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
Seeds Ready to Move out into the World!
If you read my “Dream Decree” for the second half of 2012 you know I’m trying to “blossom.” Part of this idea is me contributing more for other sites and conversely invited others to share their voices on Peeling a Pomegranate. To get started, I’m inviting some people I’ve known for a while to share their spiritual journey and/or their “Principles of Faith” or in other language, a “What I Believe” statement.
I’m very excited to have Aron Gamman as my first official guest blogger on Peeling a Pomegranate. I’ve known Aron via the Internet for several years, and I realized that as part of this experiment I really wanted to start by bringing a man’s voice on to the site. Not that men’s voices are lacking in Judaism, or any other spiritual community, but here it’s been a woman’s voice for seven years. I’ll be inviting others over the next few weeks and months. If you are interested, I hope you’ll let me know. Just because I have a list in my head of who I’m thinking of doesn’t mean you aren’t one of them — or couldn’t be one of them.
Tags: guest bloggers, interfaith, voices
For the first time in a long time, I didn’t lead a Rosh Hashanah service. Because of that — I didn’t name my 5772 year formally. So, I’m taking advantage of this beautiful energy of the secular New Year and doing it now for the rest of 5772.
Dream Decree
My word for the year is “BLOSSOM,” and I’m choosing the humble, yet beautiful and tenacious, dandelion to represent it. At first I thought, “I need some luscious flower with voluminous folds of petals.” But that’s totally wrong. I want to be a pretty, tenacious, wild and free dandelion! Some people may overlook me, but there’s no holding me back.
Dandelions dig deep roots so they can fly away free.
Tags: 2012, dream decree, elements, four elements, sustainable spirituality
