PRAYER OF HEALING (In the spirit of non-theistic religious naturalism)

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

(Our prayer is starting to take shape, thanks to the input of Edmond H. Weiss, Hillel Cohn, and others. )

רוח העולם ומקור כל יקום

Nature has provided our bodies with the means to keep us vital. We hope these will prove effective and that our doctors, nurses and other healers will have methods and insight to strengthen those means when the afflictions are too powerful for us to battle them alone. Illness and suffering are not punishments, but rather an inevitable part of life itself.

We invoke God, the ordering mind of the universe, and express our gratitude for our health and wellbeing. We also think of our friends and relatives who are suffering. In particular. We think of…..(names here). We hope they will be restored to health, both physical and spiritual, in due time. We want them to know that we are thinking of them and will keep them in our mind continually. May they see release soon and may we continue to enjoy their company in better times. And for those with a terminal illness, we hope they will leave life with the gentle kiss of peace.

Amen.

A JEWISH VIEW OF JESUS

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

 Every year on Dec. 25, most Christians around the world celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus, the founder of their faith, with elaborate religious services, family gatherings, the display of the Christmas tree and various local traditions. I grew up in Turkey, a Muslim country. I remember the Greek Orthodox of our community celebrating the birth of Jesus with much singing and colorful rituals within their churches. Outside, however, life went on, without much fanfare.

For centuries, scholars have been debating the question of who was Jesus, the individual? In reality, we know very little about his life. As I wrote in my Modern Judaism (Cognella, 2013, p. 182), “There is no contemporary evidence of Jesus that refers to him or to his activities. It is presumed that he was a Galilean (Jew), born in Nazareth around 4 BCE, and killed by the Romans around 30 CE….From all we know, he was a Pharisee, and most likely belonged to a group of visionaries who predicted the end of the Roman Empire, causing the ire of the Roman authorities in Palestine.”

          The problem is compounded by the fact that the Gospel accounts in the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus, were written many centuries after his death and are in many places contradictory, such as the time of his crucifixion (Mark 15:25, at 9 am vs. John 19:14, at noon), his healing of blind people (Mark 10:46, one person vs. Matt 20: 30, two men), and many others. Most New Testaments scholars agree that the Gospels reflect the piety of the Church regarding Jesus more than they reflect the individual Jesus.

          Throughout the years, Jewish researchers have developed various images of Jesus. According to the historian Heinrich Graetz (19^th cent), he was an “Essene” (namely a member of one of the Jewish sects that emerged in the first century CE); Abraham Geiger (d. in 1874) , a German Rabbi and scholar, viewed him as a Pharisee with “Galilean coloring.” The British thinker, Claude Montefiore (d. in 1938) considered him a prophet; Joseph Klausner (d.1958), an historian, portrayed him as a great teacher of morality and an artist of parables; the philosopher Martin Buber (d. 1965) called him “my great brother.” Samuel Sandmel, an expert in the New Testament, (d.1979) thought “he had gifts of leadership and was something of a  teacher.”  

In reality, it was Paul, the apostle, who brought Jesus to the attention of the gentiles in Asia Minor. Consequently, Christianity grew and became a different religion from Judaism , stressing the concepts of salvation, Jesus as the intermediary between God and the people ,and not only as a prophet who predicted the fall of Rome, but also as the long awaited Messiah, even the son of God. Many early Christians also believed that Jesus, who died at the cross, will come back again in the future.

Muslims, too, have high respect for Jesus: they believe that, born of the virgin Mary (Sura, 19:20), he was a messenger of God (Sura 4: 171), but not divine. Mohammad also maintained that he was not crucified, as another man was made to resemble him but that Allah took him to Himself (Sura 4: 157).

          For me, Jesus stands as a Jewish teacher and a preacher of antiquity, who opened the door to a new understanding of the human existence. He appears to be a person of piety and kindness, but not a divine being. This makes for a wonderful dialogue between Jews, Moslems and Christians.

 

MY RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY-PART THREE

 

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D.

 

MY CONCEPT OF GOD:

In my book, The Many Faces of God (2004), I have summarized my view on God in these words:

“Like others, I, too, went from stage to stage in my theological development. I consider myself more of a researcher and teacher rather than a systematic theologian. I like to look for legitimate options, and make them available to my students and readers as viable and authentic responses to matters of life and death. As an individual I, too, had to struggle with questions of existence, and looked for explanations that made sense to me. I gave up my childhood notion of classical theism, because my logical mind and inquisitive nature would not yield the conclusions I was asked to accept. I find mysticism appealing but not totally compatible with my rationalistic tendencies. I am not satisfied with the claim of the religious humanists that God, as the highest image of ourselves, is capable of answering our queries. Also, I cannot conceive of a theology that looks at the universe from the divine perspective. I believe theology starts with our own questions, and ends with our tentative answers.

I am more attracted to the views of the religious naturalists who maintain that there is an energy that sustains the universe. Based on observation and analysis, I see a certain order in the world around us, and conclude, much like some of the medieval thinkers and even a few early rabbis, that this order implies an ordering mind, or in my case, an ordering power and energy that stands for God. The laws of nature, I argue, are simply a manifestation of this universal energy that makes possible for me to exist. And for this, I am very appreciative, and express my thanks to God through prayers of gratitude and works of loving-kindness that benefit my family and community. I affirm the freedom of the human will, and can live with the realization that I don’t have all the answers for the tension that exists between the realities of good and evil, because I do not know all the inner workings of the universe. In the spirit of Spinoza, I say that if we knew how the world operates, we could predict our next move. But alas, this is not within our ability. So, we live in an imperfect world and with limited abilities to understand the mysteries around us, while desperately looking for meaning and purpose in our daily struggles” (pp.250-1).

