E.S.Goldsmith: A Reconstructionist Message

Here is a short video clip of an interview given by Rabbi Emanuel S. Goldsmith about his view of Judaism.

In less than ten minutes, Rabbi Goldsmith has succeeded to convey many basic ideas of a rational and honest Judaism that speaks to the modern mind and thus remains the way to keep Judaism alive

Of the ideas:

Miracles
War
God
Myth
Source of the Torah
Religion as part of Culture
http://mvakshederekh.blogspot.com/

Ratio and Sahliel

A few comments on that video (who's link moved here:
http://mvakshederekh.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_archive.html


... unless we get rid of the idea that god is a person or a personality we will always be defending ideas that are outmoded or outright dangerous...

This is one of the approaches of the so called liberal movements which I find almost despising and outrageous.
As long as humanity is around, new "fashionable" ideas will always come up. Once it was the Canaanites, Egyptians, and then the Greeks; today it's scientism. There is hardly an objective criterion where you can judge ideas about God. Somewhere you have to draw the line, and say: I stick to my people's traditions and out-wait the current fashion. I have a feeling that Mr. Goldsmith is trying hard to put Judaism into a scientific straitjacket. What he got is not Judaism but pseudoscience. I hardly see it as honest. Since the days of Kaplan there is a new-age trend which seems to make sense to many people; let's mingle with Buddhism and Shamanism. Science has nothing to say about god or morality and religion has no say about empirical data.

... God is power and a process

Pantheism doesn't sit well within Judaism (although there exist some mystical trends like Chasidism), and rightfully till this day most Jews believe in a personal God who is outside of "regular" existence. Should one do away with the Tanach were God is always an entity which is wholly other? Prophets always addressed him in 2^nd person "Thou - אתה". The Sages also requires us to use 2^nd person in blessings and prayer.

I've just read the article Bugy has placed on this link:

http://hydepark.hevre.co.il/topic.asp?whichpage=2&topic_id=435920

I speaks of the (non scientific ) spiritual trend of the liberal Judaism movements, including Recon's.
I believe it supports some of the points I've mentioned above, and also the fact that human nature was rarely taken into consideration when reforms were made to the Jewish lifestyle.