“Practice is to Judaism what belief is to Christianity. That is not to say that Judaism doesn’t have dogma or doctrine. It is rather to say that for Jews, the essence of the thing is a doing, an action. Your faith might come and go, but your practice ought not waver. (Indeed, Judaism suggests that the repeating of the practice is the best way to ensure that a doubter’s faith will return. This is best perhaps explained by a midrash…from Exodus 24, in which the people of Israel proclaim, ‘All the words that the God has spoken, we will do and we will hear (or understand).’ The word order, the rabbis have observed doesn’t seem to make sense: How can a person obey God’s commandment before they hear it? But the counterintuitive lesson, the midrash continues, is precisely that one acts out God’s commands, one does things unto God, and eventually, through the doing, one will come to hear, understand and believe.”
(Lauren Winner, Mudhouse Sabbath, p. x, emphasis mine.)
This is perhaps the best explanation of what I hope to “accomplish” in my sabbatical: To “practice unto God” and see what understanding comes from it. We leave for Costa Rica tomorrow and I have decided not to take my computer, so I will likely not post anything much for the next three weeks. But I promise lots of reflections and pictures when I return.
Peace be with you all.
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