 

WHAT PRAYER ACCOMPLISHES

 

Of the three major types of prayer (i.e., praise, gratitude and petition), it is the prayers of petition that create problems for many people. The reasons vary: we expect an immediate answer that fails to materialize; the text of the prayer is inadequate either because of its archaic nature, patriarchal language or non-inclusive character; sometimes we even equate nobility of expression with profundity of thought. In reality the crux of the problem is theological. Heschel once said, “The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God” (Man’s Quest for God. New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1954, 58). Consequently, if you believe, you can then pray. For a long time I, too, subscribed to this notion. However, recently, I realized that people could struggle with prayer and theology at the same time. As theological views become clearer, prayers too become more authentic. Prayer is a natural need of every human being. The question is what to expect from it? Here below are my conclusions:

1.     To help create a good prayerful mood, one needs an inspiring text and an uplifting music within an appropriate physical setting.

2.     Prayers should be read not as legal briefs but as poetry pointing to something higher.

3.     One should refrain to pray for the impossible, for God works through the laws of nature, and God is not likely to change the course of events no matter how fervent the prayer or pious the individual.

4.     It is more important to express one’s goals and aspirations through prayers than to expect an answer for them. If we are able to formulate our thoughts clearly and turn them into a program of action, the action itself becomes our answer.

5.     Prayers do not change the world outside, but give the worshipers a better insight into themselves. As the Gates of Prayer had it, “Who rise from prayer better persons, their prayer is answered.”

6.     Even if, at the moment, it is not possible to enter into a prayerful mood, one can and should identify with the community as part of the worship experience. By praying together we can strengthen one another.

 

 

MY RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY-PART TWO

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D.

THE SENSE OF WONDER

When I wake up in the morning and realize that I am alive in a world that operates in a reliable yet mysterious ways, I am moved to express gratitude to God that has made me part of it. Abraham J. Heschel once wrote, “Wonder or radical amazement is the chief characteristic of the religious man’s attitude toward history and nature.” (See, God in Search of Man; Philadelphia: JPS, 1962, 45). The awareness that the universe has an intricate composition has led many, including me, to revere life. Not only am I in awe before the workings of the world, even during a pandemic such as the Corona Virus of the 2020’s, but I am equally struck by the way our bodies operate harmoniously most of the time. I view human beings as bulks of energies stimulated by forces within and without. How does the heart know to beat regularly? How does our digestive system work so properly most of the time? The ancient rabbis, noting this wonder, even penned a prayer to be said after one wakes up: “Blessed are You, God, who has formed the human body in wisdom, and has created in it intricate passages, vessels and openings. It is clear to You that if one of them is blocked or opened, we could not stand before You. Blessed are You, God, who heals all flesh in a wondrous way.” 

RELIGION 

The universe operates in wondrous ways. However, this recognition does not eliminate the problems we face in our daily life, either because of the limitations of our  bodies, the unfairness we encounter in our dealings with others, or even when we fight natural disasters not of our own making. We are devastated when tragedies mar our existence. Most of us can understand and accept that people will eventually pass away, but we find it very difficult to deal with the death of a loved one, either at the hands of others or because of natural causes. We do not live in a perfect world, and certainly do not know all the intricacies of the universe.  Life is mysterious, and, at times, even unpredictable, requiring a wholesome perspective. For many, including me, religion does that.

But what does the word “religion” mean? Some people derive it from the Latin “relegare” meaning to re-examine carefully, and others from “religare” meaning to connect (with God). Even though the second one is the most popular understanding of the word today, it is still vague. What does it mean to connect with God? What does God mean? Hebrew does not have a proper word for “religion.” In medieval times, we find the word dat, which can mean law, custom or faith. In modern Hebrew a dati is a religiously observant person.

Of the various definitions of religion, I believe, Erich Fromm (1900-1980) has provided the broadest one. He argued that religion gives the individual a “frame of orientation” as well as “an object of devotion.” Each of us has a “frame of orientation” through which we view the world, and “an object of devotion” to which we pledge ultimate loyalty. The question is how to identify these “frames” and “objects?” 

Maimonides (d. 1204) defined religion as “to know God (intellectually).” For Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983) “the essence of every religion is the human quest for salvation (i.e.., self-realization).” In Abraham J. Heschel’s (1907-1972) view, “Religion is an answer to man’s ultimate questions.” Roland Gittelsohn (1910-1995) proposed one in line with his religious naturalism: it is “the study of the mutual spiritual relations between human organisms and their total cosmic environment.”  Alvin Reines (1926-2004) suggested: “Religion is the human person’s response to the conflict of finitude;” namely, how do we deal with the realization that we are all limited and are destined to die one day?  For me, religion needs to be defined broadly as a way to help us find our place in the world, with all its limitations and possibilities. In this sense, I consider everyone religious because we all have the same concerns and expectations. Whether we are Jewish, Christian, Muslim (or other), how we personally respond to our existential questions becomes our religion. For me, Judaism, provides the best interpretation of human life, with its plusses and minuses,  and that is why, in addition to being part of the Jewish people, I choose to remain a religious Jew.

The term “religion” is much wider than “observance.”  The second one deals with practices, the first refers to one’s attitude to life in general. Also, even though most religious people are moral individuals, “religion” and “morality” are not one and the same, because plenty of people have claimed to be religious while engaging in unethical behavior.

Dec. 7, 2020