For a long time I practiced a brand of “religion” all my own. The 12-step approach to spirituality gave me permission to sidestep any baggage a might have about any particular dogma and look inward and upward for guidance. This was at once freeing and perplexing.
my G_d your G-d — honest belief that there IS some objective reality — wanting the “real G_d”; plus, polytheistic undertone bothered me.
cultural pull — Jewish identity and pride.
Spirituality vs. Religion — does it really have to be vs. — think DC Deli — does that have to be how it is?
Torah Judaism’s allure — bringing it all together…..
But then, cultural stuff, social pressures — personal char defects — lox and bagel and the black hat
sprituality, religion, culture — structure support and accountability feedback loop. NONE OF THEM ARE THE IT!
According to Robert M. Seltzer in Jewish People, Jewish Thought, “Religion is man’s effort to elicit meaning and value from confrontation with the holy. Through acts of worship he enters into formal communion with the divine; through myths and theology he seeks to explain the relation between the divine and the actualities of life. Proceeding one step further, religious literature collects, records, and organizes this lore and teaching, enabling man’s positive respoknse to the holy to be transmitted over the span of gnerations.”
