When I look outside the religion & the books of the religion, I see erie sense of confirmation of the religion. Keeping in mind that I'm not sure if there's a God or not... I still see this.As I look through history there's a erie way in which Judaism itself has enabled the Jewish people to survive. It's not something outside the religion. It's the essenses of the religion. The emphasis on individual responiblity, i.e. self-empowerment. The dialog style, way of reading Torah that isn't literal in the Christian sense, that teaches room for muliple opinions so we so stand each other even when we can't stand each other. The erieness that Judaism was a national revelation - it was given to ALL Jews at the same time on Mt. Sinai. It claims all people witnessed it & not that someone brough it to us. That's just plain different than every other religion. The way, no matter what the world throws at us, it teaches up to elevate, to connect to compassion & love internally. So much so that a mere 60 years after the Holocaust, Judasim & Jews haven't striveled into a mass of revenge. Growing up I was never taught once by the father, a survivor, to hate Germans inspite of his own visceral reactiveness to anything German.So when I look at history moments & see Judaism survive, then see it was in large part because of Judasim's elements itself, it's erie. It's beyond my usual experience of history. So it does make me puzzle. I really like the image on the Arch de Trumph of the Roman's carrying away the Jewish menorah from the Temple after it's defeat. These proud conqueror's of the world, who'd inherited so much phillosophy from the Greeks... who are gone now, & we're still making our menorahs (not the same as chanuikah's for Hanukah.)Then there's a number of times that I've seen what seems like "silly" more religious ways of following Torah, come back later with ways in which they work in the world. This is harder to quantify for me, because it's a newer thought for me. I've been following Shabbat. This is not a "day of rest" as in vacation as many tend to think. It's a rest from "creating." By using that concept, it creates a space in life that can't be gotten in other ways. I have an illness & react to the way chicken is commerically prepared. I am fine with organic chicken -- and kosher chicken. The rules of kashrut turn out to force healthier more human ways of raising chickens & the result matters, even this many years later in a new way. The words in Torah that say that not a letter can be changed later, has been invaluable now a days at refuting all sorts of claims at Judaism as being "faked." (For a while they were popular in R&S but exist in general.) Always seemed a little silly to me to get that sacred about things, but rather than being harmful by keeping false concepts in tact that wouldl be hard to defend, it's really helpful at refuting attacks since the concepts that stayed the same are good ones. There are more instances I'm starting to see.I seriously doubt I've been able to explain these ideas all that well. However, when I look outside to history studies, I find they tend to reflect Jewish concepts rather way.Actually another way that's cool is the past was filled with human sacrifice cultures & also cultures that put a man-god-ruler into role of God of their people. Judasim is all about moving past those concepts. It was formed at that time, & history shows those concepts did exist then. There are a number of huge paradigm shifts in the Jewish way of approaching the world around them from those earlier cultures. Those shifts are big, many, & close together (in one book). They aren't continued by Christianity or Islam quite as much, which do things differently. So one wonders where these ideas came from & how a silly little rag tag group of people, who have been no more than that since the beginning of their days... can be such a big influence & deal in the world. It's not Jewish imagination. Even a Japanese reporter to a Israeli cabinet minister commented that even though there are practically no Jews in Japan, he was calling because "Jews are news."Again, I'm not sure I buy any of this. However when I look at history externally, it doesn't through Judaism out the window.Even more importantly, if every story of the Torah was completely false, the wisdoms & ways of living life that come out of Judasim are beautiful & powerful --so it matter not an ounce if it's true stuff. For example, the way we look for a messiah to make a world of peace & non-illness & wonder ...is to claim that WE, all humans, are responsible for improving the world & it is when we've done enough that we'll be ready for the messiah to appear. Now how sane is that, to give a visceral image on a deep level of how important it is to elevate people & how we function? It doesn't require belief or accuracy of the history, to just want to partipate in that as a way to feel
