Murder Is Still Murder

I've been seeing flurry of communication lately about Sharia, Islamic Law. There are all kinds of articles and absurdities floating around. One in particular caught my attention; it concerned Muslim men being allowed to kill their wives. I'm sure that this is now being hotly debated among Muslims. There was a FB posting about a Muslim man using this as a defense for killing his wife. This may be true, maybe not, but I wouldn't put it past a number of people who think like this.

On the radio this morning, they were mentioning that the "Shoe Bomber" was protesting his conviction, because Islamic Law gave him permission to blow up the plane. He further stated that when his shoes failed to explode that meant that it was not his, or the others on the planes time to die. A meme (belief) like that pretty well justifies about everything, doesn’t it. By the way, it isn’t found only in Islam.

I ask, who is this, who are these people who set themselves up as judges of Life and Death? From where do they get their values? Jewish Sages understood the importance of the governments and laws in the countries where they lived. In the Mishnah, Rabbinic Scripture, it says to acknowledge the civil laws where they live otherwise, "A man shall eat his neighbor up alive."

There must be a Common Set of Values to which the members of a Community adhere -- otherwise those people would simply be a bunch of individuals living in Chaos! America was conceived as a country of Laws, created BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE FOR THE COMMON GOOD (we call it TOV)! Life for every person is to be protected and preserved. The Common Good of all people is to help their lives more functional and increase their quality of life. LIFE COMES FIRST. This message is reflected in the words of the Torah, it was taught by Jesus, and in the basic ideas of the Founders of this nation.

 If you live in this country, and you are a Muslim – a member of any other religion -- and you murder your wife -- or anyone else who you deem not worthy to live – YOU ARE A MURDERER!!!

Can you image the state of Chaos that would exist in America if every sect of Judaism, all 40,000 Christian denomination and sub-denominations, and members of every other religion – all tried to eliminate everyone that didn’t agree with their BS (Belief Systems)? The Founders had to deal with a mini-version of this in the thirteen colonies – and they realized the religions would never provide a common foundation for all Americans. The last thing they wanted to do was repeat the situation that took place when Roman Emperor Constantine used the judicial and military power of the Empire to back the Church.

The American legal system evolved and made it possible for citizens to practice whatever their required, understanding that there would probably always be disagreements and conflicts between them. It is clear that many of them, however, have beliefs, doctrines and laws that are also found in the Common Ideas and Values that are America’s Founding Ideas and Values. The hope is that Americans will draw on what they share in common.

In the “Ten Sayings” (Ten Commandments) it definitely states, "Lo Tirtzach" - Never Murder (not kill)! Human life is sacred – every human life. The Torah also states – “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.” It is between these two instructions that every generation must find a way to live.

The Torah taught another lesson to a man that was contemplating committing the first murder in recorded in the Torah. Religion also played a major role in igniting that man’s anger to the point that he wanted to murder his brother – he thought God liked his brother’s offering more than his.

God gave him some instructions for dealing with that situation – “If you do TOV, shall you not be accepted? If you do not do TOV, sin will be crouched at the door and its desire will be for you. You shall rule over him (by doing TOV).

Obviously, if people’s thoughts, words and acts focus on protecting life, preserving life, making life more functional and increasing the quality of life – they won’t be murdering anyone and no one will be murdering them! The opposite condition exists if people choose to do RA (the opposite of TOV).

There is an old rabbinic saying – acts of TOV produce more TOV and acts of RA produce more RA. Humans are like trees and their actions are like the seeds of a tree.

What kind of seeds do we want the trees in our orchard -- America – to produce? We can be sure of one thing – whatever our trees produce is what we will have to eat. Which fruit will we choose – TOV or RA?

Do TOV Choose Life!

Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor

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I Don’t Do TOV to Get To Heaven!

I was having lunch recently with a pastor friend of mine. When we're together, we discuss everything about "Religion", no subject is taboo. He asked me why Jews are not concerned with their "Salvation."

I answered, that for many reasons, our Sages steered away from that issue. In fact, it is one area that really does separate Judaism from Christianity. Jesus followed the path of the Sages and his focus was on how to live here in this world, but after the Romans executed him, his movement began to diverge from his path.

Most leaders of the early Christian communities were Gentiles, not Jews. They were not like the original apostles. Their focus was on life after death – “Salvation” -- and claimed they knew exactly what one had to do to do it. If you did what they said, you would not face eternal punishment, but you would go to Heaven and live in eternal bliss. How did this transition happen?

Words must be understood in their context, which means first and foremost – they must be viewed in their cultural context. Jesus and the members of his original group were all Jews and they shared the same Jewish culture – Late Second Period Judaism. They viewed what Jesus taught through the lenses of their shared culture. One side note: neither Jesus nor any of the members of his movement were called “Christians.” It was the members of another group that were first called “Christians.” That group was led by another Jewish man from the Diaspora called Saul, a.k.a. Paul.

