the ideas that became central to the Zohar. De Leon also borrowed ideas from some of the most important myths surrounding the Prophet Muhammad to elaborate on the Jewish mystical ideal.

Jalal al-Din Rumi lived around the same time as De Leon and like the Zohar, his Mathnavi became known for many Muslims as the most important book in their faith next to the Koran. Today he is the best selling poet in the United States! His most important contribution to Jewish/Sufi dialogue was his openmindedness and respect for all faiths as represented by his quote, " What is to be done, O Muslims? For I myself do not know whether I am a Christian, a Jew, a Jabr, or a Muslim?" This attitude captured later Sufism and helped open further communications and exploration between the mystics of both Judaism and Islam.

A specific influence of Rumi on Jews was with the followers of Shabbatai Zevi in the 17th Century. They included his and other Sufi poems in their mystical litanies. It was the teachings of Shabbatai Zevi that did much to plant Sufi ideals into the Baal Shem Tov's Hasidism. Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem said, "One could easily make a collection of the Hasidic epigrams which breathe a spirit not very far removed from that of the Shabbateans." These Shabbateans are said to have had the most enlightened attitudes towards Islam of their time. Shabbatai Zevi himself was said, following his capture by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, to study in his prison cell with the Zohar in one hand and the Koran in the other.

Today it is the ideas promoted by the Baal Shem Tov and his Hasidim that again influence the Jewish Renewal movement that seeks rediscovery of Judaism's lost mystical legacy to reinvigorate the Jewish faith. So even now, Judaism is finding it's spiritual heart infused with mystical ideals shared with the Sufi mystics. One can only hope that this shared wisdom can play a role in bringing Jews and their Muslim cousins together in peace and enlightenment.

Before closing, I'd like to give credit to the site www.tomblock.com which has provided the basis for much of my research and discovery of the many connections between Jewish and Sufi mysticism. I encourage you to check it out for yourself.

Until next time....

Shmuel

Jewish Contributions to Sufi Mysticism

Today, we live in a world where Jews and Muslims are divided over the State of Israel. Many of us would find it hard to believe that there was ever a time that followers of the two faiths ever got along and worked together. But that is exactly the case. An example would be the relationship between Jewish and Sufi mystics, who shared ideas that helped give birth to Islamic mysticism and brought renewal to the Jewish faith. Let's look at the Jewish contribution to Sufi mystical belief.

First, it should be pointed out that the Prophet Muhammad himself had considerable contact with Jews and was familiar with their faith. He saw himself as the latest in the line of prophets that extended back to ancient Israel.

Also, from the beginning of Islam, there were many Jews who converted to the new faith and brought with them stories of their ancestors known as Isra'il'iyat. These stories told the Banu Isra'il, or pious men of ancient Israel.

Hasan al-Basri (died 728 AD) is considered the Patriarch of Muslim Mysticism and introduced many of these Isr'il'iyat legends into Muslim thought. They became representative of Islamic mystical ideas of piety. He also credited King David as originating many Sufi practices including the woolen clothing they were known for.

Malik Ibn Dinar is an important force in the formation of Sufism and quoted liberally from a variety of Jewish publications. He specifically borrowed ideas from the "Hasidim," or pious ones of the Talmud.

Ibn Said, an eleventh century Sufi mystic from Toledo, Spain said Jewish people had a special understanding of the Prophets and the Book of Genesis..."This people is the house of prophecy and the source of the prophetic message of mankind and the majority of the prophets...the blessings and peace of Allah be upon them."

Ibn Arabi of the 13th Century borrowed mystical concepts of humanity's relationship to God from the "Guide For The Perplexed" by the Moses Maimonides. Even before the death of its author, Jewish scholars were teaching the Guide For The Perplexed to Muslim students in their madrassas!

Abu Ali Ibn Hud of Damascus, a 13th Century Sufi, spent his time teaching the Guide For The Perplexed to students of all religious backgrounds. He is said to have secretly worn a yamulke beneath his turban and when asked by a spiritual seeker for instruction replied "Upon which road: the Mosaic, or the Muslim?"

This sharing of spiritual concepts and knowledge between Jewish and Sufi mystics gives me hope that there can be a better future between our two peoples. This is but one example of where coexistence and a sharing for our mutual benefit has lead to the growth of both peoples and spiritual traditions. In this case, we explored Jewish contributions to Islamic Sufism. Next, we'll take a look at how Sufism brought renewal to Judaism.

Until next time....

