why observe Jewish law?

[cellio]

A friend asked (in a locked post, so I won't link) why I follow Jewish law. What do I get out of it? I want to record my answer here.

I follow the law because it improves my relationship with God and because it elevates mundane tasks.

Consider eating. Animals eat. Humans need to eat, but we have minds and souls and we don't have to be like animals. The simple act of saying a blessing before ("getting permission") and giving thanks afterwards ("grace") elevates the otherwise-coarse act of eating to a holier status. Now consider actually choosing to restrict what I eat (and how I eat it) because I understand that this is what God asks of us. It's such a simple thing to skip the shellfish and, in return, God might reach out a little to me just as I reach out to God. That's a win!

When I was in the process of becoming more religious (that is, moving from being an apatheist to actually paying attention to God), I found that if I sincerely tried, even with baby steps, I saw positive results. Psychologists might well say that that's because I caused those changes through a more positive outlook; if so, so what? Does that matter if God -- or my God-concept -- was the underlying force? We're supposed to take an active role; if by praying to God I get no direct effect from God, but the act itself causes me to improve my own behavior, isn't that still a win? Well, it's not just prayer that can produce that effect. Keeping Shabbat, eating properly, striving to repair the world, studying torah... it's all bundled up in there.

Comments

What if.....

[(Anonymous)]

I'm curious as to how you conceive of your choice to become -Jewishly- religious. You stated in an earlier blog that you don't believe anyone has the monopoly on truth. If so then why not convert to Islam?

I've asked myself this question and my answer centers around the fact that I was born into a Jewish family.

Let's say that everyone has their own functions and G-d sorts souls out to be born into the whole gamut of families on this world. If I was born into an Athiest Family with Islamic roots then maybe there's something I can do within my world, in an Athiestic/Islam-influenced way? Might be a bit of heretical notion. Does everyone need to become religious in their own ways? I don't know. What I do know is that if G-d really hated people from other faiths then they wouldn't be here. Everyone must have their function to play.

Maybe there's some function that you were meant to play in a Jewish context? It is easier for you and I to become Jewishly religious. We don't have to contend with our families disowning us (G-d forbid that should happen to anyone) and our friends thinking that we've gone off to world that they completely don't understand (differentiated by geography and culture).

It's confusing but I guess all you can do is constantly examine your ways and ask yourself if what you're doing is really the right thing?

Religiously,

- Inkhorn

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

I know it's tangential to your intended topic, but can you honestly say, having lived with your cats, that animals don't have minds? and where it it written that they don't have souls?

[madfilkentist]

This is dangerous ground to enter, and I'm choosing my words to make my strong disagreement clear while being respectful of you as a person.

The difficulty is that one accepts religious authority as a standard for one's life, nothing guarantees that the demands of the authority will be only "simple things." The act of accepting someone's authority that God wants certain things is itself not a simple thing; it means that the judgment of another stands above your own judgment of what is right.

For instance, as you put it, the act of saying a blessing before eating implies that one must have permission from authority even to eat. This permission may have conditions on it. The conditions may be actions which you would otherwise know were wrong. The choice is then to defy the authority or to close off your mind.

In the Book of Joshua, God allegedly told the Israelites to massacre the entire population of Jericho, right down to the babies and the livestock. They committed mass murder it simply because that was what God asked of them, and because they expected that God would do something for them in return.

Israel has advanced beyond that barbaric standard, but the Book of Joshua hasn't been expunged from the list of holy books, even though it glorifies genocide. And there are other people (mostly Muslims of a certain flavor) who still commit mass murder because they believe it is what God asks of them and because God will reach out to them in return.

If "God wants it" is a sufficient justification for action, we haven't risen above the level of savagery.

[nobble.livejournal.com]

You know, I find you a real inspiration. Your views, although quite different in terms of theology to mine, are refreshing and thoughtful and directional. I wish I could motivate myself in the same way and direction that you have, but along the orthodox path that I see to align with.

My parents think that I'm mad, at this age and stage of my life wanting to keep a kosher home and send my little boy to a jewish school. They never did. They justify their actions in reaction to the experiences they had as children in a world that persecuted difference and intelligence, thought, culture and enlightenment (from every walk of life). They cannot understand why I even admit to being a jew. It's really weird.

But even wanting as much as I do, I just wish I could get off my proverbial and do it. I have to find that motivator. Mind you. Interacting with a particularly dogmatic rabbisten is no incentive ...I can hear her voice "so why do we do that Rachael - because God said to". My brain powers down like something out of a cartoon.

Anyway, I need to find some guidance and a group that is quite interesting to go along and participate with I think. Do you think that is the key?

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

I've seen an interesting analysis that religions that ask their followers to do more tend to have more faithful adherents, because you don't value what you get for free.