Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Centered sets and Judaism..

Centered sets and Judaism..


Excerpt:
...so you have a centered-set mindset: let's all move closer to god; but in our level of reality there are, of necessity, cell walls. Please understand I'm not accusing you of being hypocritical re: boundaries. I think it is exactly right to emphasize the boundaryless nature of God's love, and yet in this world live lightly with our necessary boundaries. But it can be helpful to understand how those necessary boundaries in this world are working, and to consider/discuss them explicitly sometimes, because implicit boundaries can often be even more exclusionary than explicit boundaries. At least with explicit boundaries it's easy to see how to enter or leave: the key you need.

I am thinking about this a lot lately because my own religious tradition, Judaism, is very preoccupied with very explicit boundaries, and I struggle with this a lot (which is no doubt why I find myself reading a Christian blog ....). The stories of Jesus's boundary-breaking are very powerful in the context of normative jewish practice, both then and now. Powerful and revolutionary. And it's been very helpful in my own spiritual journey to meditate on that boundary-breaking. And for the past few months I've wondered very much what there is to be gained from a religious tradition that is so focused on boundaries. But in writing this email to you now, asking explicitly about the implicit boundaries of your community, I am...


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Hey, thanks for engaging the conversation!