Shmuel

Tower Of Babel: One Faith, Not One Language

All of us remember the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1). It is part of the religious education of most children in America. We are told that in defiance of God, the ancient Mesopotamians and ancestors of Abraham attempted to construct a tower reaching to the heavens, but that this tower was destroyed by Divine wrath and that the peoples were dispersed and their languages confused. But is this the whole story, or is their more that will provide context and greater understanding?

A parallel and possible source for the Biblical story is to be found in the Sumerian epic "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta." This saga begins with a longing memory of a time during the first Golden Age of Man when peace and security prevailed. It says:

"Once upon a time, ... there was no fear, no terror. Man had no rival...The whole universe, the people in unison (?), to Enlil in one tongue gave praise."

Historian David M. Rohl points out in his book, Legend: The Genesis of Civilization, that the context of this passage suggests a common, unifying faith rather than a common language. The people called out "with one heart," or "with one voice."

So what lead to the building of the Tower of Babel and the disunity that followed? This is provided by the Sumerian epic also. It would seem that Enlil (the Biblical El) was the god responsible for the flood that nearly destroyed humanity. It was Ea (the Biblical Ya, Eyeh, or Yahweh) who warned Utnapishtim (Noah) and saved the human race from annhilation. This explains the usage of the term El for the god of Abraham and later Yahweh as the god of Moses. According to this epic, it was the Sumerian king Enmerkar, who constructed the tower high enough to be above the waters and to show his revenge should Enlil ever decide to flood the earth and humanity again.

One can also see in these two myths the possible original theme of a universal age where a common faith brings people together in peace and harmony. Following the flood, different gods and city-states rose to prominence and war disrupted the peace of the previous age. This is a theme that has carried throughout much of history and continues to this day. But it also foreshadows a possible future for mankind when faith can unite us and also reminds us of a time not that long ago from the 8th century to about just 100 years ago when Jewish and Islamic mystics sat down together and shared ideas and inspiration from each other in the development of Kabbalistic and Sufi philosophy. We will explore this period in future posts and uncover the contributions each side made to the other in a common quest for enlightenment. You'll be amazed by what we find.

Until next time....

Shmuel

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

Is Science Discovering God?

As a teenager I read a copy of Rabbi Shneur Zalman's "Tanya" which was my first introduction to Kabbalah and Hasidic philosophy. I remember being impressed even then by his telling of God's use of language and the Hebrew alphabet in the continuing act of creation. So when I came across this commentary piece in the Jerusalem post, Ihad to share it with you. It's amazing the way science and religion are merging, especially with Kabbalah.

The Alphabet of Life

By David Klinghoffer

DNA are three letters full of paradox. What they represent remains little understood by the public, yet they are on everyone's tongue. Amid the chatter of popular culture, the truth gets lost that DNA is one of the most powerful clues we have of the existence of a spiritual reality, maybe to the existence of God.

An acronym for deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA refers to the form taken by the biological information that directs the production of proteins and other cell components. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick famously described its double-helix shape. The information thus encoded, the genome, influences how a living organism's body gets constructed, though how far this goes, and how it works, are questions that remain obscure.

We talk about DNA as familiarly as we do the USA. The idea that your genes determine your susceptibility to diseases and addictions is a stock theme of popular health discussions. On TV cop shows, law-enforcement officials are constantly using DNA to solve cases, whether new or "cold" - as real police do.

For a fee, DNA testing can shed light on anyone's genetic ancestry, including whether you have "Jewish genes." There is supposed to be a "God gene" for religious belief in general. And a "gay gene." And so on.

But all this is trivial compared to the largely unheralded insight gained from the Human Genome Project, completed in 2003. The insight is disturbing. It is that while DNA codes for the cell's building blocks, the information needed to build the rest of the creature is seemingly, in large measure, absent.

CONSIDER THE HOX "master" genes that supposedly determine the spatial configuration of the front and back ends of creatures as diverse as frogs, mice and humans. As British physician James Le Fanu writes in a fascinating new book, Why Us? How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves (Pantheon), Swiss biologist Walter Gehring showed that "the same 'master' genes mastermind the three-dimensional structures of all living things... The same master genes that cause a fly to have the form of a fly cause a mouse to have the form of a mouse." The physically encoded information to form that mouse, as opposed to that fly, isn't there. Instead, "It is as if the 'idea' of the fly (or any other organism) must somehow permeate the genome that gives rise to it."

Such an understanding, of nature driven by a force outside nature, was dominant in biology before Darwin. Baron Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), director of Paris's Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, held that there was an unknown biological "formative impulse," an organizational principle of some kind that directed the formation of diverse kinds of life.

