Do You believe,” the disciple asked the rabbi, “that God created everything for a purpose?
“I do,” replied the rabbi.
“Well,” asked the disciple, “why did God create atheists?”
The rabbi paused before giving an answer, and when he spoke his voice was soft and intense. “Sometimes we who believe, believe too much. We see the cruelty, the suffering, the injustice in the world and we say: ‘This is the will of God.’ We accept what we should not accept. That is when God sends us atheists to remind us that what passes for religion is not always religion. Sometimes what we accept in the name of God is what we should be fighting against in the name of God.“
Chief Rabbi Emeritus [of the United Synagogues of the British Commonwealth] Jonathan Sacks
A man goes to see his Rabbi in a panic, and he gets there and he says, “Rabbi you’ll never guess what! My son has run away to become a Christian!” And the Rabbi responds, “Well you’ll never guess what! My son has also run away to become a Christian!” So the man asks the Rabbi what to do and the Rabbi says that they should pray to G-d. So they pray and tell him of their plight and G-d replies, “You’ll never guess what!”
– An old Hasidic joke that my Dad likes to tell me
Judaism is not a religion of blind obedience. Indeed, astonishingly in a religion of 613 commandments, there is no Hebrew word that means “to obey”. When Hebrew was revived as a living language in the nineteenth century, and there was need for a verb meaning “to obey,” it had to be borrowed from the Aramaic: le-tsayet. Instead of a word meaning “to obey,” the Torah uses the verb shema, untranslatable into English because it means [1] to listen, [2] to hear, [3] to understand, [4] to internalise, and [5] to respond. Written into the very structure of Hebraic consciousness is the idea that our highest duty is to seek to understand the will of God, not just to obey blindly.
Carrie fisher was Jewish. She was a strong badass powerful Jewish woman. Rest In Peace space mom.
according to Wikipedia
“Fisher described herself as an “enthusiastic agnostic who would be happy to be shown that there is a God”.[69] She was raised Protestant,[7] but often attended Jewish services, the faith of her father, with Orthodox friends.[70]”
So, unless Judaism became patrilineal when I wasn’t looking…
yeah it did actually, we all got together & changed it just so that you specifically would look like an asshole
Also tho like Jewish ethnicity actually can be patrilineal. Like I know she never followed the religion but she was a half ethnically Jewish person.
Yeah exactly. She considered herself half Jewish so as far as I’m concerned she’s one of us.
yes you can be ethnically jewish but religiously other. it’s possible. she has dual lineage as well
[Fisher] says she has early memories of her father singing in synagogue, something that had “a big effect” on her. Today, as a single mother, she and her 16-year-old daughter often attend Friday night services and Shabbat meals with Orthodox friends.
“There’s such a loveliness to lighting candles and saying what you’re grateful for that week. It’s beautiful.”
Ever the artist, when asked about Judaism, she starts singing “Hearts and Bones,” a song her ex Paul Simon wrote for her back in 1983.
The lyrics read in part: “One and one-half wandering Jews/Free to wander wherever they choose.”
knitting in the dark 