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There are people among us who have the ability to set Neshamah [ego] aside and perceive the world from the perspectives of Chayyah and Yechidah [Spirit]. These are the prophets and sages that have arisen in every age among every people. Since most of us cannot attain these prophetic heights we create a system to preserve the teachings of those who do. Religion is that system.

In the book Open Secrets, Rami Shapiro makes the above statement (emphasis mine). The book is written as spiritual fiction. It is a collection of letters written by Rami Shapiro’s great-grandfather’s Rabbi and mentor, Yerachmiel ben Yisrael. The letters seek to answer a series of questions posed by Rami Shapiro’s great-grandfather. The above passage is in response to his question about the purpose of religion.

I happen to be of the same opinion as Reb Yerachmiel on this issue. I believe that religion is a framework, and that we have mistakenly confused the vessel (religion) with the wine (spirituality). And like the Rabbi, I believe that religion is of the utmost importance in one’s life. It is your chosen path to explore your understanding of God and your relationship to Spirit.

Understanding that any particular religion is A path to God and not THE path to God is key to understanding the Truths of your religion. In the book, the Rabbi draws a comparison between the telephone game and religious texts.

In the telephone game, children whisper in the air of the person next to them a message that was passed to them. When the message gets all the way around, the last person tells the group the message he heard and the first person tells the message he originally sent. When I played the game as a child, the people at the beginning of the ring would look with bewilderment as the last person said the message and the people on the other end were in equal bewilderment over the original message.

After thousands of years of oral tradition, followed by several translations and interpretations, I think it’s safe to say that our religious texts contain Truth, but are not fact.

That said, I still believe that religion provides an effective framework to explore those Truths. In all religions there is the concept of One God. (I thought different of tribal traditions, but learned otherwise.) Every religion expouses the virtue and practice of love. This shows up as compassion, forgiveness, and unconditional love, depending on the religion. Every religion talks about the idea that people are children of God. And every religion thinks that growing closer to God helps and growing away from God hurts. The stories, the customs, the moral codes, and the concept of God, make the religions different.

In Spirit,
Nneka

This is the third installation in the review and discussion of the book Open Secrets by Rami Shapiro. The book is an easily digested, metaphysical interpretation of Judaism. In this section, one of the chapters is “Why Be Jewish?” The master Rabbi writing to his protege explains that Judaism is a path to become one with God and exprerience God in the world.

I was nodding along to everything until he said, “We are not free to be anyone we wish. We are only free to be who we are.” My head started going in circles. Did I just read right? I’m not free to be whoever I want to be? But I’ve been taught that my entire life.

Fortunately, I am studying this book in a small group and I was not the only one who got stuck on this point. A few of the participants cited the case of physical limitations to support the statement. After all, if I’m free to be anything I want to be, then I could be a track star. On the other hand, a few others argued that we do, indeed, have the potential to be, do, and have anything we want. Since that’s true, we are “free” to be whatever we want.

In the book, the master Rabbi explained to his student that he could not be anything but a rabbi. He also explained that every decision that he made in his life closed in on what he was to become.

I believe that we all have a path and a purpose, but we can choose whether or not we want to follow it. If every decision we make is true to who we are, we will walk our path, fulfill our purpose. If, on the other hand, we make decisions out of alignment with who we are (as we are free to do so), we don’t.

What do you think about the ideas of free will and fate? Do you think it has to be one or the other? If not, do you reconcile the two ideas?

In Spirit,
Nneka