The concept goes still further back. Much further. What Cuvier called the "formative impulse," was called God's "wisdom" by the rabbis. The Bible teaches, "The Lord founded the earth with wisdom" (Proverbs 3:19).

WITH DNA, there is, in one sense, less there than meets the eye. But in another sense, there is much more. For if DNA can't entirely account for the way bodies are put together, there remains something deeply suggestive about the fact that curled at the heart of every cell there lies a code. How did it get there?

A staple of media coverage of DNA is the story, repeated endlessly, about some scientist or other who's the latest to synthesize molecular precursors of DNA (or its genetic partner, RNA), thus purportedly showing how biological information could have arisen on Earth unaided. The problem with these demonstrations is that they always depend on intelligent guidance, that of the scientist in his lab, thus suggesting the very opposite lesson of the one intended.

In another new book, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperOne), my colleague Stephen Meyer, a Cambridge University-trained philosopher of science, reminds us of the failure of every avenue by which science has tried to explain the origin of the genetic information required for the first life. Explanations depending on unguided material processes alone usually founder on a chicken-or-the-egg paradox: notably, that "specified information in DNA codes for proteins, but specific proteins are necessary to transcribe and translate the information on the DNA molecule."

DNA acts like a computer code, or like a language consisting of letters and words, arranged in specific sequences to accomplish a specific task or convey a specific meaning. As Dr. Meyer observes, the only kind of source we know of that can produce a "functionally integrated information-processing system" like that in the cell is an intelligent source.

As a Jew, I find it intriguing, at the very least, that Jewish tradition anticipated precisely the kind of evidence that Meyer deals with in his book. DNA refers to the letters of a genetic "alphabet" that in the correct combinations encode the diversity of all life forms. Kabbala too speaks of such an alphabet, comprised of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, with which God continually speaks the world into existence.

Different combinations of letters produce different creatures. A century and a half before Watson and Crick, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi sought to make Kabbala accessible to ordinary readers. In the Tanya (1796), he writes of how "the creatures are divided into categories [both] general and particular by changes in the combinations, substitutions and transpositions [of the letters]."

Something is out there beyond nature, guiding the destinies of living creatures. Whether we think of it as God or some other unknown agent makes a big difference. But the progress of science from imagining existence as a purely material affair, without purpose, as Darwinian evolution still portrays the matter, to the more advanced description toward which biology increasingly points, is a major step in the right direction.

The writer, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute in Seattle, writes the Kingdom of Priests blog at Beliefnet (blog.beliefnet.com/kingdomofpriests).

Shema: A 2 For 1 Meditation

Soon after the giving of the Ten Commandments (Deut. 6:4), the ancient Israelites are instructed to affirm their commitment to God twice each day with the recitation of the Shema; once when waking in the morning and once at night before going to sleep. So, it's a 2 for 1...twice daily for one God! But the Shema is more than just a simple prayer. As a prescribed routine, it was meant to be a daily meditative reminder of our oneness with God.

The Shema starts out with the call "Hear, O' Israel" telling us to listen and open our perceptions completely to feel the presence of the Divine. As you'll recall, Israel is the name given to Jacob following his wrestling with the angel of the Lord and means "he who contends with the Divine (Gen. 32:29)." The Shema calls out to the Israel in all of us; that part of us that seeks and struggles with the spiritual.

The next words of the Shema are Adonai Eloheynu meaning "Lord, our God." This is where we are reminded of God's greatness, beyond description. From this awe-inspiring mental state we then call God ours and realize our ability to relate to God even though the Divine is beyond our comprehension and our ability to define. We can open ourselves to an awareness of the Divine Presence which is with us always.

The Shema concludes with the words "Adonai Echad" stating that the Lord is One. But in a spiritual sense, this is more than just a rejection of multiple deities. This is where we remember and understand that God is the source of all being, the core of the universe. Nothing exists outside of God and the divine spirit permeates everything including us. If God is everywhere and everything then he is one with his purpose also. The purpose of creation was to allow for love and goodness. As such, God is goodness and we are good.

Once we remember that we are an aspect of the Divine with our own unique purpose, we realize that we have nothing to fear, as everything is God. However we suffer and whatever plagues us can be seen as an illusion created by our own limited perception and lack of understanding. God is the source of whatever we need and provides it to us out of love. We just have to be trusting and willing to open up and accept it. But truly being open requires a humble heart and the dissolving of our sense of individuality. We are God in the same sense that a note is part of the larger music. Like Rabbi Dov Baer, the Maggid of Mezerich, stated..."Think of your soul as a part of the Divine Presence like the raindrop in the sea."

