Jeremy Rosen
Varieties of Jewish Belief from Fundamentalism to Atheism: Does it Matter?
Summary
Since the Enlightenment, Jewish religious life in the West has fractured into rival sects, denominations and identities. Whereas Eastern Jewry has remained all-inclusive. Can we still talk of one people and one religion?
Jeremy Rosen
Manchester-born Jeremy Rosen was educated at Cambridge University England and Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He has practiced as an orthodox rabbi, as principal of Carmel College in the UK, and as professor at the Faculty for Comparative Religion in Antwerp, Belgium. He has written and lectured extensively in the UK and the US, where he now resides and was the rabbi of the Persian-Jewish community in Manhattan.
Listen, I am sane because I have my understanding and interpretation of what Judaism is and I have studied enough to know something about which I talk and I have some expertise to do it. And as a result, I focus on the positive. I focus on the experience of living a Jewish life that matters to me and I do it my way. Quote, what’s his name? Frankie. So I think we all should be taking upon ourselves the decision as to what kind of Judaism we want to follow. Some want Kabbalah, some want mysticism, some want superstition, some want hocus-pocus, some want rational, some philosophical, whatever it is everybody chooses because we are different, we’re not the same. So I am not depressed, I’m saddened but not depressed about the conflict. But each one of us has to look after our own shop, look after our own souls, look after our own families and look after our own Jewish identity. And if you have a Jewish identity, whatever it is, stick to it unless you are convinced you should change. In which case change.
I’m not God. How do I know God wants? All I can say is coming back to I said before, that God wants us to be good human beings who care. He wants us to avoid being pagans, which means being selfish.