What Christians understand as Paul's "Salvation", is understood as "Redemption" for Jews. But, being Redeemed and being Saved are very different things. For Jews, "Redeemed" can mean a vindication through history, because in Jewish Tradition, history is where God's Plan is played out. For instance, in 1948 the Jews were gathered in their own land and many people saw this as the beginning of “The Redemption” -- that eventually the world would turn to God and Israel would have a place of honor, a "light to the nations." For many traditional Jews this is either the beginning of a "Messianic Era", or the appearance of a Messianic figure guided by God's Spirit (not a Supernatural Superman). Remember, Messiahs don't come to cause changes – in the Jewish culture, their appearance coincides with a dramatic change in human nature and in nature itself.

In Jewish Tradition, there is no such thing as individual salvation or redemption. Redemption is tied to the rest of creation. No one can be "saved ' while the rest of the world is in chains! Many people do not understand that being "saved", originally had to do with Original Sin, for the sin of Adam and Eve. Jesus didn’t teach about a sin like that – but Augustine did 400 years later. In the story of the Garden in Eden, God did NOT CURSE the humans – he punished them for disobeying the commandment. He cursed the Serpent and the Ground. After the Jewish people were conquered by the Babylonians and exiled to Babylon, some of them picked up the idea (meme) of “Reward and Punishment after death” from Zoroastrianism and brought it back with them to Jerusalem when Cyrus the Great allowed them to return. Some Jews accepted it, while others rejected it.

So my friend asks, “Why do we follow all those commandments.” I responded that first of all, we are commanded to do so. By the way, for me this has nothing to do with what you wear, how kosher you are, how you pray, or with whom you pray. It only has to do with moral and ethical behavior, loving-kindness, justice and righteousness – the things that are all part of what I call TOV. I do TOV, because it helps repair the world, it concentrates on whatever brings Life and Light to creation. I don't do TOV to get a ticket to Heaven -- I do TOV to bring some of Heaven to this life! For me, these actions help bring “Redemption” to the world. 

Rather than Salvation, Judaism concentrates on "Sanctification." Using the ancient wisdom of the TOV Standard as the model for behavior, we can raise our everyday acts and sanctify them. Eating, parenting, working, even sex are acts that become sanctified -- sacred. Acts that many view as mundane or common are elevated to the level of sacred and holy acts – acts that reflect the image of the Creator.

Of course, there are no guarantees either way. Just because some religious authority says you have your ticket to heaven does not make it so! It might not be accepted by the Heavenly Doorman. In my case, if God is who I think he is – a God that judges His acts by the TOV Standard, then I think he would be happy to spend some time with me if I did acts of TOV too.

People have asked me if there is life after death, I tell them, possibly. But I concentrate on life after birth, not life after death – Sanctification instead of Salvation. Then, when my journey through life in this world is finished, I will have left it a little better than it was.

Regardless of what you believe about the afterlife – will you join with me and others and Do TOV while we live together on this planet in this life? That’s what Hillel and Jesus would do.

Do TOV and Choose Life!

Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor

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Stop Blaming God, Just Do TOV!!!!

I was looking on FB and saw a quote from Stephen Fry, Top Gear, which set me off! He said –

"Why should I respect a capricious mean-minded stupid God

who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?"

Get a GRIP! The Creator created a beautiful, pristine, balanced world. God didn't turn it into a poverty stricken, war ravaged polluted toilet, full of greed and injustice -- HUMANS DID!

Even more so, just because those who wrote down the stories, which have been edited and made to reflect one group’s beliefs or viewpoint, does not mean the Creator, God, Whatever, Higher Power, is exactly what they described! They wrote and talked about "God" as THEY understood it.

Second, there is no such thing as a universally accepted thing called "God," only our PERCEPTIONS of it! Our modern perceptions of Deity are very different than how the ancients saw it – and what we find in our Scriptures.

Stop and turn off your BS filters – that means “Belief System filters – and look at the words that are written in your sacred texts and the Deity. Just in the first ten chapters of Genesis God Learns and Regrets and unbelievably allows humans to do what they and become the teachers. The more modern PERCEPTIONS of the all powerful and all knowing Deity and does not want humans to destroy the planet, its creatures and other humans.

The same question has come up when people ask me how God could allow the Holocaust to happen. I always tell them that God was not to blame for the Holocaust and all the other genocides. Humans were responsible. The Shoah grew out of two thousand years of Jew Hatred taught by human and which is still around by the way. Just turn on the news it's still there.

It is time for HUMANS to take responsibility for the terrible things that have been done in the past and are being done today. It is time for US to do something about OUR empty “Kartrashian society” that is severely lacking in Righteousness, Justice, Compassion and Core Shared Values taught in the ancient wisdom texts that have been passed down to us – and Stop Blaming God!

You want a better, more peaceful, and just world? Learn from the ancient Wisdom of the Beginnings. What would happen if humans had a universal standard they could use to plan and judge their Thoughts, Words and Actions? In the Wisdom of the Beginnings, the Creator has one – the TOV Standard. The lesson from that ancient wisdom is very simple –

Think About, Speak About and Do Acts that Protect Life, Preserve Life,

Make Life More Functional and Increase the Quality of Life.

Stop Blaming God -- Start Doing TOV. Own what HUMANS have done in the past & are doing today and -- put the BLAME where it belongs -- only then can HUMANS join together and do what will make their lives and the lives of others more TOV. Let’s make this our motivation.

Do TOV Choose Life!

Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor

PS – If you would you like to help:

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