The late Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan in his book "Jewish Meditation" speaks of another aspect of meditating on the Shema through the letters that make up the word itself- Shin, Mem and Ayin. The Sefer Yetzirah calls these part of the mother letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The sound of Shin is Shhh which is seen to relate to chaos and white noise. It is identified with fire. The sound of Mem is Mmmm and is identified with humming and water. Humming is related to tranquility and oneness in mystical, meditative traditions throughout the world. Here is the particular meditative technique Rabbi Kaplan suggests:

Inhale deeply...then pronounce the Shhh sound of Shin while exhaling for an equal amount of time...inhale...then pronounce the Mmmm sound of Mem while exhaling for an equal amount of time....inhale again and repeat. While performing this meditation, you are mentally transforming the active fires of your chaotic mind to the calming, tranquil waters of the meditative trance. It is said that eventually just the humming sound of Mem alone is enough to induce a meditative state of mind. At this point one is fully open and in harmony with the Divine Spirit and feels a deep connection to God.

The key to using the Shema as a meditative technique is to recite it slowly while focusing on the meaning of each word. Like most everything to do with Judaism, the key is the intent and focus, known to Kabbalists as kavannah.

The Shema is a ritual that really brings to mind for me what is was that separated the ancient Israelites from their neighbors...their spiritual focus and desire to be one with the Divine. God was not an angry deity represented by an idol needing to be appeased, but a lofty spiritual being that man was part of and could commune with.

Until next time....

Shmuel

Shabbat: Beyond Space And Time

Today, in the hours just before Shabbat, I thought this article by Deepok Chopra was very appropriate. Shabbat is more than just physical rest. It is going with the flow and living in harmony with nature. I really liked Chopra's statement that God did not just merely rest, but that he returned to his uncreated state beyond time and space. Rabbi Harold Kushner says that the Hebrew actually refers to God's becoming ensouled, or finding his soul. We seem to be in an age of Jewish enlightenment where the richness of Shabbat as a 24 hour period of meditation and contemplation is being rediscovered. It is where we take our proper role as Knesset Yisrael, the divine bride and co-creator with God of this world. Shabbat Shalom and enjoy. A Time for the Timeless by Deepak Chopra As a day of rest, the Sabbath is not a mystery, yet it leads the way to mystery, and that is its fascination. On the seventh day the Lord rested from the labor of creation. This duty was passed on to His human children, and Shabbat became a devoted way to live according to God's plan. Yet behind this simple reason something deeper is at work. Shabbat belongs to a profound strain of wisdom that reveres the feminine face of God, whose silent, nurturing, receptive aspects are not easily available in our active, outward-turned lives. By observing Shabbat, the faithful are going inward to meet that silence which is the womb of creation. Shabbat is about the source. On the seventh day God did not merely rest - He returned to his uncreated nature, that place which is before time and outside space. This domain is inconceivable, for how can anything be before time? Where is the place outside space when ‘where' has no meaning? All wisdom traditions, including the Judaic, have pondered this mystery, and they came up with an amazing answer: The transcendent God, if He is beyond anything we can measure, must be everywhere at all times while being nowhere at any time. Is this just a paradox? No, for on Shabbat, the devout are asked to join God in this silent, transcendent place. This is the time to greet the timeless. How do they accomplish this? Prayers and rituals can point the way, but it is up to the devotee to make the journey. Of course it cannot be done. To get from this finite, bounded world to God's infinite unbounded domain requires a step that the mind is helpless to achieve. God must offer a way. Therefore patience is required to find it, along with waiting, calmness, observation. Beyond resting, Shabbat is a time to be alert to whatever clue God wants to send your way. For some, the clue is a sense of peace, safety or being loved, or of being in direct connection to the Divine. What these all have in common is traditionally called God's presence - a mysterious indicator that God is here, even though on the surface He leaves not the slightest footprint in the visible world. Shabbat is a time, then, to stop believing your senses and to see with the eyes of the soul. In Sanskrit, the word for this presence is Shakti, in Hebrew it is Shekinah. Being devoid of human images for God, Judaic belief does not turn Shakti into a wife for the male god, a dancing seductress with an irresistible smile. Rather, Shekinah is pure light, a divine energy that can penetrate this solid, sleeping world to wake up those souls who are willing to feel its presence. But what the ancient texts tell us of Shakti tempts me to say that she is Shekinah as well. Shakti is that impulse of God that wants to touch the heart of the devout, to cause transformation, to render the human more than human. This happens in five ways, and to me they are the five aspects of Shabbat that are truly a part of the "one light": 1. Silence. This is not an empty silence but a sounding chamber for whatever God will fill in. Silence is expectant, and with prayer and attention, the expectation bears fruit as a sense of being with God. 2. Bliss. This is happiness for no reason, happiness that cannot be taken away. By the name of ecstasy it pertains to a sense of being beyond hope or despair, standing beyond your mortal coil. Bliss grows from silence, naturally. 3. The fulfillment of prayer. In the deepest silence the deepest prayers are answered. We discover that God's presence is not static but gives organizing power to our desires, hopes and aspirations. 4. Knowingness or intuition. God's presence gives us a direct way of knowing that that is the source of wisdom. This knowing is not a matter of rationality; answers come to us from beyond our limited personalities, as if from the source. 5. Inspired action, the holy life. When all these gifts of the Shekinah are received, then it is possible to live the holy life in full measure, because our actions are spontaneously right and good and in accord with divine intention. I have not been giving a mystical picture of Shabbat but rather a path. Every year the calendar shows the same holy days, but in life they deepen with the passage of time. God's light or presence becomes fuller and fuller. The eyes of the soul become our natural way of seeing. In the ripening of each season, we discover that a spark of light that once glimmered very faintly inside the heart has now spread everywhere, as it must if it is divine. Shabbat is fulfilled when the devout can walk down any street at any hour and see holiness in the face of a stranger or in the hard glint of stone. God will have dropped His mask, revealing the secret of being at once everywhere and nowhere. Deepak Chopra is CEO and Founder of The Chopra Center for Well Being in La Jolla, California. He is author of more than 25 books, his latest being How to Know God. Visit www.howtoknowgod.com for more information. Until next time.... Shmuel

