An
article I read about an interview with Noam Chomsky inspired me to write this
blog. Before I knew anything about Noam
Chomsky, I was introduced to the work of his father William Chomsky through his book Hebrew: The Eternal Language. It contains a wealth of knowledge
about the culture behind ancient Hebrew words. It wasn’t until I returned to
college and began taking linguistics courses that I learned about Noam. He is a
professor at MIT and is considered the “Father
of Modern Linguistics.” In an awards ceremony at MIT, he was introduced as
the “world's most cited living scholar.”
He is also known as “the world's leading political dissident,”
which often makes him an unpopular figure to those on the right and left.
In
a December 14, 2016 interview with Daily
Mirror, Noam Chomsky was asked: “And your views on religion, you were born
into a Jewish family and raised . . . .” His answer brought back some old
memories for me. I grew up in a town that did not have a synagogue and I did
not personally know any Jewish people until I began my research on the Jewish
Jesus in my mid-30s. The first Jews I met practiced ultraorthodox forms of
Judaism. Since I came from a fundamentalist Protestant Christian background, it
seemed to me that we shared a lot of things in common – belief in one God, belief in the Scriptures, etc.
Later,
I got to know another group of Jews who made it clear to me that they were
atheists. Now I knew a lot of “former
Christians” who were atheists, but this group did not identify themselves
as “former Jews;” they made it clear they still Jews. But
even though that gave me something to think about, what they did simply did not
compute – they kept the Shabbat, went to
synagogues on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and did other “Jewish” things!
Why would people
who didn’t believe in God do those things? It took me a long time to
finally understand. Chomsky’s response to the question above reminded me of
that period in my life and that’s why I decided to share it with you. (I added underlines
to highlight points).
“Well,
remember that Judaism is fundamentally a religion of practice, more than
belief. So, say my grandfather, who was basically still living in the 17th
century Eastern Europe was ultra religious. But if I had asked him, did you
believe in God? He probably wouldn’t have known what I was talking about.
Judaism means carrying out the practices. My father was basically
secular, but deeply involved in Jewish life. If you go to a New England
church on Sunday morning, you would find people who are deeply religious,
but not believers. Religion to them means community, associations, helping
each other, having some common values and so on. Religion could be all sorts
of things. But to me, it doesn’t happen to be a value; if other people do,
that is their business.”
Judaism
is “fundamentally a religion of practice.”
Keep that in mind when you read about the life and teachings of the Real
Yeshua. His message and movement was
about what people do, not what they believe.
This
has definitely been an exciting and challenging journey. If you found this
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Shalom,
Jim
Myers
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