*sings*A new fantastic point of view…*sings*

Okay, enough of that. So this past Thursday, Calvin and I went to the final session in a 3 part series at the Jewish Community Center on “God at Mt. Siani”. We had gone to all three sessions, which basically were an educational experience for us in how the three main Jewish denominations think about inspiration and revelation of the Torah. The first night was the orthodox point of view, then last week was the reformed, then finally this past Thursday was the conservative. All-in-all, it was just really fascinating. It is one thing to hear people say, “Well the Jews say this, or this,” but to hear them speak on it themselves was fantastic. Not only that, but we got out feet wet in understanding Judaism as a whole, meaning, how the religion works and what it is about.

The lectures were set up in a panel format, where the certain rabbi that was giving the main lecture than night would speak for 20-25 minutes, and then the other two (or three; one night there was a Hasidic rabbi there as well) rabbis would have the opportunity to respond to what he said. Then, the moderator, who was a professor from the BU college of Judaic studies (or something like that) would open up the floor for questions from the audience. Just to see the interaction between the different points of view, and all that, was fascinating. Anyways, we learned alot, and were given much food for thought. I’m glad that we attended, even if it was quite obvious that we were the only goyim there, sitting in the back of the room with our little notepads scribbling furiously!

I only wish I wasn’t such a chicken; I wanted especially after the final session to talk with the reformed Rabbi, as he graduated from the same school as our beloved Rabbi Snyder, Hebrew Union College, but alas, I am afraid I am still much too shy in such situations. And my husband isn’t much better.
Now, I’m going to work my way through Galatians, to see if my understanding of Jewish thought has helped my understanding of Paul any. One big thought that the light bulb went on for me on is that for Judaism (and they said this over and over!) it’s about doing doing doing, not faith. The reformed Rabbi even mentioned the difference specifically between their ancestors, the Pharisees, and the Hebrew Christians in regards to how they viewed things. The Hebrew Christians stressed faith –> works, whereas the Pharisees stressed works –> faith. Now mind you, I’m still not sure if we’re talking getting in here, because the Jews were (are?) all in already, you must understand. Or maybe “in” and “out” are just not words we should be using at all. But somehow there is a huge difference, and I began to understand that just sitting there listening to these rabbis expound on their own religion.

Well anyways, I just wanted to say something about our little fun journey into a world not our own.