Interviewing Jews
Shalom and thank you for turning to us. I apologize for the delay in answering and hope that your assignment is still relevant. Even if not, your questions are still very interesting and important and I would like to address them.
Firstly, you mention ‘those from a Jewish background’. A person can be Jewish, and have no background whatsoever in Jewish history or religious knowledge or practice, or in any form of Jewish customs and culture. This could be for example, in a case where a Jewish woman married a non-Jew, or a Jewish man and woman who both had no knowledge of Judaism as above married each other, and the children of such couples also grew up without any such knowledge, nevertheless according to Jewish law, all of these children are just as Jewish as an ultra orthodox Jewish scholar. (In the case of a Jewish man who marries a non-Jewish woman, the children are not Jewish. If such a child should take an interest in Judaism and wish to convert, they can do so.) On the other hand, a non-Jew who grew up in a Jewish community and worked with Jews, could have a lot of knowledge of Jewish law and practice, but this will not make him or her Jewish.
Regarding Messianic Judaism, Rabbi Moses ben (son of) Maimon, also known as Maimonides, was a twelfth century Jewish scholar and philosopher. His opinions on Jewish law are widely acknowledged and accepted by practicing Jews world over. One of his Thirteen Principles of Faith, is that Jewish people believe in the coming of the Messiah (pronounced in the Hebrew language as Moshiach,) and ‘even if he delays, we await his coming every day.’ In other words, believing in the coming of the Messiah is a basic tenet of Judaism. If a Jew tells you it isn’t, that is unfortunately a lack of knowledge. According to Maimonides, who bases his conclusions on previous and reliable Torah sources, the Messiah will be a human being, and he will influence the Jewish people world over, to reconnect with G-d, even when they have strayed. He will fight spiritual wars, and in the era after his revelation there will be no more war or famine, and ‘the wolf will lie with the lamb’ (Isaiah 11:6)… in other words, nature will change so that even animals will no longer be aggressive. This is indeed a vision of a world which will have become totally refined and elevated – G-dliness will be revealed. We truly hope that this will take place very soon.
What is our view of who G-d is? G-d is G-d. G-d is an entity which according to the inner or esoteric dimension of Judaism, Kabbalah and Chassidic teachings, is beyond the capacity of any human being to apprehend. G-d created and recreates the universe and everything in it constantly. If G-d would cease willing anybody or anything in the world to be, it will cease ‘being’ in that very instant. G-d is the essence of good and has reluctantly created the possibility for evil in order to give us free choice, so that we choose good over evil and thus refine and elevate the world, bringing it ever closer to the Messianic era. For the Jews to connect to G-d, there are six hundred and thirteen precepts in the Torah. Many of these can only be fulfilled when the Third Temple will be rebuilt G-d willing. Meanwhile, when we learn these laws it is considered by G-d as though we fulfilled those precepts, and there are still many other precepts that we can fulfill in the interim. Many Jews invest effort in trying to fulfill the commandments to the best of their abilities. For non-Jews, there are the Seven Noahide Laws, which G-d gave to Noah after the flood. They include things like setting up courts of justice, and not stealing, blaspheming, murdering, or committing adultery. These are guidelines for non-Jews to be able to connect to G-d. More information about this can be found online.
I write this answer at a time when unfortunately there is war in Israel. This is a war of self defence because of a horrific terror attack by Hamas on innocent civilians. There are still many people being held hostage. This is an untenable situation and if you ask about concern for Jewish communities, obviously this is on the top of the list. The hostages must be freed! Hamas and Hizbollah must stop firing rockets on civilians which is something that has been going on for many years, in addition to sporadic terror attacks on civilians by shooting and stabbing. These criminal acts do not generally make a sensation in the world unfortunately. The world does not realize how one-sided this has been. In general though, to answer your question, the main concern for Jewish communities and individuals worldwide is that they not only do not lose, but that they strengthen their connection with and knowledge of authentic Jewish practice and belief, and reveal their soul connection with G-d. In the same way it is desirable that non-Jews connect with spirituality through fulfilling the Seven Noahide Laws.
What about Judaism gives me hope? The word Shalom. It has many meanings, including ‘Peace’ and ‘Hello’ or ‘Goodbye’. Shalom is also one of G-d’s names. Shalom is etymologically related to the word ‘shalem’ which means ‘complete’. A person must be at peace within himself (or herself). To be at peace with oneself means a sense of completion, when you know that you are on the path to using your faculties in a good way as much as possible, then you feel complete and you are at peace with yourself. When you are at peace with yourself you can be at peace with the next person. We are then much closer to the Messianic ideal mentioned above, when all of creation will be at peace, each person with himself and each person with everyone else! May we see this happen very very soon!
We hope that the above has been helpful and good luck with your assignment:)