In All Of Your Ways

Judaism is really a lifestyle of faith and not just something you do for a few hours a week. The more you live it, the more you experience and benefit from what the Jewish faith has to offer. Proverbs 3:6 says "In all your ways know him." Talmudic teaching states that this one verse "contains the essence of the entire Torah." Know matter how small, or mundane the task, one can dedicate it to God and make it a holy act. It really goes back to the concept of raising the hidden sparks spoken about in Kabbalistic teachings.

For example, take your job. Know matter how menial it may seem, do it to the best of your ability. Think of how you'll use it to learn and support your family. Remember that it provides the means for you to contribute to your favorite cause, or charity to make the world a better place. And if it is not your life's ambition, then think of it as a stepping stone that provides for your welfare while you pursue your true life's goal. Another teaching of Judaism is that we each have a specific task that only we can complete and that our life is wasted if we don't pursue and accomplish it.

Another classic example of incorporating your Jewish belief into your life is during the act of eating. Jews were to be a "nation of priests" states the book of Exodus. We were to always be mindful of God's holy presence. But it was also recognized that it can be difficult to maintain that awareness with all of the distractions and temptations of life. And so it was decided to incorporate ritual into our daily life that would create and help maintain this mindfulness. This is the case with the kosher diet. We are told to eat only certain foods that have been prepared in a certain way. But we are never told why. It's a matter of trust. We are also told to bless the food before eating and the wording of the prayer is designed to develop a personal bond with the Divine. We say Eloheynu, our God. The idea is that we eat multiple times per day and at least for a moment would remind ourselves of God's closeness and unity. One can take this a step further and contemplate how one will use the nourishment from this food to improve our lives and the world. We remind ourselves that we are co-creators with God and that it is our role to "heal the world" through individual acts of Tikkun.

The concept is to dedicate one's life and being to God. But it is not just serving God, but remembering that we ourselves are aspects of the Shekinah, the divine presence. "Heaven on earth" is achieved through us and the way we live our lives. Thus, we must always be mindful to make our lives holy and to raise the divine sparks each chance we get. We must think and behave like priests and priestesses. The Hebrew word for this focused concentration is kavannah. There's no reason to overwhelm one's self with ritual and a radical change in lifestyle. Just take the first step and add a little more each day to your practice of maintaining an awareness of God in your life. You'll find your life enriched and more meaningful.

Before I go, I just want to remind you to remember the brave advocates for freedom in Iran, who continue to protest and suffer from the tyrannical rule of the mullahs. As we celebrate our liberty this July 4th, lets display green (the color of the protestors) along with the red, white and blue to show support. It can be a banner, ribbon, or something you wear. And speak out wherever you can. They struggle for the basic rights we take for granted and it's always been the Jewish way to side with those who fight for human rights.

Until nex time....

Shmuel