Okay, I had a whole theme lined up for this issue’s column but due to unforeseeable circumstances, I’ve had to postpone that until next issue. But at least, you now have something to look forward to, right? So, now what do I write about?
Well, here’s an article about the writer of this article. Let me tell you, how many times do you have the opportunity to read about the writer himself in this newsletter? I must be a chutzpah for doing this. Because I can’t do what I wanted to do, I’ve decided to do this stunt and write about ME! Did you know that M stands for the first letter of ME and E stands for the second letter of ME? I thought that was so cool.
But, seriously, do I consider myself Jewish? It’s kind of hard to do that, isn’t it? I mean, when one thinks, “Jewish,” one thinks of a Hassidic guy in Crown Heights (that’s NYC) bowing at the local dark synagogue like something from that Golem episode of the X-Files. Yes, there’s actually an episode about Judaism in the X-Files. And it’s not what you think. It delves into the darker side of Judaism – Kabbalah. Now, that’s mysticism.
Mysticism, that’s right. Just like Zen Buddhist mediation. I’m now taking a Kabbalah class with my rabbi (who is way cool, by the way) and at the end of every class, we turn out the lights and meditate. Now, I have these Jewish classes on Wednesday night, smack in the middle of the school week, so it’s nice to do something weird in class for once. Takes off the pressure.
But Kabbalah is much more than that. One source on the Web on Kabbalah says, “The Kabbalah teaches a practical method to apprehend the upper world and the source of our existence while still ilving in this world. By this method man attains perfection, and takes control over his life and transcends the limitations of time and space. In this way he realizes his true purpose in life and achieves – tranquility, endless, unbounded enjoyment while he is still living in this world. Just like a person cannot function properly in this world without having knowledge of it, so also his soul cannot function properly in the upper world without knowledge of it. The wisdom of Kabbalah provices you this knowledgeN’
Now I bet you never knew that Judaism could have something like meditation in it. But there’s something even cooler. It’s the Golem. Now, if you already saw the XFiles episode or read the book, USnow in August,” then you know what it’s all about. According to ancient Kabbalah texts, in central-eastern Europe old senior rabbis possessed the power to actually create man. From mud. With only the chanting power of the ancient texts. What a rabbi does is he gets together a whole clump of mud, normal mud, from the ground, then shape it in the body of a man, then he chants a whole lot of Hebrew stuff, then after a while the mud man, a Golem, comes to life.
But that’s not the whole story. Since only God can put that divine spark of life in a body, the Golem is without emotion or thought. He is much like a robot, doing only what he is told to. He cannot love, he cannot cry, he cannot feel joy. And, in the end of most Golem stories, he goes back to the dust of the earth whence he came from.
My point is that the Golem isn’t what it seems to be, this article didn’t turn out as I expected, and neither is Judaism. It isn’t just some stuffy old religion with pointless blessings every Saturday. It is a vibrant culture, 4000 years in the making. And new things are continually coming from it. Kabbalah has been revived from the ancient texts, and it appeals to many people like us, young Jews.
Now, this article is ending on the same note as it began, a sense of uncertainty. What can we do for Judaism? Don’t shun it – it still has much to offer. Do I think of myself as Jewish? I don’t go to Shabbat services every Friday, and I despise the High Holy Days. But the answer is yes. I am spiritually Jewish. What about you?
