Question for Guest Voices Series 1, from Ketzirah: RamBam, Rabbi Moses ben Maimomedes created his 13 Principles of Judaism in the late 12th or early 13th Century CE. For the Orthodox, these are the defining principles of Jewish faith. For those of us not Orthodox it opens a question. What do you believe and how does it relate to traditional Judaism? Write your Principles of Faith, no more than 13 concepts, that define Judaism as you understand it. You can respond directly to RamBam’s 13 Principles point-for-point, or use this as a jumping off point like I did.
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When Ketzirah posed to me the question “what do you believe in” I felt the task would be quite daunting and my answers very ambiguous. However, using this as an exercise to explore my higher self was quite beneficial because I’ve never taken inventory of my beliefs nor have I dived into the precipice of apologetics as a Jew. This experience has been enlightening and I plan on trying this exercise with several of my clients.
Ketzirah guided me to structure my beliefs around Rambam’s Thirteen Principles. I went to several websites that offered their interpretation of the Rambam’s Thirteen Principles to gain a better understanding of them. At first glance I felt like I wanted to scrap them all-together. Then I realized that instead of commenting on his principles from my point of view I would try re-interpreting each principle and re-writing it has how I understood them. What’s more is that instead of relying on someone else’s interpretation to guide me I decided to follow my heart and see where it would lead me. I’ve combined several of the principles into a single thought but I’ve included the number of which principle my thoughts were referencing.
Tags: earth based judaism, guest voices, GV-S1, judaism, principles of faith, rabbinic judaism, rambam, series1, spirituality, what do you believe
May your cup runneth over...(Photo by Ketzirah. Taken at the Jefferson Courtyard, Georgetown, Washington DC
Shevat 5772 begins at sundown January 25th, 2012 and ends at sundown February 23rd, 2012.
The month of Shevat, and Tu b’Shevat are our chance to rebalance ourselves and our energy before the season of real growing begins. ~ from Shevat 5769
I bet you expected this month’s symbol to be all about trees and planting of trees — but that’s so easy to find (and I’ll be writing about that for PunkTorah)! Here at Peeling a Pomegranate we’re going to talk about drinking and drinking vessels! How did I get to cups (כוסות) and the drinking of wine as the practice which symbolizes the month of Shevat. It was an easier leap than you might think. While the Tu B’Shevat seder may not be as ancient a practice as the Passover Seder, it has grown and grown in awareness and popularity. While both also have four cups of wine, the Tu b’Shevat seder is even more focused around the drinking of these cups than Passover is. It also aligns well with the astrological sign of the month, the bucket or vessel. So cups is our object for the month and the act of blessing and drinking a cup of wine, is our action.
Tags: blessings, cups, kiddush, seder, shevat, symbolism, symbols, Tu b'Shevat, wine
Question for Guest Voices Series 1, from Ketzirah: RamBam, Rabbi Moses ben Maimomedes created his 13 Principles of Judaism in the late 12th or early 13th Century CE. For the Orthodox, these are the defining principles of Jewish faith. For those of us not Orthodox it opens a question. What do you believe and how does it relate to traditional Judaism? Write your Principles of Faith, no more than 13 concepts, that define Judaism as you understand it. You can respond directly to RamBam’s 13 Principles point-for-point, or use this as a jumping off point like I did.
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Interestingly enough, although I reject most of Rambam’s 13 principles, what I do agree with on some level is his notion of unity. That’s the heart of my own principles of life, although I have come to them intellectually as well as intuitively. From this I conclude much like Hillel, they not doing what is hateful to others allows us to discover our ethics. Being sensitive to the harm caused by ourselves and others allows us to be better people. This is a result of living in a world that’s interconnected. When we deny that connection, either intellectually, emotionally or spirituality we shut ourselves off. I believe at this point that we become most likely to cause great harm to the other beings in the world. I don’t believe this requires some external authority to conclude, but something we can recognize as mature adults.
Tags: earth based judaism, guest voices, GV-S1, judaism, principles of faith, rabbinic judaism, rambam, responsa, series 1, spirituality, what do you believe
