Why take a Jewish journey?

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Rabbi Sacks teaches us that “At some point in life, every reflective human being will ask three fundamental questions: Who am I? Why am I here? How then shall I live? Whether we believe, or don’t believe, these are religious questions. Science can tell us how life began, but it can never tell us what life is for…The various sciences, natural, social or human, can tell us how, but not why. The ‘why’ questions ask us to lift up our eyes beyond the immediate, in search of the ultimate. The name we give to the ultimate ultimate is God… The search for meaning at its heart is a religious quest…God is always close to us, but we are not always close to God. How then do we come close to Him? By living Jewishly.”

There are many ways of finding God, many paths to the Divine presence. For this course we have chosen ten of the most important:

1. Identity. We are born into a family that has a history. Who are we? To which story do we belong?
2. Prayer.  The most focused way in which we reach out to God.
3. Study. The highest of all Jewish acts, which the Sages said was more holy even than prayer.
4. Mitzvot, the way of the commands. In prayer we find God by speaking; in study we find God in listening; in mitzvot we find God by doing.

Then come the three great attributes of the Jewish personality:
5. Tzedakah.  Love as justice
6. Chesed. Love as compassion
7. Faith. Love as loyalty

Then, lastly, come the three great expressions of Jewish life:
8. Israel
9. Kiddush Hashem. Sanctifying God’s name in the world by acting as God’s ambassadors.
10. Responsibility

“However long we live, life is short, too short. Every day matters. Every day in which we do not do some good deed, take some step toward God, make some difference to the world, is a day lost – and our days on earth are too few to waste even one”.