| Why would a person who knows they're Jewish and cares about this, but
who
knows nothing of Torah, want to keep Shabbos?
One of the problems with outreach to Jews who know nothing of Torah,
Shabbos, et al., is that they are not impressed by reasoning based on
faith.
For a person who can't find their faith (I don't think anyone ever
truly
loses their faith, but they sure may not know about it), telling them
to
believe or to "do before you understand" is not usually
effective.
After all, the 90% of Jews who are disaffected only respond to the
usual
exhortations to keep Shabbos, kosher, tefillin, etc., in very small
numbers.
So why would a person who can't be reached this way consider
starting
to keep Shabbos, for example? Here's a possibility.
If we presume that Torah is truly all-inclusive (a good
assumption!),
then we must presume that from the proper perspective, Torah must
include
what I call "a science of consciousness." In other words, there
must
be some _objective_ reasons that can appeal to an objective mind that
has
not yet found their inner faith.
What sort of objective reason could there be for halachic observance
of Shabbos? It's really fairly simple. These days, everyone
is familiar with phenomena related to resonance. We know that if
we want to receive a particular radio station, we have to _tune_ the
radio
to the right frequency. This is a physically objective
process.
If you want to receive, be connected to, have a sense of, communicate
with,
learn from, some source, then you must find a way to _resonate_ with
it.
So here's the connection. A person who is Jewish, who wants to
be connected to Jewish tradition and who feels a sense of being part of
the history of the Jewish people, must "tune in" to the "Jewish
frequency."
Through all the ages, as a commandment, as a tradition, as a habit --
through
all the ages -- the vast majority of Jews have worked and lived by a
7-day
cycle. This is _objectively_ the predominant "Jewish
frequency."
(Of course, the entire ritual year is even a stronger resonance.
But Shabbos is its linchpin.)
So a non-religious person who wishes to understand the soul of the
history
of his own people, who wishes to have a sense of greater connectedness
not to Jewish religion per se, but to "Jewish being," can connect to
this
"Jewish energy" by tuning their own work-and-life cycle to the Jewish
Shabbos
frequency.
In other words, if a person is an academic scholar, and they are
studying
Jewish history, they'll have a better sense of it if they "tune
themselves
to its frequency."
If a person is singing Hatikvah, it will be deeper and purer, and
more
connected and more powerful, when they "tune themselves to its
frequency."
Whatever a person is doing, if they want to have a sense of its
Jewish
roots, and if they want to partake of the energy and inspiration
carried
by 5000 years of Jewish history, then they "tune themselves to its
frequency."
This sort of approach, based on objective reality, can reach people
whose only faith (currently) is in objective reality. Surely, no
modern person denies the necessity of tuning to the right frequency in
order to get _anything_ to happen. (All objective machinery has
frequencies
of motion and rotation and process.)
Once a person starts keeping Shabbos -- even if only so they can
"soak
in Jewish energy" for their own personal reasons -- that opens the door
to _receiving_ "Jewish energy." And of course, this is the Light
in Torah, and it starts to be seeable, and any normal healthy person is
naturally attracted to this Light, and starts to grow towards it, and
towards
Torah, and towards observance, and eventually, towards taking
responsibility
via halacha.
There's no need for us to abandon the 90% of Am Israel that
currently
cannot feel Torah and Hashem in their heart. If we believe that
bad
TV can seduce our children, why can we not believe that "good Shabbos"
can seduce us (towards Torah) also?
The fact is that the "Light in Torah" is a lot brighter than the sun
that all plants always reach for so they can grow. Negative
threats
are not required for a plant to reach for the sun. All that's
required
is a glimpse of its life-giving Light, and any decent, healthy, mature
plant is going to use all of its lifes' energy to reach for it.
I am certain that the same is true for us. There is no need to
complain about Shabbos violators. There is no need to chastise
them,
any more than there is a need to chastise a plant so that it will reach
up instead of down. What's needed is to allow the Light in Torah
to be felt and seen throughout Am Israel. Fortunately, because
Torah
includes ALL, it includes objective views of the Light it holds, that
can
be seen and felt by people who demand the objective.
The idea that there is a "science of consciousness" in Torah appeals
to people who temporarily worship the idol of science, and who
temporarily
don't know about "the Light in Torah". This is a "gate" to Torah
that is available, specifically because people have been lured into
comfort
in the secular, objective, material mode.
top
|